Keisha N. Blain Libri

The story begins with the arrival of twenty Ndongo people on the shores of the first British colony in mainland America in 1619, the year before the arrival of the Mayflower. In eighty chronological chapters, each by a different author and spanning five years, the book charts the four-hundred-year journey of African Americans to the present -- a journey defined by inhuman oppression, visionary struggles and stunning achievements -- in a choral work of exceptional power and beauty. Contributors include some of the leading writers, historians, journalists, lawyers, poets and activists of contemporary America. They use a variety of techniques -- historical essays, short stories, personal vignettes and fiery polemics and approach history from various perspectives -- through the eyes of towering historical icons or the untold stories of ordinary people, populating these pages with hundreds of extraordinary lives and personalities. Together they illuminate countless new facets to the story of slavery and resistance, segregation and survival, migration and self-discovery, reinvention and hope. Through its diversity of perspectives the book shows that to be African American means many different things and demonstrates the startling range of experiences and ideas that have always existed within the community of Blackness. Four Hundred Souls is an essential work that redefines America and the way its history can be told.

"Award-winning historian and New York Times best-selling author Keisha N. Blain situates Fannie Lou Hamer as a key political thinker alongside leaders such as Martin Luther King Jr., Malcolm X, and Rosa Parks and demonstrates how her ideas remain salient for a new generation of activists committed to dismantling systems of oppression in the United States and across the globe. Despite her limited material resources and the myriad challenges she endured as a Black woman living in poverty in Mississippi, Hamer committed herself to making a difference in the lives of others. She refused to be sidelined in the movement and refused to be intimidated by those of higher social status and with better jobs and education. In these pages, Hamer's words and ideas take center stage, allowing us all to hear the activist's voice and deeply engage her words, as though we had the privilege to sit right beside her. More than 40 years since Hamer's death in 1977, her words still speak truth to power, laying bare the faults in American society and offering valuable insights on how we might yet continue the fight to help the nation live up to its core ideals of "equality and justice for all.""-- Provided by publisher

Set the World on Fire highlights the black nationalist women who fought for national and transnational black liberation from the early to mid-twentieth century.

Der Bestseller von Ibram X. Kendi und Keisha N. Blain erzählt die 400-jährige Geschichte der afrikanischen Amerikaner von 1619 bis heute. 80 Autorinnen und Autoren beleuchten verschiedene Perspektiven, von historischen Ikonen bis zu einfachen Menschen, und thematisieren Widerstand, Hoffnung und die kulturellen Beiträge der Schwarzen Community in Amerika.