BROTHERMAN: The Odyssey of Black Men in...

BROTHERMAN: The Odyssey of Black Men in America--An Anthology edited by Herb Boyd & Robert L. Allen (One World/Ballantine: $19.95; 922 pp.). Drawing on fiction, autobiography, manifestoes, interviews and surprisingly little of the relevant humorous material, Boyd and Allen have compiled a challenging, diverse volume. The authors include athletes (Magic Johnson, Arthur Ashe), musicians (Quincy Jones, Miles Davis), political leaders (Frederick Douglass, Kweisi Mfume) and writers (Langston Hughes, Essex Hemphill).

Selections written over the course of the 20th century reveal how slow the progress toward equality has been. Booker T. Washington’s observation in “Up From Slavery” (1901), “The Negro boy has obstacles, discouragements and temptations to battle with that are little known to those not situated as he is,” anticipates reports on the situation of inner-city African American youth nearly a century later. In the introduction, Boyd and Allen state that they wanted to “create a living mosaic of actions and stories in which black men can view themselves, and be viewed without distortion,” but “Brotherman” would be more useful as a reference if they had been more careful about dating and identifying source materials. An American Book Award winner.