What do you think?
Rate this book
Free All Along: The Robert Penn Warren Civil Rights Interviews
Featured in the New Yorker 's "Page-Turner" One of Mashable's "17 books every activist should read in 2019"
"This is an expression not of people who are suddenly freed of something, but people who have been free all along." ―Ralph Ellison, speaking with Robert Penn Warren
A stunning collection of previously unpublished interviews with key figures of the black freedom struggle by the Pulitzer Prize–winning author In 1964, in the height of the civil rights movement of the 1960s, Pulitzer Prize–winning author and poet Robert Penn Warren set out with a tape recorder to interview leaders of the black freedom struggle. He spoke at length with luminaries such as James Baldwin, Martin Luther King Jr., Stokely Carmichael, Ralph Ellison, and Roy Wilkins, eliciting reflections and frank assessments of race in America and the possibilities for meaningful change. In Harlem, a fifteen-minute appointment with Malcolm X unwound into several hours of vivid conversation. A year later, Penn Warren would publish Who Speaks for the Negro? , a probing narrative account of these conversations that blended his own reflections with brief excerpts and quotations from his interviews. Astonishingly, the full extent of the interviews remained in the background and were never published. The audiotapes stayed largely unknown until recent years. Free All Along brings to life the vital historic voices of America's civil rights generation, including writers, political activists, religious leaders, and intellectuals. A major contribution to our understanding of the struggle for justice and equality, these remarkable long-form interviews are presented here as original documents that have pressing relevance today.
"This is an expression not of people who are suddenly freed of something, but people who have been free all along." ―Ralph Ellison, speaking with Robert Penn Warren
A stunning collection of previously unpublished interviews with key figures of the black freedom struggle by the Pulitzer Prize–winning author In 1964, in the height of the civil rights movement of the 1960s, Pulitzer Prize–winning author and poet Robert Penn Warren set out with a tape recorder to interview leaders of the black freedom struggle. He spoke at length with luminaries such as James Baldwin, Martin Luther King Jr., Stokely Carmichael, Ralph Ellison, and Roy Wilkins, eliciting reflections and frank assessments of race in America and the possibilities for meaningful change. In Harlem, a fifteen-minute appointment with Malcolm X unwound into several hours of vivid conversation. A year later, Penn Warren would publish Who Speaks for the Negro? , a probing narrative account of these conversations that blended his own reflections with brief excerpts and quotations from his interviews. Astonishingly, the full extent of the interviews remained in the background and were never published. The audiotapes stayed largely unknown until recent years. Free All Along brings to life the vital historic voices of America's civil rights generation, including writers, political activists, religious leaders, and intellectuals. A major contribution to our understanding of the struggle for justice and equality, these remarkable long-form interviews are presented here as original documents that have pressing relevance today.
352 pages, Hardcover
First published August 5, 2014
8 people are currently reading
313 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews
February 2, 2019
In 1964, Robert Penn Warren was commissioned by “Look Magazine” to interview the leaders of the civil rights movement and that he did. Free All Along is an edited compilation of about a third of his interviews. Warren seemed to have a set of questions that preoccupied him. He wanted to know people’s opinions of the double consciousness from W.E.B. Du Bois’ “The Souls of Black Folk” though he called it a split psyche. He was fascinated by the movement’s nonviolence and asked about positive and negative nonviolence. Another frequent question was about the idea of revolution when there is no intention to destroy and replace, only to synthesize. Other revolutions change the power structure completely with regicide, imprisonment, or expulsion. African Americans sought a revolution of thought within the existing society, overthrowing racist ideology without replacing the government and constitution. He asks if such a revolution is possible.
He interviews all sorts of people. Some I have never heard of before and others are known to all, such as Malcolm X and Martin Luther King, Jr. It is the variety, the breadth of his interviews that make this such a valuable and fascinating series. The most interesting interviews, I thought, were with Robert Moses, Aaron Henry, and Wyatt Tee Walker. Robert Moses addressed that question of the split psyche by arguing that the struggle goes beyond racial justice to the humanitarian struggle and if that happens, the split disappears. I loved Aaron Henry’s way with words such as saying “Mississippi is not a mutation in America.” to argue that racism is not just in the South, not just in America, but in all of Western culture. He also said, “Because we realize that freedom is a peculiar kind of a commodity. You can only keep it by giving it away.” William Tee Walker expressed frustration with white liberals, “We are afflicted with worn-out white liberals who, fifteen years ago, could have been killed for what they were saying [against segregation]. But they’re saying the same things now that they were saying fifteen years ago, and as [American poet] James Russell Lowell has said, “Time makes ancient good uncouth .” We are at a different moment in history.” Reading the interviews, it is clear that the leadership was broad and deep with many strategic and brilliant thinkers.
