During the Cold War, Ellis Island no longer served as the largest port of entry for immigrants, but as a prison for holding aliens the state wished to deport. The government criminalized those it considered un-assimilable (from left-wing intellectuals and black radicals to racialized migrant laborers) through the denial, annulment, and curtailment of citizenship and its rights. The island, ceasing to represent the iconic ideal of immigrant America, came to symbolize its very limits. Unbecoming Americans sets out to recover the shadow narratives of un-American writers forged out of the racial and political limits of citizenship. In this collection of Afro-Caribbean, Filipino, and African-American writers-C.L.R. James, Carlos Bulosan, Claudia Jones, and Richard Wright-Joseph Keith examines how they used their exclusion from the nation, a condition he terms "alienage," as a standpoint from which to imagine alternative global solidarities and to interrogate the contradictions of the United States as a country, a republic, and an empire at the dawn of "The American Century." Building on scholarship linking the forms of the novel to those of the nation, the book explores how these writers employed alternative aesthetic forms, including memoir, cultural criticism, and travel narrative, to contest prevailing notions of race, nation, and citizenship. Ultimately they produced a vital counter-discourse of freedom in opposition to the new formations of empire emerging in the years after World War II, forms that continue to shape our world today.

"In bold and beautifully crafted close readings, Reid-Pharr challenges many of the structuring absences that have shaped the fields of African-American literary studies, queer studies, and American Studies. His provocative arguments about sexuality, race, and masculinity are unsettling, in the best sense of that word."
--Siobhan B. Somerville, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign

aProvocatively and often brilliantly, this book disturbs some of our most fundamental thinking about the role of choice, literary influence, collective identity, and the racial erotic in African American letters. Reid-Pharr engages these questions--sometimes with the subtler edge of his wit and other times with the sharpness of cutting-edge theory--but always with an eye to re-orienting us as readers toward what it means to inhabit, or refuse, the skin of identity.a
--Marlon Ross, author of "Manning the Race"

aA deeply local and deeply ethical book and Reid-Pharr is willing to risk the misunderstanding in order to insist on the importance of black political agency. There is a refreshing honesty in the way Reid-Pharr directs his comments toward readers.a--"GC Advocate"

Richard Wright. Ralph Ellison. James Baldwin. Literary and cultural critic Robert Reid-Pharr asserts that these and other post-World War II intellectuals announced the very themes of race, gender, and sexuality with which so many contemporary critics are now engaged. While at its most elemental Once You Go Black is an homage to these thinkers, it is at the same time a reconsideration of black Americans as agents, and not simply products, of history. Reid-Pharr contends that our current notions of black American identity are notinevitable, nor have they simply been forced onto the black community. Instead, he argues, black American intellectuals have actively chosen the identity schemes that seem to us so natural today.

Turning first to the late and relatively obscure novels of Wright, Ellison, and Baldwin, Reid-Pharr suggests that each of these authors rejects the idea of the black as innocent. Instead they insisted upon the responsibility of all citizens-even the most oppressed-within modern society. Reid-Pharr then examines a number of responses to this presumed erosion of black innocence, paying particular attention to articulations of black masculinity by Huey Newton, one of the two founders of the Black Panther Party, and Melvin Van Peebles, director of the classic film "Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song,"

Shuttling between queer theory, intellectual history, literary close readings, and autobiography, Once You Go Black is an impassioned, eloquent, and elegant call to bring the language of choice into the study of black American literature and culture. At the same time, it represents a hard-headed rejection of the presumed inevitability of what Reid-Pharr names racial desire in the production of either culture or cultural studies.

In the summer of 1928, William Alexander Scott began a small four-page weekly with the help of his brother Cornelius. In 1930 his Atlanta World became a semiweekly, and the following year W. A. began to implement his vision for a massive newspaper chain based out of Atlanta: the Southern Newspaper Syndicate, later dubbed the Scott Newspaper Syndicate. In April 1931 the World had become a triweekly, and its reach began drifting beyond the South. With The Grapevine of the Black South, Thomas Aiello offers the first critical history of this influential newspaper syndicate, from its roots in the 1930s through its end in the 1950s. At its heyday, more than 240 papers were associated with the Syndicate, making it one of the biggest organs of the black press during the period leading up to the classic civil rights era (1955-68). In the generation that followed, the Syndicate helped formalize knowledge among the African American population in the South. As the civil rights movement exploded throughout the region, black southerners found a collective identity in that struggle built on the commonality of the news and the subsequent interpretation of that news. Or as Gunnar Myrdal explained, the press was "the chief agency of group control. It [told] the individual how he should think and feel as an American Negro and create[d] a tremendous power of suggestion by implying that all other Negroes think and feel in this manner." It didn't create a complete homogeneity in black southern thinking, but it gave thinkers a similar set of tools from which to draw.

