Additional information
by Jessica Edwards (Consultant)
This long-anticipated second edition of our popular reader of African American writings features new materials selected to reflect the interests of students and instructors today, including new readings relating to the COVID-19 pandemic and the Black Lives Matter movement.
Back Jacket
Black in America samples the breadth of nonfiction writing on African American experiences in the United States from the eighteenth century to the present. The anthology emphasizes twenty-first-century authors such as Ta-Nehisi Coates, Claudia Rankine, and Roxane Gay, but a substantial selection of important earlier writers--from Phillis Wheatley and Olaudah Equiano, through Sojourner Truth and Frederick Douglass, to James Baldwin and Audre Lorde--is also included.
The second edition has been updated to feature notable works that have appeared since the first edition was published in 2018, particularly including works addressing the COVID-19 pandemic and the Black Lives Matter movement; the new edition also includes more selections that emphasize the joy and beauty of being Black in America. Selections are arranged by author in rough chronological order and feature headnotes, explanatory notes, and discussion questions to facilitate student engagement. A companion website contains additional readings; alternative tables of contents listing material by thematic subject and by genre and rhetorical style; an additional set of explanatory notes for the benefit of international students and/or non-native speakers of English; and links to further readings and other resources such as speeches, recitations, TED talks, and music videos.
A percentage of the revenue from this book's sales will be donated to two organizations: Equal Justice Initiative and Color of Change.
Author Biography
Jessica Edwards teaches critical race studies and composition studies at the University of Delaware.
