Winner of a 2005 Gustavus Myers Outstanding Book Award (Honorable
Mention)
Horne brings to light the lives of black Americans living along the
Mexican border during and immediately after the Mexican Revolution
The Mexican Revolution was a defining moment in the history of race
relations, impacting both Mexican and African Americans. For black
Westerners, 1910-1920 did not represent the clear-cut promise of
populist power, but a reordering of the complex social hierarchy which
had, since the nineteenth century, granted them greater freedom in the
borderlands than in the rest of the United States.
Despite its lasting significance, the story of black Americans along the
Mexican border has been sorely underreported in the annals of U.S.
history. Gerald Horne brings the tale to life in Black and Brown.
Drawing on archives on both sides of the border, a host of cutting-edge
studies and oral histories, Horne chronicles the political currents
which created and then undermined the Mexican border as a relative safe
haven for African Americans. His account addresses blacks' role as
"Indian fighters," the relationship between African Americans and
immigrants, and the U.S. government's growing fear of black disloyalty,
among other essential concerns of the period: the heavy reliance of the
U.S. on black soldiers along the border placed white supremacy and
national security on a collision course that was ultimately resolved in
favor of the latter.
Mining a forgotten chapter in American history, Black and Brown
offers tremendous insight into the past and future of race relations
along the Mexican border.
