Kategoria BISAC: Biography & Autobiography >> Cultural, Ethnic & Regional - General

In 1991, acclaimed poet Kenneth A. McClane published "Walls: Essays, 1985-1990," a volume of essays dealing with life in Harlem, the death of his alcoholic brother, and the complexities of being black and middle-class in America. Now, in "Color: Essays on Race, Family, and History," McClane contributes further to his self-described autobiographical sojourn with a second collection of interconnected essays. In McClane s words, All concern race, although they, like the human spirit, wildly sweep and yaw. A timely installment in our national narrative, "Color" is a chronicle of the black...

This volume presents selections from the work of Abram L. Harris (1899-1963), acknowledged as the first black American economist to achieve prominence in academic life. Between 1927 and 1945 he served on the faculty at Howard University in Washington, D.C. Thereafter, he was a professor in the College at the University of Chicago. During the Howard years, Harris was a central figure among a remarkable group of black social scientists clustered at that institution. He influenced the thought and work of Ralph Bunche, E. Franklin Frazier, and Eric Williams. A frequent contributor to...

W. C. Handy waking up to the blues on a train platform, Buddy Bolden eavesdropping on the drums at Congo Square, John Lomax taking his phonograph recorder into a southern penitentiary--some foundational myths of the black vernacular remain inescapable, even as they come under increasing pressure from skeptics.

In Disturbing the Peace, Bryan Wagner revises the history of the black vernacular tradition and gives a new account of black culture by reading these myths in the context of the tradition's ongoing engagement with the law. Returning to some familiar examples (trickster...

A masterpiece of American literature, Frederick Douglass' "Narrative" is a powerful story of an enslaved youth coming to social and moral consciousness by disobeying his owners and secretly teaching himself to read. Achieving literacy emboldens him to commit further acts of disobedience that ultimately lead him to escape to freedom. Angela Y. Davis explores key passages from Douglass, touching on the philosophical and political importance of self-knowledge, resistance in the pursuit of liberation, and the importance of Douglass to the Obama Generation.

From questioning forces that have constrained sexual choices to examining how Blacks have forged healthy sexual identities in an oppressive environment, Black Sexualities acknowledges the diversity of the Black experience and the shared legacy of racism. Contributors seek resolution to Blacks'...

This story, set in the Piney Woods country of East Texas, spans most of a century, from shortly after the close of the Civil War to the 1960's. It is the story of Charley White, who was born in the middle of those woods--in a decaying windowless log cabin a few years after his mother and father were freed from slavery. His childhood, lived in almost unbelievable poverty, was followed by financial stability achieved in middle age through years of struggle. And then, in order to obey God's will, he abandoned this secure life, and for forty years he waged a one-man war on poverty and...