This fresh and invigorating analysis illuminates the often-neglected story of early African American civil rights activism. African American Civil Rights: Early Activism and the Niagara Movement tells a fascinating story, one that is too frequently marginalized. Offering the first full-length, comprehensive sociological analysis of the Niagara Movement, which existed between 1905 and 1910, the book demonstrates that, although short-lived, the movement was far from a failure. Rather, it made the need to annihilate Jim Crow and address the atrocities caused by slavery publicly visible, creating a foundation for more widely celebrated mid-20th-century achievements. This unique study focuses on what author Angela Jones terms black publics, groups of concerned citizens-men and women, alike-who met to shift public opinion. The book explores their pivotal role in initiating the civil rights movement, specifically examining secular organizations, intellectual circles, the secular black press, black honor societies and clubs, and prestigious educational networks. All of these, Jones convincingly demonstrates, were seminal to the development of civil rights protest in the early 20th century. Primary source documents including the Niagara Movement's "Declaration of Principles" A chronology of the development of the civil rights movement Photographs of key players in the Niagara Movement An expansive bibliography encompassing titles from sociology, political science, and history

Zora Neale Hurston (1891-1960) is one of 20th-century America's foremost fiction and folklore writers. Though she was criticized by some of her contemporaries, including Richard Wright and Ralph Ellison, her works are now frequently taught in literature courses and are widely admired for their style and substance. This reference book is a comprehensive guide to the large body of work written about her in the last 75 years. Included are annotated entries for books, dissertations, and theses written about Hurston's life and literary career. The volume also looks at hundreds of articles, book chapters, conference papers, reviews, children's books, and web sites. The bibliography additionally points the reader to guides and biographical sources and to anthologies where her works are collected. Finally, an exhaustive list of works by Hurston is provided, along with a catalog of the special collections where her manuscripts, correspondence, and ephemera are stored.

Zora Neale Hurston (1891-1960) is one of 20th-century America's foremost fiction and folklore writers. One of the most important authors of the Harlem Renaissance and one of the first black anthropologists, she received little recognition during her lifetime. She was criticized by some of her contemporaries, including Richard Wright and Ralph Ellison, and her works were largely neglected until the early 1970s. Her works are now frequently taught in literature courses and are widely admired for their style and substance. Her anthropological study, "IMules and Men" (1935), is a pioneering examination of Voodoo and related folklore. As a novelist, she is best known as the author of "Jonah's Gourd Vine" (1934) and "Their Eyes Were Watching God" (1937). In addition, she was a prolific journalist who contributed to the most popular magazines and newspapers of her time.

Though long neglected, Hurston has become firmly established in the literary canon, and scores of books and articles have been written about her. This reference book is a comprehensive guide to the large body of work written about her in the last 75 years. Included are annotated entries for books, dissertations, and theses written about Hurston's life and literary career. The volume also looks at hundreds of articles, book chapters, conference papers, reviews, children's books, and web sites. The bibliography additionally points the reader to guides and biographical sources and to anthologies where her works are collected. Finally, an exhaustive list of works by Hurston is provided, along with a catalog of the special collections where her manuscripts, correspondence, and ephemera are stored.

Frederick Douglass, once a slave, was one of the great 19th century American orators and the most important African American voice of his era. This book traces the development of his rhetorical skills, discusses the effect of his oratory on his contemporaries, and analyzes the specific oratorical techniques he employed. The first part is a biographical sketch of Douglass's life, dealing with his years of slavery (1818-1837), his prewar years of freedom (1837-1861), the Civil War (1861-1865), and postwar years (1865-1895). Chesebrough emphasizes the centrality of oratory to Douglass's life, even during the years in slavery. The second part looks at his oratorical techniques and concludes with three speeches from different periods. Students and scholars of communications, U.S. history, slavery, the Civil War and Reconstruction, and African American studies will be interested in this book.

