1958 COPY OF 'HERE I STAND' BY ONE OF AMERICA'S MOST ICONIC AFRICAN AMERICANS WITH HANDWRITTEN NOTES OF RAGE AND BITTERNESS BY ANOTHER RENOWNED AFRICAN AMERICAN

On offer is a super, original relic of the Civil Rights era and the real bitterness and rage felt by some if not many on the front lines of the Civil Rights movement being the personal copy of the 128 page manifesto-autobiography 'Here I Stand' by Paul Robeson, published in 1958 by Othello Associates, New York, owned, annotated and underlined throughout by Wesley A. Williams [1897 - 1984]. The target of lifelong racism as the third African-American man ever to join, in 1919, the New York Fire Service Williams' ownership signature and despairing annotations fill the book from the front pastedown on: almost every page bears Williams' underlining but it is his commentary as it responds to Robeson's text which is revealing and intensely moving. The pages are stained with his holographic bitterness: he writes regarding the chapter 'Love will find out the way' in the aftermath of the assassination of President Kennedy, Williams' comments: 'This Paul is your dream. Today I dream no more as I have lived my 66 years, against this brutal white American who lives and dies on the blood of all people. A people who assassinate a good man like their President Kennedy - Kill coloured Sunday school children. Will stop at Nothing. They respect nothing but Force.' Underneath Robeson's suggestion that 'We must wait, we are told, until the hearts of those who persecute us have softened', Williams has jotted: 'That would be Never'. HISTORICAL NOTES: Wesley Williams joined the New York City Fire Department in 1919 and on the same day the Captain of the Engine Company retired and every other man requested reassignment. Williams persevered in the face of discrimination and became the prime mover in the creation of the Vulcan Society which exposed segregation within the Department. ; Manuscript; 8vo - over 7¾" - 9¾" tall; KEYWORDS: HISTORY OF, CIVIL RIGHTS ERA, WESLEY A. WILLIAMS, NEW YORK FIRE SERVICE, HERE I STAND, PAUL ROBESON, BLACK CULTURE, RACISM, RACE RELATIONS, AFRICAN AMERICAN, AFRO AMERICAN, NEGRO STUDIES, BLACK STUDIES, BLACK CULTURE, ICONIC BLACK MEN, AMERICANA, HANDWRITTEN, MANUSCRIPT, AUTOGRAPHED, AUTHORS, DOCUMENT, LETTER, AUTOGRAPH, KEEPSAKE, WRITER, HAND WRITTEN, DOCUMENTS, SIGNED, LETTERS, MANUSCRIPTS, HISTORICAL, HOLOGRAPH, WRITERS, AUTOGRAPHS, PERSONAL, MEMOIR, MEMORIAL, PERSONAL HISTORY, ARCHIVE, DIARY, DIARIES, JOURNAL, LOG, PRIMARY SOURCE, FIRST HAND ACCOUNT, SOCIAL HISTORY, PERSONAL STORIES, LIVING HISTORY, ANTIQUITÉ, CONTRAT, VÉLIN, DOCUMENT, MANUSCRIT, PAPIER ANTIKE, BRIEF, PERGAMENT, DOKUMENT, MANUSKRIPT, PAPIER OGGETTO D'ANTIQUARIATO, ATTO, VELINA, DOCUMENTO, MANOSCRITTO, CARTA ANTIGÜEDAD, HECHO, VITELA, DOCUMENTO, MANUSCRITO, PAPEL, book