184 · Representative Documents: Works Created from Digital Collections
VANDERBILT UNIVERSITY
Robert Penn Warren’s Who Speaks for the Negro?
http://whospeaks.library.vanderbilt.edu/book
The Book
In 1965, Random House published Robert Penn Warren’s book titled Who Speaks for the Negro? In
preparation for writing the volume, Warren traveled throughout the United States in early 1964 and
spoke with large numbers of men and women who were involved in the U.S. Civil Rights Movement.
He interviewed nationally-known figures as well as people working in the trenches of the movement
whose names might otherwise be lost to history. In each case, he recorded their conversations on a
reel-to-reel tape recorder. The published volume contains sections of transcripts from these
conversations as well as Warren’s reflections on the individuals he interviewed and his thoughts on the
state of the U.S. Civil Rights Movement. The Who Speaks for the Negro? Archive contains digitized
versions of the original reel-to-reel recordings, as well as copies of the correspondence, transcripts, and
other print materials related to his research for the provocatively-titled book.
Warren states in the forward to the volume: “I have written this book because I wanted to find out
something, first hand, about the people, some of them anyway, who are making the Negro Revolution
what it is—one of the dramatic events of the American Story. This book is not a history, a sociological
analysis, an anthropological study, or a Who’s Who of the Negro Revolution. It is a record of my
attempt to find out what I could find out. It is primarily a transcript of conversation, with settings and
commentaries.”
Who Speaks for the Negro? was a groundbreaking volume in 1965 the book and its related materials
remain a valuable resource for studying the history of race and of the Civil Rights Movement in the
United States. Warren had hoped that his book would allow readers the opportunity to “see, hear, and
feel as immediately as possible what I saw, heard, and felt.” The digital archive allows users an even
greater opportunity to share in Warren’s experiences with the extraordinary men and women whom he
interviewed during this turbulent time in United States history.
Expand the red links below to view archival materials related to the
creation of the book.
Correspondence contains letters, notes, and other documents through which Warren and his
editors set up interviews, checked facts, discussed the writing schedule, and more.
Miscellaneous contains a large variety of documents related to the creation, production, and
distribution of various editions of the book. It includes notes, advertisements, printing specifications,
and more. Of particular note is a document of recollections about the project written by Warren's
daughter, Rosanna Warren.
Reviews contains book reviews of Who Speaks for the Negro which appeared in national, regional,
and local publications. The reviews' content varies widely and includes both positive and negative
appraisals of the work.
Correspondence
Miscellaneous
Reviews
Robert Penn Warren Center for the Humanities ©2014 |About |Contact
"Who Speaks for the Negro?" Polish translation.
Courtesy of Vanderbilt University Special Collections
and University Archives.
http://whospeaks.library.vanderbilt.edu/book
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