Letters from Black America

Pamela Newkirk, Editor
(Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, 2009)

      The first-ever narrative history of African Americans told through their own letters, Letters from Black America includes the thoughts of politicians, writers, and entertainers, as well as those of slaves, servicemen, and domestic workers. Edited by Pamela Newkirk, an associate professor in NYU’s Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute, the book includes correspondence of men and women who lived through monumental changes and pivotal events from the 1700s to the 21st century. They include a letter by a slave who writes to his wife on the eve of being sold as well as Martin Luther King, Jr.’s “Letter from Birmingham Jail.”
      Newkirk’s previous works include A Love No Less, an edited volume, and Within the Veil, which won the National Press Club Award for Media Criticism.