Rayford Logan

'A thoughtful, sensitive study of one of the most important historians of African American culture in this century...Rayford Logan deserves to be remembered, and Janken's study ensures that his fighting spirit and devotion to learning will remain a lesson to future scholars.'--Arnold Rampersad, Princeton University

Publishers Weekly

This interesting academic biography portrays Rayford W. Logan (1897-1982) as a scholar and ``diligent second-tier leader'' in the civil rights struggle. Janken, who teaches African American studies at the University of North Carolina, traces his subject's background as a member of Washington, D.C.'s so-called light-skinned black elite, and his embrace of Pan-Africanism after his service in WW II brought him wider experience of racism. Logan worked early for voter registration and for a stronger relationship between organized labor and civil rights groups and he also edited What the Negro Wants (1944), a collection of essays by prominent African Americans. But he was also a history professor, teaching at Howard University from 1938 to 1968, and hence equally involved in academic projects: he briefly edited the Journal of Negro History and wrote The Negro in American Life and Thought: The Nadir, 1877-1901 . Unfortunately, Logan's earlier achievements were to be overshadowed by his vituperative campaign of his later years criticizing African Americans for identifying themselves as ``black,'' a term he considered separatist. Photos not seen by PW . (July)