#In Praise of the Black Men and Women Who Built Detroit

[ausetkmt]

In Praise of the Black Men and Women Who Built Detroit - The New York Times

BLACK DETROIT A People’s History of Self-Determination By Herb Boyd Illustrated. 416 pp. Amistad/HarperCollins Publishers. $27.99.

Detroit has found its griot in Herb Boyd. Traditional West African storytellers, griots carry their people’s traditions from generation to generation, and are renowned for their encyclopedic knowledge, their wit and their ability to bridge the past and present. In the tradition of the griot, Boyd has written a song of praise to what he calls “the city’s glorious history.”

In 29 chapters, spanning more than three centuries, Boyd offers an unusual retelling of Detroit’s past, with black voices on nearly every page. The arc of his narrative is a familiar one in which he traces the transformation of Detroit from a French trading outpost to the world’s automobile production center to a national symbol of urban decline and rebirth. Along the way, Boyd introduces us to some of Detroit’s key social movements: abolitionism, union organizing, civil rights and black power. But this book is not a conventional urban history. Boyd’s purpose is to celebrate the black men and women, the city’s “fearless freedom fighters,” who would otherwise remain on history’s margins.

The characters who walk across Boyd’s pages are fascinating. We get tantalizing glimpses of the lives of the several hundred enslaved Africans who lived in colonial Detroit, including William Kenny, who ran away but found the time to taunt his former master with a sarcastic letter. We follow the career of the Pelham brothers, Robert Jr. and Benjamin, who, in 1883, founded The Detroit Plaindealer, Detroit’s first black newspaper.

Later, we meet 20th-century black “breakthrough” figures, like Charles Diggs Sr., Detroit’s first black congressman and proprietor of the wonderfully named House of Diggs funeral parlor; George Crockett Jr., a crusading labor and civil rights lawyer and his wife, Ethelene Crockett, who was Michigan’s first African-American obstetrician; and Ed Davis, the country’s first black auto dealer. Sometimes, as with the Crocketts, Boyd sacrifices detail in his efforts to be comprehensive. We learn, for example, that George Crockett was jailed for subversion during the McCarthy era, but with little context to help understand the radical political world in Detroit that Crockett inhabited.

[kalamu]

HISTORY: In Praise of the Black Men and Women Who Built Detroit - 

ow.ly/RBmQ30f5e4F

[sylviahubbard]

In Praise of the Black Men and Women Who Built #Detroit... NY Times Book Review of Black Detroit by Herb Boyd #Motownwriters #michiganwriters #michlit #mittenlit

In Praise of the Black Men and Women Who Built #Detroit… NY Times Book Review of Black Detroit by Herb Boyd #Motownwriters #michiganwriters #michlit #mittenlit

In Praise of the Black Men and Women Who Built Detroit https://nyti.ms/2xNZTxF

BUY BOOK NOW

BLACK DETROIT A People’s History of Self-Determination By Herb Boyd Illustrated. 416 pp. Amistad/HarperCollins Publishers. $27.99.

Detroit has found its griot in Herb Boyd. Traditional West African storytellers, griots carry their people’s traditions from generation to generation, and are renowned for their…

[brightbegin]

In "Black Detroit," Herb Boyd celebrates the city's rich history through its unsung heroes. via NYT > Home Page http://ift.tt/2gKGGsx

New York Times

Find out more follow www.brightbegin.com

[triciansmithdesign]

Nonfiction: In Praise of the Black Men and Women Who Built Detroit

http://dlvr.it/PmCys8

[freddie-twerkury]

Nonfiction: In Praise of the Black Men and Women Who Built Detroit

[somereallygreatthings]

Nonfiction: In Praise of the Black Men and Women Who Built Detroit

Nonfiction: In Praise of the Black Men and Women Who Built Detroit

In “Black Detroit,” Herb Boyd celebrates the city’s rich history through its unsung heroes.x

[soulvoyager2]

In “Black Detroit,” Herb Boyd celebrates the city’s rich history through its unsung heroes.

[coreyfspear89]

Nonfiction: In Praise of the Black Men and Women Who Built Detroit

In “Black Detroit,” Herb Boyd celebrates the city’s rich history through its unsung heroes. from Latest News https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/06/books/review/black-detroit-herb-boyd.html?partner=rss&emc=rss

[mildrednsims]

Nonfiction: In Praise of the Black Men and Women Who Built Detroit

In “Black Detroit,” Herb Boyd celebrates the city’s rich history through its unsung heroes. from Latest News https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/06/books/review/black-detroit-herb-boyd.html?partner=rss&emc=rss

[scvpubliclib]

In ‘Black Detroit,’ Herb Boyd celebrates the city’s rich history through its unsung heroes.

[janetoconnerfl]

Nonfiction: In Praise of the Black Men and Women Who Built Detroit

In ‘Black Detroit,’ Herb Boyd celebrates the city’s rich history through its unsung heroes. from Latest Information https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/06/books/review/black-detroit-herb-boyd.html?partner=rss&emc=rss

[jimblanceusa]

Nonfiction: In Praise of the Black Men and Women Who Built Detroit

In ‘Black Detroit,’ Herb Boyd celebrates the city’s rich history through its unsung heroes. from Latest Information https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/06/books/review/black-detroit-herb-boyd.html?partner=rss&emc=rss

[kalynalanguagepress]

Nonfiction: In Praise of the Black Men and Women Who Built Detroit https://t.co/GQMMCsV6d8

Nonfiction: In Praise of the Black Men and Women Who Built Detroit https://t.co/GQMMCsV6d8

— KalynaLanguagePress (@KalynaPress) September 6, 2017

from Twitter https://twitter.com/KalynaPress September 06, 2017 at 10:32AM via IFTTT

[cushydiet-blog]

In Praise of the Black Men and Women Who Built Detroit - http://wp.me/p91lk4-B9 - #Black, #Books, #Built, #Detroit, #Men, #Praise, #Women