The African American Experience
One aspect of the Press's regional program is works by and about African Americans, who comprise one of the South's largest demographic groups. In 1936 the Press resolved that the decision "to publish or not to publish black authors should be made entirely on the basis of the merits of the work." By the 1950s, the Press had published over 100 African American titles; by the 1960s, Winthrop Jordon's White Over Black had won publishing's highest awards. Today, the Press continues the tradition of cultivating and publishing significant African American titles, as Frank R. Parker's prize-winning Black Votes Count (1990) attests.
The Early YearsIn 1943, William Terry Couch (1932-45) approached Howard University historian Rayford Logan about editing a series of essays representing a cross-section of opinion on the subject, "what the negro wants." He hoped the book would foster communication between the races and help ease contemporary racial tensions. The manuscript he received shocked him, for despite his liberal social views he had not anticipated that every contributor, from the most conservative to the most radical, would demand an end to racial segregation in the South. It is a credit to Couch's integrity that, despite his personal fears that the book would anger white southerners and aggravate racial tensions, the Press honored its commitment to publish. What the Negro Wants (1944) was a major statement by contemporary black Americans that anticipated the Civil Rights movement by several years.
White Over Black
One of the most acclaimed books ever published by the Press is
Winthrop Jordan's 1968 White Over Black: American Attitudes Toward the
Negro, 1550-1812. Published for the Institute of Early American
History and Culture, the book sold over 30,000 copies, received major
press attention, and won two of publishing's most prestigious awards: the
Bancroft Prize in history, and the National Book Award. Although African
Americans occupy a central position in the book, Jordan's chief focus is
the attitudes of white people toward blacks from before the settlement of
Jamestown to the death of Thomas Jefferson.
Back of the Big House
During the last decade, the Press has continued to build on its
outstanding record in African American scholarship. As in the past, these
books have not only garnered some of publishing's most distinguished
awards, but also, upon occasion, been at the center of controversy.
When John Michael Vlach's Back of the Big House: The
Architecture of Plantation Slavery appeared in 1993, it broke new
ground in African American studies, analyzing the material culture of
slavery to argue that slaves were able to appropriate and redefine the
plantation landscape created by slaveholders. The book's originality, as
well as its masterful use of photographs from the Historic American
Buildings Survey and slave narratives gathered by the Federal Writer's
Project, cut through old myths and provided a detailed, engrossing account
of the physical setting of slavery. Two years later, some Library of
Congress employees, offended by photographs and images that they perceived
as negative stereotypes, objected to an exhibit based on Vlach's book.
Although removed within twenty-four hours, the exhibit has appeared
elsewhere without incident. An uneasy relationship between Library of
Congress workers and management, as well as the power of photographs to
evoke strong responses, may explain the surprising controversy.
Black Votes Count
Frank R. Parker's Black Votes Count: Political Empowerment in
Mississippi after 1965 (1990) explores why it took over twenty-five
years for blacks in Mississippi, who comprise the highest percentage of
black voters in any state, to elect a black member of Congress. Parker
analyzes the massive resistance strategy mounted by the state to nullify
the impact of black votes following the passage of the Voting Rights Act
in 1965. The book won four awards, including the 1990 McLemore Prize from
the Mississippi Historical Society, the 1991 Silver Gavel Award from the
American Bar Association, and the 1991 Ralph J. Bunche Award from the
American Political Science Association.
Southern Slavery and the Law, 1619-1860
A recent title in the Studies in Legal History series, Thomas D.
Morris's Southern Slavery and the Law, 1619-1860 (1996), is the
first comprehensive history of the evolving relationship between American
slavery and the law from colonial times to the Civil War. Morris
demonstrates that there was no coherent body of law that dealt solely with
slaves. Rather, existing laws concerning inheritance, mortgages, and
property had to be adapted to accommodate the peculiar requirements of
slavery. Legal scholars and historians have called it "a scholarly tour de
force."
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