Transcriber’s Note: The cover image was created by the transcriber and is placed in the public domain. “What a self-conscious people your Negroes are!” a recent French visitor exclaimed. He was right. The Negro lives constantly on two planes of awareness. Watching the telecast of a boxing match between Ezzard Charles, the Negro who happened to be heavyweight champion, and a white challenger, a friend of mine said, “I don’t like Charles as a person but I’ve got to root for him to beat this white boy—and good.” One’s heart is sickened at the realization of the primal energy that goes undeflected and unrefined into the sheer business of living as a Negro in the United States—in any one of the United States. J. Saunders Redding has also written:
Charter Books represent a new venture in publishing. They offer at paperback prices a set of modern masterworks, printed on high quality paper with sewn bindings in hardback size and format. ON BEING NEGRO IN AMERICAJ. Saunders Redding Charter Books Copyright 1951 by J. Saunders Redding All rights reserved Bobbs-Merrill hardcover edition published September 1951 Charter edition published August 1962 This book is the complete text of the hardcover edition Printed in the U.S.A. CHARTER BOOKS Published by THE BOBBS-MERRILL COMPANY, INC. A subsidiary of HOWARD W. SAMS & CO., INC. Publishers Indianapolis and New York Distributed by the Macfadden-Bartell Corp., Inc., 205 East 42nd Street, New York 17, New York |