I Hear My People Singing ─ Voices of African American Princeton

I Hear My People Singing shines a light on a small but historic black neighborhood at the heart of one of the most elite and internationally renowned Ivy League towns--Princeton, New Jersey. The vivid first-person accounts of more than fifty black residents detail aspects of African American life throughout the twentieth century. Their stories show that the roots of Princeton's black community are as deeply intertwined with the town and university as they are with the history of the United States, the legacies of slavery, and the nation's current conversations on race.

Based on an oral history collaboration with residents of the Witherspoon-Jackson neighborhood and Princeton undergraduates and their professor, Kathryn Watterson, the book features African American residents' candid views about Jim Crow segregation, the mixed blessings of school integration, World Wars I and II, and civil rights struggles. Despite three centuries of legal and economic obstacles, these residents created an ethical and humane community in which to raise their children, care for the sick and elderly, worship, and celebrate life. Filled with an abundance of photographs, I Hear My People Singing personalizes the struggles and injustices faced by generations of black Princetonians--including renowned figures such as Paul Robeson and those less well-known--and highlights their remarkable achievements. The introduction and openings of each chapter provide historical context, and the book's foreword is by noted scholar and activist Cornel West.

An intimate testament of the black community's resilience and ingenuity, I Hear My People Singing adds a never-before-compiled account of poignant black experience to an American narrative that needs to be heard now more than ever.