The untold story of the Black nationalist group behind the growing popularity of Kwanzaa In spite of the ever-growing popularity of Kwanzaa, the story of the influential Black nationalist organization behind the holiday has never been told. Fighting for Us explores the fascinating history of the US Organization, a Black nationalist group based in California that played a leading role in Black Power politics and culture during the late 1960s and early '70s whose influence is still felt today. Advocates of Afrocentric renewal, US unleashed creative and intellectual passions that continue to fuel debate and controversy among scholars and students of the Black Power movement. Founded in 1965 by Maulana Karenga, US established an extensive network of alliances with a diverse body of activists, artists and organizations throughout the United States for the purpose of bringing about an African American cultural revolution. Fighting for US presents the first historical examination of US' philosophy, internal dynamics, political activism and influence on African American art, making an elaborate use of oral history interviews, organizational archives, Federal Bureau of Investigation files, newspaper accounts, and other primary sources of the period. This book also sheds light on factors contributing to the organization's decline in the early '70s-government repression, authoritarianism, sexism, and elitist vanguard politics. Previous scholarship about US has been shaped by a war of words associated with a feud between US and the Black Panther Party that gave way to a series of violent and deadly clashes in Los Angeles. Venturing beyond the lingering rhetoric of rivalry, this book illuminates the ideological similarities and differences between US's "cultural" nationalism and the Black Panther Party's "revolutionary" nationalism. Today, US's emphasis on culture has endured as evidenced by the popularity of Kwanzaa and the Afrocentrism in Black art and popular media. Engaging and original, Fighting for US will be the definitive work on Maulana Karenga, the US organization, and Black cultural nationalism in America.

Nicolas Guillen and Aime Cesaire are considered by many critics and literary historians to be the foremost Caribbean poets of the 20th century, yet they are rarely treated together. This work deals with the two writers within a comparative framework, exploring their poetry as the exemplification of Negritude art and writing from the Caribbean. Josaphat Kubayanda uses non-canonical theories of literary and cultural analysis to discuss the relationships between creative writing, the idea of Africa, and the rediscovery of African values in the Caribbean, and to propose and demonstrate an original Caribbean poetics, anchored in Africa's cultural systems and linked to Afro-American protest thought. Each of the book's chapters focuses on an aspect of the literary development of the African heritage and of the black condition illustrated by Guillen and Cesaire. Chapter 1 offers an introduction to the genesis of Caribbean rhetorical interest in Africa, from the 1920s onward, and places Guillen and Cesaire in the context of Negritude. Chapter 2 addresses the European othering of Africa, and the Negritude critique of this within the non-African traditions. Guillen's and Cesaire's response to the European concept of the universal is discussed in chapter 3, while chapter 4 demonstrates the ways in which blackness is caught between racial otherness and trying to integrate into the Caribbean social order. The final two chapters provide an analysis of the polyrhythmic unity of the African cultural system that allows Guillen and Cesaire to make technical innovations, and a conclusion acknowledges the writers' place in Caribbean creative writing. The volume also contains an updated bibliography on Caribbean literature and the African element. This work will be a valuable reference source for courses in Caribbean and African literary studies, Latin American literature, and Afro-American and African culture, and an important addition to both public and academic libraries.

These shocking accounts of lynching within the Southern States during the late nineteenth century remain no less poignant today than when they were first recorded. A terrible reminder of the violent consequences which ingrained racism has upon society, this book unflinchingly tells of the various laws throughout the USA which allowed crowds to hunt, beat and hang black Americans. This process of lynching persisted for decades, with several communities purposely photographing and publicising their aftermath. Prefaced with a letter from the anti-slavery and black rights campaigner Frederick Douglass, this book describes the various incidents which resulted from authorities turning a blind eye to the violence building in the Southern United States. It is an unabashed exposure of the depravity to which the indulgence of prejudiced attitudes leads by Ida B. Wells-Barnett, in the brutally honest style for which she became both famous and remembered.

As an African American child growing up in St. Augustine, Florida, author Gerald Eubanks had a hard time seeing the victories won during the Civil War in action. Blacks were excluded from opportunities afforded to his white neighbors. Schools were aggressively segregated. Racial tensions simmered. The town's sheriff deputized members of the notorious Ku Klux Klan to ensure continued white supremacy.

It was through the persistence of quiet, unsung heroes that progress began to appear. Here, he celebrates the little-known champions of the movement-those who demonstrated tirelessly, picketed fearlessly, encouraged, consoled, stood tall, and never wavered in their determination to do the right thing despite overwhelming opposition.

"The Dark before Dawn" is Gerald's very personal story of the struggles of life in St. Augustine, Florida, during the civil rights movements of the late 1950s and beyond. It is a tribute to the hundreds of ordinary people who risked everything to so that the lives of generations of others might be better. Those familiar with the events of the era credit the Eubanks family with making the significant contributions to the advance of human and civil rights, but their story has gone unheralded-until now. Gerald Eubanks lived through those turbulent times, and now he reminds readers that the fight for civil rights goes on today. He warns that without vigilance, we may find ourselves in the dark before the dawn once again.

