Maria Stewart is believed by many to have been the first American woman of any race to give public political speeches. In "Word, Like Fire, " Valerie C. Cooper argues that the religious, political, and social threads of Maria Stewart's thought are tightly interwoven, such that focusing narrowly on any one aspect would be to misunderstand her rhetoric. Cooper demonstrates how a certain kind of biblical interpretation can be a Rosetta Stone for understanding various areas of African American life and thought that still resonate today.

James E. Dellroy or "Great Ezomo" the venerable head of the Dellroy clan, is getting old. He has raised his family up to become one of the most powerful families in the U.S., certainly the most powerful black family...and the most dangerous. He is a man of tradition like his father and all who came before him and carried on a warrior tradition that goes all the way back to his most revered ancestor...and even further. But some of these traditions are under stress and his descendants begin to worry him. When an obscure African slave dies in a slave revolt, he leaves behind a legacy of defiance, pride, and resistance to his children, over the generations, many defiant Dellroys have met a premature end in America...but none of them ever went down easily. Others survived to continue the line, but many bore scars to prove their defiance and continued warrior spirit. Abiola left three other things behind that would shape the mentality and direction of his descendants. His name, Abiola, a small carving of his god, and a strict order obeyed faithfully by his children and children's children all the way to the present at all cost... "Never allow my bloodline to be tainted by that of the White Man " The Dellroys' don't even marry other black people if they show any signs of white ancestry. Although the Dellroys' have mixed with Native Americans and even later, Asians, no Dellroy of the main bloodline has ever voluntarily mated with a Caucasian or at least given birth to a child of one if the opposite occurred, not if they wanted to stay a Dellroy...that is about to change. America is now a different place from what it once was and there are those who believe that some practices of the family have long outlived their day...but not everyone agrees, and there are those who may yet prove them right One of Tawanna's sons is about to cross a line that will challenge old ignorance's, but at the same time set in motion events that will cause upheaval in the Dellroy hierarchy, send war drums sounding throughout the African Diaspora from Harlem to Argentina and set the Dellroys' and their kin on a collision course with one of the most powerful mafia families in the country. Tawanna Dellroy must now earn the name that Ezomo gave her all those years ago...Queen Dellroy

C. Vann Woodward is one of the most significant historians of the post-Reconstruction South. Over his career of nearly seven decades, he wrote nine books; won the Bancroft and Pulitzer Prizes; penned hundreds of book reviews, opinion pieces, and scholarly essays; and gained national and international recognition as a public intellectual. Even today historians must contend with Woodward's sweeping interpretations about southern history. What is less known about Woodward is his scholarly interest in the history of white antebellum southern dissenters, the immediate consequences of emancipation, and the history of Reconstruction in the years prior to the Compromise of 1877. Woodward addressed these topics in three mid-century lecture series that have never before been published. The Lost Lectures of C. Vann Woodward presents for the first time lectures that showcase his life-long interest in exploring the contours and limits of nineteenth-century liberalism during key moments of social upheaval in the South. Historians Natalie J. Ring and Sarah E. Gardner analyze these works, drawing on correspondence, published and unpublished material, and Woodward's personal notes. They also chronicle his failed attempts to finish a much-awaited comprehensive history of Reconstruction and reflect on the challenges of writing about the failures of post-Civil War American society during the civil rights era, dubbed the Second Reconstruction. With an insightful foreword by eminent Southern historian Edward L. Ayers, The Lost Lectures of C. Vann Woodward offers new perspectives on this towering authority on nineteenth- and twentieth-century southern history and his attempts to make sense of the past amidst the tumultuous times in which he lived.

