“THERE IS NO QUESTION TODAY MORE UNSETTLED IN AMERICAN POLITICS THAN THE NEGRO QUESTION”

FORTUNE, T. Thomas. Black and White. Land, Labor, and Politics in the South. New York: Fords, Howard, and Hurlbert, 1885. Octavo, original gilt-stamped black cloth. $650.

Second edition of this treatise on the future of labor and interracial relations in the South by a major African American journalist and public intellectual.

The son of Florida slaves (his father would later become a Reconstruction-era Congressman), Fortune migrated to New York where he was one of the founders of the influential New York Globe, one of the most popular black newspapers of its time. "In 1884 his Black and White: Land, Labor and Politics in the South, a study of contradictory threads, was published… Although Fortune criticized the United States for its brutal treatment of African Americans, he vigorously rejected back-to-Africa proposals. Fortune urged blacks and whites to reject established politics for independent voting and to understand that the future struggle in the South would be between 'capital and labor, landlord and tenant'" (ANB). First published in 1884. See Blockson 2291; Work, 391. Early owner signature.

Cloth lightly rubbed, some fading to gilt. An extremely good copy.