Stony the Road

Reconstruction, White Supremacy, and the Rise of Jim Crow

By: Henry Louis Gates Jr.

Narrated by: Dominic Hoffman

A profound new rendering of the struggle by African-Americans for equality after the Civil War and the violent counter-revolution that resubjugated them, as seen through the prism of the war of images and ideas that have left an enduring racist stain on the American mind.

The abolition of slavery in the aftermath of the Civil War is a familiar story, as is the civil rights revolution that transformed the nation after World War II. But the century in between remains a mystery: if emancipation sparked "a new birth of freedom" in Lincoln's America, why was it necessary to march in Martin Luther King, Jr.'s America? In this new book, Henry Louis Gates, Jr., one of our leading chroniclers of the African-American experience, seeks to answer that question in a history that moves from the Reconstruction Era to the "nadir" of the African-American experience under Jim Crow, through to World War I and the Harlem Renaissance.

Through his close reading of the visual culture of this tragic era, Gates reveals the many faces of Jim Crow and how, together, they reinforced a stark color line between white and black Americans. Bringing a lifetime of wisdom to bear as a scholar, filmmaker, and public intellectual, Gates uncovers the roots of structural racism in our own time, while showing how African Americans after slavery combatted it by articulating a vision of a "New Negro" to force the nation to recognize their humanity and unique contributions to America as it hurtled toward the modern age.

The story Gates tells begins with great hope, with the Emancipation Proclamation, Union victory, and the liberation of nearly 4 million enslaved African-Americans. Until 1877, the federal government, goaded by the activism of Frederick Douglass and many others, tried at various turns to sustain their new rights. But the terror unleashed by white paramilitary groups in the former Confederacy, combined with deteriorating economic conditions and a loss of Northern will, restored "home rule" to the South. The retreat from Reconstruction was followed by one of the most violent periods in our history, with thousands of black people murdered or lynched and many more afflicted by the degrading impositions of Jim Crow segregation.

An essential tour through one of America's fundamental historical tragedies, Stony the Road is also a story of heroic resistance, as figures such as W. E. B. Du Bois and Ida B. Wells fought to create a counter-narrative, and culture, inside the lion's mouth. As sobering as this tale is, it also has within it the inspiration that comes with encountering the hopes our ancestors advanced against the longest odds.

*Includes a Bonus PDF of images from the book.

A Must Read

If you want a deeper understanding of Reconstruction and Jim Crow this is the book to read or listen to [TWICE]! l would have given this audio book ten stars if l could.

Timely and Informative.

An exceptional narrative on the historical place of reconstruction in America and it's impact on Black people then and now.

Accurate and detailed - Excellent reading

Loved it. listened to rewind and listen again. Great Book! The author did an amazing job with bring history to life.

Excellent

Superb survey of the period of reconstruction the Harlem Renaissance. A companion to the fantastic 2 part PBS series, both the series and the book are highly recommended.
Very enjoyable performance by Dominic Hoffman

Gates echos many of my core instinctive beliefs.

Dr. Gates in this fascinating study echos many of my core beliefs as a Black intellectual while educating my mind and soul of the significance of the New Negro Movement and its legacy in global history. Thank you very much, Prof Gates, for all that youvdo for humanity.