The Schlager Anthology of Black America: A Student’s Guide to Essential Primary Sources

For this three-volume set in the “Schlager Anthologies for Students” series, Royles (history, Florida International Univ., Miami) and 11 academic contributors have collected 254 primary sources (books, essays, speeches, letters, laws, etc.) related to Black American history. Each source is introduced, placed in its historical context, and accompanied by a photograph or illustration. Some documents have been abridged to a manageable 800 words; the abridgments are smooth and maintain the style and intent of the original. Most full texts can be found online through, e.g., the National Archives. A glossary and short-answer questions complete each entry. Documents are arranged chronologically into 16 chapters, covering colonial America, the American Revolution, the Civil War and Reconstruction, Jim Crow, World War I, the civil rights and Black Power movements, and more. While some familiar and critical documents are included in this collection (e.g., the Emancipation Proclamation, Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech), other texts may be lesser known but equally important to an understanding of Black history and experiences in the United States. Though other books provide similar content, none have the extensive coverage and timeliness of Royles’s work; for instance, BlackPast.org (compiled by the Black Education, History, and Heritage Alliance) has an extensive collection of primary source materials but isn’t published in book form and doesn’t provide all the helpful educational features that the Schlager volumes have.