In response to:

The Jolly Institution from the May 2, 1974 issue

To the Editors:

Why does The New York Review so consistently turn over books on the Black experience to non-Black reviewers?

Are there no Black scholars and writers?

Generally the reviews are superficial. The latest disaster was handing over to an ex-“Southern liberal,” C. Vann Woodward, the publishing industry’s latest public relations package: Time on the Cross by Fogel and Engerman [NYR, May 2].

Is it another indication of “liberal” racism that there are no recognizable names of Blacks on The New York Review’s editorial board?

L.D. Reddick

Temple University

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

This Issue

August 8, 1974