| Title | : | Four Hundred Souls: A Community History of African America, 1619-2019 |
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | |
| ISBN | : | 0593134044 |
| ISBN-10 | : | 9780593134047 |
| Language | : | English |
| Format Type | : | Hardcover |
| Number of Pages | : | 528 |
| Publication | : | First published February 2, 2021 |
| Awards | : | Andrew Carnegie Medal Nonfiction Finalist (2022), Goodreads Choice Award History & Biography (2021) |
Curated by Ibram X. Kendi, author of the number one bestseller How To Be an Antiracist, and fellow historian Keisha N. Blain, Four Hundred Souls begins with the arrival of twenty enslaved Ndongo people on the shores of the British colony in mainland America in 1619, the year before the arrival of the Mayflower.
In eighty chronological chapters, the book charts the tragic and triumphant four-hundred-year history of Black American experience in a choral work of exceptional power and beauty.
Contributors include some of the best-known scholars, writers, historians, journalists, lawyers, poets and activists of contemporary America who together bring to vivid life countless new facets to the drama of slavery and resistance, segregation and survival, migration and self-discovery, cultural oppression and world-changing artistic, literary and musical creativity. In these pages are dozens of extraordinary lives and personalities, rescued from the archives and restored to their rightful place in America's narrative, as well as the ghosts of millions more.
Four Hundred Souls is an essential work of story-telling and reclamation that redefines America and changes our notion of how history is written.
Four Hundred Souls: A Community History of African America, 1619-2019 Reviews
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In Four Hundred Souls, Ibram Kendi and Keisha Blain have assembled a great group of 90 writers and poets to tell the history of African Americans from 1619-2019. Each writer wrote an essay for every 5 years in Black history. The collection begins with Nikole Hannah-Jones's essay on the 1619 arrival of 20 Africans in Virginia and ends with an essay by Alicia Garza on the Black Lives Matter movement. The essays in this book flow and connect together well, unlike most edited volumes that I have read. Readers will learn from this book, even those who are well versed in Black history. Many of the writers in the book focus on topics that do not receive a lot of attention in mainstream Black history books. Some examples include: Elizabeth Keyes who was the first Black woman in the American colonies to petition for her freedom, Lucy Terry Prince the poet who argued for her family's freedom before the Supreme Court, David George who established the first Black Baptist church, Black queer sexuality in the 1800s, Freedom's Journal the first Black owned and operated newspaper, etc.
Even though this book is a collection of essays with a chronological focus it does not necessarily have to be read from beginning to end. You will not get lost if you skip around; although I recommend that you do read it chronologically. Coming into the book I thought the writers were going to cover what happened in each of the five years they wrote about, instead they picked a major theme/topic from those five years and wrote on that. I do think the book could have been better if it had been written just by Kendi and Blain and it was a straightforward history like Jill Lepore's
These Truths: A History of the United States or Kendi's
Stamped from the Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America. I was also not a big fan of the poems and ultimately did not find them memorable; however I did like how the poems complemented the essays and would reference some of the subjects in the prior essays. My favorite writers in this collection include: Nikole Hannah-Jones, Jemar Tisby, Christopher Lebron, Kai Wright, Sasha Turner, Wesley Lowery, Donna Brazile, Robert Jones Jr., and Michael Harriot. Overall this is a creative way to tell history, coming from a diverse group of Black writers.
Thanks to NetGalley, One World, Ibram Kendi, and Keisha Blain for a free ARC copy in exchange for an honest review. This book will be released on February 2, 2021. -
I was really impressed with the overall scope of this book. Wildly ambitious. I loved how the book dealt with major known events and then minor characters all but lost to history. The different styles kept the book fresh. With 80+ voices it was a great way to be introduced to new to me writers and a great way to discover which things I want to dive deeper into. My criticism comes from the sometimes disjointed feel because some contributors wrote history some wrote memoir and that left the book feeling like it didn’t always know who/what it was.
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Talk about a historical tome… WOW!
Ibram X Kendi and Keisha N. Blain did an amazing job if editing the history of African America for over four hundred years, with over 80 contributors in the form of poem, memoirs, bios and essays. If you are looking for an in-depth look into African American history, this is definitely the book to start with.
Topics covered include Black Lives Matter, The Great Migration, The Code Noir, Maroons and Maroonage, Black Power, Queer Sexuality, Racial Passing, The War on Drugs, Hurricane Katrina, Black Immigrants, Civil War, Anita Hill… just to name a few. This collection is solidly written and well researched. Every chapter offers information that forces you to learn and maybe unlearn the history you were taught.
I highly recommend this one. Here are some things I learned:
If Black people could prove their Christianity through baptism or marriage in the Christian church, as occurred in New Amsterdam, they might logically be exempted from slavery.
In 1655 Elizabeth Keye petitioned the courts for her freedom and that of her new child- and thus became the first woman of African descent to do so in the English North American colonies.
To this day, Black people remain the most Christian demographic in the country.
Royal African Company (RAC) is responsible for transporting more African people to the America than any other entity.
Germantown Quakers wrote the first petition against slavery every drafter by a religious group in the English colonies.
I loved how Christopher J. Lebron explored how English Quakers saw slavery vs how German Quakers viewed and lobbied for freedom.
Zora Neale Hurston was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship to study folk religions of Jamaica and Haiti. It was while in Haiti that she wrote in just seven weeks Their Eyes Were Watching God,
I particularly loved reading Robert Jones Jr. essay on Denmark Vesey- he answered Mr. West’s statement on why enslaved people didn’t just “leave”. KMT. I also enjoyed the conclusion to this historic read where Blain explored whether we are really our ancestors’ wildest dreams.
A very solid collection. -
I was definitely expecting something that was a little more comprehensive in terms of "a history of African America," but this collection of essays and poetry surprised me. I listened to it on audiobook (thanks to Libro.fm!) and it was definitely something impressive, but I was left wanting to read a physical copy to really have a better grasp on which essays stood out to me.
Each writer takes a period of five years and shares something from that time. The prompt feels general and I found it so compelling to sit with what everyone produced. Some of the entries felt super straightforward in terms of picking a historical figure and telling us about them. Other entries felt like they went with a creative writing take on the prompt. Some felt more like pieces of a memoir, something more personal with a connection to history.
Despite all of the different styles and authors, this flowed well together. Even with all these many parts, it did feel like something communal. I think this is just something fresh and different, I think it was interesting, I learned a few things, and I'd definitely come back and read it again. -
Unlike anything I've read before, Four Hundred Souls examines the 400 year history of African America through the chorus of Black voices working and writing today. It starts with the arrival of a few dozen enslaved Africans on the White Lion in 1619—pre-dating the Mayflower of 1620. Each chapter of this book accounts for 5 years of history and is written by a different author. Each author brings their own worldview, personal history, and/or critical lens to their assigned time period. It's fascinating to see what they choose to reflect on and whether they choose to write in more of a scholarly way or memoir-ish, or something in between.