I liked Free All Along very much. It introduced me to civil rights leaders who were new to me. the interviews were deep and philosophical. It’s only a third of the people interviewed, but quite likely the most interesting interviews. I found the archive of all the interviews that includes appendices and communications about the project and the eventual book he published “Who Speaks for the Negro?” The Robert Penn Warren of the book is much nicer than the one you find in the archives, the one who actually wrote that black people have rhythm and that King’s claims to nonviolence were sophistry since the demonstrations inspired violence by police and racists. Yup, he held black protesters responsible for white people beating them.
As Black History Month opens, this would be a good time to dive deeper into the wisdom of the civil rights movement and its leaders. It is obviously fascinating to me as it inspired me to go searching for more.
I received a copy of Free All Along: The Robert Penn Warren Civil Rights Interviews from the publisher through NetGalley.
Free All Along at The New Press
Stephen Drury Smith interview
Catherine Ellis
★★★★★
https://tonstantweaderreviews.wordpre...
He interviews all sorts of people. Some I have never heard of before and others are known to all, such as Malcolm X and Martin Luther King, Jr. It is the variety, the breadth of his interviews that make this such a valuable and fascinating series. The most interesting interviews, I thought, were with Robert Moses, Aaron Henry, and Wyatt Tee Walker. Robert Moses addressed that question of the split psyche by arguing that the struggle goes beyond racial justice to the humanitarian struggle and if that happens, the split disappears. I loved Aaron Henry’s way with words such as saying “Mississippi is not a mutation in America.” to argue that racism is not just in the South, not just in America, but in all of Western culture. He also said, “Because we realize that freedom is a peculiar kind of a commodity. You can only keep it by giving it away.” William Tee Walker expressed frustration with white liberals, “We are afflicted with worn-out white liberals who, fifteen years ago, could have been killed for what they were saying [against segregation]. But they’re saying the same things now that they were saying fifteen years ago, and as [American poet] James Russell Lowell has said, “Time makes ancient good uncouth .” We are at a different moment in history.” Reading the interviews, it is clear that the leadership was broad and deep with many strategic and brilliant thinkers.
I liked Free All Along very much. It introduced me to civil rights leaders who were new to me. the interviews were deep and philosophical. It’s only a third of the people interviewed, but quite likely the most interesting interviews. I found the archive of all the interviews that includes appendices and communications about the project and the eventual book he published “Who Speaks for the Negro?” The Robert Penn Warren of the book is much nicer than the one you find in the archives, the one who actually wrote that black people have rhythm and that King’s claims to nonviolence were sophistry since the demonstrations inspired violence by police and racists. Yup, he held black protesters responsible for white people beating them.
As Black History Month opens, this would be a good time to dive deeper into the wisdom of the civil rights movement and its leaders. It is obviously fascinating to me as it inspired me to go searching for more.
I received a copy of Free All Along: The Robert Penn Warren Civil Rights Interviews from the publisher through NetGalley.
Free All Along at The New Press
Stephen Drury Smith interview
Catherine Ellis
★★★★★
https://tonstantweaderreviews.wordpre...
August 22, 2023
I keep changing my mind, but this may be the best book that I have read all year. It is filled with gems including Andrew Young sharing his friendship with Sherriff Laurie Pritchard, Wyatt Walker sharing the "Macchiavellian" aspects of the Birmingham campaign, Malcolm X telling the parable of the snakes to comic effect.. These 1965 interviews are priceless for anyone truly trying to understand the complex and diverse true essence of the Civil Rights Movement.
Here are my favorite interview excerpts :
Free All Along
Interview with Claire Collins Harvey
RPW: James Baldwin writes in his last book…
CCH: Is this The Fire Next Time?
RPW:Yes. That the Southern [white] mob does not represent the majority will of the South. He says that this is based on the testimony of those best qualified to observe—those people being the actual embattled fighters on the Southern front.
