If you don't know, you need to read this book

The The seminal work of African American History

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.

Very interesting. High level introductory overview of the subject.

Malcolm X is not mentioned ...

Upon the beloved Lerone Bennett, Jr.' s passing on Valentine's Day of this year, I did what I had been intending to do for years- read this masterpiece. I opened it on a Friday and finished it on Sunday. I could not put it down.
Before the Mayflower touched so many parts of my soul. I traveled many new roads and some parts of the history were recalled. It was truly a long journey in night, into light and mostly into illumination.
Just think, this scholar did all of this research before the advent of the Internet which means he read many documents and labored many hours in libraries and centers of archives.
I could go on and on, but as one reader wrote, every person of color should read it. Actually, anyone of letters who seeks true insight should read it.
What a magnificent record!

a comprehensive, detailed presentation of a long arc of african-american history in the USA. Interesting and easy reading.

A little dated since it only goes up to 1962, but it made me astonished how much was left out of history class.

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.

Must read...

This book was everything I wanted it to be and more. It thought me the opposite of what I previously thought of my people. I definitely enjoy having my mind changed and learning new parts of things I thought I knew a lot about. Seeing slavery and black history from a lotttt of different angles was something I definitely needed. I learned a lot about pre colonial Africa and how complex the kingdoms and languages were. A good amount of the content was hard to swallow as a black man reading it. I can say that it was necessary to learn tho. Because if I don’t take initiative to learn more about our history, then it will be left untouched. Gotta learn about the history of a problem to get a grasp on where to start. The quote at the end was hella good. “We ain’t where we wanna be. We ain’t where we ought to be. We ain’t where we gonna be. But thank god we ain’t where we were”. LEVELS TO THIS SHIT