Signed Langston Hughes' A Pictorial History of the Negro in America First Edition, 1956

[African American] Hughes, Langston and Meltzer, Milton. A Pictorial History of the Negro in America. New York: Crown Publishers, Inc, 1956. Signed by Langston Hughes on the front free endpaper in bold green ink: “Sincerely — Langston Hughes.” First edition. Profusely illustrated with black-and-white photographs, prints, and drawings. 4to. 316 pages. Publisher’s original pictorial cloth binding; no dust jacket present. A landmark visual and narrative chronicle of African American history, A Pictorial History of the Negro in America represents one of the most comprehensive mid-century attempts to visually document the Black experience in the United States (truncated) from enslavement through the modern Civil Rights Movement. Written by Harlem Renaissance luminary Langston Hughes in collaboration with noted historian Milton Meltzer, the book pairs Hughes’s signature lyricism and radical clarity with a powerful visual archive that includes rare photographs of enslaved people, abolitionist prints, Harlem street scenes, portraits of Black leaders, and snapshots of mid-20th century Black life. The work was designed as an educational tool to counteract whitewashed histories in American schools and offered both Black and white youth a new framework for understanding race and national identity. Its content traces slavery, Reconstruction, the Great Migration, cultural achievements of the Harlem Renaissance, and political resistance through labor and civil rights movements, placing Black Americans at the center of U.S. history. This copy is especially significant for bearing Hughes’s autograph, cleanly and prominently inscribed on the front endpaper. Hughes, who was deeply involved in political education and cultural production, used this volume to reach classrooms and libraries, making his signature in this context particularly resonant. Wear to covers, no dust jacket. Interior is clean, binding is tight. Overall very good condition. Scarce signed, this title stands as a vital record of visual Black history and a testament to Hughes’s enduring impact as both poet and historian. (Inventory #: 21974)