Black Manhattan

James Weldon Johnson
Alfred A. Knopf, 1930
Southern Civilization Collection
Vanderbilt University Special Collections

Published in 1930, Black Manhattan is a landmark work that provides a comprehensive history of the African American experience in New York City.  It traces the history of African Americans in New York from the earliest settlements to the cultural explosion of the Harlem Renaissance. Johnson also offers a detailed account of the social, political, and cultural developments that shaped the Black community in Manhattan.  He provides a first-person view of the Black theatrical and musical world, highlighting the contributions of African American artists and performers and the rise of jazz, blues, and other forms of Black music that became central to American culture.  The work also details the struggle for identity and recognition faced by Black artists and intellectuals as they struggled to find identity a sense of belonging in a predominantly white society.