Black Samson : the untold story of an American icon / Nyasha Junior, Jeremy Schipper.

9780190936853 (electronic book)

New York : Oxford University Press, 2020.

English

1 online resource (240 pages) : illustrations.

E185.625 .J85 2020

305.38896073

Before Harriet Tubman or Martin Luther King, Jr. were identified with Moses, African Americans linked those who challenged racial oppression in America with Samson. In Black Samson: The Untold Story of an American Icon, Nyasha Junior and Jeremy Schipper investigate legal documents, narratives by enslaved persons, speeches, sermons, periodicals, poetry, fiction, and visual arts to tell the unlikely story of how a flawed biblical hero became an iconic figure in America's racial history. Along the way, Schipper and Junior engage the work of African American luminaries, including Fredrick Douglass, James Baldwin, Malcolm X, Huey P. Newton, and many others. From stories of slave rebellions to the Black Power movement, invoking the biblical character of Samson became a powerful way for African Americans to voice strategies and opinions about many race-related issues.

Before Harriet Tubman or Martin Luther King, Jr. were identified with Moses, African Americans linked those who challenged racial oppression in America with Samson. In Black Samson: The Untold Story of an American Icon, Nyasha Junior and Jeremy Schipper investigate legal documents, narratives by enslaved persons, speeches, sermons, periodicals, poetry, fiction, and visual arts to tell the unlikely story of how a flawed biblical hero became an iconic figure in America's racial history. Along the way, Schipper and Junior engage the work of African American luminaries, including Fredrick Douglass, James Baldwin, Malcolm X, Huey P. Newton, and many others. From stories of slave rebellions to the Black Power movement, invoking the biblical character of Samson became a powerful way for African Americans to voice strategies and opinions about many race-related issues.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

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Description based on online resource; title from home page (viewed on June 4, 2020).

Oxford scholarship online.

Print version: 9780190689780

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