Early Work on African American Economic History
The Negro Wage Earner
Publication: Washington DC: The Association for the Study of Negro Life and History, 1930. First Edition.
Notes: The first edition of an important "book on black workers written by black scholars, illustrated by a black [dust jacket] artist, and published by a black publishing house."* Subtitled on the jacket as "the development of the Negro in the various occupations in the United States since 1890."
The authors, Carter G. Woodson (1875–1950) and Lorenzo J. Greene (1899–1988), were African American journalists and historians. Their book was part of an effort by black scholars during the 1920s "to counter the prevailing, racist, and negative reputation of black people, especially as workers."
The dust jacket illustrations are by Harlem Renaissance printmaker James Lesene Wells (1902–1993), who had just joined the faculty of Howard University when this book was published. Carter Woodson was the best-known Black historian of his time and is now remembered for launching Negro History Week, now celebrated as Black History Month. Lorenzo Greene worked for Woodson and went on to a long career as a professor.
xiii, 388 pages.
* Quoted from Creating Black Americans by Nell Irvin Painter.
Edition + Condition: First edition (first printing, with no additional printings noted). A very good or better copy in the publisher's green cloth-covered boards. In a near complete jacket split at one joint and with one flap detached. Copies preserving James Lesesne Wells's dust jacket design are very scarce.
Item No: #364366
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