Negroland: A Memoir

Negroland: A Memoir

First edition
Author	Margo Jefferson
Language	English
Genre	Memoir
Published	2015
Publisher	Pantheon Books [1]
Publication place	United States
Media type	Print
Pages	248 [1]

Negroland: A Memoir is a 2015 book by Margo Jefferson. ^{[1] [2] [3] [4] [5]} It is a memoir of growing up in 1950s and 1960s America within a small, privileged segment of black American society known as the black bourgeoisie, or African-American upper class.

Reception

Negroland: A Memoir was published to acclaim in 2015. According to Book Marks, the book received a "positive" consensus, based on nine critics: one "rave" and eight "positive". ^[6] In the November/December 2015 issue of Bookmarks , the book was scored four out of five. The magazine's critical summary reads: "Margo Jefferson paints her world with a spare grace that questions and redefines discourse on race, class, privilege, and entitlement". ^[7]

It was described by Dwight Garner in The New York Times as a "powerful and complicated memoir", ^[8] and by Margaret Busby in The Sunday Times as "utterly compelling", ^[9] while Anita Sethi wrote in The Observer : "Jefferson fascinatingly explores how her personal experience intersected with politics, from the civil rights movement to feminism, as well as history before her birth." ^[10] Tracy K. Smith wrote in The New York Times: "The visible narrative apparatus of 'Negroland' highlights its author's extreme vulnerability in the face of her material. It also makes apparent the all-too-often invisible fallout of our nation's ongoing obsession with race and class: Namely, that living a life as an exemplar of black excellence — and living with the survivor's guilt that often accompanies such excellence — can have a psychic effect nearly as deadening and dehumanizing as that of racial injustice itself." ^[11]

In 2016, Negroland was shortlisted for the Baillie Gifford Prize for Non-Fiction ^{[12] [13]} and won the National Book Critics Circle Award in the Autobiography category.

Awards and honors

• 2016 National Book Critics Circle Award (Autobiography), winner. ^[14]
• June 2016, chosen as a Book of the Week by BBC Radio 4.
• 2016 Chicago Tribune Heartland Prize. ^[15]

See also

• E. Franklin Frazier's sociological Black Bourgeoisie (first edition in English in 1957 translated from the 1955 French original)
• Lawrence Otis Graham's Our Kind of People: Inside America’s Black Upper Class (2000)

References

1. Smith, Tracy K. (September 15, 2015). "Margo Jefferson's 'Negroland: A Memoir'". The New York Times . Retrieved November 8, 2015.
2. Garner, Dwight (September 10, 2015). "Review: 'Negroland,' by Margo Jefferson, on Growing Up Black and Privileged". The New York Times. Retrieved November 8, 2015.
3. "Privilege And Pressure: A Memoir Of Growing Up Black And Elite In 'Negroland'". NPR. September 8, 2015. Retrieved November 8, 2015.
4. Carducci, Vince (October 19, 2015). "Coming of Age in Negroland". PopMatters. Retrieved November 8, 2015.
5. Carroll, Rebecca (September 9, 2015). "Margo Jefferson reveals life inside the black elite in 'Negroland'". Los Angeles Times .
6. "Negroland". Book Marks. Retrieved January 16, 2024.
7. "Negroland: A Memoir". Bookmarks. Retrieved January 14, 2023.
8. Garner, Dwight (September 10, 2015). "Review: 'Negroland,' by Margo Jefferson, on Growing Up Black and Privileged". The New York Times.
9. Busby, Margaret (June 19, 2016). "Books: Negroland: A Memoir by Margo Jefferson". The Sunday Times.
10. Sethi, Anita (January 22, 2017). "Negroland by Margo Jefferson review – a brilliant memoir about race in America". The Observer.
11. "Margo Jefferson's 'Negroland: A Memoir'". The New York Times. September 20, 2015.
12. "Baillie Gifford Non-Fiction Prize nominees announced". BBC News. October 17, 2016.
13. Kennedy, Maev (October 17, 2016). "First-hand reporting dominates Baillie Gifford shortlist". The Guardian.
14. Alter, Alexandra (March 17, 2016). "'The Sellout' Wins National Book Critics Circle's Fiction Award". The New York Times. Retrieved March 18, 2016.
15. Taylor, Elizabeht (November 2, 2016). "Margo Jefferson memoir 'Negroland' a resonant Heartland Prize winner". Chicago Tribune . Retrieved November 14, 2020.