''12 Million Black Voices: A Folk History of the Negro in the United States'' is a photodocumentary book with text by Richard Wright. The images were taken by the

Farm Security Administration The Farm Security Administration (FSA) was a New Deal agency created in 1937 to combat rural poverty during the Great Depression in the United States. It succeeded the Resettlement Administration (1935–1937). The FSA is famous for its small but ...

and selected by Edwin Rosskam.

Viking Press Viking Press (formally Viking Penguin, also listed as Viking Books) is an American publishing company owned by Penguin Random House. It was founded in New York City on March 1, 1925, by Harold K. Guinzburg and George S. Oppenheimer and then acqu ...

first published the book in 1941, to relatively positive reviews, and it has since been analyzed by various critics.

Writing and publication

approached the author Richard Wright and asked him to write accompanying text to images taken of Blacks living in poverty by the

during the

Great Depression The Great Depression was a severe global economic downturn from 1929 to 1939. The period was characterized by high rates of unemployment and poverty, drastic reductions in industrial production and international trade, and widespread bank and ...

. Various other books with this aim were published in the late 1930s and early 1940s.Leigh, G. 1999, "Imposed integration: Folk identity in 12 Million Black Voices", ''Rethinking Marxism'', vol. 11, no. 1, pp. 49. Wright likely sought to represent many Black people in the United States, as evidenced by the title referencing ''12 Million Black Voices''. Wright researched his text primarily from Horace R. Cayton Jr.'s files in Chicago. The first draft of the book was handwritten and he then typed it, revising several times. Edwin Rosskam edited and selected the images. Viking published the book in October 1941. It was 150 pages when first published.

Content

The book contains four "sections", "Our Strange Birth," "Inheritors of Slavery," "Death on the City Pavements," and "Men in the Making", which are divided into "scenes". These scenes are in turn composed of "movements". A central portion of the work is its images. The book has various "montages" that Wright used to incorporate other voices into the work, though it is generally written from the first person plural voice. The book chronicles Black life in the United States from their enslavement in the South to the present day (1940s). Wright sought to show all of Black society, leaving out the so-called "

Talented Tenth The talented tenth is a term that designated a leadership class of African Americans in the early 20th century. Although the term was created by white Northern philanthropists, it is primarily associated with W. E. B. Du Bois, who used it as the ...

", who were "fleeting exceptions to that vast, tragic school that swims below in the depths, against the current, silently and heavily, struggling against the waves of vicissitudes that spell a common fate". Wright later told Edwin Seaver: The book has noticeable

Marxist Marxism is a political philosophy and method of socioeconomic analysis. It uses a dialectical and materialist interpretation of historical development, better known as historical materialism, to analyse class relations, social conflic ...

content. Wright was a member of the

Communist Party of the United States The Communist Party USA (CPUSA), officially the Communist Party of the United States of America, also referred to as the American Communist Party mainly during the 20th century, is a communist party in the United States. It was established ...

when he wrote it.

Reception

Upon publication the book received mostly positive reviews. Leroy Allen in ''Social Science'' wrote that the book as "very remarkable and exceedingly interesting". The ''

New York World-Telegram The ''New York World-Telegram'', later known as the ''New York World-Telegram and The Sun'', was a New York City newspaper from 1931 to 1966. History Founded by James Gordon Bennett Sr. as ''The Evening Telegram'' in 1867, the newspaper began ...

'' said "The text is far from commonplace," while ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

'' said that "A more eloquent statement of its kind could hardly have been devised." A reviewer in ''The New York Times'' deemed the prose "

astringent An astringent (sometimes called adstringent) is a chemical that shrinks or constricts body tissues. The word derives from the Latin '' adstringere'', which means "to bind fast". Astringency, the dry, puckering or numbing mouthfeel caused by t ...

", and ''

Kirkus Reviews ''Kirkus Reviews'' is an American book review magazine founded in 1933 by Virginia Kirkus. The magazine's publisher, Kirkus Media, is headquartered in New York City. ''Kirkus Reviews'' confers the annual Kirkus Prize to authors of fiction, no ...

'' called the book "extraordinary". A reviewer in ''

The Journal of Southern History The Southern Historical Association is a professional academic organization of historians focusing on the history of the Southern United States. It was organized on November 2, 1934. Its objectives are the promotion of interest and research in Sou ...

'' felt it would not be well received by historians or social scientists because it presented a one sided story. However, they concluded "it will move the ordinary reader as few books on the Negro in American life have ever moved him." They praised Wright's writing.' Reception was, according to the scholar Jack B. Moore, "unusually complimentary, particularly considering its clearly uncomplimentary portrait of life that white Americans had forced upon black Americans". Moore continued to note that it stands out as "a smashing critical success" when considering how Wright's later works were received. Nicholas Natanson in 1992 wrote that the book had "received some play in the general-circulation press", some of which was characterized by "echoes" of

white guilt White guilt is a belief that white people bear a responsibility for the harm which has resulted from historical or current racist treatment of people belonging to other ethnic groups, as for example in the context of the Atlantic slave trade, Euro ...

. The book was republished in 1988.

Analysis

The book has been analyzed by various critics, several of whom have noted its relative lack of attention. In 1982 John M. Reilly analyzed how the book was written as if it were sermons given by a preacher. Moore (1989) drew comparisons between the work and documentary films, as it aimed to be an accessible work, specifically referencing ''

The March of Time ''The March of Time'' is an American newsreel series sponsored by Time Inc. and shown in movie theaters from 1935 to 1951. It was based on a radio news series broadcast from 1931 to 1945 that was produced by advertising agency Batten, Barton, ...

'', '' The Plow That Broke the Plains'', and ''The River''. In 2006, Jeff Allred wrote an essay on the book and its connection to

collective identity Collective identity or group identity is a shared sense of belonging to a group. This concept appears within a few social science fields. National identity is a simple example, though myriad groups exist which share a sense of identity. Like ma ...

References

Bibliography

* * {{Cite book, url=http://archive.org/details/richardwrightcri0000unse_c1r1, title=Richard Wright : the critical reception, date=1978, publisher= ew York: B. Franklin, url-access=registration, isbn=978-0-89102-110-0, editor-last=Reilly, editor-first=John M. 1941 books Works by Richard Wright (author) Viking Press books