I listened to the audiobook which has something like 80 different narrators. While it's a very cool concept, and all of the segments are well produced, I think for me the audio format was a hindrance to full immersion. Each chapter is only around 10 minutes, and I'd guess probably only 4-5 pages in the physical book, so it's both a wide overview of 400 years of history while also allowing each author to narrow in on their own specific interests. Jumping from one to the next every 10 minutes or so meant that it was a bit hard to retain information. I think I'd like to revisit this one in the future in physical format and be able to underline, make notes, and research topics at a more leisurely pace. This is definitely a format preference rather than a criticism of the book in any way.
Can highly recommend this one! If you think the audiobook would work for you, then definitely check it out as it's a unique experience, highlighting a variety of voices and stories. -
This is a very ambitious collection of essays covering the 400 year history of people of African ancestry who have been in America from 1619 through 2019. Each essay discusses a person, event, movement, art form, judicial decision, law, etc that illuminates a 5 year period. There are also 10 poetry interludes. Just a few topics: the Middle Passage, the codification of the slaves’ inhumanity, the role of religion, Jim Crow laws, the American Revolution, racial passing, Dred Scott, Zora Neal Hurston, Anita Hill, Hurricane Katrina, Black Power and Black Lives Matter. It’s a lot to absorb. The volume of information evoked every possible emotion, but mostly I alternated between rage and sadness.
I listened to the audiobook which was very well done. Unfortunately, the names of the narrators aren’t associated with the essays, they are just read as a list at the end. I recognized the names of a lot of professional narrators and I’m also sure that some of the authors read their own essays. I would have liked to have had biographies and/or bibliographies of the authors. Maybe they are included in other formats of the book. I did look up some of the authors and have added their books to my want to read list. -
Four Hundred Souls is a highly ambitious retelling of Black America's story from 1619-2019 told by 90 different writers. It touches on a myriad of issues, everything from the war on drugs to slavery to migration to creativity. Each chapter covers five years and often has a central theme to it. However each is different, for every author writes in a different way. This allowed for diversity in the styles and kept it fresh.
I have mixed feelings about this book to say the least. I am simultaneously glad it was told in the format it was, and also not. It is good because it kept it interesting and less like a history textbook- which it definitely still felt like, but not as much. However, inevitably each reader will connect with certain authors over others. I really enjoyed the way certain authors wrote, but really didn't for others. I wish there was perhaps a smaller pool of contributors to really hone in on those whose style matched the book. I also feel that would solve the problem of the disconnectedness I felt was evident through the book. There wasn't as much continuity and connection between the sections as I normally like.
Additionally, I feel that listening to the audiobook was potentially a hinderance to my enjoyment. While I usually like consuming non-fiction audibly, this one was an anomaly. Perhaps it was that every ten minutes a different narrator would start speaking and it was a bit jarring. Perhaps it is just that this book is better taken in slowly and with the opportunity to go back and reread certain passages. I definitely found it more difficult to retain information than normal.
Overall, I loved the concept of Four Hundred Souls, but unfortunately the execution was a little lacking for me. I am grateful for the opportunity to learn more about a culture and history I am less familiar with as an Australian. However, I wanted certain topics to be delved into a little longer and was less interested in others. -
“Looking back on the last four hundred years, this nation’s story of racism can seem almost inevitable. But it didn’t have to be this way. At critical turning points through history, people made deliberate choices to construct and reinforce a racist America. Our generation has the opportunity to make different choices, ones that lead to greater human dignity and justice, but only if we pay heed to our history and respond with the truth and courage that confronting racism requires.”
Whether you consider yourself well-informed already or want to learn more about real history (not the edited version often taught in American schools), Four Hundred Souls: A Community of African America, 1619-2019 is an excellent read. It includes 80 topics from 80 minds, covering 400 years of Black America. -
Brilliant. This compendium of essays and poems comprising 80 short essays and 10 poems are highly readable and more impactful than a history textbook would be. Each author covers a different topic over a 5-year period beginning with the first African slave ship, the White Lion, that arrived in the colony of Virginia in 1619. There is a variety of voices and perspectives. Many of the authors include humbling facts and statistics that severely tarnish the American ideal of equal justice under law, and our Declaration of Independence mantra that all men are created equal.
The authors identify the milestones that led to legal dehumanization—from the 1667 Virginia Law on Baptism which excluded Blacks from rights granted to church members, to the 1705 Virginia Slave Codes, to the French Code Noir applied in the Louisiana Territory in 1724. There are references to the New York City Revolt of 1712, the Stono River Rebellion of 1739, and the Louisiana Rebellion of 1811 which predated the more well-known rebellions of Nat Turner and John Brown. There is the case of Hugh Davis who in 1630 was tried and whipped for sleeping with a Black woman—it established the ‘one drop rule’ that created the color line.
The Black authors comprise a ‘who’s who’ of Black intellectuals including Ijeoma Oluo, Donna Brazile, Angela Davis, Isabel Wilkerson, and many more. Highly recommend. -
I finally finished listening to this book I've been reading off and on since March. The audio is so cool with all the narrators, bringing me so many pieces of history I didn't know, and putting quite a bit into a greater context I lacked. I'd want to own this in print to reference it but the audio was a great experience.
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Each chapter is an essay, poem, or personal reflection on a different passage in time; presented in 5 year chunks. Instead of inundating the reader with everything that happened in the 5 year gap, it was focused on 1 or 2 people/events that were impactful.
This gave a nice flow and allowed me to learn tidbits of history without feeling overwhelmed.
I enjoyed all the different creators who participated in this. Using so many minds in the contributions brought more personality and feels.
Thanks to NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group - Random House for my DRC. -
America is not like a blanket—one piece of unbroken cloth, the same color, the same texture, the same size. America is more like a quilt—many patches, many pieces, many colors, many sizes, all woven and held together by a common thread, and so is this beautiful and very unique quilt of writing that, like the quilt of America described by the Reverend Jesse Jackson, is all tied together by a common thread: the history of Black America. From the time the first recorded people of African descent arrived to what is now the United States in 1619, Black people have faced intense racism, beginning with slavery and continuing through the Jim Crow Era, Civil Rights Movement, and Black Lives Matter movement. Ibram X. Kendi and Keisha N. Blain have gathered 90 Black writers and poets to each create their own square of this quilt and weave it together, told through stories that capture the essence of being African American in each 5 year time period from the landing of the White Lion—the first recorded ship carrying slaves to America—in 1619 through to the ongoing fight of the Black Lives Matter movement against police brutality and the mistreatment of Black people in America today.
