Pamela Newkirk

This is an explosive, heartbreaking book. It unfolds with the grace of an E.L. Doctorow novel, and spins forward with the urgency of a wild tabloid story. Only in America can something like “Spectacle” happen. It’s a lesson about the cruelty humans are capable of, as well as an ode to the chosen few among us who follow their own moral compasses. The extraordinary man in this book was nearly lost to history. I’m glad Pam Newkirk found him, so that the lessons he has to teach us about humanity, dignity, and survival, will live on.

Pamela Newkirk has taken a careful, highly readable look at an episode that lays bare so much about our not-so-distant past. It’s all here: the dreams of glory in African exploration, appalling racism, and the moving, tragic odyssey of a forgotten man who was the victim of both.

As the country enters a fresh atmosphere around our latest president, Letters from Black America strikes a vital, rich chord in which to breathe the new air.

While this unique collection of letters represents a frank depiction of the black experience, the great achievement is that these writings often go far beyond race and class to simply tell the story of the human experience in America.

A rich array of ‘linguistic snapshots,’ more than 200 letters that range from a slave writing his wife on the eve of being sold to Martin Luther King, Jr.’s ‘Letter from Birmingham Jail.’

Letters from Black America is itself a work of art.

An extraordinary peek at what went on behind the closed doors of black America for nearly three hundred years. Notables are reduced to human beings, and the anonymous come to life. These extraordinary snapshots of the past will provide hours of informative pleasure and delightful reading. Wonderfully done.

There can’t be a better way to salute Black History Month than to read this collection. It gathers everything from the desperate letters of 19th century slaves—spouses who’d been sold, never to see each other again—to expressions of friendship between poets. . . . Drawn from two centuries, these letters are a lesson drawn from the heart of African-American history.

Letters from Black America . . . presents the pantheon of the African-American experience in a unique and intimate format, through the heartfelt correspondence of both the ordinary and extraordinary men and women who lived it.

This collection offers an intimate look at the joys and concerns in the lives of ordinary and famous black Americans.

What makes this book powerful is not only the letters of famous people—Martin Luther King, Booker T. Washington, Alice Walker—but the missives of ordinary folks. Annie Davis, for example, wrote President Lincoln a year after the Emancipation Proclamation. ‘It is my desire to go free . . . my mistress won’t let me. You will please let me know if we are free and what I can do. I write to you for advice.

Ah, the lure and lore of the letter! Nowadays we turn to cell phones, e-mail and instant messaging to connect, but when you crack open Pamela Newkirk’s Letters from Black America you’ll see that the pen is mightier than the thumb.

An instructive, moving—even delightful—primer on the myriad facets of African-American private and public life.

This long-overdue collection by writers from all walks of life is moving, illuminating, and difficult to put down.”—Marian Wright Edelman, president, Children’s Defense Fund

“When we think of great memorials and monuments, we often envision structures crafted out of steel or stone. But I believe the letters in Pamela Newkirk’s tremendous collection represent perhaps the most powerful and enduring legacy to the strength, creativity, genius, and resilience of the African American community. Letters from Black America is itself a work of art.

Seldom has the intimate life of a people been more variously revealed. Think of the day when there may only be downloaded e-mail, and then thank Pamela Newkirk for the enduring significance, poignancy, and delight of her Letters from Black America.

From slavery to post-9/11, from Phillis Wheatley to Barack Obama, the book gathers correspondence from politicians, writers, and academics, as well as slaves, sharecroppers, servicemen, and domestic workers. . . . the most moving entries are the barely literate and astonishingly painful pleas for family, and for simple justice, by otherwise nameless individuals of the Jim Crow era. Here are people with no hope left other than the belief that death will bring the reunion in Heaven of husband and wife, mother and son. . . . Each section has a brief introduction by Newkirk, just enough to set the stage.

A unique look at the inner thoughts of many of the most notable African Americans in history. The format enables a reader to pick up the book for just a minute or two to read a particular letter. But the entries can also hold one’s interest for hours if an entire section or the whole book is read in one sitting.

The charm of these letters creeps up on you. The writing is simple, honest and from the heart … Newkirk meant this collection to be a representative of the black American experience, but truly, it’s also a window into the human heart. Any human heart.

A Love No Less is a provocative glimpse into the intimate corners of African American lives over a 150-year period. Some letters will make you shudder in the desperate revealtions, others will spur you to compose your own heartfelt missives. All of these serve as a dramatic reminder of the power of romance.

A compelling look at the power of the media from an award-winning journalist who fearlessly and passionately addresses critical issues confronting African American journalists working in mainstream newspapers and magazines.