History, Art politics, African, African American, Performance

In 1919, Royal Christian privately published a memoir based on his experiences in World War I. However, the book has been lost to public knowledge for almost a century. Unlike traditional accounts of wartime experiences of African American soldiers serving on the western front in combat regiments or in the various labor battalions in France, Christian served as a professional valet for Colonel Moorhead C. Kennedy, the Deputy Director General of Transportation for the American Expeditionary Forces in Paris and London during the First World War. This narrative is a remarkable contribution to the history of African American men participating in WWI and the unintended consequences of the war in Europe to the development of the African American community. Pellom McDaniels III provides a lightly edited and annotated version of Christian's memoir, supplemented by an extensive introduction and numerous previously unpublished archival photos and documents. Trip to the Battlefields of Europe accounts both directly and indirectly for the challenges African Americans encountered in their efforts to serve the cause of freedom and democracy. Christian chronicles some of the inner workings of the American military and how race served as a barrier to opportunity. In addition, Christian's perspective as an African American man in Europe both during and after the war provides a window to the reader of what tens of thousands of black soldiers witnessed and experienced in their time overseas. Roy's Trip to the Battlefields of Europe offers a unique perspective on African American manhood, masculinity, and citizenship, advancing our understanding of how men like Christian negotiated their obligations to family, community, and themselves, within a society that maintained a deep and abiding attachment to the myth of white supremacy.

Isaac Burns Murphy (1861--1896) was one of the most dynamic jockeys of his era. Still considered one of the finest riders of all time, Murphy was the first jockey to win the Kentucky Derby three times, and his 44 percent win record remains unmatched. Despite his success, Murphy was pushed out of Thoroughbred racing when African American jockeys were forced off the track, and he died in obscurity. In The Prince of Jockeys: The Life of Isaac Burns Murphy, author Pellom McDaniels III offers the first definitive biography of this celebrated athlete, whose life spanned the Civil War, Reconstruction, and the adoption of Jim Crow legislation. Despite the obstacles he faced, Murphy became an important figure -- not just in sports, but in the social, political, and cultural consciousness of African Americans. Drawing from legal documents, census data, and newspapers, this comprehensive profile explores how Murphy epitomized the rise of the black middle class and contributed to the construction of popular notions about African American identity, community, and citizenship during his lifetime.

In this revised edition of My Own Harlem, as in the first edition, Pellom McDaniels, in Langston Hughes-like pensiveness, gives us an opportunity to look into the heart of a displaced young man trying to reach out to the world around him. In fearless style, he writes about the development of an African American original, Jazz, and the historic 18th & Vine district of Kansas City.