285

Book Reviews

Calvin L. Hall. African American Jour-
nalists: Autobiography as Memoir and 
Manifesto. Lanham, Md.: Scarecrow 
Press, 2009. 117p. alk. paper, $35 paper 
(ISBN 9780810869301). LC2009-006052.

African American autobiography has a 
long, distinguished history dating back 
to the eighteenth century, when religious 
conversion and spiritual growth were the 
central themes written or dictated by men 
and women who were former slaves, such 
as the Gospel and Labours of George White 
(1810) and Memoir of Old Elizabeth (1863). 
Free blacks who wrote about their spiritual 
enlightenment include the first autobiog-
raphy written by an African American 
woman in 1836, entitled The Life and Re-
ligious Experience of Jarena Lee, a Coloured 
Lady, Giving an Account of Her Call to Preach 
the Gospel. Historically, African American 
autobiography, written in narrative style, 
often functioned as a form of resistance to 
the institution of slavery by drawing at-
tention to its horrors from those who had 
survived the experience. Slave narratives 
often provided documentation for the 
antislavery movement while also chroni-
cling the will to survive subjugation and 
exploitation, as revealed in two of the most 
famous narratives published in the nine-
teenth century: by Frederick Douglass in 
his Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass 
(1845) and Harriet Jacobs in her Incidents in 
the Life of a Slave Girl (1861). These works, 
along with many other slave narratives 
written throughout the nineteenth century, 
helped rally support for the antislavery 
cause by demonstrating the humanity of 
the enslaved in their quest for freedom.

The early nineteenth century marked 
the beginning of the African American 
presence in print journalism with the 
publication of the first black newspaper in 
the United States, Freedom’s Journal (1827), 
founded by John Russwurm and Samuel 
Cornish. Douglass continued using his 
immense writing skills by crafting two 

additional autobiographies, 
one of which, My Bondage and 
My Freedom (1855), recounts 
his activities publishing and 
editing The North Star (1847) 
newspaper in Rochester, New 
York. Jacobs also continued to 
write for several antislavery publications 
while remaining actively engaged in the 
antislavery movement. During the latter 
half of the nineteenth and early twentieth 
centuries, a number of black-owned news-
papers flourished in major cities north and 
south. Essentially established to provide its 
readership with first-hand reports of the 
major events and issues of the day, such 
as presidential speeches and abstracts of 
congressional proceedings, these news-
papers also reported news pertinent to the 
African American community not gener-
ally covered in the mainstream press. In 
addition to covering secular and religious 
events, the papers published biographical 
sketches, vital statistics, poetry, essays, 
and editorials. Of the many critical roles 
played by the black press to educate and 
enlighten its readership, it also functioned 
as the primary medium through which the 
movement for political and social change 
was conveyed due to the diligence of Af-
rican American journalists well into the 
twentieth century. 

Mainstream newsrooms, however, 
like the rest of America society, remained 
largely segregated well into the mid-twen-
tieth century and consequently restricted 
the work of African American journalists 
solely to black-owned presses. Early auto-
biographies had considerable influence on 
the works of early news chroniclers, and 
many journalists continued to articulate 
their accomplishments both public and 
private in keeping with the long-standing 
tradition of the narrative form. In 1928, 
antilynching crusader Ida B. Wells-Barnett 
wrote about her experiences as journalist 
and social activist in her autobiography, 



286 College & Research Libraries May 2010

Crusade for Justice: The Autobiography of 
Ida B. Wells (1970) while continuing to 
make her mark in the restricted world of 
journalism. Other African American jour-
nalists who were socially and politically 
active continued the tradition of writing 
memoirs about their experiences working 
for black-owned newspapers well into the 
twentieth century. 

Integration of the mainstream press 
did not occur until after the civil unrest 
of the 1960s and the publication of the 
1968 Report of the National Advisory Com-
mission on Civil Disorders. Also known as 
the Kerner Report, the Commission inves-
tigated and provided details regarding 
media coverage of the urban unrest erupt-
ing in various cities, concluding that both 
newspapers and television failed to report 
objectively on African American life. Fur-
thermore, the Commission declared “the 
journalistic profession has been shock-
ingly backward in seeking out, hiring, 
training, and promoting Negroes.” The 
Commission urged “the news media to do 
everything possible to train and promote 
their Negro reporters to positions where 
those who are qualified can contribute to 
and have an effect on policy decisions.” 

The publication of the Kerner Report re-
sulted in a measureable impact on the num-
ber of African American print journalists 
hired to work in and diversify mainstream 
press in subsequent years. However, from 
the perspective of some black journalists 
hired to integrate corporate newsrooms, 
their knowledge of the African American 
community did little to advance so-called 
objectivity in reporting on news affecting 
minority communities because, more often 
than not, their opinions and viewpoints 
were overlooked, discounted, or at odds 
with what the editors intended to print. 
Seeking an outlet in which to express their 
increasing frustration and marginalization 
within the confines of mainstream news-
rooms led some African American journal-
ists to document their experiences using 
autobiography as the preferred format in 
which to describe their reality of working 
in the integrated world of print journalism. 