This is a heartbreaking and beautiful book. It is hard to give it 5 stars and categorize it as a favorite—even though with its gorgeous, diverse styles of writing it quickly became one—because the reality of what Black Americans have endured in the past 400 years continues to break me. So if it breaks me, a white person living in rural Colorado with a hell of a lot of other white people, how much is it breaking the millions of Black people who endure daily the lasting legacies of racism, segregation, police brutality, and injustices by both the United States government and its white citizens? But they've never broken, not completely. What this book is at its core is a showcase of Black excellence and resilience as much as it is a funeral service in words, mourning all that has befallen this group of people at the hands of white supremacists promoting and benefiting from institutional frameworks that have caused and continue to cause systemic racism throughout our nation's history.
There are so many nuggets of history in these pages that so many Americans never heard about in history class, myself included. There are so many compelling authors featured that I can't wait to dive further into. I learned a staggering amount from this book! Some of the topics and authors that really stood out to me were Nikole Hannah-Jones' recollection of the arrival of Black people to this land in 1619, Maurice Carlos Ruffin's story of Anthony Johnson in the colony of Virginia, Mary E. Hicks' harrowing account of the Middle Passage, Alexis Pauline Gumbs' chapter on Phillis Wheatley, a discussion of the Fugitive Slave Act by Deirdre Cooper Owens, Derrick Alridge's nuanced look at the life of Booker T. Washington, Jasmine Griffin's ode to the Harlem Renaissance and what it meant for Black creative expression, Bakari Kitwana's explanation of the cultural significance of hip-hop, and so many more excellent essays and poems that told Black history in such a unique fashion.
As with many historical compendiums, some readers may find themselves wanting more. More detail on each story, more focus on significant moments in history. But that's why I awarded this 5 stars—it is a poignant if somewhat surface level introduction to all of these stories making up this centuries-old quilt, that belongs in the collection of any and all students of history and sociology, which ought to be all of us. The narration of this audiobook was also very cool and I really enjoyed hearing so many different voices lend themselves to so many different perspectives on Black history, but I'm eager to check out a physical copy, because there is a lot of information packed into this book and it can be easy to miss important moments when listening. Expertly curated and edited, this is a book you should be sure not to miss, because these are stories we should never have missed in the first place. -
Beginning with the first slave ship that brought Africans to America in 1619, Four Hundred Souls, is an essential collection that brings lesser-known historical events to the forefront, with noteworthy contributions from a range of writers, historians, journalists, activists, and more—these ninety leading Black voices bring us a unique history lesson that successfully balances historical and personal context.
I’m telling you, the stories you will discover in this gem, is quit extraordinary. For example; Elizabeth Freeman, also known as MumBet, was the first enslaved African American to file and win a freedom suit in Massachusetts. What?! Oh and let’s not forget, In 1775, David George, founded the Silver Bluff Baptist Church, this was the first Black Baptist church in the United States, mind blown! The endless resilience of Black people in history goes on and on. Overall, this epic piece of work proves that African American history is American history.
Many thanks to One World Books / Random House for this gifted copy. -
I would have definitely added this book to my tbr anyway because it has Dr. Kendi’s name attached to it, but it was the whole concept of a collection of Black voices coming together to create a community history that captured my attention immediately and I was so happy when I received the ARC.
In a way, this is like a follow up or companion to the 1619 project because that is the year the history in this book starts, with the tale of the first 20 or so Black people who were brought to the shores of this land, with the author wondering what must they have been feeling about their situation as well as their new home. From there, each writer focuses on a five year period, talking about something that they found significant about that particular time period in history - whether it be a movement or rebellion that was crushed and erased from our collective memory, or a prominent Black voice of the time, or many other rebels and pioneers who paved the way for their future freedoms even if they have been forgotten by history.
The book or project (as it should rightfully be called) is epic and ambitious, but the execution is perfect. Through poems and essays and profiles and testimonies, these 90 Black intellectuals from various fields come together to create such a wonderful volume of history that speaks to the feeling of community. The writing will make you angry and hopeful and emotional, and I ended up crying a few times. Sometimes, it also leaves you feeling sad because there’s so much that is lost to history, and how much we don’t know about the African American ancestors who suffered horribly for decades and centuries. This book is in a way a tribute to them, making us aware of how they fought for the right to be treated equally, and also motivate us to continue the fight till true equality is achieved.
The book ends with a final essay by Alicia Garza about the Black Lives Matter movement and it felt like a fitting conclusion - a lot of strides have been made on the path to achieve the true ideals enshrined in the constitution but a lot is left to do, as all the BLM protests in 2020 and the recent insurrection on the capitol have shown. This community history is an inspiration and I hope it encourages many more of us to fight for a fair and just world. -
Wow. Powerful and uniquely formatted. The book is filled with quotes, poems, stories, and the history of racism in America. You can tell that so much research has been put into this book and it really pays off. Definitely recommend for anyone who wants to read about the history they don't teach you in school.
Thank you to Netgalley and to the publisher for the advanced copy. Kendi can do no wrong! Also the audiobook is incredible and I recommend it that way. -
An engrossing collection of essays and poetry about the African American experience from the de facto founding of Black America in 1619 up to the years of resurgent white supremacy in the age of Trump. The entries themselves are of varying degrees of historical purity, some being straightforward vignettes on prominent black citizens or pivotal events in race history, others being as much about their author's personal connection to the story as the story itself. For me, the writing on events in the 20th century (such as the civil rights movement, the Clarence Thomas hearings, and the 1994 Crime Bill) were the most powerful, perhaps because they explode the notion that emancipation and suffrage freed blacks from systemic racist suffocation. As a work of history, Four Hundred Souls isn't nearly as good as editor Ibram X. Kendi's own
Stamped from the Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America, but it is similarly eye-opening and enraging. It's also beautiful. -
Four Hundred Souls is a really interesting project and definitely worth your time. It gathers together around 80 Black writers, activists etc. and assigns each of them a 5 year period in African American history to write about. The result is a tapestry of writing styles and approaches to covering that history, whether through laser focus on an individual or event, or a broader overview of key events. At times that period of history is tied back into things happening today and the book ends with 2019.
It's interesting, often insightful, and you will probably learn a thing or two. Perhaps unsurprisingly given the number of collaborators, the book can feel choppy and doesn't flow in a straightforward narrative. I think it's a good starting point, but hopefully will inspire people to read other, more comprehensive works on some of this history. Thank you to Libro.FM for providing the audiobook! The audio was very well done as well. All opinions are my own. -
My first review at the bottom exploded within a few minutes of reading. Scroll down to the line to see this first snibitt of shock.
