This bestselling book tells you everything you want to know about black achievement. From the arts to sports, from science to politics, all of the facts are at your fingertips. Compact yet comprehensive, this reference book celebrates the contributions of black men and women which are sometimes overlooked in conventional histories. The question-and-answer format makes this book ideal for discussion, teaching, or simply self-education.
With contributions from leading American and European scholars, this collection of original essays surveys the actors and the modes of writing history from the "margins" of society, focusing specifically on African Americans. Nearly 100 years after The Journal of Negro History was founded, this book assesses the legacy of the African American historians, mostly amateur historians initially, who wrote the history of their community between the 1830s and World War II. Subsequently, the growth of the civil rights movement further changed historical paradigms--and the place of African Americans and that of black writers in publishing and in the historical profession. Through slavery and segregation, self-educated and formally educated Blacks wrote works of history, often in order to inscribe African Americans within the main historical narrative of the nation, with a two-fold objective: to make African Americans proud of their past and to enable them to fight against white prejudice. Over the past decade, historians have turned to the study of these pioneers, but a number of issues remain to be considered. This anthology will contribute to answering several key questions concerning who published these books, and how were they distributed, read, and received. Little has been written concerning what they reveal about the construction of professional history in the nineteenth century when examined in relation to other writings by Euro-Americans working in an academic setting or as independent researchers.
The Crisis, founded by W.E.B. Du Bois as the official publication of the NAACP, is a journal of civil rights, history, politics, and culture and seeks to educate and challenge its readers about issues that continue to plague African Americans and other communities of color. For nearly 100 years, The Crisis has been the magazine of opinion and thought leaders, decision makers, peacemakers and justice seekers. It has chronicled, informed, educated, entertained and, in many instances, set the economic, political and social agenda for our nation and its multi-ethnic citizens.
"Mothers raise their daughters and love their sons," is an old adage that has been around in the African-American community for years. With the release of movies like Boyz In The Hood and Menace to Society, this adage has grown in popularity in the African-American community and has often been used to explain the ills facing many young African-American men. For any African-American mother who has heard this adage and believed it true, comes a compelling book of wisdom, inspiration and hope that's bound to prove differently. Mother to Son is a powerfully written book that shows that mothers do more than love their sons. The author, through a beautifully scripted, heartfelt collection of letters, offers candid advice for her sons on the issues they may face from racism to self-recognition. Although written from a mother to her sons, this book provides timeless wisdom for all. A MUST read for any mother facing the challenge of preparing her sons for, and protecting them from, the society in which they must live.
Who was the first African-American senator? Who was the first woman to cast a vote in the New World? Have any gays or lesbians held state-wide office? Was 2000 a good year for women and minority office seekers? The answers to these questions are here in The Almanac of Women and Minorities in American Politics 2002. The culmination of Mart Martin's years of diligent research, this is the first comprehensive single-volume reference to all women, African-Americans, Hispanics, Asian-Americans, native minorities, gays, and lesbians who have served in state or national elected positions, with additional information on local elected positions. This valuable resource provides a complete, non-partisan reference on the "political" accomplishments of these people, as opposed to taking a "biographical" approach. In this volume, Mart Martin details which women and minority candidates succeeded in being elected or appointed in 2000 at the federal and state levels throughout the United States. This 2002 edition is thoroughly updated in each of the major content sections on Women, African-Americans, Latinos, Asian Americans Native Minorities, and Gay and Lesbians.
My Brother's Keeper is a training manual for clergy, laity, parents, teachers, social workers, youth workers, guidance counselors and caring persons who want to develop a Mentoring Program, Rites of Passage, Conflict Resolution Classes, Liberation Lessons and use Rap music to free young African American males from their spiritual, social, and psychological bondage. Moreover, these ministries will raise their self-esteem, fulfill their paternal deprivation, help them manage their anger, instruct them to be peacemakers, develop their moral consciousness and save their souls.
The first edition of Joel Augustus Rogers’s now legendary 100 Amazing Facts About the Negro with Complete Proof, published in 1934, was billed as “A Negro ‘Believe It or Not.’” Rogers’s little book was priceless because he was delivering enlightenment and pride, steeped in historical research, to a people too long starved on the lie that they were worth nothing. For African Americans of the Jim Crow era, Rogers’s was their first black history teacher. But Rogers was not always shy about embellishing the “facts” and minimizing ambiguity; neither was he above shock journalism now and then. With élan and erudition—and with winning enthusiasm—Henry Louis Gates, Jr. gives us a corrective yet loving homage to Roger’s work. Relying on the latest scholarship, Gates leads us on a romp through African, diasporic, and African-American history in question-and-answer format. Among the one hundred questions: Who were Africa’s first ambassadors to Europe? Who was the first black president in North America? Did Lincoln really free the slaves? Who was history’s wealthiest person? What percentage of white Americans have recent African ancestry? Why did free black people living in the South before the end of the Civil War stay there? Who was the first black head of state in modern Western history? Where was the first Underground Railroad? Who was the first black American woman to be a self-made millionaire? Which black man made many of our favorite household products better? Here is a surprising, inspiring, sometimes boldly mischievous—all the while highly instructive and entertaining—compendium of historical curiosities intended to illuminate the sheer complexity and diversity of being “Negro” in the world. (With full-color illustrations throughout.)
This book focuses on one of the most persistent and controversial questions in modern sociolinguistics: the past and present development of African American Vernacular English (AAVE).
Presents articles on the period known as the Harlem Renaissance, during which African American artists, poets, writers, thinkers, and musicians flourished in Harlem, New York.
