Black intellectuals : race and responsibility in American life
In the volumes of literature on black history and thought too few books have focused on the black thinkers who have helped shape the course of American culture. Now, this landmark work reveals the complex and vital role of African American intellectuals in the United States. It is a rich history, beginning with the arrival of Africans as slaves, when medicine men and conjurers held ancient, powerful wisdom. Author William Banks discusses with absorbing insight prominent. figures ranging from such black pioneers as Alexander Crummell, Frederick Douglass, and Anna Cooper to intellectuals of the modern age such as W.E.B. Du Bois, Alain Locke, E. Franklin Frazier, and Toni Morrison. These and hundreds of other black scholars and artists - many of them interviewed for this volume - people an enlightened and imaginative landscape, fascinating in both its range and its diversity. Full in historical scope and cultural vision, Black Intellectuals also illuminates facets of American history such as African tribal traditions; American slavery; and black schools, churches, politics, and popular culture. It is a comprehensive and readable history of African American intellectuals.-- Book Jacket
xvi, 335 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm
9780393039894, 9780393316742, 0393039897, 0393316742
34245188
Laying the foundations
Black thinkers in a White movement
The Black intellectual infrastructure
Slowly making their mark
Prosperity, change, and more of the same
Beyond incubation: a talented but trapped tenth
Not a lull, not a storm
Standing at the crossroads
Capturing the definition
Rude awakenings
Imagining for the people
What shall I render?
Epilogue: Or crust and sugar over