A Nation Within a Nation

For most of the 19th century, African-American people—their culture, potential, and possibilities—were largely defined by non African-Americans. Despite efforts, at times dangerous and even illegal, to define themselves as a community, cultural cues were being written by whites and the African-American community had no way of distinguishing itself or dispelling persistent stereotypes. Writing in a straight-forward style, Ernest (Chaotic Justice), Distinguished Professor of American Literature at Western Virginia University, parses a great deal of historical material about African-American organizing around the Civil War, when the community sought to define itself with fraternal organizations, churches, mutual aid societies, educational groups, and newspapers. Ernest presents a meticulous history that shows the depth of community organization efforts, both in the North and the South, long before emancipation, which will likely surprise readers whose ideas about community organizing were formed during the last election, when Barack Obama made the phrase part of the American vernacular. Ernest is exhaustive in his detail, for better and worse: he often gets bogged down in minutia and withholds his thesis until the end, which will frustrate the casual reader but reward his core audience. (Mar.)