A stunning collection of previously unpublished interviews with key figures of the black freedom struggle by the Pulitzer Prize–winning author
In 1964, in the height of the civil rights movement of the 1960s, Pulitzer Prize–winning author and poet Robert Penn Warren set out with a tape recorder to interview leaders of the black freedom struggle. He spoke at length with luminaries such as James Baldwin, Martin Luther King Jr., Stokely Carmichael, Ralph Ellison, and Roy Wilkins, eliciting reflections and frank assessments of race in America and the possibilities for meaningful change. In Harlem, a fifteen-minute appointment with Malcolm X unwound into several hours of vivid conversation.
A year later, Penn Warren would publish Who Speaks for the Negro? , a probing narrative account of these conversations that blended his own reflections with brief excerpts and quotations from his interviews. Astonishingly, the full extent of the interviews remained in the background and were never published. The audiotapes stayed largely unknown until recent years. Free All Along brings to life the vital historic voices of America’s civil rights generation, including writers, political activists, religious leaders, and intellectuals.
A major contribution to our understanding of the struggle for justice and equality, these remarkable long-form interviews are presented here as original documents that have pressing relevance today.
Review
“Warren is a skilled interviewer, the responses are beautifully complex. . . . [This is] a fascinating and valuable document of the 1960s.”
—Publisher Weekly
“An anthology that arguably holds more contemporary importance as an historical document than the original release.”
— Kirkus Reviews
“A lively, conversational transcription, one that faithfully recreates the energy in the room as Warren questions influential writers Ralph Ellison and James Baldwin, yields to Martin Luther King Jr.’s loquacious speaking style, and prods Malcolm X on the role of Elijah Muhammad in shaping his views. ”
— Booklist
“This is an expression not of people who are suddenly freed of something, but people who have been free all along.”
—Ralph Ellison, speaking with Robert Penn Warren
“There are times when voices from the past speak directly to our present. Free All Along is a rare and electrifying document, one that reveals the enduring connections between the long struggle for civil rights in the last century to the fight for justice in our own.”
— Michael Eric Dyson, New York Times bestselling author of What Truth Sounds Like
Praise for Say It Plain :
“The speeches...collectively provide a sweeping perspective on evolving issues of black identity in the struggle for equality. ”
— Booklist
“The electrifying speeches—all recorded at live events—focus directly on the questions, the struggles, the defeats and the triumphs of the 1960s to present-day America. A new depth to oral and written history, readers and listeners should consider this a great resource to add to their own personal collection.”
— The Saginaw News
About the Author
Stephen Drury Smith is the executive editor and host of APM Reports®, the acclaimed documentary unit of American Public Media. He lives in St. Paul, Minnesota.
Catherine Ellis is an award-winning broadcast and podcast journalist, and the founder of Audio Memoir. Ellis holds a PhD in anthropology from Columbia University, where her research compared the way whites and African Americans in Louisiana remember the Jim Crow era. She lives in Boston, Massachusetts. They are both co-editors of Say It Plain: A Century of Great African American Speeches , and Say It Loud: Great Speeches on Civil Rights and African American Identity and (with Mary Marshall Clark and Peter Bearman) of After the Fall: New Yorkers Remember September 2001 and the Years That Followed , all published by The New Press.

