Why read The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man?

Book cover of The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man

Book description

James Weldon Johnson's The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man is a powerful, trailblazing novel that exposes the intricate relationship between race and class in late nineteenth-century America.

Complete & Unabridged. Part of the Macmillan Collector's Library; a series of stunning, clothbound, pocket-sized classics with gold foiled edges and ribbon markers.…

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Why read it?

1 author picked The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

Destiny O. Birdsong

Author

Every time someone asks me whether I, a Black woman with albinism, would have ever considered passing for white, I think of the unnamed protagonist of this book and his conflicting desires to uplift his own race while also escaping the dangers of being a Black man at the height of America’s obsession with lynching. (And let’s be honest, he also enjoys the social privilege and upward mobility that come with being mistaken for white.) Of course, the title tells us which choice he’s going to make long before we read it for ourselves, but I was still unprepared for…

From Destiny's list on The best novellas written by Black people about Black people.