This handbook fills major gaps in the child and adolescent mental health literature by focusing on the unique challenges and resiliencies of African American youth. It combines a cultural perspective on the needs of the population with best-practice approaches to interventions. Chapters provide expert insights into sociocultural factors that influence mental health, the prevalence of particular disorders among African American adolescents, ethnically salient assessment and diagnostic methods, and the evidence base for specific models. The information presented in this handbook helps bring the field closer to critical goals: increasing access to treatment, preventing misdiagnosis and over hospitalization, and reducing and ending disparities in research and care. Topics featured in this book include: The epidemiology of mental disorders in African American youth. Culturally relevant diagnosis and assessment of mental illness. Uses of dialectical behavioral therapy and interpersonal therapy. Community approaches to promoting positive mental health and psychosocial well-being. Culturally relevant psychopharmacology. Future directions for the field. The Handbook of Mental Health in African American Youth is a must-have resource for researchers, professors, and graduate students as well as clinicians and related professionals in child and school psychology, public health, family studies, child and adolescent psychiatry, family medicine, and social work.

Making a Place for Ourselves examines an important but not widely chronicled event at the intersection of African-American history and American medical history--the black hospital movement. A practical response to the racial realities of American life, the movement was a "self-help" endeavor--immediate improvement of separate medical institutions insured the advancement and health of African Americans until the slow process of integration could occur. Recognizing that their careers depended on access to hospitals, black physicians associated with the two leading black medical societies, the National Medical Association (NMA) and the National Hospital Association (NHA), initiated the movement in the 1920s in order to upgrade the medical and education programs at black hospitals. Vanessa Northington Gamble examines the activities of these physicians and those of black community organizations, local and federal governments, and major health care organizations. She focuses on three case studies (Cleveland, Chicago, and Tuskegee) to demonstrate how the black hospital movement reflected the goals, needs, and divisions within the African-American community--and the state of American race relations. Examining ideological tensions within the black community over the existence of black hospitals, Gamble shows that black hospitals were essential for the professional lives of black physicians before the emergence of the civil rights movement. More broadly, Making a Place for Ourselves clearly and powerfully documents how issues of race and racism have affected the development of the American hospital system.

Through a collection and analysis of carefully selected readings, Rethinking Debatable Moments in the Civil Rights Movement: Learning for the Present Moment highlights particular issues, tensions, and dynamics within the Civil Rights Movement. The text asks pointed questions regarding debatable moments of the Civil Rights Movement in order to encourage critical study, stimulate thinking about possible consequences then and now, seek answers or refine the questions, and seek direction for the present moment. The readings are organized in chapters according to the debatable moments: 1) Should the NAACP have pursued the case of Claudette Colvin in combating bus segregation in Montgomery?; 2) Should Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., have joined the Freedom Riders when invited to do so in 1961?; 3) Should children have been allowed to participate in the Birmingham Campaign protests in 1963?; 4) Should SNCC's John Lewis have agreed to amend his speech in the 1963 March on Washington?; and 5) Should Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., have turned the marchers around at the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma after Bloody Sunday? General and chapter introductions and an epilogue explore the context, the key players, the issues, the nature of the crisis, and the consequences and implications of each debatable moment. Rethinking Debatable Moments in the Civil Rights Movement is an excellent supplementary text for courses in anthropology, sociology, black studies, and related social science disciplines.

"The Man Who Changed His Skin" is the first complete biography of John Howard Griffin. Griffin journeyed from Texas to France alone at 15, to study, in 1935. When the Nazis invaded France, he helped get French, German and Austrian Jews to safety. Before he was 21, he was on Gestapo death lists. He returned to the U.S., joined the Air Force and was stationed on a remote island inthe South Pacific. His eyesight was damaged in a Japanese air attack and he became blind for 10 years. Suddenly his eyesight came back. He then turned his skin black and traveled throughout the south in 1959-1960. His subsequent book, "Black Like Me" became an instant American classic and has been published in 65 countries. Griffin's personal diaries and journals are quoted extensively. This biography is published during the 50th anniversary year of "Black Like Me."

Explore the important influence of Japanese-American players on baseball history in California.

"This colection brings together two generations of scholarship on many important topics in African-American religious history. . . . A useful and judiciously chosen compilation that should serve well in the classroom."
-- "Religious Studies Review"

"It serves as a smorgasbord of the study of black spirituality."
-- "Black Issues Book Review"

Down by the Riverside provides an expansive introduction to the development of African American religion and theology. Spanning the time of slavery up to the present, the volume moves beyond Protestant Christianity to address a broad diversity of African American religion from Conjure, Orisa, and Black Judaism to Islam, African American Catholicism, and humanism.

