Recovers the history of nineteenth- and early-twentieth-century African American reading societies.

Acknowledgments ix
Introduction: In Search of Black Readers 1
1 "Dreaded Eloquence": The Origins and Rise of African American Literary Societies 23
2 Spreading the Word: The Cultural Work of the Black Press 84
3 Literary Coalitions in the Age of Washington 141
4 Reading, Writing, and Reform in the Woman's Era 187
5 Georgia Douglas Johnson and the Saturday Nighters 251
Epilogue: Building Community in Contemporary Reading Groups 297
Notes 317
Bibliography 387
Index 401

Elizabeth McHenry is Assistant Professor of English at New York University.