The drawn-out style of writing is not the style of writing I like to read. Therefore, I’m not the right reviewer for this book.

If you are interested in the Civil Rights Movement, this is a book you must add to your library. So good. Thanks to Netgalley, the author and the publisher for the arc of this book in return for my honest review. Receiving the book in this manner had no bearing on this review.

"Free All Along" is an inspiring read. With a basis on the civil rights movement and the people within it, we get to read about individuals and their lives. It can be a bit of a heavy read at times, but it definitely is a great read. I definitely think you should read it if you have interest in the civil rights movement.

This was an amazing and inspiring read. I haven't read any non-fiction dealing with this topic before so it was very informative.

Free All Along: The Robert Penn Warren Civil Rights Interviews collects extended versions of Warren's 1964 interviews with civil rights leaders of the time.

If you're familiar with the work the interviews were initially for, Who Speaks for the Negro?, you will appreciate these extended interviews that give a bit more glimpse into the individuals as well as their ideas. If you're not familiar with it, not a problem, this book stands on its own. It is also fascinating to go to the Vanderbilt website and visit the Who Speaks for the Negro? archive.

This book is valuable as both a type of history book in that it captures these leaders' opinions at that point and also as a book to help us move the fight forward by listening to what they thought in 1964 in light of what happened (or didn't happen) in the 55 years since. If you're interested in comparing thought across the spectrum of civil rights leaders this is a wonderful opportunity to make valid comparisons since, as any interviewer does when doing multiple interviews for one publication, Warren asked many of the same questions to each person.

The interviewees are well known to most people who either were alive during the 1960s and/or have made any effort to understand the Black freedom movement. There are a couple you may know by deed rather than name but you'll likely remember them all as you read. For those who don't, this is an excellent introduction to the thinking that has been the heart and soul of the movement, modified over the years but still largely valid today. That is a positive statement about the power and depth of the thinking but a sad statement about just how much further we still need to go over half a century later.

Reviewed from a copy made available by the publisher via NetGalley.

I really enjoyed following along this collection of speeches. I was hooked since the introduction and the tapestry that was uncovered before me was amazing to read. The weaving together of these speeches, the unknown to me civil rights leaders, the civil rights leaders that are synonymous with the movement and the philosophies explored in this work were incomparable. I gathered joy out of this book despite its heavy topic. Joy in the words that were before me and in the lessons to be gathered from them.

This is a book that can be read cover to cover or can be read in sections, picking and choosing by the particular civil rights' activist's story you are interested in reading. It is a new, "inside" look at the lives of some historic figures within the Civil Rights Movement in America.
I especially loved the insights and life of James Baldwin. He is of course, more in the spotlight recently, thanks to the film adaptation of his novel "If Beale Street Could Talk" as shown by Barry Jenkins brilliance. I loved feeling that this background insight into how he felt about growing up and into the radical shift in thinking about race in America during his lifetime. He retreated to France for a large portion of his life but did feel the drive to be involved in this fight as well. At his funeral, Toni Morrison was quoted as saying, "You made American English honest - genuinely international." I find Baldwin to be a fascinating author of the times, being both an African American man and openly gay as well. A truly unique combination at the time.
The timeline of this compilation is well done. It is incredible to remember, or I should say, be reminded that these racially motivated battles were not that long ago. They occurred within many people's lifetimes, or at least a family member's lifetime. And yet we wonder why there is still so much racial injustice, prejudice, racism, etc.? Events such as these need to be generations removed from families before true healing really occurs across the board. It can occur. I pray that it will.

#FreeAllAlong #NetGalley

In 1964, Robert Penn Warren was commissioned by “Look Magazine” to interview the leaders of the civil rights movement and that he did. Free All Along is an edited compilation of about a third of his interviews. Warren seemed to have a set of questions that preoccupied him. He wanted to know people’s opinions of the double consciousness from W.E.B. Du Bois’ “The Souls of Black Folk” though he called it a split psyche. He was fascinated by the movement’s nonviolence and asked about positive and negative nonviolence. Another frequent question was about the idea of revolution when there is no intention to destroy and replace, only to synthesize. Other revolutions change the power structure completely with regicide, imprisonment, or expulsion. African Americans sought a revolution of thought within the existing society, overthrowing racist ideology without replacing the government and constitution. He asks if such a revolution is possible.

