Black Thought in America

FAIN: FB-10590-70

Ronald T. Takaki
Unaffiliated Independent Scholar (Berkeley, CA 94720)

Study focuses on certain problems about the relationship between racial oppression and black thought, especially the amiguous impact certain forms of Northern and Southern racism, particularly segregation, had on black thought in period 1800-1865. While racism contributed to a condition of marginality" and self-hatred among blacks, it also forcefully set many blacks apart from white society and actually contributed to the development of a black culture and independent black thought. Study will be published as essays in a book on black leadership in America (to be co-authored with Prof. Lawrence Friedman of Arizona State University) and in a book on black thought in America, 1800-1865.