Negroland: A Memoir
![]() First edition | |
Author | Margo Jefferson |
---|---|
Language | English |
Genre | Memoir |
Published | 2015 |
Publisher | Pantheon Books[1] |
Publication place | United States |
Media type | |
Pages | 248[1] |
Negroland: A Memoir is a 2015 book by Margo Jefferson.[1][2][3][4][5] It is a memoir of growing up in 1950s and 1960s America within a small, privileged segment of black American society known as the black bourgeoisie, or African-American upper class.
Reception
Negroland: A Memoir was published to acclaim in 2015. It was described by Dwight Garner in The New York Times as a "powerful and complicated memoir",[6] and by Margaret Busby in The Sunday Times as "utterly compelling",[7] while Anita Sethi wrote in The Observer: "Jefferson fascinatingly explores how her personal experience intersected with politics, from the civil rights movement to feminism, as well as history before her birth."[8] Tracy K. Smith wrote in The New York Times: "The visible narrative apparatus of 'Negroland' highlights its author's extreme vulnerability in the face of her material. It also makes apparent the all-too-often invisible fallout of our nation's ongoing obsession with race and class: Namely, that living a life as an exemplar of black excellence — and living with the survivor's guilt that often accompanies such excellence — can have a psychic effect nearly as deadening and dehumanizing as that of racial injustice itself."[9]
In 2016, Negroland was shortlisted for the Baillie Gifford Prize for Non-Fiction[10][11] and won the National Book Critics Circle Award in the Autobiography category.
Awards and honors
- 2016 National Book Critics Circle Award (Autobiography), winner.[12]
- June 2016, chosen as a Book of the Week by BBC Radio 4.
- 2016 Chicago Tribune Heartland Prize.[13]
See also
- E. Franklin Frazier's sociological Black Bourgeoisie (first edition in English in 1957 translated from the 1955 French original)
- Lawrence Otis Graham's Our Kind of People: Inside America’s Black Upper Class (2000)
References
- ^ a b c Smith, Tracy K. (September 15, 2015). "Margo Jefferson's 'Negroland: A Memoir'". The New York Times. Retrieved November 8, 2015.
- ^ Garner, Dwight (September 10, 2015). "Review: 'Negroland,' by Margo Jefferson, on Growing Up Black and Privileged". The New York Times. Retrieved November 8, 2015.
- ^ "Privilege And Pressure: A Memoir Of Growing Up Black And Elite In 'Negroland'". NPR. September 8, 2015. Retrieved November 8, 2015.
- ^ Carducci, Vince (October 19, 2015). "Coming of Age in Negroland". PopMatters. Retrieved November 8, 2015.
- ^ Carroll, Rebecca (September 9, 2015). "Margo Jefferson reveals life inside the black elite in 'Negroland'". Los Angeles Times.
- ^ Garner, Dwight (September 10, 2015). "Review: 'Negroland,' by Margo Jefferson, on Growing Up Black and Privileged". The New York Times.
- ^ Busby, Margaret (June 19, 2016). "Books: Negroland: A Memoir by Margo Jefferson". The Sunday Times.
- ^ Sethi, Anita (January 22, 2017). "Negroland by Margo Jefferson review – a brilliant memoir about race in America". The Observer.
- ^ "Margo Jefferson's 'Negroland: A Memoir'". The New York Times. September 20, 2015.
- ^ "Baillie Gifford Non-Fiction Prize nominees announced". BBC News. October 17, 2016.
- ^ Kennedy, Maev (October 17, 2016). "First-hand reporting dominates Baillie Gifford shortlist". The Guardian.
- ^ Alter, Alexandra (March 17, 2016). "'The Sellout' Wins National Book Critics Circle's Fiction Award". The New York Times. Retrieved March 18, 2016.
- ^ Taylor, Elizabeht (November 2, 2016). "Margo Jefferson memoir 'Negroland' a resonant Heartland Prize winner". Chicago Tribune. Retrieved November 14, 2020.