Upon completing, Four Hundred Souls: A Community History of African America, 1619-2019 on audio book (also bought hardcover), by
Keisha N Blain and Ibram X Kend... I had to take a pause.
Upon completing the epic historical journey have to sit in the moment for as long as it takes for me to absorb the totality of centuries.
Typically, while reading jot segments of stories to weave for reviews.
I've been teaching myself different ways to share my point of view to help potential readers and as a verified reviewer for authors on sites like Amazon from small book stores like More Than Words outta Boston who help foster youth learn biz skills selling books.
This book on audio in various voices, similar to when TD Jakes joined with many voices to produce the entire Bible on CD (predigital) combines with theatrics so it sounded like we were in biblical times through scripture stories back then.
Anyway, hearing the various performers tell these stories took me out for a spell. I finished the book weeks ago and until today wouldn't finish a review.
One thing that happened on the way to this review since finishing the book is finding out Italians were considered worst then Negros and fell to mass lynchings by a democrat who went on to be elected the governor of Louisiana less then 100 years ago. I will not repeat his name.
Then, to recognize those in authority from the federal and state government level decide at some point less then 100 years ago to make Italians ”white” while continuing to bias equity toward Africa and black people... Where do I find the words?
I'm sad, angry, and empowered. Want to create a great review; afraid. If I don't speak out nothing will change.
The only part of my family story I find gratitude in is the fact I am a part of the segregation bias story perpetuated by good old American Christian supremacists.
Did you know, Fredrick Douglas in his autobiography, ”Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass An American Slave” shares Christians are the worst slave owners?
👇🏼
Autobiography
https://www.ibiblio.org/ebooks/Dougla...
Henry Louis Gates, Jr in the
The Black Church: This Is Our Story, This Is Our Song shared about how supremacists and slave owners and pastors changed the Bible to ensure people of color didn't find scripture to support their freedom?
How does a lover of faith as a Christian who the American government at one time distances in bias and social injustice based on race then changes its mind and decided my family is white after all?
This goes for Irish and other cultures, as well.
Did you know at one point before race became the divider created by a white man running the show black and white people of similar classes married?
Until the government said no. Outlawed these marriages and further separated people based on Melanin? Defined as, ”group of naturally occurring dark pigments, especially the pigment found in skin, hair, fur, and feather.”
How do I review now? Never in my wildest thoughts did I think it was possible to see myself as the lowest of American Races.
Thing is, even with my darkness boost in Spain in 1989 making me darker than one of my best friends Dee who’s black... By winter eventually I’m back to olive skin. Black and African descent can't. Not shouldn't want to loose their quality of skin color.
How do we keep each other safe?
What I've seen just in 2020 makes me wish for safety over differences. But, with this comes no change.
So, here I am. Trying to create a review, afraid. Concerned no matter what I say or even do won't be enough.
Until I speak up nothing will change. Maybe this review will impact one person who will impact one person and so on. If I can impact a 1,000 and you impact a 1,000, eventually we impact billions. The entire planet.
Go big or go home
🙌🏼 🙌🏾🙌🏿🙌🏻🙌
Imma begin in the 1800’s for my full review within the book. See the first review below for a different rip on the opening setting.
1869-1874... This chapter in my imagination is ”In plain sight”. Meaning how obvious it is in 2021 we are seeing supremacists create an obvious hostile American environment ”in plain sight” basing this on the manipulation of constitutional rights.
Similar to manipulation of the right to bear arms, these supremacists manipulate the freedom of speech ”in plain sight” to ignite ’little fires everywhere’. Yes, book reference for relatability. If you have not read this book you're missing a classic reference for insight.
Clash of meaning for understanding... Just because we have the right to speak and own a gun doesn't give us the right to enter a movie theater and threaten people in word or showcasing the gun.
Word to the wise, if anyone in America who can vote isn't paying attention or is following the narrative that is clueless to how the messaging in this book isn't still occurring today, beware.
Those misinformed racists by the effect of ignorance will suppress and distress us if people do not help to educate as Dr. King concluded on Dec. 20, 1956.
A full read of his words 👇🏼
https://kinginstitute.stanford.edu/ki...
I'm specifically reflecting toward and to the end of the speech.
This isn't over people. We are at the cliff of the abyss. Complacency is, NOT NOT NOT our life purpose.
If you read this book it's up to you to act on the lessons.
It is NOT enough to brag you're not a racist. What are you doing about this to be a part of the collective voices that humanity requires at such a time as this?
Another amazing historically liberating work is Jason Reynolds and Ibram X Kendi’s Stamped: Racism, Antiracism, and You: A Remix of the National Book Award-winning Stamped from the Beginning.
With this book, we learn the collective systemic racist mission supremacy perpetrated. The one that taught me ”color doesn't matter” and making room for black people in jobs was the solution. When in fact the solution is leveling the bias beginnings.
In recent years I I've been hearing the word ”reparations”. Rather than jumping to conclusions studied the meaning to become informed.
The first city in the nation to study and conclude affirmatively how reparations are warranted and distributed inspires me. My first best friend of 50 years now lives in Evanston.
Anyway, this is the city link. 👇🏼
https://www.cityofevanston.org/govern...
You can also watch the news broadcast of a family who is several generations from Evanston. My apologies for forgetting to save this under my social justice file.
If you google Evanston reparations you'll see many articles and others from other cities.
My point, to help elevate what we need as an equitable nation will not be able to include changing the devastating behaviors of democratic creation of the KKK and systemic racism occurrence like David Zucchino’s Wilmington's Lie: The Murderous Coup of 1898 and the Rise of White Supremacy. Or, Richard Gergel’s
Unexampled Courage: The Blinding of Sgt. Isaac Woodard and the Awakening of President Harry S. Truman and Judge J. Waties Waring. About a black veteran beat by White police causing loss of vision that triggered the national change we still benefit from pursuing?
If we wanna take down the tone of destruction we must listen. More than say this sucks and ask what more can I do to support healing?
This isn't about who did what. This is about we have a history that suppresses a country of people based on their color, like my great grandfather upon coming to America changed his Italian name to the white version because Italians were being lynched and declare less than ”negros”.
Melanin is a biological ”broad term for a group of natural pigments found in most organisms. Melanin is produced through a multistage chemical process known as melanogenesis, where the oxidation of the amino acid tyrosine is followed by polymerization”.
Melanin is not going anywhere. This being the reason supremacy justifies itself is an entitlement, not American.
When Freddrick Douglas confesses in his autobiography...👇🏼
https://resources.saylor.org/wwwresou...
... that ”Christians” were the worst slave-owners and in ”The Black Church” learn how ”Christians” manipulate(d) the Bible to maintain slaves, slavery, and changes the Bible to suppress the people they needed for labor and rape...
