Our Kind of Historian: The Work and Activism of Lerone Bennett Jr.

by E. James West

Overview

Journalist, activist, popular historian, and public intellectual, Lerone Bennett Jr. left an indelible mark on twentieth-century American history and culture. Rooted in his role as senior editor of Ebony magazine, but stretching far beyond the boundaries of the Johnson Publishing headquarters in Chicago, Bennett’s work and activism positioned him as a prominent advocate for Black America and a scholar whose writing reached an unparalleled number of African American readers.

This critical biography—the first in-depth study of Bennett’s life—travels with him from his childhood experiences in Jim Crow Mississippi and his time at Morehouse College in Atlanta to his later participation in a dizzying range of Black intellectual and activist endeavors. Drawing extensively on Bennett’s previously inaccessible archival collections at Emory University and Chicago State, as well as interviews with close relatives, colleagues, and confidantes, Our Kind of Historian celebrates his enormous influence within and unique connection to African American communities across more than half a century of struggle.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781625346452
Publisher:	University of Massachusetts Press
Publication date:	07/29/2022
Series:	African American Intellectual History
Pages:	328
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.50(d)

About the Author

E. JAMES WEST is lecturer of U.S. history at the University of York and author of A House for the Struggle: The Black Press and the Built Environment in Chicago.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments vii

Introduction 1

Chapter 1 The Most Southern Place on Earth 10

Chapter 2 A Morehouse Man 23

Chapter 3 Writing about Everything 38

Chapter 4 Getting the Movement Told 51

Chapter 5 Before the Mayflower 65

Chapter 6 What Manner of Man 81

Chapter 7 Confrontation 94

Chapter 8 A Black Power Historian 110

Chapter 9 A Revolution in American Education 124

Chapter 10 The Challenge of Blackness 139

Chapter 11 The Man in the Middle 155

Chapter 12 We Are the Sons and Daughters of Africa 168

Chapter 13 A Fateful Fork 181

Chapter 14 Harold 197

Chapter 15 A Product of History 210

Chapter 16 Forced into Glory 225

Chapter 17 We're Talking about Back Pay 239

Epilogue Our Kind of Historian 254

Notes 263

Index 311

Photo gallery follows page 154.

Editorial Reviews

Our Kind of Historian. . .revives interest in the importance of Bennett’s career as the 'people historian.' A welcome addition that adds to the legacy of Bennett.”—Cedric D. Burrows, The Journal of African American History

“This biography provides the first detailed account of the life, work, and contributions of Bennett. West considers Bennett’s life within various historical contexts, from his early years through the dawning of the twenty-first century. A ‘page-turner’ written in an accessible style, OurKind of Historian is a noteworthy contribution to the Black biographical tradition, African American studies, and journalism history.”—Pero Gaglo Dagbovie, author of The Early Black History Movement, Carter G. Woodson, and Lorenzo Johnston Greene

“Our Kind of Historian is an intellectual biography of Bennett that examines his work as a journalist, editor, and public historian, with particular emphasis on his role as progenitor of a new sort of Black public history that successfully reached a mass audience. West persuasively argues that Bennett was a major figure in the Black political and cultural upsurge of the 1960s and 1970s.”—James Smethurst, author of Behold the Land: The Black Arts Movement in the South

From the Publisher