motw/Free All Along_ The Robert Penn - Stephen Drury Smith.epub

Who speaks for the negro? : the robert penn warren interviews

Stephen Smith; Catherine Ellis; Robert Penn Warren

Smith, Stephen Drury; Ellis, Catherine

Stephen Drury Smith, Catherine Ellis

Catherine Ellis, Stephen Drury Smith

hoopla digital

The New Press

United States, United States of America

New York, 2019

US, 2019

2, 2019

2018

Memory of the World Librarian: outernationale

Featured in the New Yorker's "Page-Turner" One of Mashable's "17 books every activist should read in 2019" "This is an expression not of people who are suddenly freed of something, but people who have been free all along." —Ralph Ellison, speaking with Robert Penn Warren A stunning collection of previously unpublished interviews with key figures of the black freedom struggle by the Pulitzer Prize–winning author In 1964, in the height of the civil rights movement of the 1960s, Pulitzer Prize–winning author and poet Robert Penn Warren set out with a tape recorder to interview leaders of the black freedom struggle. He spoke at length with luminaries such as James Baldwin, Martin Luther King Jr., Stokely Carmichael, Ralph Ellison, and Roy Wilkins, eliciting reflections and frank assessments of race in America and the possibilities for meaningful change. In Harlem, a fifteen-minute appointment with Malcolm X unwound into several hours of vivid conversation. A year later, Penn Warren would publish Who Speaks for the Negro?, a probing narrative account of these conversations that blended his own reflections with brief excerpts and quotations from his interviews. Astonishingly, the full extent of the interviews remained in the background and were never published. The audiotapes stayed largely unknown until recent years. Free All Along brings to life the vital historic voices of America's civil rights generation, including writers, political activists, religious leaders, and intellectuals. A major contribution to our understanding of the struggle for justice and equality, these remarkable long-form interviews are presented here as original documents that have pressing relevance today.

Featured in the New Yorker 's "Page-Turner" One of Mashable's "17 books every activist should read in 2019"
"This is an expression not of people who are suddenly freed of something, but people who have been free all along." Ralph Ellison, speaking with Robert Penn Warren
A stunning collection of previously unpublished interviews with key figures of the black freedom struggle by the Pulitzer Prizewinning author In 1964, in the height of the civil rights movement of the 1960s, Pulitzer Prizewinning author and poet Robert Penn Warren set out with a tape recorder to interview leaders of the black freedom struggle. He spoke at length with luminaries such as James Baldwin, Martin Luther King Jr., Stokely Carmichael, Ralph Ellison, and Roy Wilkins, eliciting reflections and frank assessments of race in America and the possibilities for meaningful change. In Harlem, a fifteen-minute appointment with Malcolm X unwound into several hours of vivid conversation. A year later, Penn Warren would publish Who Speaks for the Negro? , a probing narrative account of these conversations that blended his own reflections with brief excerpts and quotations from his interviews. Astonishingly, the full extent of the interviews remained in the background and were never published. The audiotapes stayed largely unknown until recent years. Free All Along brings to life the vital historic voices of America's civil rights generation, including writers, political activists, religious leaders, and intellectuals. A major contribution to our understanding of the struggle for justice and equality, these remarkable long-form interviews are presented here as original documents that have pressing relevance today.

A Collection Of Previously Unpublished Interviews With Key Figures Of The Black Freedom Struggle By Pulitzer Prize-winning Author Robert Penn Warren-- A Note About Transcripts -- Joe Carter -- Clarie Collins Harvey -- Aaron Henry -- Robert P. Moses -- Charles Evers -- Ralph Ellison -- Ezell A. Blair Jr., Stokely Carmichael, Lucy Thornton, And Jean Wheeler -- Kenneth B. Clark -- James M. Lawson Jr. -- Andrew Young -- Septima P. Clark -- Martin Luther King Jr. -- Wyatt Tee Walker -- Roy Wilkins -- Whitney M. Young Jr. -- James Baldwin -- Ruth Turner Perot -- Malcolm X -- Bayard Rustin. Edited By Stephen Drury Smith And Catherine Ellis. Includes Bibliographical References.

In 1964, Pulitzer Prize-winning author and poet Robert Penn Warren set out to interview leaders of the civil rights movement, including the Reverend Martin Luther King Jr., Malcolm X and others. Published in 1965, 'Who Speaks for the Negro?' mixed short excerpts from the interviews with Warren's observations to document the most significant period of the civil rights timeline. Now award-winning authors Smith and Ellis have delved into Warren's archive to present a comprehensive and accessible look at the narratives that helped shape the civil rights movement

2025-10-27