Books in brief

New Crisis, The, May/Jun 2002

Narrative of the Life of Henry Box Brown, edited by Richard Newman (Oxford University Press, $21.95). In 1849, Henry Brown staged one of most creative escapes from slavery. Although he was 5'8" and weighed 200 pounds, he shipped himself from Richmond to Philadelphia, 350 miles north, spending 27 hours in a 3x2-foot wooden crate. Brown first relayed his life story to abolitionist Charles Steams, who published an unintelligible account of the narrative. It is believed that Brown, or someone doing so on his behalf, edited a more reflective version of the former slave's experience, which was reissued in 1851. The narrative is being published for the first time in the U.S. and includes a foreword by Henry Louis Gates Jr.

Walking On Fire: Haitian Women's Stories of Survival and Resistance, edited by Beverly Bell (Cornell University Press, $18.95). In their own words, 38 diverse Haitian women -- grassroots organizers, government advisers, poor women - tell their stories of resistance and fighting for women's rights in a country where they have little economic prospects, and face violence and other injustices. A foreword by Edwidge Danticat is included.

The Condemnation of Little B, by Elaine Brown (Beacon Press, $28.50). Former Black Panther Elaine Brown examines the case of Michael Lewis ("Little B"), who at the age of 14 began serving a life sentence for the 1997 murder of Darrell Woods, who was shot to death in Atlanta in front of his two sons. Brown uses the circumstances of the case to analyze the wider issue of the role of Blacks and whites in perpetuating a new brand of post-Civil Rights era racism against the poor and unemployed.

The Essential Harold Cruse: A Reader, edited by William Jelani Cobb (Palgrave, $19.95). Political and intellectual activist Harold Cruse gained notice with the publication of his 1967 book, The Crisis of the Negro Intellectual: A Historical Analysis of the Failure of Black Leadership, a critical attack on integration. This is the first collection of Cruse's writings. It includes essays (one of which first appeared in The Crisis), letters, speeches, a 1997 interview with Cruse and a foreword by Stanley Crouch.