Without Regard to Race: The Other Martin Robison Delany.

Without Regard to Race: The Other Martin Robison Delany by Tunde Adeleke University Press of Mississippi December 2003, $42.00, ISBN 1-578-06598.4

Martin Robison Delany (1812-1885) is a familiar name to most readers. He was a pivotal figure in the 19th century who, along with Frederick Douglass and other prominent abolitionists, was a part of the struggle for the freedom of enslaved blacks and the civil rights of all African Americans. A man of varied and exceptional talents, Delany, at one time or another during his life, was an abolitionist, author, Black Nationalist, explorer, field officer in the Union Army and a physician.

Despite his extraordinary life, Delany was all but forgotten after his death, until he was "rediscovered" by scholars in the 1960s, who profiled Delany as an unflinching militant and advocate for the emigration of blacks to Africa.

Adeleke's compelling book seeks to reveal the "essential Delany." With meticulous re search, he uncovers the man who, at heart, was a political conservative and accommodationist, when necessary a--man who "preached moderation and reconciliation between blacks and their former slave masters."

Delany was, above all, a believer. He started life, and remained until the end, a man who fervently believed in what Adeleke terms the "possibility of the American dream." This is an important book of a heroic, complex and, at times, tragic man, who was once lost to history, but has been restored completely, again.

--Reviewed by Robin M. Dasher-Alston Robin M. Dasher-Alston is a freelance reviewer who lives in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.