Reading Contemporary African American Literature focuses on the subject of contemporary African American popular fiction by women. Bragg's study addresses why such work should be the subject of scholarly examination, describes the events and attitudes which account for the critical neglect of this body of work, and models a critical approach to such narratives that demonstrates the distinctive ways in which this literature captures the complexities of post-civil rights era black experiences. In making her arguments regarding the value of popular writing, Bragg argues that black women's popular fiction foregrounds gender in ways that are frequently missing from other modes of narrative production. They exhibit a responsiveness and timeliness to the shifting social terrain which is reflected in the rapidly shifting styles and themes which characterize popular fiction. In doing so, they extend the historical function of African American literature by continuing to engage the black body as a symbol of political meaning in the social context of the United States. In popular literature Beauty Bragg locates a space from which black women engage a variety of public discourses.

More than the story of one man's case, this book tells the story of entire generations of people marked as "mixed race" in America amid slavery and its aftermath, and being officially denied their multicultural identity and personal rights as a result. Contrary to popular misconceptions, Plessy v. Ferguson was not a simple case of black vs. white separation, but rather a challenging and complex protest for U.S. law to fully accept mixed ancestry and multiculturalism. This book focuses on the long struggle for individual identity and multicultural recognition amid the dehumanizing and depersonalizing forces of American Negro slavery-and the Anglo-American white supremacy that drove it. The book takes students and general readers through the extended gestation period that gave birth to one of the most oft-mentioned but widely misunderstood landmark law will cases in U.S. history. It provides a chronology, brief biographies of key figures, primary documents, an annotated bibliography, and an index all of which provide easy reading and quick reference. Modern readers will find the direct connections between Plessy's story and contemporary racial currents in America intriguing.

This remarkable story of one black man's struggle to break free from the shackles of his skin color to reveal the true color of his soul, against all odds in a white man's business world, will warm the heart in knowing that tenacity and persistance in concert with the truth will indeed bring good success.

This book is my translation of the Bible's prophecy as well as how it ties into today's events. It breaks down a couple of books within the Bible. You don't have to be a priest or a pastor or attend a Bible school to have a better understanding of the word of God. You can read this book and follow along with your Bible. All you need is time and a clear mind. Follow along, read, and prepare for what's coming in the future.

Focusing on the contributions of civic reformers and political architects who arrived in New York in the early decades of the 20th century, this book explores the wide array of sweeping social reforms and radical racial demands first conceived of and planned in Harlem that transformed African Americans into self-aware U.S. citizens for the first time in history. When the first slave escaped bondage in the American South and migrated to the Northeast region of the United States, this act of an individual started what became known as the "great migration" of African Americans fleeing the feudal South for New York and other Northern cities. This migration fueled an intellectual, social, and personal pursuit-the long-standing quest for identity by a lost tribe of African Americans-by every black man, woman, and child in America. In Harlem, that quest was anchored by a wide array of civic, business, and prominent leaders who succeeded in establishing what we now know as modern African American culture. In Harlem: The Crucible of Modern African American Culture, author Lionel C. Bascom examines the accuracy of the established image of Harlem during the Renaissance period-roughly between 1917 and the 1960s-as "heaven" for migrating African Americans. He establishes how mingled among the former tenant farmers, cotton pickers, maids, and farmhands were college-educated intellectuals, progressive ministers, writers, and lecturers who formed various organizations aimed at banishing images of Negroes as bumbling, ignorant, second-class citizens. The book also challenges unfounded claims that political and social movements during the Harlem Renaissance period failed and dramatizes numerous attempts by government authorities to silence black progressives who spearheaded movements that eventually ended segregation in the armed forces, drafted plans that led to the first sweeping civil rights legislation, and resulted in a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that finally made racial segregation in schools a federal crime. Documents the Harlem Renaissance period's important role in one of the greatest transformations of American citizens in the history of the United States-from slavery to a migration of millions to parity of achievement in all fields Extends the definition of one of the most progressive periods in African American history for students, academics, and general readers Provides an intriguing reexamination of the Harlem Renaissance period that posits that it began earlier than most general histories of the period suggest and lasted well into the 1960s