If I didn't have a black pastor, Bishop TD Jakes, and church communities, The Potters House I’d have abandoned the Christian religion. Not being religious myself it's my understanding those who harm people of color in the name of their beliefs are a religion of suppression and hatred. We are seeing on a national level similar to a century ago.
I've already abandoned the bull, but I mean left entirely and pursued faith practices minus the attitude. Since 2016-2020 has become more obvious to me. The ”Christians” who embolden the perpetuation of hypocrisy and permissive systemic race division minus reconciliation perpetuating the false narrative the previous administration allowed for their grift business funnel...
This makes spotting those ”Christians” and the parasitic problem super simple.
So, don't disparage the rhetoric. Video it. Post it. Share it to the world who don't buy or sell this bullcrap.
A few points to consider: Not all Christians are racist. Not all black people are from Africa. THE current VP of the US is a prime example. Asking someone on the census what color they are is racist, in my opinion. Requiring hiring based on skin color is racist. Not hiring someone, for this reason, is racist, too.
What is a solution to our systemic racist problem?
We begin with clear unbiased education from text like this, Four Hundred Souls. Stamped. Original works by Freddrick Douglas and even The Deep, by Rivers Solomon work of fiction based on pregnant captured African women thrown overboard off ships.
Wake up, people. Wake the hell up. If anyone refuses to acknowledge the pain created can not be suppressed any longer then you my literacy friend are the problem collectively for supremacy.
Any American citizen is a part of our collective story. Black brutality isn't just physical abuse. The mental torment is far worst.
What I'm doing:
1- reading and reviewing
2- shopping black-run business and books. If you understand the way our government and states segregate even today black and marginalized peoples structurally in building areas and roads keeping the economy sequestered from generating revenue this one thing is something we collectively can do to help raise people out of cultural government and state lead suppression.
3- ask questions and open dialogs that continue long following the conversation conclusion
4- move into diverse neighborhoods
5- stand up when you learn how when racism is present even when it wasn't intended to present this way at the start. What I've learned is racism doesn't always begin with this intention.
6- for me, I'm creating a curriculum of social justice history. Unbiased factual truth
7- I'm creating a social justice podcast based on my experiences, literature, and community of color that surrounds me in a friend, neighbor, and city
8- challenging others overtime to think beyond their experience and toward a wider breadth of knowledge for understanding to wisdom for insight to lead them in new choices.
Just because you believed it truly doesn't make it so. Learn for yourself. If you truly are not a racist this is the only next step any of us can take.
Not base our being on values, but principles. Humanity requires a new view.
This is my opinion based on listening to many voices. Pun intended. Real friends, neighbors, and people in my immediate life and throughout many circles to the outskirts which include books like this.
Otis Moss Sr. grew up during Jim Crow. 1965 allowed voting for the first time walked six miles in his best suit only to be told he has to go to the other polling place six more miles away. There, ”you’re too late”. So, feeling defeated walked home six miles. 18 miles that day without being allowed even though his legal right to vote. Denied. He died before the next election.
I was born in 1965. This is in my lifetime. With every story, the anger, sadness, activist in me boils up.
If you're reading this and you think for one minute, one single second this crap is okay, eventually you will die and it'll be one less person we have to deal with to make the change we need in America.
Last year, 2020 is when I learned the word anti-racist. It's not enough not to be racist. I must do something... Since then I've bought and borrowed books, and joined a book club on how to fight racism from courageous Christianity. Review on these books and recommend them as often as possible.
Discuss racism with every person of color who has time to share. Participate in dialogs on LinkedIn in regards to discrimination and action steps for the work place. My pastor is black and church is full of black and many colors of humans and we translate the service in many languages for around the world.
I'm creating a curriculum of books including out of copyright classical like autobiographies and unbiased truth.
Recently I stood up to racism disenfranchising black votes for a local election and ended up being asked to join the community organizations to help.
This part is so awesome because it'll help with two podcasts and blogs on Social Justice - Man’s Inhumanity to Man and one tentatively called ”African American Show: discuss global issues affective business today” with my young African business associate from Lagos.
Basically, I'm a little on the extreme side of action. What can you do?
Read. Use knowledge for understanding to wisdom of insight for choices.
Even if you do simple acts of kindness for someone of color this helps. You may be the only person who does. This can change the narrative and help begin the healing of a heart.
I’m so grateful for communities of color facilitating great works such as this to support a truth clearly stated. Not opinion. Not bias. Not white or black or brown or yellow. This is our collective history with an emphasis on the plight of black people. In my case, it would be Italian. You could be Asian, Iraqi, Jew, or a foster child. Even they're discriminated against.
To me, there is not racism only from people classified as white. I’ve seen black racism. Asian racism. And so forth.
I heard a man in my book study speak how he use to hate white people. How confusing it’s been to grow up thinking all white people are against black people. He said he’s still learning what it means to be black in truth and the current shifts of awareness he’s experiencing.
Not the truth of what’s popular and accepted in narratives perpetuated by the local governments or media. But, his truth as a black man by faith learning deliverance from what pained him generationally to being open to engage and trust others who see his color and heart in love and light not loath and evil.
What I like most about Four Hundred Souls is how much I'm learning about American history that hasn't been taught. This book has assisted me in finding other books to dig deeper on topics like slavery in NYC where I was born. Or the young veteran beat by police who lost his site leading to the civil rights movement (if I recollect correctly). I bought a separate book on this arriving soon and on Slavery in NYC.
Wish I could remember my fellow veteran's name. I just heard it today in this book within a previous chapter.
Nothing would please me more then an entire high school course dedicated to this and Stamped followed by more focused studies of particular happenings.
I could see each class would be different. Groups of students would take a time period and dig in. Do speeches, plays, storytelling. In this day and age zoom meetings interviewing various people on topics of race and activism.
So many possibilities.
I'm very excited for more Americans to learn the unbiased truth. Here is where equity rises. Healing lives. Freedom invites us to show ourselves.
One can not be free until all are free together. We the people... Not a fraction. Whole.
All lives do not matter until all lives matter. See how I did that 😁
Insert black, Asian, jew, homeless, Italian, Pakistani, Nigerian, and on and on and on.
We... Not me
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️🔥💯
_______Full review☝️🏼___
_______1st review 👇🏼___
”What we remember is just as revelatory as what we forget”.
”If the Mayflower is the advent of American Freedom” (1619)...
All white people on this journey can trace their lineage.
The book thus far has me cultivated on audio. Hearing the storytelling while listening is gripping me to binge.
Doing yoga at the moment while hearing this part paused to make notes to share. Pre-complete.
Hoping to compel interests and curiosity.
This book is transformative realism and truth and spectacular all at once.
Why I ache for these people need to share about my people for comparison...
