The Myth of the Negro Past

Cover of first edition
Author	Melville J. Herskovits
Language	English
Published	1941 (1941)
Publisher	Harper & Brothers
Publication place	United States

The Myth of the Negro Past is a 1941monograph byMelville J. Herskovits intended to debunk the myth thatAfrican Americans lost theirAfrican culture due to their experience ofslavery.^[1] The book was the first publication of theCarnegie Corporation's Study of the American Negro and took 15 years to research.^[2]

Herskovits argued that African Americans had retained their heritage from Africa in music, art, social structure, family life,religion, and speech patterns.^[1]

The book became controversial because it was feared its arguments could be used by proponents ofracial segregation to prove that African Americans could not be assimilated into mainstream American society,^[3] although Herskovits himself believed that recovering the more sophisticated African cultural norms was itself important in fighting American racism.^[4]

• Gershenhorn, Jerry (2004)."Subverting the Myth of the Negro Past".Melville J. Herskovits and the Racial Politics of Knowledge. University of Nebraska Press. pp. 93–121.ISBN 9780803221871.
• Jackson, Walter (1987)."Melville Herskovits and the Search for Afro-American Culture". In Stocking, George W. (ed.).Malinowski, Rivers, Benedict and Others: Essays on Culture and Personality. University of Wisconsin Press. pp. 95–126.ISBN 9780299107338.
• Raboteau, Albert J. (2004) [1978].Slave religion: the "invisible institution" in the antebellum South (Updated ed.). Oxford; New York: Oxford University Press.ISBN 978-0-19-517413-7.

• Baron, Robert (1994).Africa in the Americas: Melville J.Herskovits' Folkloristic and Anthropological Scholarship, 1923–1941 (Ph.D.). University of Pennsylvania.OCLC 32302216.
• Du Bois, W.E.B. (July 1, 1942). "Review of The Myth of the Negro Past by Melville J. Herskovits".The Annals of the American Academy.222:226–227.doi:10.1177/000271624222200175.S2CID 220855680.
• Simpson, George Eaton (1973).Melville J. Herskovits. Columbia University Press.ISBN 9780231033855.

• The Myth of the Negro Past at theInternet Archive

• 1941 non-fiction books
• American non-fiction books
• Anthropology books
• Harper & Brothers books
• Race in the United States
• Books about African-American history

• Articles with short description
• Short description matches Wikidata
• Articles with Internet Archive links