Small Nation of People: W. E. B. Du Bois and African American Portraits of Progress

Juan Williams

"An eye opening treasure....The family album of black America."

Thelma Golden

"Imbued with grace and dignity...A rare look at the progress being made by....forebearers in an important, longstanding tradition."

Leslie King-Hammond

"A must read book for everyone and anyone concerned with the historical evolution of American history, culture and identity."

Black Issues Book Review

"A landmark book."

Booklist

"Impressive....Readers...will love this rare glimpse of photographs.

Richmond Times-Dispatch

"More than just a pretty cover....[A Small Nation of People] will provide...enjoyment for months and years to come."

Booklist

“Impressive....Readers...will love this rare glimpse of photographs.

Richmond Times-Dispatch

“More than just a pretty cover....[A Small Nation of People] will provide...enjoyment for months and years to come.”

Black Issues Book Review

“A landmark book.”

The Washington Post

Willis's essay will help contemporary readers regard the many evocative black-and-white images in their proper historical context, as will the informative essay by Du Bois biographer David Levering Lewis. — Jabari Asim

Publishers Weekly

After his 1895 speech advocating economic opportunities for African-Americans, the press asked of Booker T. Washington, "Is He a New Negro?" According to photographic historian Deborah Willis, the term "New Negro" became shorthand for "a spirit of self-awareness, artistic consciousness, and racial pride," a spirit that has been captured in this 8" 8" book of 150 late-19th-century duotone photographs. The images, used by W.E.B. Du Bois for his "Exhibit of American Negroes" at the 1900 Paris World's Fair, depict African-American businesses, churches, homes and schools, as well as African-Americans themselves, usually in the stiff collar, plumed hat and pince-nez of the middle class. The goal of the exhibition, writes Levering Lewis, author of a multi-volume Pulitzer Prize-winning biography of Du Bois, was to show African-Americans as "a proud, productive, and cultured race." In their introductory articles, Lewis and Willis both tell the history of the exhibition and interpret the photographs. If they occasionally lapse into awkward academic prose, their essays provide welcome context for the pictures, which are more informative about period conventions than moving, possibly because Du Bois saw them as sociological markers and neglected to take the subjects' or the photographers' names. Perhaps the photographs' most significant feature is the response they generated. At the world's fair, Du Bois and his exhibition won gold medals; in America, the exhibition and its success received no press at all. Furthermore, Lewis astutely points out the parallel between America's eagerness to impress Europe and African-Americans' eagerness to impress America: using the stage of the world's fair, both groups frankly lobbied for legitimacy as "culturally mature." In subsequent years, however, the international perception of America improved, while race relations at home deteriorated. Except for these photographs, preserved in the Library of Congress, the constructed image of the New Negro was dropped from history. (Oct.) Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.

Library Journal

This book revisits the American Negro Exhibit of the 1900 International Exposition in Paris with a focus on the contributions made by W.E.B. Du Bois. Du Bois, then a sociology professor at Atlanta University, chose photographs for the exhibit to illustrate African American life after Emancipation. This volume constitutes the first substantial photographic reassembly of the 1900 exhibit and includes 162 photographs, mostly from the Library of Congress. Essays by Lewis, a Pulitzer Prize-winning Du Bois biographer, and Willis, NYU photography professor and author of A History of Black Photographers, 1840-Present, discuss the importance of the uplifting subject matter of the pictures, which includes black men and women in business and education. They also note the exhibit's avoidance of lynching photography and stereotypically exotic depictions of Africans. Given the essays' discussions of key people and events, it is unfortunate that the text is not indexed; however, the complete listing of photographs including their physical locations is useful. Recommended for academic libraries as well as specialized African American and history of photography collections.-Eric Linderman, East Cleveland P.L., OH Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.