Autobiography and Black Freedom Struggles

Harvard FAS

This seminar introduces the main traditions of African American political thought and the history of the black fight for justice through the genre of autobiography. Students will read some classic autobiographies by African Americans (for example, those by Frederick Douglass, Booker T. Washington, and Malcolm X), along with some lesser-known works (for instance, autobiographies by Ida B. Wells, Shirley Chisholm, and Amiri Baraka).Students will discover how an influential set of black…