From the moment she was born, Margaret Vizinau faced enormous obstacles. Despite them all-including being born blind after her pregnant mother contracted German measles-Margaret grew up to be a woman of great faith who dedicated her life to the Lord. Her family migrated to the San Francisco Bay Area in the late 1940s to escape the rampant discrimination in the South, and in 1950, Margaret entered an interracial marriage with a nonbeliever. But after six years and the birth of two sons, Dexter and Hank, the marriage ended in a painful divorce. Margaret supported her boys by playing the piano and singing for local churches, but she faced countless challenges as a blind, African American single parent. None of them stopped her from lovingly guiding her sons through the changing times of the civil rights movement, their burgeoning pubescence, and the lure of drugs and violence on the streets. Written by Margaret's older son, "Shine on Me" delivers a fascinating look into the life of a strong, inspirational woman and mother whose unwavering faith in God carried her through life's struggles.

Successful entrepreneur and author Dr. Theda Palmer Saxton uncovers the Heirs to Dirty Linen and Harlem Ghosts as she weaves together the most unlikely events and people into a neat package filled with salacious political corruption and organized crime. Theda threads racism, newly empowered white women, greedy white men, and self-serving politicians into the eye of a needle deeply embedded in the garments which clothe the players of speakeasies on Swing Street. The emerging new Northern black population collided with white, New York, high society, which was thirsty for a quasi-relationship with the "exotic" new Negro writers and musicians. Harlem vicariously became the cutting edge leader in interracial relationships, trendy clothing fads, raucous clubs with scantily clad chorus girls, and evolving jazz giants. Dr. Theda lays out a substantive pictorial format of Bill Saxton's rich past, which places him at the right place at the right time as the quintessential music steward of the legendary Bill's Place on Swing Street. Heirs to Dirty Linen and Harlem Ghosts is a must-read for the curious minds wanting a peek into familiar tales of American culture connected from a black woman's perspective. She breathes fresh air into the musician's unsettled spirit, which haunts Harlem. Thanks to her business acumen and Bill's talent, Swing Street via Bill's Place still perpetuates jazz music, which remains America's sole original artistic cultural contribution to the world. It swings.

aThe amissionizeda and adiasporizeda Christians of the global South are here in our midst . . . transforming the social, religious, and political landscape in places they are finding receptive soils, and . . . challenging us to think and act in new ways. Gonzalezas work speaks of this reality not in abstraction, but through the breathing stories of Filipino diaspora Christian communities in San Francisco, California. Finally, a book that I have been waiting for has arrived.a
--Eleazar S. Fernandez, Professor of Constructive Theology, United Theological Seminary of the Twin Cities, Minnesota

Filipinos are now the second largest Asian American population, and the second largest immigrant group in the United States -- in fact, there are more Filipino Americans than Japanese Americans and Korean Americans combined. Surprisingly, there is little published on Filipino Americans and their religion, or the ways in which their religious traditions may influence the broader culture in which they are becoming established.

Filipino American Faith in Action draws on interviews, survey data, and participant observation to shed light on this large immigrant community. It explores Filipino American religious institutions as essential locations for empowerment and civic engagement, illuminating how Filipino spiritual experiences can offer a lens for viewing this migrant communityas social, political, economic, and cultural integration into American life. Gonzalez examines Filipino American church involvement and religious practices in the San Francisco Bay Area and in the Phillipines, showing how Filipino Americans maintain community and ethnic and religious networks, contra assimilationtheory, and how they go about sharing their traditions with the larger society.

The Akans are an ethnic group in West Africa, predominantly Ghana and Togo, of roughly 25 million people. From the twelfth century on, Akans created numerous states based largely on gold mining and trading of cash crops. This brought wealth to numerous Akan states, such as Akwamu, which stretched all the way to modern Benin, and ultimately led to the rise of the best known Akan empire, the Empire of Ashanti. Throughout history, Akans were a highly educated group; notable Akan people in modern times include Kwame Nkrumah and Kofi Annan. This volume features a new array of primary sources that provide fresh and nuanced perspectives. This collection is the first of its kind.