RPW: Baldwin goes on to say that the mob fills a moral vacuum. The other forces can’t find any way of expression
Interview with Robert Moses
RM: We [in SNCC] don’t agree with King’s philosophy. The majority of [students] are not sympathetic to the idea that they have to somehow love the white people that they are struggling against. There are a few within the group, say, who have a very religious orientation, who preach this, and there is constant dialogue and discussion at meetings about nonviolence and the meaning of nonviolence.
RPW: But nonviolence for SNCC is practical nonviolence, is that it?
RM: Well, most of the members in SNCC are tactical. It’s a question of being able to have a method of attacking, rather than to always be on the defensive, and having to wait until something happens to you, and then try to do something about it. But instead, you just go right out and do something about it—be able to launch an attack.
…
RM: Right. The threat is that the community will… there will be a breakdown. And rather than a face such a possibility, [white opponents] will capitulate and give in. The other feeling is that it’s inevitable. A change doesn’t come about unless you really face this risk. And we [organizers], personally, are facing the same risk. We’re not asking anybody to face a risk that we do not face.
RPW: But you’re not proposing the brinksmanship of violence. You are running the risk of violence by way of reprisal or repression.
RM: That’s just a part of the risk that you take. And at every point, what you balance out is the risk against the possibility of change. You tell the people that this is what’s open to them, the need for this kind of sacrifice, and that they have to run the risks if they want real change.
RPW: I have heard it said here, in the last few days, that part of the problem of voter registration is the fear of not passing [literacy and pol tests], not the fear of reprisals in many cases. A fear of being incompetent for the tests for registration.
RM: What that fear is, is the fear of being embarrassed, of not knowing the answer and therefore thinking it’s their fault, and being embarrassed.
Interview with Charles Evers
CE: And then I was in the funeral business over in Philadelphia, Mississippi. I was president of the Negro Voters League and I was trying to get Negroes registered vote. I had many hardships. Many economic pressures were applied to me in my business, and they forced me out of business in 1957. They broke me. They sued me. I was sued for personal damages. I was parked at an intersection, and a white lady was in the parking lot, and she got in the car and ran into me and tore my car. They sued me for $5,000 and they said that I injured her back. That was confirmed by the courts.
RPW: Was that appealed?
CE: I couldn’t get an attorney to represent m. Then I went to St. Louis to a meeting, to he National Funeral Directors’ meeting, and while I was there my wife was attending a funeral. She was carrying a woman to the cemetery [in our hearse] with the funeral procession and a white man ran through the funeral procession and tore my [hearse] with the body in it. They sued me again for that and fined me a tremendous sum.
I was the first Negro disc jockey in Mississippi. They got me fired from the radio station in Philadelphia, Mississippi. I had a restaurant downtown in Philadelphia and they closed it up, revoked my license. And then they began to ask the casket companies who were selling me caskets and embalming fluid not to sell me caskets and not let me have fluid. They applied so much pressure to me until I had no choice. I had to give up my business and seek employment. I had never had a job before. I had worked for my father and my uncle in the funeral business and I had been in my own business for years.
Then I began to look for employment. I couldn’t find in anywhere in the state….
Interview with Kenneth Clark
Warren asks about how that sentiment jibes with James Baldwin’s famous question, “ Do I really want to be integrated into a burning house?”
KC: I think this is a cry of anguish and despair. Not to be taken too literally. I mean you just ask yourself the question, “What other choice [do we have]?
Interview with Roy Wilkins
RW: And finally, in 1960, you had the pileup fro the 1954 [Brown v. Board of Education] school decision, the defiance of it, the refusal to obey t, the attack upon the Supreme Court, the attempt to change the rules after the game had been won. The Negro thought he had won in 1954, his citizenship had been reaffirmed, that the constitutional basis of his life had been reaffirmed by the Supreme Court. [The ruling] said we can’t discriminate on account of race. But discrimination went on. The Southern legislatures passed laws and they obstructed.
Finally, in the 1960s, the Negro broke loose and took direct action. He said, “We can’t depend on legislatures. And we go to the courts and we take fifty years to go slowly through the courts and chip away at the separate but equal [doctrine]. And we will in 1954 but we don’t win. So let’s get out on the streets and take it directly to the seat of government.” That’s what happened. And I believe that’s the reason you have the revolt in the 1960s and not in the 1950s.
RPW: What do you think of the notion that some sociologists or historians have enunciated that the American Negro is more like the old Yankee or the old Southerner than any other element in our culture? He’s an old American.
RW: Yes, he’s a very old American and he’s American in his concepts. He’s liberal only on the race question. I mean, he’s a conservative economically. He wants to hold on to gains in property and protection. I may be wrong, but I don’t see him as a bold experimenter in political science or social reform. He may change once he gets in a period of equality. There are Negroes who are nonconformists, there are Negroes who are atheist, there are Negroes who are even Gaullists.
Interview with Whitney Young
WY: So the Negro has assumed the initiative. If whites want to express their liberalism today, they must accept the fact that the Negro must lead, or that the Negro will accept him only as a peer. Now what worries me is that most white people spend their time today bemoaning the methods and tactics that Negroes are using instead of saying, “I don’t like sit-ins,” or “I don’t like the blocking of traffic, so I’m going to [support] the Urban League’s massive Marshall Plan to get better housing and better education and better jobs.”
RPW: You mean that the white man is saying this.
WY: The white man is spending more time concentrating on the inconveniences and the disturbances than he is on the basic causes of the problem. To begin with, the poverty, the one out of four who are out of work, the one out of six who are in poor housing, the 500,000 Negro kids between the ages of sixteen and twenty-one who are out of work and out of school.
Interview with James Baldwin
JB: The differences between the North and the South were really evident when the chips were down. They had different techniques of castrating you[in the South] than they had in the North, but the fact of the castration remained exactly the same, and that was the intention in both places. And, furthermore, it is impossible to be separate but equal.
Here are my favorite interview excerpts :
Free All Along
Interview with Claire Collins Harvey
RPW: James Baldwin writes in his last book…
CCH: Is this The Fire Next Time?
RPW:Yes. That the Southern [white] mob does not represent the majority will of the South. He says that this is based on the testimony of those best qualified to observe—those people being the actual embattled fighters on the Southern front.
RPW: Baldwin goes on to say that the mob fills a moral vacuum. The other forces can’t find any way of expression
Interview with Robert Moses
RM: We [in SNCC] don’t agree with King’s philosophy. The majority of [students] are not sympathetic to the idea that they have to somehow love the white people that they are struggling against. There are a few within the group, say, who have a very religious orientation, who preach this, and there is constant dialogue and discussion at meetings about nonviolence and the meaning of nonviolence.
RPW: But nonviolence for SNCC is practical nonviolence, is that it?
RM: Well, most of the members in SNCC are tactical. It’s a question of being able to have a method of attacking, rather than to always be on the defensive, and having to wait until something happens to you, and then try to do something about it. But instead, you just go right out and do something about it—be able to launch an attack.
…
RM: Right. The threat is that the community will… there will be a breakdown. And rather than a face such a possibility, [white opponents] will capitulate and give in. The other feeling is that it’s inevitable. A change doesn’t come about unless you really face this risk. And we [organizers], personally, are facing the same risk. We’re not asking anybody to face a risk that we do not face.
RPW: But you’re not proposing the brinksmanship of violence. You are running the risk of violence by way of reprisal or repression.
RM: That’s just a part of the risk that you take. And at every point, what you balance out is the risk against the possibility of change. You tell the people that this is what’s open to them, the need for this kind of sacrifice, and that they have to run the risks if they want real change.
RPW: I have heard it said here, in the last few days, that part of the problem of voter registration is the fear of not passing [literacy and pol tests], not the fear of reprisals in many cases. A fear of being incompetent for the tests for registration.
RM: What that fear is, is the fear of being embarrassed, of not knowing the answer and therefore thinking it’s their fault, and being embarrassed.
Interview with Charles Evers
CE: And then I was in the funeral business over in Philadelphia, Mississippi. I was president of the Negro Voters League and I was trying to get Negroes registered vote. I had many hardships. Many economic pressures were applied to me in my business, and they forced me out of business in 1957. They broke me. They sued me. I was sued for personal damages. I was parked at an intersection, and a white lady was in the parking lot, and she got in the car and ran into me and tore my car. They sued me for $5,000 and they said that I injured her back. That was confirmed by the courts.
RPW: Was that appealed?
CE: I couldn’t get an attorney to represent m. Then I went to St. Louis to a meeting, to he National Funeral Directors’ meeting, and while I was there my wife was attending a funeral. She was carrying a woman to the cemetery [in our hearse] with the funeral procession and a white man ran through the funeral procession and tore my [hearse] with the body in it. They sued me again for that and fined me a tremendous sum.
