![]() First edition  | |
| Author | Margo Jefferson | 
|---|---|
| Country | United States | 
| Language | English | 
| Genre | Memoir | 
| Published | 2015 | 
| Publisher | Pantheon Books[1] | 
| Media type | |
| Pages | 248[1] | 
Negroland: A Memoir is a 2015 book by Margo Jefferson.[1][2][3][4][5] It is a memoir of growing up in 1950s and 1960s America within a small, privileged segment of black American society known as the black bourgeoisie, or African-American upper class.
Reception
Negroland: A Memoir was published to acclaim in 2015. It was described by Dwight Garner in The New York Times as a "powerful and complicated memoir",[6] and by Margaret Busby in The Sunday Times as "utterly compelling",[7] while Anita Sethi wrote in The Observer: "Jefferson fascinatingly explores how her personal experience intersected with politics, from the civil rights movement to feminism, as well as history before her birth."[8] Tracy K. Smith wrote in The New York Times: "The visible narrative apparatus of 'Negroland' highlights its author's extreme vulnerability in the face of her material. It also makes apparent the all-too-often invisible fallout of our nation's ongoing obsession with race and class: Namely, that living a life as an exemplar of black excellence — and living with the survivor's guilt that often accompanies such excellence — can have a psychic effect nearly as deadening and dehumanizing as that of racial injustice itself."[9]
In 2016, Negroland was shortlisted for the Baillie Gifford Prize for Non-Fiction[10][11] and won the National Book Critics Circle Award in the Autobiography category.
Awards and honors
- 2016 National Book Critics Circle Award (Autobiography), winner.[12]
 - June 2016, chosen as a Book of the Week by BBC Radio 4.
 - 2016 Chicago Tribune Heartland Prize.[13]
 
See also
- E. Franklin Frazier's sociological Black Bourgeoisie (first edition in English in 1957 translated from the 1955 French original)
 - Lawrence Otis Graham's Our Kind of People: Inside America’s Black Upper Class (2000)
 
References
- 1 2 3 Smith, Tracy K. (September 15, 2015). "Margo Jefferson's 'Negroland: A Memoir'". The New York Times. Retrieved November 8, 2015.
 - ↑ Garner, Dwight (September 10, 2015). "Review: 'Negroland,' by Margo Jefferson, on Growing Up Black and Privileged". The New York Times. Retrieved November 8, 2015.
 - ↑ "Privilege And Pressure: A Memoir Of Growing Up Black And Elite In 'Negroland'". NPR. September 8, 2015. Retrieved November 8, 2015.
 - ↑ Carducci, Vince (October 19, 2015). "Coming of Age in Negroland". PopMatters. Retrieved November 8, 2015.
 - ↑ Carroll, Rebecca (September 9, 2015). "Margo Jefferson reveals life inside the black elite in 'Negroland'". Los Angeles Times.
 - ↑ Garner, Dwight (September 10, 2015). "Review: 'Negroland,' by Margo Jefferson, on Growing Up Black and Privileged". The New York Times.
 - ↑ Busby, Margaret (June 19, 2016). "Books: Negroland: A Memoir by Margo Jefferson". The Sunday Times.
 - ↑ Sethi, Anita (January 22, 2017). "Negroland by Margo Jefferson review – a brilliant memoir about race in America". The Observer.
 - ↑ "Margo Jefferson's 'Negroland: A Memoir'". The New York Times. September 20, 2015.
 - ↑ "Baillie Gifford Non-Fiction Prize nominees announced". BBC News. October 17, 2016.
 - ↑ Kennedy, Maev (October 17, 2016). "First-hand reporting dominates Baillie Gifford shortlist". The Guardian.
 - ↑ Alter, Alexandra (March 17, 2016). "'The Sellout' Wins National Book Critics Circle's Fiction Award". The New York Times. Retrieved March 18, 2016.
 - ↑ Taylor, Elizabeht (November 2, 2016). "Margo Jefferson memoir 'Negroland' a resonant Heartland Prize winner". Chicago Tribune. Retrieved November 14, 2020.
 
