Who Speaks for the Negro?

489 Pages·2014·22.66 MB·English

by  Robert Penn Warren

Who Speaks for the Negro?
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WHO SPEAKS
FOR THE NEGRO?
Robert Penn Warren
With an Introduction by David W. Blight
Yale UNIVERSITY PRESS
New Haven and London
Published with assistance from the foundation established in memory of James Wesley
Cooper of the Class of 1865, Yale College.
1965 edition published by Random House. 1993 copyright renewed, Eleanor Clark Warren.
Reprinted by Yale University 2014.
Introduction copyright © 2014 by David W. Blight.
All rights reserved.
This book may not be reproduced, in whole or in part, including illustrations, in any form
(beyond that copying permitted by Sections 107 and 108 of the U.S. Copyright Law and
except by reviewers for the public press), without written permission from the publishers.
Yale University Press books may be purchased in quantity for educational, business, or
promotional use. For information, please e-mail [email protected] (U.S. office) or
[email protected] (U.K. office).
The author and publisher wish to thank the following for permission to use material quoted:
DIAL PRESS, INC. Nobody Knows My Name by James Baldwin, Copyright © 1961 by James
Baldwin; and "Down at the Cross: Letter from a Region in My Mind" from The Fire Next
Time by James Baldwin, which appeared in The New Yorker, November 17, 1962.
FIDES PUBLISHERS, INC. The New Negro, edited by M. H. Ahmann.
GROVE PRESS, INC. The Subterraneans by Jack Kerouac. Copyright © 1958 by Jack Kerouac.
OXFORD UNIVERSITYPRESS LTD. Race and Colour in the Carribean by G. R. Coulthard.
STUDENT NONVIOLENT COORDINATING COMMITTEE The Graham letter, originally published in
the Student Voice publication.
THE CONDE NAST PUBLICATIONS INC. "Disturbers of the Peace: James Baldwin" by Eve
Auchincloss and Nancy Lynch Handy (Mademoiselle, May '63). Copyright © 1963 by The
Conde Nast Publications, Inc.
THE VILLAGE VOICE "View of the Back of the Bus" by Marlene Nadie. Copyright 1963 by
The Village Voice, Inc.
WORLD PUBLISHING COMPANY The Mark of Oppression by Abram Kardiner and Lionel Ove-
sey. A Meridian Book.
Design by Tere LoPrete. Printed in the United States of America.
Library of Congress Control Number: 2014932435
ISBN 978-0-300-20510-7 (pbk.)
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 21
With thanks to all those who speak here
I believe that the future will be merciful to us all. Revolutionist and
reactionary, victim and executioner, betrayer and betrayed, they shall
all be pitied together when the light breaks . . .
A character in Under Western Eyes,
by JOSEPH CONRAD
Contents
Note on thé Digital Archive, by Mona Frederick IX
Introduction, by David W. Blight xi
Foreword xxxiii
Chapterl THE CLEFT STICK 3
Chapterll A MISSISSIPPI JOURNAL 44
ChapterlII THE BIG BRASS 132
ChapterlV LEADERSHIP FROM
THE PERIPHERY 268
ChapterV THE YOUNG 355
ChapterVI CONVERSATION PIECE 405
Index 445
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Note on the Digital Archive
The original audiotapes and other research materials related to Robert
Perm Warren's Who Speaks for the Negro? are held by the University of
Kentucky and the Yale University Libraries. In cooperation with these
institutions, the Robert Perm Warren Center for the Humanities and the
Jean and Alexander Heard Libraries at Vanderbilt University created a
complete digital archive, which is fully searchable and available to the
public at http://whospeaks.library.vanderbilt.edu/.
The Who Speaks for the Negro ? Digital Archive consists of the original
reel-to-reel recordings that Warren compiled for each of his interviewees.
In addition, it incorporates all print materials—transcripts, letters, book
reviews, and more—related to the project. The archive also includes inter-
views that are not in the book (for example, a conversation with Séptima
Clark). Readers of Who Speaks for the Negro? are invited to listen to the
original interviews and peruse the related documents in order to deepen
their understanding of the project, its characters, and the historical period
from which it emerged.
Mona Frederick, Executive Director
Robert Perm Warren Center for the Humanities
Vanderbilt University