Including the work of nearly 20 authors from institutions such as American University, Memphis University, University of North Carolina, and Georgia State University, this essay collection explores the changing relationship between African Americans and whites on U.S. College and University campuses. These essays investigate and chronicle the tension and social distance felt between African Americans and whites in today's higher-education community. Many facets of the educational experience are examined including student-to-student contact, affinity group formation, Greek life, and the perceived effectiveness of courses on race taught by non-minorities. Although designed as supplemental reading for undergraduate and graduate students, and experts in the field, each chapter in African Americans and Whites includes three or four provocative questions suitable for classroom discussions.

This is a biography of the city of Elvis Presley, Isaac Hayes, Stax Records, and FedEx. Celebrated as the home of the blues and the birthplace of rock and roll, Memphis, Tennessee, is where Elvis Presley, B.B. King, Johnny Cash, and other musical legends got their starts. It is also a place of conflict and tragedy - the site of Martin Luther King Jr.'s 1968 assassination - and a city typically marginalized by scholars and underestimated by its own residents. Using this iconic southern city as a case study, Wanda Rushing explores the significance of place in a globalizing age. Challenging the view that globalization renders place generic or insignificant, Rushing argues that cultural and economic distinctiveness persists in part because of global processes, not in spite of them. Rushing weaves her analysis into stories about the history and global impact of blues music, the social and racial complexities of Cotton Carnival, and the global rise of FedEx, headquartered in Memphis. She portrays Memphis as a site of cultural creativity and global industry - a city whose traditions, complex past, and specific character have had an influence on culture worldwide.