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Review
The
Black church is often praised for its contribution to Black
culture and politics. More recently Islam has been recognized as
an important force in African American liberation. Anthony
Pinn's new anthology
By These
Hands demonstrates the crucial,
often overlooked role that Humanism has played in African
American struggles for dignity, power and justice. Pinn collects
the finest examples of African American Humanism and shows how
it's embrace by a variety of prominent figures in African
American thought and letters has served as the basis for
activism and resistance to American racism and sexism.
Pinn uncovers little known
treasures of African American Literature such as The Slave
Narrative of James Hay, where an abused slave decides to rely on
himself, rather than God, for deliverance from the horrors of
slavery, and a letter from Frederick Douglass which scandalized
his religious friends by proclaiming that "One honest
Abolitionist was a greater terror to slaveholders than whole
acres of camp-meeting preachers shouting glory to God."
Essays by Zora Neale Hurston and Richard Wright demonstrate the
profound influence of Humanism in the Harlem Rennaisance, and
pieces by James Farmer, Amiri Baraka (Leroi Jones) and Huey
Newton show Humanism's impact on the civil rights and Black
Power movements.
Designed for classroom use,
this radical reconsideration of African American history will be
a must read for anyone interested in African American History,
African American Religion and Philosophy, and American History.
Contributors: Norm Allen, Jr., Herbert Aptheker,
James Baldwin, Amiri Imamu Baraka, J. Mason Brewer, Sterling
Brown, Frederick Douglass, W.E.B.Du Bois, James Foreman, Duchess
Harris, Hubert H. Harrison, Harry Haywood, Zora Neale Hurston,
William R. Jones, William Loren Katz, Benjamin E. Mays, Huey P.
Newton, Daniel Payne, J. Saunders Redding, William L. Van DeBurg,
Alice Walker, and Richard Wright.
Contents
Preface
xiii
Introduction:
Humanism in the U.S. Context 1
Part
I. Nineteenth-Century Humanism: Nineteenth-Century African
American History 17
A.
HISTORY, CULTURE, AND POLITICS
1. Religious Humanism: Its problems and Prospects in Black
Religion and Culture 25
William R. Jones
2. Nineteenth-Century Black Feminist Writing and Organizing as a
Human Act 55
Duchess Harris
B.
PERSONAL ACCOUNTS
3. The Story of James Hay 71
William Loren Katz, Editor
4. An Unpublished Frederick Douglass
Letter 75
Herbert Aptheker
5. Fredrick Douglass: Maryland Slave to Religious
Liberal 83
William L. Van Deburg
C.
OBSERVATIONS
6. Negro Folk Expression: Spirituals, Seculars, Ballads, and
Work Songs 103
Sterling Brown
7. Daniel Payne's Protestation of
Slavery 123
Daniel Payne
Part
II. Twentieth-century Humanism: Twentieth-Century
African-American History 131
A.
HISTORY, CULTURE, AND POLITICS
8. The Negro's God as Reflected in His Literature: Ideas of God
Involving Frustration, Doubt, God's Impotence, and His
Non-Existence 137
Benjamin E. Mays
9. Humanism in Political Action 147
Norm R. Allen, Jr.
B.
PERSONAL ACCOUNTS
10. On a Certain Conservatism in Negroes
163
Hubert H. Harrison
11. Religion, from Dust Tracks on a Road
171
Zora Neale Hurston
12. Black Boy: A Record of Childhood and
Youth 183
Richard Wright
13. On Being Negro in America 193
J. Saunders Redding
14. Experiences of a Chimney Sweeper 201
Lyle Saxon, Editor
15. The Autobiography of W.E.B. DuBois: A Soliloquy on Viewing
My Life from the Last Decade of Its First
Century 211
William Edward Burghardt DuBois
16.The Fire
Next Time 227
James Baldwin
17. The Legacy
of Malcolm X and the Coming of the Black
Nation 237
Amiri Imamu Baraka
18. Halley's
Comet and My Religion 249
Harry Haywood
19.
"Corrupt Black Preachers" and "God Is Dead: A
Question of Power" 261
James Forman
20. The Only
Reason You Want to Go to Heaven Is That You Have been Driven Out
of Your Mind 287
Alice Walker
C.
OBSERVATIONS
21. On the
Relevance of the Church: May 19, 1971
301
Huey P. Newton
22. An
African-American Humanist Declaration
319
African Americans for Humanism
Acknowledgements
327
Index
331
About the Editor
339
Source:
By These
Hands
A Documentary History of African
American Humanism.
Publisher:
New York University Press, Washington Square, New York, NY 10003 |