My people, Huguenots, fled Europe's religious persecution in the early 1700s. Arrived to make friends with native people in what is now named Pennsylvania.
These locals sold us, research says, 200 acres and the church built is still a vibrant community since.
William Penn believed in paying people fairly and helped my family settle their land among our new friends who helped us learn to survive and thrive in this new land as a community with them.
The town is named after my ancestor from 1717. I've traced back a thousand years from this set of ancestors.
A cousin from this lineage is the youngest and first woman hired by Congress to sculpt the Lincoln Memorial and other renowned statues like Sequoya. We love the native people and there's no indication we did then accept friendship and share the land as they agreed.
I used My Heritage to learn this within the last two years.
I’ve learned about my great grandfather who Americanised his Italian name upon reaching the shores of America. The family hid his truth and it wasn't until last year found the truth.
There's still a lot I don't know. More I didn't share.
My point, because my ”Pioneer Settler” family has a rich heritage linked to many descendants the details were available with a little hard work sleuthing documents with names, and support from My Heritage.
People of color in particular those descendants of slavery, however they were acquired, can not find their people oftentimes. The ship, White Lion proves freight of privilege as the Mayflower is documented is not what this ship held.
I needed to pause the story already. It's barely begun. Sit in this. Reflect the pain. Empathize. Feel angry. Sad. Empowered to continue learning about my African and black brethren. Acting on what I'm learning to add voice to the voiceless.
To become a part of you, my human family, endeavour to sit with you through your pain and with privilege you allow, become your sister by faith, humanity, friendship.
”If the Mayflower is the advent of American Freedom (1619)... Then the White Lion is the advent of American Slavery.”
A moment of silence. Let this sink in. Deep inside your heart...
Ordered a print copy, but am listening to Overdrive App from the library.
”A chorus of extraordinary voices comes together to tell one of history’s great epics: the four-hundred-year journey of African Americans from 1619 to the present”.
Giving all the stars in the universe rating. There aren't enough in existence to praise this enough -
This collection was incredible. I honestly didn't know what to expect going into this. I didn't really expect for it to be a collection of essays and poems... but I didn't really give much thought to what it would be. After reading Kendi's
How to Be an Antiracist, anything with his name on it is an auto-read for me. Though I think, if anyone had asked me, I would have guessed something along the lines of an oral history format, consisting of everything from slave narratives through modern Black experience interviews - like World War Z, but describing the soulless depravity during the founding of society and its continuing effects instead of its breakdown.
I didn't expect 90 different essays on 90 different facets of related and relevant topics, but sometimes what we don't expect is exactly what we never knew we needed. And I didn't know that I needed this book until I was absorbing it. A decent amount of essays covered topics that I had read about in the last several years, or was somewhat familiar with, but a good majority of them contained new (to me) information that I need to track down and read up on. One of the reasons I love books like this is because I always come out with new information and perspectives, and a whole new list of books. Topping it is this one, again, because once through really isn't enough. This is the type of book that one needs to SIT WITH. (And with my reading goals before the end of the year, that's just not happening at the moment - but I will be re-reading this... for sure.)
I loved how each entry was read by a different voice - either by the author who wrote the piece, or by a professional voice actor/reader. And each one was wonderful. One of the essays caught me up because I could SWEAR it was Keith David... but... Nahhh... Except YES. At the end of the audiobook, each reader is named, and there he was. Golden honey in my ears reading about atrocities that break my heart. One thing is for sure, there is no shortage of well known names lending their talents to this project - whether that's their writing voice or their reading voice.
Here's the full cast list:
https://www.penguinrandomhouseaudio.c...
This book, as good as it is, only offers tiny snapshots of the larger picture. It's a great collection that shows how insidious and pervasive and ubiquitous the ideas built on slavery and white supremacy were and continue to be. But, the history and the truth of who we were, and are, isn't limited to what's contained in this book, no matter how wide the net it casts is. Read this book. And then read more. -
I read most of FOUR HUNDRED SOULS electronically thanks to an advanced copy from Netgalley, & then I finished it via audio thanks to an advanced copy from Libro.fm. it was so good that I plan to purchase a print copy, too.
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the editors Ibram Kendi & Keisha Blain are the best of the best historians currently. I had the privilege of interning for them when they co-edited the blog ‘Black Perspectives’ in 2017.
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FOUR HUNDRED SOULS includes contributions from so many leading activists & scholars of our time: Martha Jones, Annette Gordon-Reed, Clint Smith, Jamelle Bouie, Isabel Wilkerson, Alicia Garza, Nikole Hannah-Jones, Imani Perry, Wesley Lowry, Brandon Byrd, & so. many. more.
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each contributor covers exactly 5yr through essay, journalistic commentary, and/or literature/poetry. the 5yr increments add up to 400yr between the start of Black America in 1619 & the year in which they drafted this book, 2019. title FOUR HUNDRED SOULS references this span of 400yr.
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even as a historian & history teacher w/ significant exposure to Black history, I learned so much. FOUR HUNDRED SOULS would be ideal for a high school or undergraduate history classroom, & I plan to bring it there.
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its interpretation of chronology & themes = cutting-edge. I plan to read FOUR HUNDRED SOULS every year till I remember all the names & events. Black history matters. Black Lives Matter. many thanks to these Black writers for producing FOUR HUNDRED SOULS -
The stories in "Four Hundred Souls" begin to unfold in the year 1619, a year before the Mayflower when the White Lion disgorges "some 20-and-odd Negroes" onto the shores of Virginia. This would be the inaugurating of the African presence to what would become the United States and it serves as the starting point to this epic project co-edited by Ibram X. Kendi, acclaimed author of "How to Be An Antiracist," and Keisha N. Blain, author of "Set the World on Fire."
What follows is truly epic, a one-volume history, abbreviated of course, celebrating the history of African Americans.
90 writers.
Each writer takes on a five-year history of the four-hundred-year span.
Each writer approaches their five-year-period differently ranging from poetry to historical essays to short stories to fiery polemics to social calls to action to personal testimonies and more.
Each writer uses a different lens to tell stories both familiar and remarkably unfamiliar. We learn about historical icons and unsung heroes, ordinary people and collective movements. There are names you might expect to read that nary make an appearance, while other names will have you exploring and researching and digging deeper wondering how this is a person or a place or an event of which you've never heard.
You will feel the passion of years of resistance and ache with the years of oppression and abuse and discrimination. You will vibrate with the hope of a community that is alive and relentless and vast in its expression of ideas and beliefs and humanity.
As always seems to be true in a collective of essays, some are more likely to resonate than others yet there's truly no weak link here. There's also, I'd dare say, none that outshine the others. This is truly a collective, a collective masterpiece of historical literature.