I was the first Negro disc jockey in Mississippi. They got me fired from the radio station in Philadelphia, Mississippi. I had a restaurant downtown in Philadelphia and they closed it up, revoked my license. And then they began to ask the casket companies who were selling me caskets and embalming fluid not to sell me caskets and not let me have fluid. They applied so much pressure to me until I had no choice. I had to give up my business and seek employment. I had never had a job before. I had worked for my father and my uncle in the funeral business and I had been in my own business for years.
Then I began to look for employment. I couldn’t find in anywhere in the state….
Interview with Kenneth Clark
Warren asks about how that sentiment jibes with James Baldwin’s famous question, “ Do I really want to be integrated into a burning house?”
KC: I think this is a cry of anguish and despair. Not to be taken too literally. I mean you just ask yourself the question, “What other choice [do we have]?
Interview with Roy Wilkins
RW: And finally, in 1960, you had the pileup fro the 1954 [Brown v. Board of Education] school decision, the defiance of it, the refusal to obey t, the attack upon the Supreme Court, the attempt to change the rules after the game had been won. The Negro thought he had won in 1954, his citizenship had been reaffirmed, that the constitutional basis of his life had been reaffirmed by the Supreme Court. [The ruling] said we can’t discriminate on account of race. But discrimination went on. The Southern legislatures passed laws and they obstructed.
Finally, in the 1960s, the Negro broke loose and took direct action. He said, “We can’t depend on legislatures. And we go to the courts and we take fifty years to go slowly through the courts and chip away at the separate but equal [doctrine]. And we will in 1954 but we don’t win. So let’s get out on the streets and take it directly to the seat of government.” That’s what happened. And I believe that’s the reason you have the revolt in the 1960s and not in the 1950s.
RPW: What do you think of the notion that some sociologists or historians have enunciated that the American Negro is more like the old Yankee or the old Southerner than any other element in our culture? He’s an old American.
RW: Yes, he’s a very old American and he’s American in his concepts. He’s liberal only on the race question. I mean, he’s a conservative economically. He wants to hold on to gains in property and protection. I may be wrong, but I don’t see him as a bold experimenter in political science or social reform. He may change once he gets in a period of equality. There are Negroes who are nonconformists, there are Negroes who are atheist, there are Negroes who are even Gaullists.
Interview with Whitney Young
WY: So the Negro has assumed the initiative. If whites want to express their liberalism today, they must accept the fact that the Negro must lead, or that the Negro will accept him only as a peer. Now what worries me is that most white people spend their time today bemoaning the methods and tactics that Negroes are using instead of saying, “I don’t like sit-ins,” or “I don’t like the blocking of traffic, so I’m going to [support] the Urban League’s massive Marshall Plan to get better housing and better education and better jobs.”
RPW: You mean that the white man is saying this.
WY: The white man is spending more time concentrating on the inconveniences and the disturbances than he is on the basic causes of the problem. To begin with, the poverty, the one out of four who are out of work, the one out of six who are in poor housing, the 500,000 Negro kids between the ages of sixteen and twenty-one who are out of work and out of school.
Interview with James Baldwin
JB: The differences between the North and the South were really evident when the chips were down. They had different techniques of castrating you[in the South] than they had in the North, but the fact of the castration remained exactly the same, and that was the intention in both places. And, furthermore, it is impossible to be separate but equal.
May 11, 2019
Free All Along: The Robert Penn Warren Civil Rights Interviews collects extended versions of Warren's 1964 interviews with civil rights leaders of the time.
If you're familiar with the work the interviews were initially for, Who Speaks for the Negro?, you will appreciate these extended interviews that give a bit more glimpse into the individuals as well as their ideas. If you're not familiar with it, not a problem, this book stands on its own. It is also fascinating to go to the Vanderbilt website and visit the Who Speaks for the Negro? archive.
This book is valuable as both a type of history book in that it captures these leaders' opinions at that point and also as a book to help us move the fight forward by listening to what they thought in 1964 in light of what happened (or didn't happen) in the 55 years since. If you're interested in comparing thought across the spectrum of civil rights leaders this is a wonderful opportunity to make valid comparisons since, as any interviewer does when doing multiple interviews for one publication, Warren asked many of the same questions to each person.
The interviewees are well known to most people who either were alive during the 1960s and/or have made any effort to understand the Black freedom movement. There are a couple you may know by deed rather than name but you'll likely remember them all as you read. For those who don't, this is an excellent introduction to the thinking that has been the heart and soul of the movement, modified over the years but still largely valid today. That is a positive statement about the power and depth of the thinking but a sad statement about just how much further we still need to go over half a century later.