This accessible historical overview begins with African religious heritages and traces the transition to various forms of Christianity, as well as the maintenance of African and Islamic traditions in antebellum America. Preeminent contributors include Charles Long, Gayraud Wilmore, Albert Raboteau, Manning Marable, M. Shawn Copeland, Vincent Harding, Mary Sawyer, Toinette Eugene, Anthony Pinn, and C. Eric Lincoln and Lawrence Mamiya. They consider the varieties of religious expression emerging from migration from the rural South to urban areas, African American women's participation in Christian missions, Black religious nationalism, and the development of Black Theology from its nineteenth-century precursors to its formulation by James Cone and later articulations by black feminist and womanist theologians. They also draw on case studies to provide a profile of the Black Christian church today.

This thematic history of the unfolding of religious life in AfricanAmerica provides a window onto a rich array of African American people, practices, and theological positions.

In this first full-length study of Emecheta's fiction, Fishburn highlights the difficulties inherent in reading across cultures. She challenges the notion that all we need to understand African texts is a willingness to be open to them, arguing that too many of the cultural and critical preconceptions we bring to these texts interfere with our ability to understand them. Directly responding to Western feminist criticism written about Emecheta, this study argues that Emecheta herself is not a feminist in the Western sense and that her novels should not be construed as reflecting this political interest. In close readings of eight of her best known works, this study reveals a complex narrative voice which is far more supportive of Emecheta's own African culture and its tradition than has been recognized previously.

Readings in African American Culture: Resistance, Liberation, and Identity from the 1600s to the 21st Century helps readers understand and appreciate the Black experience through readings that illustrate the lives, history, and intersecting cultures of African Americans and the development of a unique African American identity. Early units examine the definition of African American culture through the lens of the cultural trauma of slavery and the power of white privilege in the U.S. Additional units discuss Afrocentrism and the formation of critical race theory. Students read about expressions of Black cultural power, Blackness and Black identity in contemporary society, and issues related to the appropriation of Black culture. The second edition has expanded from four units to seven, with new readings addressing topics such as the appropriation, Black Twitter and resistance, Black athletes, challenging the defense of using racial slurs, and more. Rooted in an interdisciplinary approach, Readings in African American Culture is appropriate for courses on Black culture and will be of interest in any course centered on the effects of race and culture on minority populations.

In the late 1920s, Reverend A. W. Nix (1880-1949), an African American Baptist minister born in Texas, made fifty-four commercial recordings of his sermons on phonographs in Chicago. On these recordings, Nix presented vocal traditions and styles long associated with the southern, rural Black church as he preached about self-help, racial uplift, thrift, and Christian values. As southerners like Nix fled into cities in the North to escape the rampant racism in the South, they contested whether or not African American vocal styles of singing and preaching that had emerged during the slavery era were appropriate for uplifting the race. Specific vocal characteristics, like those on Nix's recordings, were linked to the image of the "Old Negro" by many African American leaders who favored adopting Europeanized vocal characteristics and musical repertoires into African American churches in order to uplift the modern "New Negro" citizen. Through interviews with family members, musical analyses of the sounds on Nix's recordings, and examination of historical documents and relevant scholarship, Terri Brinegar argues that the development of the phonograph in the 1920s afforded preachers like Nix the opportunity to present traditional Black vocal styles of the southern Black church as modern Black voices. These vocal styles also influenced musical styles. The "moaning voice" used by Nix and other ministers was a direct connection to the "blues moan" employed by many blues singers including Blind Willie, Blind Lemon, and Ma Rainey. Both Reverend A. W. Nix and his brother, W. M. Nix, were an influence on the "Father of Gospel Music," Thomas A. Dorsey. The success of Nix's recorded sermons demonstrates the enduring values African Americans placed on traditional vocal practices.

In "The Last Crusade, " Gerald McKnight examines the Poor People's Campaign, the last large-scale demonstration of civil rights-era America, and the systematic efforts of FBI director J. Edgar Hoover and his executive officers to subvert King's ambitious effort to force the federal government to live up to its promises of a Great Society. The book also looks at King's last days as he helped Memphis sanitation workers in their labor-cum-civil rights struggle with a recalcitrant and racist city government. Although there is no persuasive evidence that the FBI and the Memphis police conspired to assassinate King, McKnight marshals evidence to show that neither agency was blameless.The conventional view of the Poor People's Campaign is that it was a self-inflicted failure. The blame rested squarely on the shoulders of the second-raters of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference who failed to fill the leadership vacuum after King's assassination. But, as McKnight shows, there was a hidden, dark counterpoint to the accepted version--namely, the triumph of the 1960s American surveillance state and its repressive power and flagrant violation of protected freedoms. In fact, whatever the FBI wanted to do to disrupt the Campaign, it did, aided and abetted by local police agencies and elements of the federal government, including military intelligence.