This pioneering work in African American history begins with the earliest experiences of blacks in the United States and offers an in-depth account of slavery, post-Civil War urban life, the place of religion in African American life, political activism, and the changing occupational and economic status of blacks.

Along the Color Line is a diverse collection of essays by two of the most accomplished historians of the modern African American experience, first published more than a quarter of a century ago. This informed study addresses such topics as black nationalism, nonviolent action, the changing patterns of interracial violence in the twentieth century, and the ways African American leaders have functioned and coped with racism in their quest to ensure the rights of full citizenship for African Americans. David Levering Lewis's foreword to this first paperback edition attests to the book's lasting relevance and importance. "Meier and Rudwick's intellectual passion, professional integrity, and almost manic involvement in virtually every aspect of their academic specialty were of inestimable value to the coming of age of African American history." -- from the foreword