Calvin L. Hall, an assistant professor 
and faculty fellow in the Department of 
Communications at Appalachian State 
University, brings together four memoirs 
written in the late twentieth century by 
African American print journalists Jill 
Nelson, Nathan McCall, Jake Lamar, and 
Patricia Raybon to examine what he calls 
the “synergistic relationship between race, 
class, gender, and journalism.” Through 
the application of standpoint theory, Hall 
explores how these autobiographical 
memoirs fit within the framework and 
tradition of African American autobiog-
raphy and why each narrative possesses 
within it the distinctiveness of manifesto 
by critiquing the social, psychological, 
economic, and political dynamics operat-
ing within their personal and professional 
lives as African American journalists. Ac-
cording to Hall, feminist standpoint theory 
as defined by Nancy Hartsock “provides 
a Marxist critique of the relationship 
between gender and power in society.” 
While grounded in the feminist tradition, 
standpoint theory is appropriate to study-
ing other unempowered or marginalized 
groups such as African American journal-
ists. These journalists may lay claim to a 
specific standpoint epistemology by virtue 
of their particular sociocultural locations or 
authority, which, in this case, is based on 
race, class, gender, and group identifica-
tion as African American journalists. These 
autobiographies render visible their role as 
African American journalists critiquing the 
world of print journalism from the vantage 
point of journalistic epistemic privilege 
gained from working in (white) corpo-
rate newsrooms. Viewed together, these 
autobiographies illustrate the many ways 
in which the standpoint of marginalized 
groups are all too often devalued and ig-
nored in favor of the prevailing standpoint 
of the dominant group. As manifestos, Hall 
maintains that these memoirs challenge 
the assumptions of privileged (white male) 
standpoints at play in the newsrooms in 
which they work and provide a stage from 
which to discuss and interpret the ways 
in which race and gender are connected 



Book Reviews 287

to the field of journalism. The theme that 
connects the four memoirs as manifestos is 
a public critique of a “repressive system ... 
as reflected by the corporate newsroom.” 
By applying Sidonie Smith’s description of 
manifesto as “a proof, a piece of evidence, 
a public declaration or proclamation ... for 
the purpose of announcing past actions 
and explaining the reasons or motives for 
actions announced as forthcoming,” Hall 
demonstrates how the autobiographical 
narrative employed by these journalists 
are in fact autobiographical manifestos be-
cause within them are found the essential 
characteristics of manifestos: that is, the 
“appropriation or contestation of sover-
eignty.” Hall provides compelling reasons 
why these works are situated within the 
rich tradition of African American auto-
biography and why it is critical, as well as 
advantageous, to value and include other 
standpoints in news reporting. 

The first chapter of Hall’s book provides 
an excellent overview of journalism by 
“contextualizing the place of memory, 
truth, objectivity, and autobiography in 
journalism.” In the next two chapters, he 
details how the major attributes of the 
autobiographical manifesto are depicted 
in Nelson’s Volunteer Slavery: My Authentic 
Negro Experience, as she strives to maintain 
her “authentic self” without abandoning 
who she is as an African American woman, 
journalist, daughter, and mother. In the 
fourth chapter, Hall’s analysis of the auto-
biographical manifesto focuses on surveil-
lance and performance in Nathan McCall’s 
Makes Me Wanna Holler: A Young Black 
Man in America. McCall is all too aware 
that he is both “insider and outsider,” as 
he tries to define what it means to be an 
African American man while working in 
the world of journalism under the constant 
gaze of white men in the newsroom. The 
issues raised in the next chapter cover 
appropriation of sovereignty, as in Jake 
Lamar’s Bourgeois Blues: An American Mem-
oir, and forgiveness in Patricia Raybon’s 
My First White Friend: Confessions on Race, 
Love, and Forgiveness. Lamar describes his 
problematic relationship with his father, 

followed by his encounter with the op-
pressive nature of white male privilege 
and sovereignty at Time magazine, while 
Raybon seeks to find her new self through 
the act of storytelling. Telling stories 
leads Raybon away from victimhood and 
toward the deliberate act of forgiveness. 
In the sixth chapter, Hall explicates the 
four overarching themes connecting the 
newsroom experience of African American 
journalists and the connection to the black 
experience overall. Following the conclu-
sion, there is an appendix to an annotated 
bibliography of selected memoirs by other 
print journalists and broadcasters, as well 
as an index. The inclusion of memoirs 
by nine additional women journalists is 
clearly recognition of their contribution to 
the genre and field of journalism.

Hall’s analysis is a richly textured and 
cogent study that enriches our under-
standing of the world of print journalism. 
By using the paradigm of standpoint 
theory from which to analyze experiences 
encountered by some African American 
journalists, Hall demonstrates the power 
dynamics at play in the newsroom, dy-
namics that are likely to continue until 
(white) journalists “rethink themselves 
and their craft from the position of the 
marginalized.” African American Journal-
ists is highly recommended for upper-
level undergraduates, graduate students, 
and those who are contemplating a career 
in journalism or communication stud-
ies.—Emily M. Belcher, Princeton University.

Kay Ann Cassell and Uma Hiremath. 
Reference and Information Services in the 
21st Century: An Introduction. 2nd ed. 
New York: Neal-Schuman Publishers, 
2009. 461p. alk. paper, $69.95 (ISBN 
9781555706722). LC2009-023650.
The second edition of Cassell and Hire-

math’s Reference and Information Services 
in the 21st Century: An Introduction opens 
with a preface describing the skill sets 
that reference librarians must possess 
and the organization of the work. They 
intend the skill sets mentioned in the 
book “as a means to fearlessly navigate