Reviewed from a copy made available by the publisher via NetGalley.
If you're familiar with the work the interviews were initially for, Who Speaks for the Negro?, you will appreciate these extended interviews that give a bit more glimpse into the individuals as well as their ideas. If you're not familiar with it, not a problem, this book stands on its own. It is also fascinating to go to the Vanderbilt website and visit the Who Speaks for the Negro? archive.
This book is valuable as both a type of history book in that it captures these leaders' opinions at that point and also as a book to help us move the fight forward by listening to what they thought in 1964 in light of what happened (or didn't happen) in the 55 years since. If you're interested in comparing thought across the spectrum of civil rights leaders this is a wonderful opportunity to make valid comparisons since, as any interviewer does when doing multiple interviews for one publication, Warren asked many of the same questions to each person.
The interviewees are well known to most people who either were alive during the 1960s and/or have made any effort to understand the Black freedom movement. There are a couple you may know by deed rather than name but you'll likely remember them all as you read. For those who don't, this is an excellent introduction to the thinking that has been the heart and soul of the movement, modified over the years but still largely valid today. That is a positive statement about the power and depth of the thinking but a sad statement about just how much further we still need to go over half a century later.
Reviewed from a copy made available by the publisher via NetGalley.
June 17, 2023
This is a must-read for anyone who is interested in the history of the Civil Rights Movement, has an interest in Black history, or wants to learn more about how Black rights in America came to be what they are today. It's amazing and sometimes a little sad how timely some of what was said back then can still be sixty years later.
My one critique is that the interviews can sometimes start to feel a little samey but that has more to do with the questions being asked than any true boredom occurring because I wasn't enjoying reading what the people being interviewed had to say anymore. Very glad I decided to pick this one up at my local library.
My one critique is that the interviews can sometimes start to feel a little samey but that has more to do with the questions being asked than any true boredom occurring because I wasn't enjoying reading what the people being interviewed had to say anymore. Very glad I decided to pick this one up at my local library.
January 31, 2019
An absolutely INCREDIBLE and inspiring read, and a beautiful collection of some of the most amazing speeches to ever come from American soil. Others have used the word "electrifying", and I'm going to use it again. This book needs to be in all libraries, NOW, and in the hands of teachers and professors everywhere. MAKE THIS A PART OF YOUR CURRICULUM.
I really love the cover design, too.
MUCH appreciation to NetGalley for letting me read this in advance in exchange for an honest review. I'm ordering a hard copy today to add to our personal collection.
I really love the cover design, too.
MUCH appreciation to NetGalley for letting me read this in advance in exchange for an honest review. I'm ordering a hard copy today to add to our personal collection.
January 13, 2021
These are fascinating interviews, but the smug self-assurance of the white interviewer strikes me as incongruous by 21st century standards. RPW's questions and comments seem to reveal someone who is comfortably self-assured of his superiority, and satisfied with his goodness of spirit demonstrated by his interest in the struggles of an oppressed people. I wonder how he would come across in a biography?
April 28, 2022
A very compelling collection of interviews that still feel relevant in some capacity to the cultural climate today. Some interviews included are a bit dry to read in sequence, as it's easy to tell when Warren is slightly less engaged because questions become repeated between each interviewee, but the conversations between him and Ellison, Baldwin, King, Rustin, and especially Malcolm X, make for fascinating reads.
March 22, 2020
"Free All Along" is an inspiring read. With a basis on the civil rights movement and the people within it, we get to read about individuals and their lives. It can be a bit of a heavy read at times, but it definitely is a great read. I definitely think you should read it if you have interest in the civil rights movement.
April 29, 2022
I loved this book. It was like setting a time machine to 1964 & being able to eavesdrop on conversations by people who changed the course of history. A must-read (especially for those interested the Civil Rights Movement). I cannot recommend this book enough.
July 22, 2020
A fascinating collection of interviews Robert Penn Warren conducted in 1964 with Civil Rights Movement leaders. I found his interviews with Ralph Ellison, Septima Clark, James Baldwin, Malcolm X, and Bayard Rustin particularly insightful.
December 14, 2018
For anyone who is interested in Civil Rights, or someone who is looking to know more about Civil Rights would do well to read this book. There are so many insightful, powerful and raw experiences that were never brought onto the limelight but it still did not diminish the effect it had on humanity and appreciation for the fight of Civil Rights. This book shares personal, candid and raw interviews.
