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Voice of the Negro (1919): The Classic African American Account of Riots and Lynching in America After the First World War

Author: 
Year:
Pages:352
ISBN:0-7734-4356-8
978-0-7734-4356-3
Price:$239.95
A concise, journalistic overview of Red Summer and its background. This book also includes an introduction and reappraisal by Dr. Thomas Aiello of Robert T. Kerlin’s monumental book. Kerlin’s work, gathering the written articles from the ‘on-the-scene’ Black Journalists who witnessed the racial violence during the long hot summer following the Treaty of Versailles, continues to bring valuable insight to our understanding into the causes of these 1919 race riots..

An outstanding work by activist professor Thomas Kerlin which remains historically relevant and vital, but is a much overlooked work, The Voice of the Negro, Kerlin’s inspired response in the wake of the Red Summer’s racial violence, was moral, intellectual and practical, drawing his facts from the National Black press and its Journalists who were frontline witnesses to the stunning racial horrors of Red Summer.

Reviews

“Nineteen nineteen was the bloodiest single year of racial violence in the history of the United States…The Voice of the Negro is a book to which one can turn for important insights into the causes and manifestations of this shameful explosion of riots and lynchings. The book’s value is that it was published in the immediate aftermath of the Red Summer…it presents African American journalists’ on-the-scene portrayals and analyses of the violence, their reports come from the frontlines of the bloodshed.”
-Prof. William M. Tuttle, Jr.
University of Kansas


“…an important moment in recent African American studies. Kerlin certainly deserves a reappraisal and Aiello’s efforts here might be the catalyst for a deeper examination of the role played by this author and activist.”
-Prof. Brent E. Riffel,
College of the Canyons, Valencia CA


“To date, very little has been written about Robert T. Kerlin. Aiello’s introduction recovers his life and work. In this regard, this new edition of The Voice of the Negro invigorates research on Kerlin and forms the basis for fresh inquiries into his life and his contribution to African American activism.”
-Prof. Kim Gallon,
Muhlenberg College


Table of Contents

EDITOR’S INTRODUCTION
PREFACE
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
INTRODUCTION
THE VOICE OF THE NEGRO
CHAPTER I. THE COLORED PRESS
1. Its Comments on Itself
2. Its Comments on the White press
3. Radicalism and Conservatism
CHAPTER II. THE NEW ERA
1. The New Negro and the Old
2. New Leadership
3. Race Traitors
4. “Good-by, Black Mammy”
CHAPTER III. THE NEGRO’S REACTION TO THE WORLD WAR
1. Valor and Sacrifice
2. Discriminations Against Colored Service Men
3. The Treaty and the League of Nations
4. The Afro-American Tercentenary
5. Negro Congresses
CHAPTER IV. THE NEGRO’S GRIEVANCES AND DEMANDS
1. The Ballot
2. Participation in Government
3. The Administration of Justice
4. Social Equality
5. Segregation and Proscription
CHAPTER V. RIOTS
1. Longview
2. Washington
3. Chicago
4. Knoxville
5. Omaha
6. Elaine
CHAPTER VI. LYNCHINGS
1. Number, Causes, Instances
2. The Negro and the Crime of Rape
3. The White Man and the Crime of Rape
CHAPTER VII. THE SOUTH AND THE NEGRO
With special reference to economic and living conditions
CHAPTER VIII. THE NEGRO AND LABOR UNIONISM AND BOLSHEVISM
CHAPTER IX. NEGRO PROGRESS
1. Miscellaneous Examples. Agencies for Uplift
2. Business
3. Art and Literature
4. Colored Womanhood
5. Schools
6. Lodges
7. Churches
CHAPTER X. THE LYRIC CRY
EDITOR’S NOTES AND ANNOTATIONS
SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY