''Who Speaks for the Negro?'' is a 1965 book of interviews by

Robert Penn Warren Robert Penn Warren (April 24, 1905 – September 15, 1989) was an American poet, novelist, and literary critic and was one of the founders of New Criticism. He was also a charter member of the Fellowship of Southern Writers. He founded the liter ...

conducted with

Civil Rights Movement The civil rights movement was a nonviolent social and political movement and campaign from 1954 to 1968 in the United States to abolish legalized institutional racial segregation, discrimination, and disenfranchisement throughout the Unite ...

activists. The book was reissued by

Yale University Press Yale University Press is the university press of Yale University. It was founded in 1908 by George Parmly Day, and became an official department of Yale University in 1961, but it remains financially and operationally autonomous. , Yale Universi ...

in 2014. The Robert Penn Warren Center for the Humanities at Vanderbilt University created the ''Who Speaks for the Negro?'' digital archive featuring digitized versions of the original reel-to-reel recordings that Warren compiled for each of his interviewees as well as print materials related to the project, including the transcripts of those recordings, letters written between Warren and the interviewees, and contemporary reviews of the book.

Interviews

Background

In preparation for Random House's 1965 publication of his book ''Who Speaks for the Negro?'', Warren traveled throughout the United States in early 1964 and spoke with large numbers of men and women who were involved in the Civil Rights Movement. He interviewed nationally known figures as well as people working in the trenches of the movement whose names might otherwise be lost to history. In each case, he recorded their conversations on a reel-to-reel tape recorder. Often, Warren would begin by asking about the speakers' backgrounds, which often prompted them to talk about the inequalities that they had experienced that led to their participation in the Civil Rights Movement. Warren would also often ask the interviewees to respond to works from other writers, mainly W. E. B. Dubois's ''

The Souls of Black Folk ''The Souls of Black Folk: Essays and Sketches'' is a 1903 work of American literature by W. E. B. Du Bois. It is a seminal work in the history of sociology and a cornerstone of African-American literature. The book contains several essays on r ...

'',

Kenneth Clark Kenneth Mackenzie Clark, Baron Clark (13 July 1903 – 21 May 1983) was a British art historian, museum director, and broadcaster. After running two important art galleries in the 1930s and 1940s, he came to wider public notice on television ...

's essays about the detrimental effects of segregation on children,

Gunnar Myrdal Karl Gunnar Myrdal ( ; ; 6 December 1898 – 17 May 1987) was a Swedish economist and sociologist. In 1974, he received the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences along with Friedrich Hayek for "their pioneering work in the theory of money a ...

's ''The American Dilemma'', and James Baldwin's ''

Nobody Knows My Name ''Nobody Knows My Name: More Notes of a Native Son'' is a collection of essays, published by Dial Press in July 1961, by American author James Baldwin. Like Baldwin's first collection, ''Notes of a Native Son'' (publ. 1955), it includes revised ...

''. As well, Warren would ask his interviewees their opinion on a number of key historical American figures, including

Abraham Lincoln Abraham Lincoln ( ; February 12, 1809 – April 15, 1865) was an American lawyer, politician, and statesman who served as the 16th president of the United States from 1861 until his assassination in 1865. Lincoln led the nation thro ...

Thomas Jefferson Thomas Jefferson (April 13, 1743 – July 4, 1826) was an American statesman, diplomat, lawyer, architect, philosopher, and Founding Father who served as the third president of the United States from 1801 to 1809. He was previously the natio ...

William Lloyd Garrison William Lloyd Garrison (December , 1805 – May 24, 1879) was a prominent American Christian, abolitionist, journalist, suffragist, and social reformer. He is best known for his widely read antislavery newspaper '' The Liberator'', which he foun ...

, John Brown, and Robert E. Lee. While Warren was able to interview an impressive number of people, there are very few women in the collection, as well as some notable figures missing from the

Southern Christian Leadership Conference The Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) is an African-American civil rights organization based in Atlanta, Georgia. SCLC is closely associated with its first president, Martin Luther King Jr., who had a large role in the American civ ...

(

Ralph Abernathy Ralph David Abernathy Sr. (March 11, 1926 – April 17, 1990) was an American civil rights activist and Baptist minister. He was ordained in the Baptist tradition in 1948. As a leader of the civil rights movement, he was a close friend and ...

