Time Longer than Rope: A Century of African American Activism, 1850-1950 - Softcover

Charles M. Payne is Sally Dalton Robinson Professor of African American studies, History and Sociology at Duke University. He is the author of the prize-winning I’ve Got the Light of Freedom: The Organizing Tradition in the Mississippi Civil Rights Movement.

“Readers will find this volume a helpful companion to capturing an under explored area of black activism from the slavery era to the mid-twentieth century. These essays are especially helpful in assessing the rural historical experiences of African Americans and advancing our common historical understanding and knowledge on key aspects of this element of the black experience.”
-The Journal of Southern History

“A comprehensive collection of essays and narratives.”
-Ebony

“The essays that make up Time Longer Than Rope skillfully express the variety, depth, and resilience of African Americans’ resistance in the effort to achieve political freedom and greater economic opportunities and to maintain viable intraracial community associations to fight for equality. A useful tool that will facilitate student awareness of the varied and long-term struggle for black freedom in America."

“An exciting and much needed anthology. Collectively, this astute selection of provocative essays and the powerful introduction effectively challenge worn frameworks and outmoded narratives of the civil rights movement. Pushing the time line back to before the Civil War, Charles M. Payne and Adam Green complicate our understanding of how everyday people transformed their own lives and changed this nation’s history. This splendid volume is a vital contribution to African American history and underscores the importance of dissent in America.”
-Darlene Clark Hine,co-author of A Shining Thread of Hope: The History of Black Women in America

“An exciting and much needed anthology. Collectively, this astute selection of provocative essays and the powerful introduction effectively challenge worn frameworks and outmoded narratives of the civil rights movement. Pushing the time line back to before the Civil War, Charles M. Payne and Adam Green complicate our understanding of how everyday people transformed their own lives and changed this nation’s history. This splendid volume is a vital contribution to African American history and underscores the importance of dissent in America.”
-Darlene Clark Hine,co-author, A Shining Thread of Hope: The History of Black Women in America