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Gabby Womack

Four Hundred Souls: A Community History of African America, 1916-2019 edited by Ibram X. Kendi and Keisha N. Blain

Four Hundred Souls: A Community History of African America, 1916-2019 edited by Ibram X. Kendi and Keisha N. Blain


a brown left hand holds a hardcover copy of Four Hundred Souls: A Community History of African America, 1916-2019 edited by Ibram X. Kendi and Keisha N. Blain over a dark purple blanket.
My copy of Four Hundred Souls.

This book has been on my tbr for some time. I kept telling myself I should read it. I knew I would love it but I also knew that it was one large book filled with information that would more than likely wound me emotionally. Regardless, I’m glad I finally read it because it is incredible. Ninety different authors contributed to this “community history” and it is divided up into ten parts. 


Despite the fact that I study and write about racial categorization and racism in the United States, I learned a lot about people and events I’ve never heard of before. People like Mary Jones/Peter Sewally and Angelo Herndon. I also found strength in quotes like this one, by Michael Harriot: 


“The most marvelous thing about Black people in America is that they exist. Every imaginable monstrosity that evil can conjure has been inflicted on this population, yet they have not been extinguished.” 

Each story was personal and communal all at once and the poems were consistently evocative. Historians have previously focused so much on telling the stories of historical events and figures that they often removed themselves and the consequences of that information from the finished product. I know that this is supposed to convey a sense of authority and unbiased reporting but the truth is that History will always require revisions because it is inherently political and human. Four Hundred Years doesn’t seek to ignore emotion but rather use it to remind us that History has not ended. We are History, too.


I highly recommend this book to any who can access it in this time of book censorship and anti-DEI policies.


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