In the 20 years between 1895 and 1915, two key leaders-Booker T. Washington and W.E.B. Du Bois-shaped the struggle for African American rights. This book examines the impact of their fierce debate on America's response to Jim Crow and positions on civil rights throughout the 20th century-and evaluates the legacies of these two individuals even today. The debate between W.E.B. Du Bois and Booker T. Washington on how to further social and economic progress for African Americans lasted 20 years, from 1895 to Washington's death in 1915. Their ongoing conversation evolved over time, becoming fiercer and more personal as the years progressed. But despite its complexities and steadily accumulating bitterness, it was still, at its heart, a conversation-an impassioned contest at the turn of the century to capture the souls of black folk. This book focuses on the conversation between Washington and Du Bois in order to fully examine its contours. It serves as both a document reader and an authored text that enables readers to perceive how the back and forth between these two individuals produced a cacophony of ideas that made it anything but a bipolar debate, even though their expressed differences would ultimately shape the two dominant strains of activist strategy. The numerous chapters on specific topics and historical events follow a preface that presents an overview of both the conflict and its historiographical treatment; evaluates the legacies of both Washington and Du Bois, emphasizing the trajectories of their theories beyond 1915; and provides an explanation of the unique structure of the work. Offers a fresh exploration of the fascinating conversations and controversies between two of the most important African American leaders in history Provides an in-depth exploration of these two important leaders' perspectives and views on America's response to Jim Crow and civil rights that leads to significant new conclusions about historical information Presents the words of DuBois, Washington, and their allies as a conversation that enables readers to better understand the big-picture story of these two scholars

Offers a European view of racial attitudes in the US during the era of the Harlem Renaissance and Jim Crow, with relevance to today's Black Lives Matter and #MeToo movements. Marylin, a novel by the Austrian writer Arthur Rundt about a mixed-race woman passing as white, moves from Chicago to New York City and concludes tragically on a Caribbean island. First published in 1928 and now translated into English, it offers a European view of racial attitudes in the US during the era of the Harlem Renaissance and Jim Crow. Rundt's short but powerful novel touches several vital issues in society today, engaging each in a way that prompts further examination and cross-fertilization. First, it sheds historical light on what has become painfully obvious in the Black Lives Matter era (if it wasn't before): the continued injustice experienced by Blacks in America as an effect of structural racism. Second, it confronts issues of migration and hybrid identities. Third, it has relevance for Women's Studies through the title character's interaction with the patriarchy. Through these connections, it responds to a growing current in German Studies concerned with diversity and inclusion and integrating the discipline into the broader humanities. An introduction and an afterword, both of them extensive and scholarly, contextualize the novel in its time and as it relates to ours.

Ali Mazrui has been described as one of the most original thinkers that Africa has produced, and one of the top 100 living public intellectuals in the world today. This volume uses Mazrui's life and work as a guide towards explaining the historical impact of black public intellectuals such as Julius K. Nyerere, Patrice Lumumba and Barrack Obama. The book explores not only politics and academics, but also religion, gender, class and civil-military relations, bringing together into the black experience both Plato's concept of the "philosopher King" and V.I. Lenin's notion of the 'intelligentsia' ______________________________ Dr Seifudein Adem is Associate Director of the Institute of Global Cultural Studies and Associate Professor of Political Science at the State University of New York in Binghamton in the United States. Dr. Adem's books include Paradigm Lost, Paradigm Regained: The Worldview of Ali A. Mazrui (2002), Anarchy, Order and Power in World Politics (2002) and Hegemony and Discourse (2005). He is currently working on Professor Mazrui's intellectual biography. Dr. Adem is also the Vice President of the New York African Studies Association. Publication date: November 2010

From Water to Wine explores how Angola has changed since the end of its civil war in 2002. Its focus is on the middle class-defined as those with a house, a car, and an education-and their consumption, aspirations, and hopes for their families. It takes as its starting point "what is working in Angola?" rather than "what is going wrong?" and makes a deliberate, political choice to give attention to beauty and happiness in everyday life in a country that has had an unusually troubled history. Each chapter focuses on one of the five senses, with the introduction and conclusion provoking reflection on proprioception (or kinesthesia) and curiosity. Various media are employed-poetry, recipes, photos, comics, and other textual experiments-to engage readers and their senses. Written for a broad audience, this text is an excellent addition to the study of Africa, the lusophone world, international development, sensory ethnography, and ethnographic writing.

This is Vol. 2 of The Interviews, a sequel to Every Step a Struggle. While Vol. 1 recalled the performers who fought to give black artists a voice and a presence, this new ground-breaking book focuses on the personalities who replaced the pioneers and refused to abide by Jim Crow traditions. Presented against a detailed background of the revolutionary post-World War II era up to the mid-1970s, the individual views of Mae Mercer, Brock Peters, Jim Brown, Ivan Dixon, James Whitmore, William Marshall and Ruby Dee in heretofore unpublished conversations from the past reveal just how tumultuous and extraordinary the technological, political, and social changes were for the artists and the film industry. Using extensive documentation, hundreds of films, and fascinating private recollections, Dr. Manchel puts a human face both on popular culture and race relations. "A worthy successor to Every Step a Struggle, Exits and Entrances combines superb historical research and astute analytical insights with the inimitable voices of the next generation of African-American artists. This book ensures that the contributions to American cinema of these determined and courageous rebels will never be forgotten. The film studies community owes a debt of gratitude to Manchel for this, the finest achieve- ment of his illustrious career. Exits and Entrances should be required reading for everyone interested in the politics of race in America, film studies, and African-American studies. It belongs in every research library. Denise Youngblood, University of Vermont, author of Cinematic Cold War. "Using the method of oral history and the mature thinking of a senior scholar, Exits and Entrances enhances our understanding of the difficult slog to create a truthful, "round" image of African-Americans in U.S. commercial films. This collection is a gold mine of information for future research and should be in all libraries which value film research." Peter C. Rollins, Emeritus EIC, Film & History: An Interdisciplinary Journal

