Table of Contents

	Introduction
	Prologue
	Strong Men (Opening Stanzas)	p. 3
	I Am a Black Man	p. 7
	IKOP MBOG: An Account of an African Child's Initiation	p. 9
	On Viewing the Coast of Africa	p. 11
	Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass	p. 12
	Up from Slavery	p. 20
	Let the Dead Bury Their Dead	p. 27
	The Souls of Black Folk	p. 36
	Message of Marcus Garvey to Membership of Universal Negro Improvement Association from Atlanta Prison	p. 41
	Juneteenth	p. 44
	Poem for My Father	p. 57
	Black Boy	p. 59
	Father	p. 66
	Notes of a Native Son	p. 72
	Nightmare	p. 77
	Colored People	p. 85
	Tragic Magic	p. 91
	Ten Seconds	p. 96
	A Talk with My Father	p. 100
	A Private War	p. 110
	Father's Pledge	p. 118
	Beetlecreek	p. 120
	Manchild in the Promised Land	p. 122
	Dancers on the Shore	p. 126
	Strike and Fade	p. 132
	The Screamers	p. 135
	Way Past Cool	p. 140
	Two Fools	p. 148
	Ghetto Bastard	p. 151
	Brer Rabbit Escapes Again	p. 154
	Reflecting Black	p. 158
	The Ghetto Solution	p. 168
	Black Women	p. 181
	Middle Passage	p. 182
	The Wife of His Youth	p. 194
	Another Good Loving Blues	p. 203
	Elbow Room	p. 209
	Home Repairs	p. 214
	The Lonely Crusade	p. 219
	Sex and Racism in America	p. 223
	No Other Tale to Tell	p. 228
	White Butterfly	p. 231
	All-Night Visitors	p. 235
	First Poem for Linnet	p. 241
	A New Man	p. 244
	My Sparrow	p. 251
	Losing Absalom	p. 256
	What Is Life?	p. 264
	A Father's Lament	p. 269
	Makes Me Wanna Holler	p. 272
	On the A-Train to Venus with Isis	p. 278
	The Walls of Jericho	p. 286
	Brothers	p. 290
	Lush Life	p. 297
	Pledging Alpha	p. 302
	Invisible Life	p. 306
	Vanishing Rooms	p. 312
	In an Afternoon Light	p. 315
	African-American Males and Survival Against AIDS	p. 318
	A Lesson Before Dying	p. 321
	If We Must Die	p. 329
	The Lynching of Jube Benson	p. 330
	Blood-Burning Moon	p. 336
	Billy	p. 342
	Shannon	p. 348
	The Future of Black Men	p. 351
	Parallel Time	p. 358
	Race and Gender Stereotyping in the Thomas Confirmation Hearings	p. 365
	Days of Grace	p. 369
	Faces at the Bottom of the Well	p. 373
	When Harlem Was in Vogue	p. 377
	And Then We Heard the Thunder	p. 379
	The Port Chicago Mutiny	p. 385
	Beyond Vietnam	p. 392
	Bloods	p. 395
	Black Consciousness in the Vietnam Years	p. 399
	Raceboss: Big Emma's Boy	p. 404
	Iron City	p. 410
	Black Prisoners, White Law	p. 414
	Brothers and Keepers	p. 418
	Makes Me Wanna Holler	p. 426
	Scars	p. 433
	Father Behind Bars	p. 438
	Still Black, Still Strong: Survivors of the U.S. War Against Black Revolutionaries	p. 441
	A Man Called White	p. 448
	Who's Passing for Who?	p. 455
	The Almost White Boy	p. 459
	Man in the Mirror	p. 467
	Blacks Who Pass	p. 471
	Black Worker in the Deep South	p. 477
	Blood on the Forge	p. 481
	The Spook Who Sat By the Door	p. 484
	Company Man	p. 489
	The Content of Our Character	p. 496
	The Rage of a Privileged Class	p. 500
	Reflections of an Affirmative Action Baby	p. 506
	Yet Do I Marvel	p. 513
	Infants of the Spring	p. 514
	Falling Pieces of the Broken Sky	p. 516
	Writin' Is Fightin'	p. 520
	The Life and Loves of Mr. Jiveass Nigger	p. 524
	On the Real Side	p. 527
	Here I Stand	p. 534
	This Life	p. 537
	By Any Means Necessary: The Trials and Tribulations of the Making of Malcolm X	p. 548
	I Never Had It Made	p. 561
	Playboy Interview (October 1964)	p. 570
	The Struggle That Must Be	p. 579
	Out of Bounds	p. 593
	Just Let Me Play: The Story of Charlie Sifford - The First Black PGA Golfer	p. 597
	Giant Steps	p. 603
	My Life	p. 611
	Rules for Staying Young	p. 619
	Music Is My Mistress	p. 621
	Treat It Gentle	p. 624
	The Death of Rhythm and Blues	p. 630
	Dance of the Infidels	p. 636
	Miles: The Autobiography of Miles Davis	p. 647
	Djbot Baghostus's Run	p. 658
	Silence, Exile, and Cunning: Miles Davis in Memoriam	p. 663
	Playboy Interview (July 1990)	p. 667
	The Ice Opinion	p. 677
	A Different Image	p. 685
	The African Contribution to Technology and Science	p. 685
	The Africans in the New World: Their Contribution to Science, Invention, and Technology	p. 691
	From "Superman" to Man	p. 697
	A Life of Learning	p. 705
	There Are Days When I Wish It Hadn't Happened (March 1979)	p. 717
	The Challenge of a Black Scholar	p. 722
	Adam Clayton Powell, Jr.	p. 730
	Where Do We Go from Here?	p. 736
	Speech to African Summit Conference - Cairo, Egypt	p. 744
	The Making of Black Revolutionaries	p. 748
	Seize the Time: The Story of the Black Panther Party and Huey P. Newton	p. 755
	The Choice: The Issue of Black Survival in America	p. 762
	The Man Who Cried I Am	p. 768
	Black Rage	p. 777
	Cool Pose: The Proud Signature of Black Survival	p. 785
	Keep Hope Alive	p. 789
	Toward Black American Empowerment	p. 799
	A Torchlight for America	p. 809
	Operation Island Storm?	p. 815
	The State of Black America (September 1994)	p. 818
	The Men of Black Enterprise	p. 826
	Succeeding Against the Odds	p. 828
	Think and Grow Rich: A Black Choice	p. 832
	Success Runs in Our Race	p. 837
	I Get On the Bus	p. 843
	The African American Holiday of Kwanzaa: A Celebration of Family, Community, and Culture	p. 846
	Afrocentricity	p. 852
	Kwanzaa: An African-American Celebration of Culture and Cooking	p. 859
	The Journey of Martin Luther King, Jr.	p. 865
	Race Matters	p. 870
	Strong Men (Closing Stanzas)	p. 877