James Bevel James Luther Bevel (October 19, 1936 – December 19, 2008) was a minister and leader of the 1960s Civil Rights Movement in the United States. As a member of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), and then as its Director of Direct ...

Dorothy Cotton Dorothy Cotton (June 9, 1930 – June 10, 2018) was an American civil rights activist, who was a leader in the Civil Rights Movement in the United States and a member of the inner-circle of one of its main organizations, the Southern Christian ...

, and

Fred Shuttlesworth Frederick Lee Shuttlesworth (born Fred Lee Robinson, March 18, 1922 – October 5, 2011) was a U.S. civil rights activist who led the fight against segregation and other forms of racism as a minister in Birmingham, Alabama. He was a co-founder o ...

), the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (

John Lewis John Robert Lewis (February 21, 1940 – July 17, 2020) was an American politician and civil rights activist who served in the United States House of Representatives for from 1987 until his death in 2020. He participated in the 1960 Nashville ...

Diane Nash Diane Judith Nash (born May 15, 1938) is an American civil rights activist, and a leader and strategist of the student wing of the Civil Rights Movement. Nash's campaigns were among the most successful of the era. Her efforts included the first s ...

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, and

Julian Bond Horace Julian Bond (January 14, 1940 – August 15, 2015) was an American social activist, leader of the civil rights movement, politician, professor, and writer. While he was a student at Morehouse College in Atlanta, Georgia, during the e ...

), and others. The published volume contains sections of transcripts from the conversations as well as Warren's reflections on the individuals he interviewed and his thoughts on the state of the Civil Rights Movement. In the foreword to the volume, Warren insists on the book being a record of his desire to find out more about the Civil Rights Movement rather than an unbiased or comprehensive volume. Warren states in the foreword, As an oral history of the Civil Rights Movement, ''Who Speaks'' may be compared to, among others, ''The New World of Negro Americans'' by

Harold Isaacs Harold Robert Isaacs (1910–1986) was an American journalist and political scientist. Career Isaacs graduated from Columbia University in 1929, then briefly worked as a reporter for the ''New York Times.'' He went to China in 1930 with no st ...

, ''My Soul is Rested: Movement Days in the Deep South Remembered'' by

Howell Raines Howell Hiram Raines (; born February 5, 1943) is an American journalist, editor, and writer. He was executive editor of ''The New York Times'' from 2001 until he left in 2003 in the wake of the scandal related to reporting by Jayson Blair. In 20 ...

, and ''My Soul Looks Back in Wonder: Voices of the Civil Rights Experience'' by

Juan Williams Juan Antonio Williams (born April 10, 1954) is a Panamanian-born American journalist and political analyst for Fox News Channel. He writes for several newspapers, including ''The Washington Post'', ''The New York Times'', and ''The Wall Street ...

Reception

''Who Speaks for the Negro?'' was reviewed widely by newspapers, cultural critics, and the general public. The tenor of the reviews varied greatly. Many news reviews—including those from the '' New York Herald Tribune'', the '' Atlantic Monthly'', the ''

Chicago Tribune The ''Chicago Tribune'' is a daily newspaper based in Chicago, Illinois, United States, owned by Tribune Publishing. Founded in 1847, and formerly self-styled as the "World's Greatest Newspaper" (a slogan for which WGN radio and television a ...

'', and the ''

Fort Worth Star-Telegram The ''Fort Worth Star-Telegram'' is an American daily newspaper serving Fort Worth and Tarrant County, the western half of the North Texas area known as the Metroplex. It is owned by The McClatchy Company. History In May 1905, Amon G. Carter ...

''—gave the book very positive reviews. Charles Poore, in the ''New York Times,'' wrote that "a boon this book confers is to remind us that a main thrust in civilization can never cease to be toward decency and courtesy and justice for all." On the other hand, Warren received hate-mail from writers accusing him of "Communist 'propaganda' ndadvocacy of 'racial mixing.'" A ''

Newsweek ''Newsweek'' is an American weekly online news magazine co-owned 50 percent each by Dev Pragad, its president and CEO, and Johnathan Davis, who has no operational role at ''Newsweek''. Founded as a weekly print magazine in 1933, it was widely ...

'' article called Warren "paternalistic." More moderately, Albert Murray called ''Who Speaks'' the "very best inside report on the Negro Civil Rights Movement by anyone so far" while still acknowledging Warren's segregationist past. Though widely and for the most part positively reviewed, ''Who Speaks'' was not a commercial success, which disappointed Warren greatly. The book was out of print for decades until Yale University Press republished it in 2014 based largely on the traffic generated by the ''Who Speaks for the Negro?'' Digital Archive.

