This book contains a succession of philosophical biographies. The subjects, located in the period 1850-2000, and even if later exiled, were chosen by virtue of birth and life in the American South on the assumption of the distinctiveness of Southern conditions. The 'foundational' figures in Black Southern social and political thought are all represented.

This Book contains a succession of philosophical biographies. The subjects, located in the period 1850-2000, and even if later exiled, were chosen by virtue of birth and life in the American South on the assumption of the distinctiveness of Southern conditions. The "foundational" figures in Black Southern social and political thought are represented as Frederick Douglass, Booker Washington and Ida Wells. Thurgood Marshall and Martin King are viewed as "indispensable," though not "foundational." The remaining figures -- Howard Thurman, Richard Wright, Fred Gray and Barbara Jordan --are important in various ways and are seen as "illustrative." From the perspective of liberation, the two high points in the African-American Odyssey are marked by Emancipation in the nineteenth century and Desegregation in the twentieth. Douglass bestriding the first, King and Marshall the second.