Four Hundred Souls A Community History of African America, 1619-2019

Highly Recommend. While it is a fire hose it's a great place to start and lists numerous resources for further study where desired.

This is a fantastic read, and another book alongside Stamped From The Beginning that I really hope will begin to become a staple in high school curriculums. A few highlights regarding this book: ⭐️The linear narrative timeline coupled with 90 unique authors who have completely different writing styles, points of view, areas of expertise, and life experiences works SO well. I loved how these small 3-to-5-page “chapters” (5 year spans of history since 1619 which marked the documented beginning of the history of African Americans in America) linked and flowed together. So much perspective, so much diversity of thought and experience, yet all of it works as one. This is an extraordinary way to approach a human history that is as deeply personal, generational, and fused with struggles for voice and identity as it is foundational to the place it has birthed, built and evolved. ⭐️ The overarching approach to taking “behind the curtain” looks at pivotal events and major historical moments in American history is awesome. The homing in on lesser-covered but not-at-all-less important people, happenings, consequences, and impacts makes this history unique. If you consider this reading a pairing with Stamped From the Beginning (which I’d recommend) this nuanced, slice-of-life African American community history is the yin to SFtB’s panoramic, policy-and-public-perception-focused yang. Once again, I learned so much from this book. ⭐️The poetry interludes are lovely. All completely different, some harder on the untrained poetry-powerhouse mind (like mine) than the others, but such a good stylistic choice. Coiled and Unleashed and American Abecedarian stood out to me. ⭐️My favorite period to read through was Reconstruction up until WW2. The whole book is great but the earlier history was a little more of a trudge (but a good one!) and the later history lacked by nature of it being so recent the reflection and more distant historical analysis and assessment that made me so love the earlier sections. ⭐️ This book was excellent but it gets 4 stars Simply because GR doesn’t do half stars and 5 star books are really hard to come by on my rating scale. Anything 3 or above I generally recommend unequivocally or at least to the majority of an audience in the case of a 3-Star ;)

I would have definitely added this book to my tbr anyway because it has Dr. Kendi’s name attached to it, but it was the whole concept of a collection of Black voices coming together to create a community history that captured my attention immediately and I was so happy when I received the ARC. In a way, this is like a follow up or companion to the 1619 project because that is the year the history in this book starts, with the tale of the first 20 or so Black people who were brought to the shores of this land, with the author wondering what must they have been feeling about their situation as well as their new home. From there, each writer focuses on a five year period, talking about something that they found significant about that particular time period in history - whether it be a movement or rebellion that was crushed and erased from our collective memory, or a prominent Black voice of the time, or many other rebels and pioneers who paved the way for their future freedoms even if they have been forgotten by history. The book or project (as it should rightfully be called) is epic and ambitious, but the execution is perfect. Through poems and essays and profiles and testimonies, these 90 Black intellectuals from various fields come together to create such a wonderful volume of history that speaks to the feeling of community. The writing will make you angry and hopeful and emotional, and I ended up crying a few times. Sometimes, it also leaves you feeling sad because there’s so much that is lost to history, and how much we don’t know about the African American ancestors who suffered horribly for decades and centuries. This book is in a way a tribute to them, making us aware of how they fought for the right to be treated equally, and also motivate us to continue the fight till true equality is achieved. The book ends with a final essay by Alicia Garza about the Black Lives Matter movement and it felt like a fitting conclusion - a lot of strides have been made on the path to achieve the true ideals enshrined in the constitution but a lot is left to do, as all the BLM protests in 2020 and the recent insurrection on the capitol have shown. This community history is an inspiration and I hope it encourages many more of us to fight for a fair and just world.

This is so incredibly well done.

I needed to read/listen to this book. It was devastating and life-giving, pressing into the present tensions and profound hope of Black experiences in America. I got misty-eyed at the end when I heard each reader say their name. It's beautiful to see the contributions of individuals to an ever-evolving collective story and voice. I will definitely be reading this again soon.