You Don't Know Us Negroes and Other Essays
You Don't Know Us Negroes and Other Essays
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Overview
Spanning more than 35 years of work, the first comprehensive collection of essays, criticism, and articles by the legendary author of the Harlem Renaissance, Zora Neale Hurston, showcasing the evolution of her distinctive style as an archivist and author.
“One of the greatest writers of our time.”—Toni Morrison
You Don’t Know Us Negroes is the quintessential gathering of provocative essays from one of the world’s most celebrated writers, Zora Neale Hurston. Spanning more than three decades and penned during the backdrop of the birth of the Harlem Renaissance, Montgomery bus boycott, desegregation of the military, and school integration, Hurston’s writing articulates the beauty and authenticity of Black life as only she could. Collectively, these essays showcase the roles enslavement and Jim Crow have played in intensifying Black people’s inner lives and culture rather than destroying it. She argues that in the process of surviving, Black people re-interpreted every aspect of American culture—"modif[ying] the language, mode of food preparation, practice of medicine, and most certainly religion.” White supremacy prevents the world from seeing or completely recognizing Black people in their full humanity and Hurston made it her job to lift the veil and reveal the heart and soul of the race. These pages reflect Hurston as the controversial figure she was—someone who stated that feminism is a mirage and that the integration of schools did not necessarily improve the education of Black students. Also covered is the sensational trial of Ruby McCollum, a wealthy Black woman convicted in 1952 for killing her lover, a white doctor.
Demonstrating the breadth of this revered and influential writer’s work, You Don’t Know Us Negroes and Other Essays is an invaluable chronicle of a writer’s development and a window into her world and mind.
Supplemental enhancement PDF accompanies the audiobook.
Product Details
ISBN-13: | 9798200851201 |
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Publisher: | HarperCollins Publishers |
Publication date: | 01/18/2022 |
Product dimensions: | 5.30(w) x 7.50(h) x (d) |
About the Author
M. Genevieve West is Professor of English and Chair of the Department of English, Speech, and Foreign Languages at Texas Woman’s University. A scholar of Zora Neale Hurston’s work, West has contributed to prestigious academic journals such as African American Review, Amerikastudien/American Studies, Receptions, and Women’s Studies. She is the author of one work of literary criticism, Zora Neale Hurston and American Literary Culture, and the editor of Hurston's Harlem Renaissance short stories Hitting a Straight Lick with a Crooked Stick.
Henry Louis Gates, Jr., is the Alphonse Fletcher University Professor and Director of the Hutchins Center for African and African American Research at Harvard University. An award-winning filmmaker, literary scholar, journalist, cultural critic, and institution builder, Professor Gates has authored or coauthored twenty-two books and created eighteen documentary films, including Finding Your Roots. His six-part PBS documentary, The African Americans: Many Rivers to Cross, earned an Emmy Award for Outstanding Historical Program-Long Form, as well as a Peabody Award, Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University Award, and NAACP Image Award.
Robin Miles, named a Golden Voice by AudioFile magazine, has twice won the prestigious Audie Award for Best Narration, an Audie Award for directing, and many Earphones Awards. Her film and television acting credits include The Last Days of Disco, Primary Colors, Law & Order: Criminal Intent, Law & Order, New York Undercover, National Geographic’s Tales from the Wild, All My Children, and One Life to Live. She regularly gives seminars to members of SAG and AFTRA actors’ unions, and in 2005 she started Narration Arts Workshop in New York City, offering audiobook recording classes and coaching. She holds a BA degree in theater studies from Yale University, an MFA in acting from the Yale School of Drama, and a certificate from the British American Drama Academy in England.
Date of Birth:
January 7, 1891Date of Death:
January 28, 1960Place of Birth:
Eatonville, FloridaPlace of Death:
Fort Pierce, FloridaEducation:
B.A., Barnard College, 1928 (the school's first black graduate). Went on to study anthropology at Columbia University.Table of Contents
Editors' Note ix
Introduction 1
Part 1 On the Folk
Bits of Our Harlem 25
High John de Conquer 28
The Last Slave Ship 38
Characteristics of Negro Expression 47
Conversions and Visions 66
Shouting 72
Spirituals and Neo-Spirituals 76
Ritualistic Expression from the Lips of the Communicants of the Seventh Day Church of God 81
Part 2 On Art and Such
You Don't Know Us Negroes 107
Fannie Hurst 117
Art and Such 123
Stories of Conflict 129
The Chick with One Hen 131
Jazz Regarded as Social Achievement 134
Review of Voodoo in New Orleans by Robert Tallant 138
What White Publishers Won't Print 143
Part 3 On Race and Gender
The Hue and Cry About Howard University 151
The Emperor Effaces Himself 173
The Ten Commandments of Charm 182
Noses 184
How It Feels to Be Colored Me 186
Race Cannot Become Great Until It Recognizes Its Talent 191
Now Take Noses 194
Lawrence of the River 196
My Most Humiliating Jim Crow Experience 204
The Lost Keys of Glory 206
The South Was Had 220
Take for Instance Spessard Holland 224
Part 4 On Politics
The "Pet Negro" System 233
Negroes Without Self-Pity 242
The Rise of the Begging Joints 245
Crazy for This Democracy 254
I Saw Negro Votes Peddled 259
Mourner's Bench 270
A Negro Voter Sizes Up Taft 284
Court Order Can't Make Races Mix 296
Which Way the NAACP? 300
Part 5 On the Trial of Ruby McCollum
Zora's Revealing Story of Ruby's 1st Day in Court! 315
Victim of Fate! 321
Ruby Sane! 324
Ruby McCollum Fights for Life 327
Bare Plot Against Ruby 329
Trial Highlights 332
Justice and Fair Play Aim of Judge Adams as Ruby Goes on Trial 334
McCollum-Adams Trial Highlights 336
Ruby Bares Her Love Life 337
Ruby's Story: Doctor's Threats, Tussle over Gun Led to Slaying! 344
Ruby's Troubles Mount: Named in $100,000 Lawsuit! 351
The Life Story of Mrs. Ruby J. McCollum! 354
My Impressions of the Trial 387
Chronological List of Essays 403
Acknowledgments 405
Credits 409
Notes 412
Index 441