The voices who participate in this effort are known and unknown, brilliant and creative and astute and remarkable. They are the essential Black voices of now, academics and artists, historians and journalists and others.
I found myself deeply moved by "Four Hundred Souls," but I also found myself called to action and called to greater understanding.
I found myself informed yet called to seeking greater knowledge.
I found myself convicted, convicted of ignorance and even willful blindness of truth and history and joy and sorrow.
I did, indeed, find myself searching for more than what was contained within these pages, these essays often serving to challenge me to discover more truths and broader knowledge and to discover the undiscovered stories and voices of past and present.
It's difficult to describe this feeling having completed "Four Hundred Souls," a literary journey that has ended yet in many ways has just begun. There are books that change your reality and change your perspective. "Four Hundred Souls" is such a book.
For now, I sit with it. Not particularly restfully. I am more aware, it seems, yet also more aware of how unaware I really am. This is not the white man's history of African America nor is it a simple glossing over for Black History Month. It is a community history of African America brought to life by essential Black voices telling essential Black stories through a Black lens and perspective with a fullness and a deep, soulful appreciation of what it has meant, does mean, and will mean to be Black in America.
Both epic and intimate, "Four Hundred Souls" is a remarkable achievement. -
3 stars: I liked it.
First of all, know that reading this book properly will feel like work, like reading a history textbook would. It's not a standalone history textbook, though - more like a collection of those "spotlight on" or sidebar discussions that are sprinkled throughout history textbooks.
For the most part, I think this book succeeds at its goal of sharing American history through the voices of African Americans. I agree that Black history is marginalized in schools, and it is important to preserve and document Black history in more than just a cursory manner. However, this book contains no bibliography and is not as scholarly as it could have been.
This book has a clever and ambitious format that gathers short works of 90 different writers, each covering a different 5-year period of history plus some poetry sprinkled in. I suppose it is inevitable that a reader will find some of those writers interesting and others boring. I certainly did. I also felt that some contributors were more effective at actually communicating history than others. Some stuck to their 5-year window; others didn't. A couple felt duplicative. Some pieces were rather abrupt in their endings, which may have been a consequence of the editing process.
So overall, for me, the book did not flow as smoothly as I would have preferred. Nevertheless, it is a worthwhile companion piece to the study of American history. -
This book is the work of brilliance! Each essay has its unique voice and style, the stories are captivating and telling, and the poetry every 40 years ties the time period together masterfully. This collection reveals our racial history through human eyes and obscure but important events. Not only does it give voice to its authors today, it gives voice to the many many people through the years. Thank you for this work of brilliance! I highly recommend it.
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Everyone. Everyone. Should read this book. The diversity of contributors is incredible. The way that history is brought to life with sweeping stories and very personal narratives. The way that each of these authors is a complete expert in their five year span. The poems! All of it. You need it.
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I took four months to read this book because I wanted to take my time and truly digest what I was reading/listening to. I'm glad I took this one slow. It's not my place to review the content of this book, but I do want to tell you to read it. Let this book sink in and think about the stories you have been told.
This book is broken up into 10 sections that span 400 years of African American history. I think the information is very accessible and easy to read (easy in the sense that it is not complicated writing - the subject matter is not easy). I love how each section gave an in-depth understanding of either an event I didn't know much about or, in some cases, events completely lost to history. I highly recommend you get a copy for yourself. -
This was truly incredible and as far as I know, the first of its kind. This book is a collection of many authors who each take four years from 1619 to 2019 and in short essays explore a facet of Black American history in their given four year time period. It's covers everything from the first Africans brought over to the colonies to Black Lives Matters and zeros in on a lot of lesser known events in African American history. My favorite parts were the ones that explored Black culture, there were a few chapters about music that I just adored, I was fascinated by the chapter on African American Vernacular English, and the Harlem Renaissance. To that point, I also absolutely loved how every fifty year period was concluded with a poem that encompassed that time period. This does not at all shy away from the horrifying injustices that Black people have endured over the last 400+ years, and it reveals lesser known injustices as well, but I thought that it struck a perfect chord of also illustrating how a vibrant culture has blossomed and endured despite all of it. I highly recommend this.
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It is a testament to this book that I read it in just over one week given that I usually take much longer than this for a lengthy non-fiction book that, through four hundred souls, covers four hundred years of history. Not only did I learn so much, but the fact that it uses a different author for each five year section kept it interesting and fresh, and I loved the poetry throughout. This book is educational, emotional, and inspirational. We really need it right now, it is time for our country to face reality and move forward with a true focus on change. Unfortunately, what happened yesterday at the US Capitol and what led up to it could already be added to this compedium.
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I finally finished this brick! I need a cookie!
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Collaborating as editors to produce Four Hundred Souls, the renowned Dr. Kendi and Dr. Blain have brought together ninety brilliant writers and poets to lend their knowledge and voices to creating an essential history of African America from 1619-2019. I appreciated the vitality in every one of the contributors’ pieces, which coalesce to give us an ingenious, literary work subtitled a “community history.” Indeed, I could feel the vital, communal yearning for freedom, equality, and opportunity in each writer’s examination of pivotal events and important figures that reflect the struggles and sacrifices Black people have endured to confront and overcome the endless injustices America has carried out against them under our nation’s brutal racial caste system for the last 400 years.
Kendi’s introduction describes the remarkable talents of the book’s many contributors as a “choir” in which he sees their collaborative voices as unifying into one body of knowledge and awareness that “sings the chords of survival, of struggle, of success, of death, of life, of joy, of racism, of antiracism, of creation, of destruction.” Some of the pieces resonated with me more than others only because they touched upon aspects of America’s past which have been too often marginalized or left entirely untold. In its totality, therefore, Four Hundred Souls offers a multitude of immersive and compelling micro-history pieces that amount to an essential study of America’s most glaring fault of never having fully acknowledged its inhumane and unjust treatment of its Black citizens and never having fully accepted them as equals.
The book’s powerful first piece by Nikole Hannah-Jones reminds us of the marginalization of American history as it has been taught for too long in our schools. She explains how the importance of the Mayflower is always acknowledged, while neglect is shown towards the significance of the White Lion, which brought ashore the first “cargo” of Africans that were sold to the English colonists. Hannah-Jones points out how we must correct this glaring lack of awareness. She enjoins us, “If the Mayflower was the advent of American freedom, then the White Lion was the advent of American slavery.” We must acknowledge both events as vital if we are truly to understand American history.
