New World A-Coming: Inside Black America

by Roi Ottley

This scarce antiquarian book is a facsimile reprint of the original. Due to its age, it may contain imperfections such as marks, notations, marginalia and flawed pages. Because we believe this work is culturally important, we have made it available as part of our commitment for protecting, preserving, and promoting the world's literature in affordable, high quality, modern editions that are true to the original work.

372 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1943

About the author

Roi Ottley was an American journalist and writer. Although largely forgotten today, he was among the most famous African American war correspondents in the United States during the mid-20th century.

Reviews

[Jeff Crompton · Rating 4 out of 5]

I became aware of this book through my love for Duke Ellington's music. He wrote a piece called New World A-Coming, inspired by Ottley's book. Introducing his composition at his December, 1943 Carnegie Hall concert (with Ottley in the audience), Ellington calls Ottley's work "a great book."

Well, it's not great, but it's interesting, and enlightening, to an extent. It's both a history of Black America and a portrait of the Black experience as of 1943, with special emphasis on Harlem, as the "Black capital" of the United States. Ottley was a journalist, not a sociologist or anthropologist, and his approach is broad rather than deep. It's also very much of its time. But it's a useful reminder of how repressive and unjust conditions were for Black Americans at the time it was written, which, after all, was not that long ago. And it's a reminder of how far we still have to go before before there is equal justice for all Americans.

I could have easily given this one three stars rather than four, given how dated it is at times. But, all things considered, I decided to give it the benefit of the doubt.