Negroes in American History: A Freedom Primer Bobbi & Frank Cieciorka 1965 RARE For Sale

Very Rare first edition staplebound. Very good. Quarto, 63pp., illustrated. A very good copy in the publisher\'s printed stapled wraps, with some isolated foxing along the top edge and the top of the front wrap. Clean and tight internally. A vibrant and concise volume, written by two white Civil Rights activists, which offers brief but powerful portraits of various figures and events in African-American history, including the American Revolution, the Civil War, Black Cowboys, and Reconstruction.These books were used in the \"freedom schools\" throughout the South during the Civil Rights Movement, especially in Mississippi, where both authors taught. However, in a \"Note about the Revisions\" at the beginning of the text, the authors write, \"We didn\'t know [upon publication of the first edition] that the book would be used outside the freedom schools of the South. So the language and the kinds of ideas and people we put into the book were included with that idea in mind.\" There are multiple marginal illustrations on each spread, and several larger illustrations. Cieciorka\'s style was not entirely unlike that of his contemporary Emory Douglas, portraying white police officers as inhumane beast-like creatures, and African-Americans standing in defiant, righteous opposition to an unfair world. A number of historians credit Cieciorka with the \"defiant clenched fist\" motif, which has been used in countless protest graphics ever since. Indeed, the fist on the cover of this book predates John Carlos\'s and Tommie Smith\'s \"Black Power Salute\" at the 1968 Mexico City Olympics by two full years.
This first edition, illustrated introduction to Black history for children was created for use in the informal freedom schools that sprung up in Mississippi and elsewhere in 1964. The co-author and illustrator Frank Cieciorka, a white man, had been an organizer during the Freedom Summer voter registration drive in 1964. His New York Times obituary of 27 November 2008 credits him with introducing the image of a raised fist (as seen on the cover of this booklet) as an iconic symbol of modern protest movements. None of any edition traced at sale. PLEASE ASK QUESTIONS!!!!