Black Judas: William Hannibal Thomas and The American Negro

This detective-like biography is a compelling story of racial self-hatred in America and of a black man who became a pariah among his own people: William Hannibal Thomas's transformation from a critical but optimistic black nationalist to a cynical black Negrophobe. After working as a preacher, teacher, attorney, and journalist in the last three decades of the nineteenth century, Thomas in 1901 published his infamous second book, The American Negro. It became a national sensation, stoking the fires of white racism with a force that scores of white bigots could not have hoped to achieve. But The American Negro also became a rallying cry for angry blacks of all ideological bents who made Thomas their special target. In Black Judas, John David Smith brilliantly analyzes this dilemma of racial identity that confounded both whites and blacks. The book opens a whole new perspective on the question of race in American history. Winner of the Mayflower Society Award for nonfiction. "A major contribution to black intellectual history."―William Van Deburg, American Historical Review. "Based on a deft examination and analysis of a rich combination of archival, manuscript, and published sources and numerous secondary ones...Smith provides insights into the mind of one of the least understood African Americans during the age of Booker T. Washington."―Vernon J. Williams, Jr., Journal of American History.