Drawing upon resources in Africana philosophy and literature, this study explores some of the central themes of existentialism as posed by the context of what Franz Fanon has identified as "the lived-experience of the black".

INTRODUCTION: BLACK EXISTENTIAL PHILOSOPHY part I CONTEXTUALIZING BLACK PHILOSOPHIES OF EXISTENCE chapter 1 AFRICAN AND AFRO-CARIBBEAN EXISTENTIAL PHILOSOPHIES chapter 2 SELF-TRANSFORMATION IN AMERICAN BLACKS: THE HARLEM RENAISSANCE AND BLACK THEOLOGY chapter 3 ON THE READING OF RIDDLES: RETHINKING DU BOISIAN DOUBLE CONSCIOUSNESS chapter 4 EXISTENTIAL DYNAMICS OF THEORIZING BLACK INVISIBILITY part II THE SITUATION chapter 5 RETURN FROM THE UNITED STATES: WHAT I LEARNED ABOUT THE BLACK PROBLEM chapter 6 WHITE NORMATIVITY AND THE RHETORIC OF EQUAL PROTECTION 9 chapter 7 RACE, LIFE, DEATH, IDENTITY, TRAGEDY AND GOOD FAITH chapter 8 TONI MORRISON AT THE MOVIES: THEORIZING RACE THROUGH Imitation of Life (for Barbara Siegel) chapter 9 OF PROPERTY: ON CAPTIVE BODIES, HIDDEN FLESH AND COLONIZATION chapter 10 TOTING TECHNOLOGY: TAKING IT TO THE STREETS chapter 11 ON DISAPPOINTMENT IN THE BLACK CONTEXT chapter 12 RASTAFARIANISM AND THE REALITY OF DREAD part III QUESTIONING THE POSTMODERN, QUESTIONING BLACK EXISTENCE chapter 13 NIETZSCHE ON BLACKS chapter 14 THE CONCEPT OF DOUBLE VISION IN RICHARD WRIGHT'S THE OUTSIDER: FRAGMENTED BLACKNESS IN THE AGE OF NIHILISM chapter 15 FRAGMENTATION, RACE, AND GENDER: BUILDING SOLIDARITY IN THE POSTMODERN ERA part IV BLACK EXISTENCE AND BLACK LIBERATION chapter 16 EXISTENCE, IDENTITY, AND LIBERATION chapter 17 BLACK FEMINISM: LIBERATION LIMBOS AND EXISTENCE IN GRAY chapter 18 LIBERALISM AND THE POLITICS OF EMANCIPATION: THE BLACK EXPERIENCE chapter 19 CORNEL WEST AS PRAGMATIST AND EXISTENTIALIST chapter 20 ON VIOLENCE IN THE STRUGGLE FOR LIBERATION chapter 21 THE FIGHT WITH COVEY

"... this is a useful and wide-ranging book that contributes to various aspects of the discussion of race. There is no other anthology like this... It is path-breaking in its demonstration that existentialism can be applied, historicized, concretized, and above all, that philosophy of existence is alive and well with a future as well as a past." -- Teaching Philosophy"Lewis Gordon has edited an impressive anthology within a specialized area of philosophy ... [T]his is a great resource." -- Catholic Library World