He interviews all sorts of people. Some I have never heard of before and others are known to all, such as Malcolm X and Martin Luther King, Jr. It is the variety, the breadth of his interviews that make this such a valuable and fascinating series. The most interesting interviews, I thought, were with Robert Moses, Aaron Henry, and Wyatt Tee Walker. Robert Moses addressed that question of the split psyche by arguing that the struggle goes beyond racial justice to the humanitarian struggle and if that happens, the split disappears. I loved Aaron Henry’s way with words such as saying “Mississippi is not a mutation in America.” to argue that racism is not just in the South, not just in America, but in all of Western culture. He also said, “Because we realize that freedom is a peculiar kind of a commodity. You can only keep it by giving it away.” William Tee Walker expressed frustration with white liberals, “We are afflicted with worn-out white liberals who, fifteen years ago, could have been killed for what they were saying [against segregation]. But they’re saying the same things now that they were saying fifteen years ago, and as [American poet] James Russell Lowell has said, “Time makes ancient good uncouth .” We are at a different moment in history.” Reading the interviews, it is clear that the leadership was broad and deep with many strategic and brilliant thinkers.


I liked Free All Along very much. It introduced me to civil rights leaders who were new to me. the interviews were deep and philosophical. It’s only a third of the people interviewed, but quite likely the most interesting interviews. I found the archive of all the interviews that includes appendices and communications about the project and the eventual book he published “Who Speaks for the Negro?” The Robert Penn Warren of the book is much nicer than the one you find in the archives, the one who actually wrote that black people have rhythm and that King’s claims to nonviolence were sophistry since the demonstrations inspired violence by police and racists. Yup, he held black protesters responsible for white people beating them.

As Black History Month opens, this would be a good time to dive deeper into the wisdom of the civil rights movement and its leaders. It is obviously fascinating to me as it inspired me to go searching for more.

I received a copy of Free All Along: The Robert Penn Warren Civil Rights Interviews from the publisher through NetGalley.

Free All Along at The New Press
Stephen Drury Smith interview
Catherine Ellis

★★★★★

We plan to soon have a copy on our shelves of FREE ALL ALONG by Stephen Drury Smith and Catherine Ellis. This work is based on The Robert Penn Warren Civil Rights Interviews which were conducted and originally published in the early 1960s. Amongst the more recognizable names of those interviewed are Martin Luther King Jr., Malcolm X, Andrew Young, Stokely Carmichael, and writers Ralph Ellison and James Baldwin. The authors provide brief historical and biographical context for each interviewee. Both this text and the audio archive (provided online by Vanderbilt University) should provide valuable insight and primary source information for students researching the Civil Rights Movement and its leaders. For example, students will be able to read about - or listen to - the voices of those who organized the Greensboro sit-ins, or those who saw to the physical needs of the Freedom Riders and/or the many who debated the direction (non-violence vs. more militant Black Power) of the movement.

Stephen Drury Smith and Catherine Ellis have also collaborated on After the Fall (interviews and reflections post Sept 11) and on Say It Loud and Say It Plain; the last two are collections of speeches from the Civil Rights Movement and African Americans in the Twentieth Century. All of these texts will provide rich resources as we continue to add more diversity to our collection.

Link in live post: https://my.vanderbilt.edu/digitalculturalheritage/2019/01/15/who-speaks-for-the-negro-digital-archives-split-collections-and-hearing-the-fight-for-civil-rights-an-interview-with-mona-frederick/

An absolutely INCREDIBLE and inspiring read, and a beautiful collection of some of the most amazing speeches to ever come from American soil. Others have used the word "electrifying", and I'm going to use it again. This book needs to be in all libraries, NOW, and in the hands of teachers and professors everywhere. MAKE THIS A PART OF YOUR CURRICULUM.

I really love the cover design, too.

I was provided a free copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

This was an interesting read. I haven't read many nonfiction books related to any civil rights movement and there was a lot of information here. I think what I enjoyed most was the variety of voices. This book is full of different interviews from different civil rights leaders who are all asked very similar questions, but each answer is unique in its own way. It gives me a much better understanding of the thoughts of the civil rights movement at that time that could still be very relevant to today. I will say that I think this book to full digest takes more than a single read. There is a lot here and I think to fully understand and enjoy this work it needs time and thought.

For anyone who is interested in Civil Rights, or someone who is looking to know more about Civil Rights would do well to read this book. There are so many insightful, powerful and raw experiences that were never brought onto the limelight but it still did not diminish the effect it had on humanity and appreciation for the fight of Civil Rights. This book shares personal, candid and raw interviews.
Thank you Netgalley for the eARC.