Autobiography of a People: Three Centuries of African American History Told by Those Who Lived It

by Herb Boyd

Autobiography of a People is an insightfully assembled anthology of eyewitness accounts that traces the history of the African American experience.  From the Middle Passage to the Million Man March, editor Herb Boyd has culled a diverse range of voices, both famous and ordinary, to creat a unique and compelling historical

Benjamin Banneker on Thomas Jefferson
Old Elizabeth on spreading the Word
Frederick Douglass on life in the North
W.E.B. Du Bois on the Talented Tenth
Matthew Henson on reaching the North Pole
Harriot Jacobs on running away
James Cameron on escaping a mob lyniching
Alvin Ailey on the world of dance
Langston Hughes on the Harlem Renaissance
Curtis Morriw on the Korean War
Max ROach on "jazz" as a four-letter word
LL Cool J on rap
Mary Church Terrell on the Chicago World's Fair
Rev. Bernice King on the future of Black America

And many others.

Genres: History, Biography, Nonfiction

576 pages, Paperback

First published January 18, 2000

About the author

Herb Boyd is an awarding-winning American author and journalist who has published 17 books and countless articles for national magazines and newspapers. Brotherman:The Odyssey of Black Men in America: An Anthology (One World/Ballantine, 1995), co-edited with Robert Allen of the Black Scholar journal, won the American Book Award for nonfiction. In 1999, Boyd won three first place awards from the New York Association of Black Journalists for his articles published in the Amsterdam News.

In 2006, Boyd worked with world music composer Yusef Lateef on his autobiography The Gentle Giant, which was published by Morton Books of New Jersey. In 2008, he published Baldwin's Harlem: A Biography of James Baldwin, and is working with filmmaker Keith Beauchamp on several projects. Boyd has been inducted into both the Literary Hall of Fame for Writers of African Descent and the Madison Square Garden Hall of Fame as a journalist.

Along with his writing, Boyd is also the Managing Editor of The Black World Today, one of the leading online publications on the Internet. Boyd, a graduate of Wayne State University in Detroit, teaches African and African-American History at the College of New Rochelle in the Bronx, and is an adjunct instructor at City College in the Black Studies Department.

Reviews

[Benjamin · Rating 4 out of 5]

The book aims to be a continuous first-person narrative of the African American experience from slavery to the present, and while the reading is rough in spots overall it achieves its stated goal. Being an anthology cherry picked from history, the selections range from totally eye opening to not-sure-why-this-was-included — though I doubt any two people would agree on which selections are which.

This is a really good book for understanding not what happened — in terms of dates and facts and such — but what is was like as it was happening. As a white kid in the suburbs, I knew about Jim Crow and discrimination, but not really what that felt like or what that does to a person. I won't now claim to be an expert on race relations, but I definitely feel like I understand more about how things got to be the way they are.

[Theophilus (Theo) · Rating 3 out of 5]

Although I did not finish this book, I was greatly impressed with the 1st-person narratives it contains. The stories at the beginning written by supposed ignorant savage people whose lot in life was supposed to be enslavement are touching and full of emotion. Their points are made, they knew they were being wrongly abused and desired their freedom. The first narratives are their remenisces of life in Africa and freedom, and their abject misery at what has befallen them. Those slavery apologists and those who long for revel in antebellum life in the South should read this and reconsider their positions.

The further I got into this book the more it reminded it me of Crossing the Danger Water. After the early entries of actual slave memoirs, I kind of lost interest. Maybe I'll pick it up again at a later date.

[Taylore · Rating 5 out of 5]

Autobiography of a People really inspired me to overcome the standards and rise above what is expected of me. I loved the way this book was edited and translated. I think the mixture of poems, personal stories, and historical facts really made this book even more powerful.

[Emily · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a series of first person accounts, from the colonial period to about the late 1990s, of the black experience in America. The pieces are generally excerpts from books or other larger works, through there are a few letters from the Civil War era and accounts that appear to have been told to another person for transcription. There are slave accounts that are heartbreaking and enraging. The systematic effort to make slaves feel lesser can be seen here. Reading the words of people bemoaning their color and grateful for their enslavement so they could learn about Christianity is painful; perhaps these words were written — or, more likely, transcribed — to please the white person who was writing or reading them, but the internalization of racism is still there. As the book moves through the 1800s and 1900s, it contains accounts from leaders who sometimes disagreed with each other and its interesting to see the counterpoint arguments, but also how fighting racism and their second class status splintered the POC community, which was no accident. I appreciated the effort to include a variety of voices from various stations in life; a difficultly when for much of the book the subjects were either legally barred from literacy or very discouraged from it.

Some of the passages could use more context—for me at least, and they sometimes seemed to end abruptly. It might’ve have been nice to have more explanation with each passage, however this is already a fairly long book; it might become unwieldy. But I can’t think of a single passage I would cut to allow this to happen either; they’re well-selected.

[Genaya · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wonderful to see a wide range of views from so many people in different times over three centuries. I learned about so many events I had never heard of.

[Yasmin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Gather around everyone and I'll tell you a tale of stories to be told. Although there are only fragments in this book of stories told of a living history it is a fantastic collection. As one author says unless you have been there as they have you can't know what it's like to experience what they all had to go through. It's both sad, joyous, maddening and yet hopeful. The voices of the past were always hopeful for the future. Bit by bit they would lay the groundwork for the next generation and the next one after that. They lived it, we, the reader can only read it. But it comes alive again. Times changed, it could be said some circumstances, but then not nearly enough for the last story told in 1996, however, as in the final line in the book "we shall over come." Now in the 21st century and 18 years after the last story told it would be interesting to have another set of voices to add in an extra edition of this book. What new chapter in this book take shape? What kind of voices would be added?

[Jbondandrews · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoyed reading about the amazing stories of the many African-Americans mentioned in this book and the struggles they had and still have to this day which is senseless. America needs to look at how they treat their own people before telling other countries how to treat theirs.

[Judy · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great overview of the real story and times of Black people. Amazing.

[Dawn · Rating 4 out of 5]

An anthology with very touching personal stories. A must read.