This fascinating bibliography of source materials clearly demonstrates the significant roles blacks have played in the history and culture of Canada from its beginnings as well as their 400-year fight for equity and justice. Organized by area of endeavor and by province, the source materials detailed here reveal that blacks in Canada have created a rich, diverse, and complex legacy. This volume lists resources that point to blacks' history as soldiers, prospectors, educators, cowboys, homesteaders, entertainers, legislators, athletes, artists, servants, and writers.

The most comprehensive bibliography about blacks in Canada that has been published, it is well organized to facilitate locating specific topics or people spanning black history. Also included are newspapers and videos that add their own unique contribution. Academicians, researchers, students, and interested lay people will find an organized compilation of a vast number of primary and secondary sources about blacks in Canada.

Jackie Robinson: A Life in American History provides readers with an understanding of the scope of Robinson's life and explores why no Major League Baseball player will ever again wear number 42 as his regular jersey number. This book captures Robinson's lifetime, from 1919 to 1972, while focusing on his connections to the unresolved promise of the Reconstruction Era and to the civil rights movement of the 20th century. In addition to covering Robinson's athletic career with the UCLA Bruins, the Kansas City Monarchs, the Montreal Royals, and the Brooklyn Dodgers, the book explores sociopolitical elements to situate Robinson's story and impact within the broader context of United States history. The book makes deliberate connections among the failure of Reconstruction, the creation of the Negro Leagues, the rise and decline of legalized segregation in the United States, the progress of the civil rights movement, and Robinson's life. Chronological chapters begin with Robinson's life before he played professional baseball, continue with an exploration of the Negro Leagues and Robinson's career with the Brooklyn Dodgers, and conclude with an examination of Robinson's post-retirement life as well as his influence on civil rights. Supplemental materials including document excerpts give readers an opportunity to explore contemporary accounts of Robinson's career and impact. Provides readers with insight into the ways the unfulfilled promise of the Civil War and Reconstruction eras impacted areas of life beyond politics Provides readers with an understanding of how professional baseball reflects American society and vice versa Informs readers that Major League baseball in the 19th century experienced a period of integration before entering a prolonged period of segregation Demonstrates how the effort to reintegrate the Major Leagues was tied to World War II and to efforts to promote integration in other areas of American society Shows Robinson's significance both within and outside of the world of professional baseball

" WITH A FOREWORD BY MARION WRIGHT EDELMAN The award-winning biography of black civil rights activist Fannie Lou Hamer. ""Riveting. Provides a history that helps us to understand the choices made by so many black men and women of Hamer's generation, who somehow found the courage to join a movement in which they risked everything."" --New York Times Book Review ""One is forced to pause and consider that this black daughter of the Old South might have been braver than King and Malcolm."" --Washington Post Book World ""An epic that nurtures us as we confront today's challenges and helps us Keep Hope Alive.'"" --Jesse L. Jackson ""Not only does This Little Light of Mine recount a vital part of America""s history, but it lights our future as readers are inspired anew by Mrs. Hamer's spirit, courage, and commitment."" --Marian Wright Edelman ""This book is the essence of raw courage. It must be read."" --Rep. John Lewis

"A fascinating biography of a fascinating woman." - Booklist, starred review "This definitive look at a remarkable figure delivers the goods." - Publishers Weekly, starred review "A brilliant analysis." - Jericho Brown, Pulitzer Prize winner Featured in Ms. Magazine's "Most Anticipated Reads for the Rest of Us 2022" (books by or about historically excluded groups) Born in New Orleans in 1875 to a mother who was formerly enslaved and a father of questionable identity, Alice Dunbar-Nelson was a pioneering activist, writer, suffragist, and educator. Until now, Dunbar-Nelson has largely been viewed only in relation to her abusive ex-husband, the poet Paul Laurence Dunbar. This is the first book-length look at this major figure in Black women's history, covering her life from the post-reconstruction era through the Harlem Renaissance. Tara T. Green builds on Black feminist, sexuality, historical and cultural studies to create a literary biography that examines Dunbar-Nelson's life and legacy as a respectable activist - a woman who navigated complex challenges associated with resisting racism and sexism, and who defined her sexual identity and sexual agency within the confines of respectability politics. It's a book about the past, but it's also a book about the present that nods to the future.