Black Samson : the untold story of an American icon

Resource Information

The work Black Samson : the untold story of an American icon represents a distinct intellectual or artistic creation found in Colby College Libraries. This resource is a combination of several types including: Work, Language Material, Books.

Label

Black Samson : the untold story of an American icon

Title remainder

the untold story of an American icon

Statement of responsibility

Nyasha Junior and Jeremy Schipper

Creator

• Junior, Nyasha,

Contributor

• Schipper, Jeremy,

Author

• Schipper, Jeremy,
• Junior, Nyasha,

Subject

• African American men in literature
• African American men in popular culture
• African American men in popular culture
• Art
• Bible, Judges
• Bible, Judges -- Criticism, interpretation, etc
• Criticism, interpretation, etc
• African American men -- Race identity
• Literature
• Samson, (Biblical judge)
• Samson, (Biblical judge) -- Art
• Samson, (Biblical judge) -- In literature
• HISTORY / United States / General
• African American men -- Race identity
• African American men in literature

Genre

• Criticism, interpretation, etc

Language

eng

Summary

"The United States has never existed without a Black Samson. Before Harriet Tubman or Martin Luther King were identified with Moses, African Americans linked those who challenged racial oppression in America with Samson. In Black Samson: The Untold Story of an American Icon, Nyasha Junior and Jeremy Schipper investigate legal documents, narratives by enslaved persons, speeches, sermons, periodicals, poetry, fiction, and visual arts to tell the unlikely story of how a flawed biblical hero became an iconic figure in America's racial history. Along the way, Schipper and Junior engage the work of African-American luminaries, including Fredrick Douglass, Ida B. Wells-Barnett, Richard Wright, Ralph Ellison, James Baldwin, Malcolm X, Huey P. Newton, and many others. From stories of slave rebellions to the Harlem Renaissance to the civil rights era and the Black Power movement, invoking the biblical character of Samson became a powerful way for African American intellectuals, activists, and artists to voice strategies and opinions about many race-related issues, including slavery, education, patriotism, organized labor, civil rights, and gender equality. As this provocative book reveals, the story of Black Samson became a story of America's contested racial history"--

Assigning source

Provided by publisher

Cataloging source

DLC

Illustrations

illustrations

Index

index present

Literary form

non fiction

Nature of contents

bibliography