Structure

Stony the Road is divided into four parts/chapters, plus a preface and an epilogue. Before each chapter (and before the epilogue), Gates includes a section of images that are relevant to the topic discussed in that chapter. For example, Chapter 2, “The Old Negro” (55) is centered around Redemption discourse arguing against the granting of rights to newly emancipated African Americans, and the accompanying images include political cartoons depicting white people murdering black men (and children) rather than permitting them to vote. The images before Chapter 3, which discusses anti-miscegenation anxiety, include fear-mongering depictions of black men marrying white women, and even lynchings, which occurred in part because of the stereotype of black men as rapists.

The actual account Gates provides in the book is a linear historical narrative beginning in the era of Reconstruction (1861-1873) and ending in the 1920s-1930s with the Harlem Renaissance. This linear story...