Thank you Netgalley for the eARC.
Thank you Netgalley for the eARC.
Read
January 19, 2019One of my aims for this year was to read more non-fiction books and this compilation of previously unpublished interviews with those involved in the black freedom struggle seemed like a good place to start.
"Who Speaks for the Negro" by the Pulitzer Prize–winning author and poet Robert Penn Warren was published in 1965. However the stories of many people he interviewed were not published and were unknown until recent years. "Free All Along" gives light to those accounts.
Understandably due to the topic of the interviews this book is a heavy read and not one you'd be likely to sit and read in one sitting.
Ideal for anyone with an interest in the Civil Rights Movement or the current #BlackLivesMatter campaign.
I received this book free from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
"Who Speaks for the Negro" by the Pulitzer Prize–winning author and poet Robert Penn Warren was published in 1965. However the stories of many people he interviewed were not published and were unknown until recent years. "Free All Along" gives light to those accounts.
Understandably due to the topic of the interviews this book is a heavy read and not one you'd be likely to sit and read in one sitting.
Ideal for anyone with an interest in the Civil Rights Movement or the current #BlackLivesMatter campaign.
I received this book free from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
January 14, 2019
I was provided a free copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
This was an interesting read. I haven't read many nonfiction books related to any civil rights movement and there was a lot of information here. I think what I enjoyed most was the variety of voices. This book is full of different interviews from different civil rights leaders who are all asked very similar questions, but each answer is unique in its own way. It gives me a much better understanding of the thoughts of the civil rights movement at that time that could still be very relevant to today. I will say that I think this book to full digest takes more than a single read. There is a lot here and I think to fully understand and enjoy this work it needs time and thought.
This was an interesting read. I haven't read many nonfiction books related to any civil rights movement and there was a lot of information here. I think what I enjoyed most was the variety of voices. This book is full of different interviews from different civil rights leaders who are all asked very similar questions, but each answer is unique in its own way. It gives me a much better understanding of the thoughts of the civil rights movement at that time that could still be very relevant to today. I will say that I think this book to full digest takes more than a single read. There is a lot here and I think to fully understand and enjoy this work it needs time and thought.
March 25, 2019
This is a book that can be read cover to cover or can be read in sections, picking and choosing by the particular civil rights' activist's story you are interested in reading. It is a new, "inside" look at the lives of some historic figures within the Civil Rights Movement in America.
I especially loved the insights and life of James Baldwin. He is of course, more in the spotlight recently, thanks to the film adaptation of his novel "If Beale Street Could Talk" as shown by Barry Jenkins brilliance. I loved feeling that this background insight into how he felt about growing up and into the radical shift in thinking about race in America during his lifetime. He retreated to France for a large portion of his life but did feel the drive to be involved in this fight as well. At his funeral, Toni Morrison was quoted as saying, "You made American English honest - genuinely international." I find Baldwin to be a fascinating author of the times, being both an African American man and openly gay as well. A truly unique combination at the time.
The timeline of this compilation is well done. It is incredible to remember, or I should say, be reminded that these racially motivated battles were not that long ago. They occurred within many people's lifetimes, or at least a family member's lifetime. And yet we wonder why there is still so much racial injustice, prejudice, racism, etc.? Events such as these need to be generations removed from families before true healing really occurs across the board. It can occur. I pray that it will.
#FreeAllAlong #NetGalley
I especially loved the insights and life of James Baldwin. He is of course, more in the spotlight recently, thanks to the film adaptation of his novel "If Beale Street Could Talk" as shown by Barry Jenkins brilliance. I loved feeling that this background insight into how he felt about growing up and into the radical shift in thinking about race in America during his lifetime. He retreated to France for a large portion of his life but did feel the drive to be involved in this fight as well. At his funeral, Toni Morrison was quoted as saying, "You made American English honest - genuinely international." I find Baldwin to be a fascinating author of the times, being both an African American man and openly gay as well. A truly unique combination at the time.
The timeline of this compilation is well done. It is incredible to remember, or I should say, be reminded that these racially motivated battles were not that long ago. They occurred within many people's lifetimes, or at least a family member's lifetime. And yet we wonder why there is still so much racial injustice, prejudice, racism, etc.? Events such as these need to be generations removed from families before true healing really occurs across the board. It can occur. I pray that it will.
#FreeAllAlong #NetGalley
Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews