Read for one of my history courses while attending San Diego City College. This book is powerful. Spanning centuries of history, a great introduction and original text on African American History. 15 Chapters:
1. The African Past
2. Before the Mayflower
3. The Founding of Black America
4. Behind the Cotton Curtain
5. Blood on the Leaves: Revolts and Conspiracies
6. The Generation of Crises
7. Black, Blue and Gray: The Civil War Nobody Knows
8. Black Power in Dixie
9. The Life and Times of Jim Crow
10. Red, White and Black: Race and Sex
11. From Booker T. Washington to Martin Luther King Jr.
12. The Time of the Whale
13. The African-American Century
14. The Perseverance of the Black Spirit
15. Black America's Gifts to America and the World

I'm not an integrationist

I gave the book a rating 4 because it represents a small section of the African American community and their desire for integration with the greater European American culture in the United States of America. Moreover, the book tends to do a disservice to individuals like Marcus Garvey and the Honorable Elijah Mohammed who seek a nation of Africans for africans. The book does an excellent job at presenting the African American bourgeoisie desire for integration with the European American society. In addition, it misses the ideas of Malcolm X, and other self determination minded African Americans that don't want to accept European American middle class values and caste system.

A must study for every black person!

Read it over 20 years ago. Was and still is important to me.

An interesting history of Blacks in America, originally published in 1961 and written by a black historian. Some stories I had heard before and some were new to me. All of it was fascinating.

The lines that really struck me were roughly the only thing we can compare slavery in America to is the Nazi treatment of Jews. I have never before thought of slavery that way.

Anyway, it's black history month and this would be an excellent way to appreciate the struggles of African Americans from before the American revolution to the early 60s Civil Rights movement.

This book is excellent. I have been seriously studying the racial history of the U.S. for almost four years now, and this book includes the vast majority of my studies in regards to African American history up to 1964, either in its narrative or in its Landmarks and Milestones section at the end. The only event which is absent is Juneteenth. This book has been sitting on my shelves for 30+ years, was owned by my family when I was a child, and I’m so glad I finally read it.

I am giving it 5 stars because of the wealth of information in the book. I listened to this on Audible, had I read it I don't know that I ever would have gotten it through it and finished it. It really does contain a huge amount of information. I think it is a bit more of a reference as opposed to a book to be read from cover to cover.

worth the time invested. not a nonfiction reader, but i LOVE this book

The title was a bit deceiving for me. I thought i would get a history of Africans in this land before the colonies, kind of like they came before columbus. This book is more of an overarching history of Africans in this country, contributions made in the early days and founding, ending with Martin Luther King Jr era. It had some interesting tidbits, and also stories that made you drop your jaw. Also, an interesting history of "race mixing" in this country, how white women were not an insignificant part in the matter, and how laws just couldn't keep the races apart

This is a solid 3.5 on my scale of ratings, tipping to 4, as the mood changes. This book is a nice, solid primer for those who don't know anything about Black History ... or American History for that matter, for it is impossible to distinguish, and absurd to split hairs.

It is to be noted that this book was first published in 1961, when it truly was a landmark for American culture. It has been revised at least 3 times since; and in this revision Lerone Bennett states he re-wrote many of the sections to update it to encompass present knowledge (as opposed to the earlier editions that were 'revised' simply by making a few editorial changes.)

The book is encyclopaedic: Bennett moves back in time in order to be able to deliver context, travelling as far back as history will allow and then takes it to 2007, when this last edition was printed. As one can imagine, needs must move this narrative by leaps and bounds: so one travels from 7th C BC Timbuktu to 15th century AD, in about 30 pages. A nice sweeping coverage for the uninitiated, but I was hoping for something more; something more scholarly perhaps. The other minor quibble I have with it is that Bennett relies mainly on secondary source material -- all fine and good for a survey for general consumption but leaves a mild disappointment for seeking the unadorned, unfiltered truth.

It's a must-read and a fascinating overview.

To be noted: the book is not quite as daunting as its 700+ pages might suggest. Only 430 or so pages of narrative, with lots of photographs to enhance the storyline; the next three hundred pages can be used as a quick reference chronology which begins in AD 1300 -- little snippets of important events that one can fly through with ease. (I think it might be quite a handy tool for high school teachers, for instance; and for those kids who prefer to get their information in Twitter-sized notes. Better to ingest it this way, than not at all, imho.) There is a nice section entitled Black Firsts -- giving voice to those moments in time when Black Americans were finally able to break through the various social and cultural prisons carved out for them. It's humbling to see life in that way: that one's merits had to be judged on the colour of the skin, and not the colours in their hearts and minds.

In the end, a very quick (and informative) read from a hefty five pound book.

This book should be mandatory reading in High School.

This is a very interesting read directly from the midst of the equal rights movement in 1964. I'm not sure if there are any historical inaccuracies in the book, but it was enlightening and unique in it's approach, specifically because it was written while history was actually taking place. I highly recommend it.