In Their Own Words: A History of the American Negro, 1865-1916

by Milton Meltzer (Editor)

A history of Negroes in America as seen through excerpts from their own letters, newspapers, books, and journals

180 pages, Hardcover

Published January 1, 1965

About the author

Milton Meltzer wrote 110 books, five of which were nominated for the National Book Award. With Langston Hughes, he co-authored A Pictorial History of Black Americans, now in its sixth edition. He received the 2001 Laura Ingalls Wilder Award for his contribution to children's literature, the 1986 Jane Addams Peace Association Children's Book Award, and the 2000 Regina Medal. He died in New York City of esophageal cancer at age 94.

Reviews

[Jeff · Rating 5 out of 5]

I had forgotten that I had this book and dug it out during the BLM protests to gain a better historical context. Each chapter in the book includes a short introduction by the author to set the context, followed by a transcript of a letter or speech or congressional testimony that give a sense of the condition of the African American in society between the Civil War and World War 1. Some contributions are from well-known activists like Frederick Douglass and Booker T. Washington. Others are from newspaper articles, eyewitnesses to riots and lynchings, and from people who's names are lost to history who gave testimony before various government bodies. This style of book is compelling in that it presents an oral history of the times without analysis from pundits from a later time. A few takeaways from the book: It is significant the number of African-Americans who were elected to public office, even as high as lieutenant-governors of states and federal senators, in the 15-20 years after the Civil War. Reconstruction was having an impact and African-Americans were stepping up to fill their place in society. It is also significant that as soon as Reconstruction started, there were those in power, or who later attained power, who did all they could to stop it, either actively, like President Johnson, or through turning a blind eye the plight of African-Americans. Reconstruction was turned back and Jim Crow laws instituted to remove Black rights, largely as state legislators from the Democratic Party regained control of the Southern states, which is something I had always been somewhat aware of but which was driven home in a number of excerpts from the book. Meltzer's work is a chronicle of the courage of the American Negro trying to build a life beyond slavery, and it is a sad tale of how a people and a country filled with such hope for change after the Civil War reverted back within one generation to a society of ugly segregation.