Another piece early in the book by Ijeoma Oluo addresses the cruel nature of America’s first racial laws and codes. She examines how these laws increased in their severity towards establishing the institutionalization of slavery in the colonies during the early 17th Century. She tells the story of Hugh Davis, a white man, who was whipped for “polluting whiteness” when he had relations with a Black woman. His actions, Oluo says, unleashed a mentality of horror within the white community “that whiteness was susceptible to pollution from sexual contact with Blackness.” The laws, she goes on to explain, continued to alter over time to blame and punish Black women for contaminating the white race even as these defenseless Black women had no legal ground to fight back against the appetite for rape carried out by white men.
Going further in addressing the devastation of racial laws, Jennifer L. Morgan explains how beginning in 1662 America decreed that a child born to an African woman slave, regardless of the mother’s Christian faith or not, meant the child would remain enslaved, the same as the mother. Morgan reflects upon the egregious impact of this inhumane law and she says, “This piece of legislation encapsulated the early modern understanding of slavery—that it was a category of labor that African people and their descendants inherited.”
Jemar Tisby’s piece continues the discussion of confronting the hypocrisy of Christianity in America as a weapon utilized to enslave African people. He addresses how slaveowners began withholding baptisms because “sharing the Christian message with enslaved children would result in the loss of unfree labor and income.” He also points out this fact: “Such a practice would also disrupt the ideology of white supremacy.” In addition, Brandon R. Byrd’s piece discusses how whites had to develop falsehoods or “reason, both divine and natural, for the enslavement of Black people.” He reminds us how whites needed to feel “comforted by the argument that hierarchies were necessary, that bondage was natural, that the enslavement of negroes was part of an orderly, divine world.”
Taking the escalating tragedy of racial hatred in America even further, Kai Wright makes a poignant observation about how we view the past and the institution of slavery and how we view those who carried it out “as mere captives of their times.” He goes on to confront the lies we embrace about slavery and he says, “We tell ourselves we would contain such wickedness if it arose today because now we know better. We’ve learned. In our illusory past, progress has come in decisive and irrevocable strokes.” But we know this type of gullible thinking is far from the truth of American history, for we can still see how the past rages in the present.
As the country divided and took up arms in the bloodbath of a race war, William J. Barber II gives us this insightful, yet also frightening, assessment of America during that era: “Though slavery officially ended after the Civil War, the Christianity that blessed white supremacy did not go away. It doubled down on the Lost Cause, endorsed racial terrorism during the Redemption era, blessed the leaders of Jim Crow, and continues to endorse racist policies as traditional values under the guise of a ‘religious right.’” Barber concludes his assessment with this hopeful truth: “An increasingly diverse America is tired of the old slaveholder religion.”
In addressing the devastation of the Fugitive Slave Act, Deidre Cooper Owens explains how the absurdity of the law both “codified anti-Blackness and white supremacy because it signaled that a white person’s claim to stolen property was inherently more important than a Black person’s right to freedom and liberty.” In other words, whiteness meant freedom and Blackness meant servitude. In addition, Robert Jones, Jr. examines Denmark Vesey’s planned revolt, and he explains how the aftermath of Vesey’s attempt at insurrection proved how “wherever the Black body is present, whether in solitary or in a multitude, whites feel threatened, perhaps by the ghosts of their own sins for which they have never atoned.”
Due to lack of atonement, America needed voices to stand up against the hypocrisy of our unequal democracy, and Adam Serwer’s piece takes up the monumental figure of Frederick Douglass. He describes the great orator’s impact on forcing the war and his influence in the aftermath: “Southern rebellion had forced the Union to adopt [John] Brown’s methods for the abolition of slavery, but it was nevertheless a long way from Douglass’s vision of inclusive nationhood.” In addition, Serwer offers us a clear and obvious truth when he explains how Black people are not the problem because the problem of hatred in America is the result of white Americans never living up to the patriotism of the Constitution and its call for the equality of the races.
Michael Harriot’s piece brings much needed attention to America’s “first war on terror” which occurred after the Civil War. He recounts how the colossal failures of Reconstruction led to unchecked white terror groups such as the KKK using violence and murder to destroy Black communities. But more specifically, Harriot explains how these white domestic terrorists had motives “to overthrow the government and create their own white supremacist state.” Moreover, Isabel Wilkerson’s piece brings great clarity to the catastrophe throughout American history of how racism and white supremacy have established a perpetual “racial caste system intended to resurrect the hierarchy of slavery.” She further examines how systemic racism and its subsequent hierarchy of caste uses “the daily terror of its brutal enforcement” to keep Black people in their place.
Even in the face of terror, Black people have hoped the racial caste system and its evils could be dismantled, and Russell Rickford takes a look at the World War II era and how the contributions of Blacks to the fight against Nazism and totalitarianism gave them hope for change in America. He explains: “Black people had nurtured their own visions of the war, recasting a struggle against fascism as a crusade against white supremacy. Now they were determined to translate that ideal into a quest for full democracy at home.”
However, that reality of democracy for all citizens did not take root after World War II, and Sherrilyn Ifill’s piece talks about how the iconic Brown vs. Board of Education decision in 1954 once again gave Black people an opportunity to have hope, albeit short-lived. She says, “Black parents were powerfully affected by the contrast between the U.S. stance against Nazism on the global stage and the embrace of Jim Crow at home.” And, still, even as laws forced forward plans and strategies for change, inequality remained.
This failure of America to grant equality to Black people led to the Black Power era, and Peniel Joseph reminds us how Malcolm took on white supremacy and Western colonialism while Martin employed passionate calls for nonviolence as a strategy for attaining citizenship and equality. Nonetheless, even after the struggles and sacrifices of the Civil Rights Movement, we have not moved closer to equal treatment and equitable opportunity for Black people in America.
We are now sadly experiencing how the aftermath of Reagan’s misguided war on drugs resulted decades later in what James Forman, Jr. describes as “ruined lives, hollowed-out communities, and mass incarceration” that unjustly targeted Black people without any plan to help rehabilitate them. This refusal to assign resources to rehab strategies became the real tragedy because, as Forman explains, experts agreed and testified before Congressional committees to one vital fact about fighting the drug epidemic: that “if America was going to meet the drug crisis, it needed to make a robust commitment to drug treatment.” Reagan refused to listen to this logic and instead moved forward with throwing countless petty offenders and suffering addicts in jail.
These are merely a few of the many outstanding pieces that comprise Four Hundred Souls. In the conclusion, Dr. Blain summarizes the history of African Americans by giving us a blunt reminder of the progress required of us in order for lasting change to take place whereby citizens of every race and ethnicity reap the benefits of equality and justice as it is portrayed under American democracy. Blain says, “From police violence and mass incarceration to voter suppression and unequal access to housing, the social and economic disparities that shape contemporary Black life are all legacies of slavery and colonialism.” America has never lived as a straight line forward of progress. We remain mired in fear, distrust, and hatred that prevent us from embracing each other as equals, whereby everyone’s life is given the dignity of mattering.