Archive

Much of the original material related to the book is still in existence, held at the University of Kentucky and Yale University Libraries. In December 1964, Robert Penn Warren donated most of the material to the University of Kentucky. In his letter of donation to the University of Kentucky dated December 23, 1964, Warren stated "this, it would seem, is significant research material." The Louie B. Nunn Center for Oral History at the University of Kentucky Libraries provides access to the majority of th
oral history interviews online.

In the book

Warren grouped his interviews partly by geography and partly by theme. Each of the chapters consists of both narrativized and transcribed interviews and Warren's descriptions of setting, as well as deeper reflections inspired by the interviewees. Chapter 1: The Cleft Stick * Joe Carter * Felton Grandison Clark * Robert Collins, Nils Douglas, and Lolis Elie Chapter 2: A Mississippi Journal * Claire Collins Harvey * Gilbert Moses and Richard Murphy * Aaron Henry * Bob Moses *

Charles Evers James Charles Evers (September 11, 1922July 22, 2020) was an American civil rights activist, businessman, radio personality, and politician. Evers was known for his role in the civil rights movement along with his younger brother Medgar Evers. ...

and Neil E. Goldschmidt Chapter 3: The Big Brass *

Adam Clayton Powell Jr. Adam Clayton Powell Jr. (November 29, 1908 – April 4, 1972) was an American Baptist pastor and politician who represented the Harlem neighborhood of New York City in the United States House of Representatives from 1945 until 1971. He was t ...

Roy Wilkins Roy Ottoway Wilkins (August 30, 1901 – September 8, 1981) was a prominent activist in the Civil Rights Movement in the United States from the 1930s to the 1970s. Wilkins' most notable role was his leadership of the National Association for the ...

Whitney Young Whitney Moore Young Jr. (July 31, 1921 – March 11, 1971) was an American civil rights leader. Trained as a social worker, he spent most of his career working to end employment discrimination in the United States and turning the National Urban ...

James Forman James Forman (October 4, 1928 – January 10, 2005) was a prominent African-American leader in the civil rights movement. He was active in the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), the Black Panther Party, and the League of Revolutio ...

James Farmer James Leonard Farmer Jr. (January 12, 1920 – July 9, 1999) was an American civil rights activist and leader in the Civil Rights Movement "who pushed for nonviolent protest to dismantle segregation, and served alongside Martin Luther King Jr." ...

Martin Luther King Jr. Martin Luther King Jr. (born Michael King Jr.; January 15, 1929 – April 4, 1968) was an American Baptist minister and activist, one of the most prominent leaders in the civil rights movement from 1955 until his assassination in 1968 ...

Wyatt Tee Walker Wyatt Tee Walker (August 16, 1928 – January 23, 2018) was an African-American pastor, national civil rights leader, theologian, and cultural historian. He was a chief of staff for Martin Luther King Jr., and in 1958 became an early board memb ...

Bayard Rustin Bayard Rustin (; March 17, 1912 – August 24, 1987) was an African American leader in social movements for civil rights, socialism, nonviolence, and gay rights. Rustin worked with A. Philip Randolph on the March on Washington Movement, ...

Malcolm X Malcolm X (born Malcolm Little, later Malik el-Shabazz; May 19, 1925 – February 21, 1965) was an American Muslim minister and human rights activist who was a prominent figure during the civil rights movement. A spokesman for the Nation of I ...

Chapter 4: Leadership from the Periphery *

William H. Hastie William Henry Hastie Jr. (November 17, 1904 – April 14, 1976) was an American lawyer, judge, educator, public official, and civil rights advocate. He was the first African American to serve as Governor of the United States Virgin Islands, as a ...

* James Baldwin * John Harvey Wheeler * Carl Rowan * Kenneth Bancroft Clark *

Ralph Ellison Ralph Waldo Ellison (March 1, 1913 – April 16, 1994) was an American writer, literary critic, and scholar best known for his novel '' Invisible Man'', which won the National Book Award in 1953. He also wrote ''Shadow and Act'' (1964), a collec ...

Chapter 5: The Young * Ezell Blair Jr.,

Stokely Carmichael Kwame Ture (; born Stokely Standiford Churchill Carmichael; June 29, 1941November 15, 1998) was a prominent organizer in the civil rights movement in the United States and the global pan-African movement. Born in Trinidad, he grew up in the Unite ...

, Lucy Thornton, and Jean Wheeler * Jackson State College Students *

Tougaloo College Tougaloo College is a private historically black college in the Tougaloo area of Jackson, Mississippi. It is affiliated with the United Church of Christ and Christian Church (Disciples of Christ). It was originally established in 1869 by New Yor ...

Students * Stephen Wright * Ruth Turner *

In the archive

The original interviews are archived at the

Louie B. Nunn Center for Oral History The Louie B. Nunn Center for Oral History, also known as The Nunn Center, the University of Kentucky, is one of the premier oral history centers in the world, known for a comprehensive oral history archival collection, ongoing interviewing projects, ...

at the University of Kentucky and Yale University Libraries. Th
Nunn Center provides online access to the interviews
which are searchable and streaming using an innovative system called OHMS ( Oral History Metadata Synchronizer), which provides word level searches that are synchronized to the audio. Not all of the interviews made it directly into Warren's book. The original audiotapes, which are archived by th
Nunn Center
and Yale University Libraries, and materials for ''Who Speaks for the Negro?'' also contained interviews with the following people. The audio and transcripts for these, as well as full interviews from the persons in the book mentioned above, are available at th
Nunn Center
as well as in the online digital exhibit ''Who Speaks for the Negro?'' Digital Archive of the Robert Penn Warren Center for the Humanities and the Jean and Alexander Heard Libraries at Vanderbilt University. A digital exhibit
The Robert Penn Warren Oral History Archive
' is a digital exhibit that combines the oral history interviews conducted for ''Who Speaks for the Negro?'' wit
oral history interviews conducted with Robert Penn Warren
who reflects on changes in his perceptions of segregation over time. Warren reflects on segregation and the Civil Rights Movement in his Nunn Center oral history interview conducted on May 4, 1980. * Carroll Barber * Wiley Branton * Bridgeport Men * Will D. Campbell *

Septima Poinsette Clark Septima Poinsette Clark (May 3, 1898 – December 15, 1987) was an African American educator and civil rights activist. Clark developed the literacy and citizenship workshops that played an important role in the drive for voting rights and ci ...

* Dan W. Dodson *

Milton Galamison Milton Arthur Galamison (March 25, 1923 – March 9, 1988) was a Presbyterian minister who served in Brooklyn, New York. As a community activist, he championed integration and education reform in the New York City public school system, and ...

* Richard Gunn *

Vernon Jordan Vernon Eulion Jordan Jr. (August 15, 1935 – March 1, 2021) was an American business executive and civil rights attorney who worked for various civil rights movement organizations before becoming a close advisor to President Bill Clinton. Jor ...

* Montgomery Wordsworth King * James Lawson * William Stuart Nelson *

Gloria Richardson Gloria Richardson Dandridge (born Gloria St. Clair Hayes; May 6, 1922 – July 15, 2021) was an American civil rights activist best known as the leader of the Cambridge movement, a civil rights action in the early 1960s in Cambridge, Maryland, ...

Kelly Miller Smith Kelly Miller Smith Sr. (October 28, 1920 – June 3, 1984) was a Baptist preacher, author, and prominent activist in the Civil Rights Movement, who was based in Nashville, Tennessee. Early life Smith was born and raised in the all-black community ...

* William Stringfellow *

Avon Williams Avon N. Williams, Jr. (December 22, 1921 – August 29, 1994) was a Tennessee State Senator from 1972 to 1992. Biography Avon Nyanza Williams, Jr. was born in Knoxville, Tennessee. He was a 1940 graduate of Johnson C. Smith University, an h ...

Andrew Young Andrew Jackson Young Jr. (born March 12, 1932) is an American politician, diplomat, and activist. Beginning his career as a pastor, Young was an early leader in the civil rights movement, serving as executive director of the Southern Christian L ...

References

;Further reading * *]

External links

The Robert Penn Warren Center for the Humanities' ''Who Speaks for the Negro?'' Digital Archive Collection

The Robert Penn Warren Civil Rights Oral History Collection can be accessed via SPOKEdb
the Nunn Center's online repository. {{Robert Penn Warren 1965 non-fiction books 1965 anthologies Essay anthologies Books of interviews 1960s in the United States Civil rights movement History of civil rights in the United States Politics of the Southern United States Random House books