2 comments about Aaron Douglas: Art, Race, and the Harlem Renaissance.

1. This book is an extremely valuable contribution to the history of American art. Kirschke carefully describes and explains the life of Aaron Douglas----from his childhood in Kansas, to the heights of the Harlem Renassaince, and to his teaching position at Fisk University in his twilight years. Kirschke captures the essense of both the Harlem Renassaince and the life of Aaron Douglas with superb research and excellent prose.



2. For those who have become interested in Douglas' art, this sets it and his life in a broader context. Very satisfying.

3 comments about Sisters in the Struggle : African-American Women in the Civil Rights-Black Power Movement.

1. I have not received the book, "Sisters in the Struggle" Please credit my account.



2. Through the words of scholars and female Civil Rights-Black Power activists, this book provides an excellent overview of the movement. It is a necessary read for anyone who does not understand that black women were essential to the Civil Rights-Black Power movement or who does not understand why black women created their own organizations (i.e., NACW, NCNW, Combahee River Collective, etc.) to insure that their issues were addressed. Each of the essays also provide a wonderful source of general background information to help you understand the historical context without overloading you with info.



3. SISTERS IN THE STRUGGLE chronicles the contributions of African American women at the height of the social reform movement in the twentieth century. It provided a different perspective than what is customarily shed on this era.

   The book depicts the selflessness of some important historical figures such as well-known Rosa Parks whose stubborn refusal to give up her bus seat sparked an inferno in the Civil Rights Movement. Mary MacLeod Bethune's achievement of founding Bethune-Cookman College in 1904 to offer higher education opportunities to African American women is chronicled. The life and times of Charlayne Hunter-Gault, who struggled to tear down the racial dividers at the University of Georgia and won the right to enroll in 1961, as well as many other historical accounts.

   This book was a book club selection. Due to the text-book like offerings, we choose a subsection of the book on which to focus. All in all, the book contributed to a lively discussion as to how women of today are still `in the struggle.' Although dry at times, the book does provide an insightful peek into our history.

   Reviewed by Nedine
   of The RAWSISTAZ Reviewers

5 comments about Lemon Swamp and Other Places: A Carolina Memoir.

1. I helped teach history classes that used this book and I have to admit: it wasn't universally popular among undergrads. But you'll find that you can return to Lemon Swamp time after time and still find it as rich as ever - it's almost impossible to exhaust the insights Fields presents, simply by letting a woman tell her stories. You'll learn more every time you open the book.



2. The Lemon Swamp made me recollect warm thoughts of my own grandparents,esp.my Grandmother. Some of Mamie G. Fields's remembrances are very enjoyable to read and often have cultural or a historical significance. Her comparisons of Boston and Charleston during the 1976 Bicentennial were quite interesting. Despite I am not a black woman I could identify with her in terms of the older generation of my family. I've now lived in Charleston area for approx. 15 years and I feel more at home here than I did growing up in New England.A MUST READ BOOK!



3. There are not enough stars on this site to rate this book. I read it continuously until I was done and then wanted more. Although it is easy reading and gentle on the spirit, this book is an anthology of events important to the history of African Americans and Black home life of a more genteel time. I wish it was required reading for everyone. It certainly would do much to clarify the problems African Americans have had in this society. It is also very humorous and not all facts and dates. Actually, the author, who appears to be a warm and nurturing person, supplies dates and figures so subtly that they do not interfere with the reading. I am buying another copy as a gift. If I were still teaching, I would certainly have this book on my reading list and every student would have to read it until they got it...



4. Ms. Fields has a wonderful story-telling ability, that brings you into her world so that you too, can look out at her world. You don't have to be a woman, young or black to be on her side, and see the pride and dignity with which she and her "people" thrived in that stifling time and place.



5. Even for a guy like me, I liked this book. It reads like Mamie is talking to you. There's a lot of history here and landscape of the Carolina low country. For someone like myself coming from a white monoculture (Oregon) the lives of these black folks is very instructive and inspiring

No comments about Roots of Resistance: The Nonviolent Ethic of Martin Luther King, Jr..

No comments about Martin Luther King, Jr.

2 comments about Pauli Murray: The Autobiography of a Black Activist, Feminist, Lawyer, Priest and Poet.

1. 
   Pauli Murray (1910-1985)is regarded as "one of the least discussed figures in the history of twentieth-century African American women's activism." She was a highly regarded Feminist, who called attention to the plight of women, especially the colored and working poor.
   
   Her gendered perspective led her to become a civil rights activist, and an advocate for underrepresented working people in her capacity as both lawyer and a writer.
   
   "One person plus one typewriter constitutes a movement," she declared as she took up her challenge for the weak and down trodden in our society.
   
   Far sighted enough, She never blamed the poor for their poverty, a fashionable practice in current society.
   
   Murray's parents were educated working people. Her father was a school teacher in Baltimore and her mother a graduate of Hampton training School for Nurses.
   
   It was at Law School where she first became aware of "Jane Crow,"-- a overt form of discrimination against women in society.
   
   First she observed that there were only two female students in her class at the time-- "not more than two or three women" were enrolled, she said.
   
   On the professional faculty, the only woman was the registrar.
   
   "Jane Crow" even expressed itself in class through what she called the "free wheeling classroom style of informal discussion" which "allowed the men's deeper voices to obliterate [her] lighter voice."
   
   Her sex similarly deprived her of membership in her university's well-known legal fraternity.
   
   How would she characterize her general reaction to "Jane Crow"? She was at once disheartened and motivated by her rejection.
   
   This is a great book. I recommend it highly!



2. An amazing woman and a fine writer, Ms. Murray brings our social history to life by looking at her own. Ms. Murray moved through the century finding new ways to contribute to each phase: from writing in Harlem in the 30's to helping to found N.O.W in the 60's. Denied admission to UNC in her youth because of her race, she said her first mass at a chapel there three decades later. Her intelligence and grasp of social issues is evident in her writing, as is her love of family, her strong faith and her pride in her race. If I am forced to a simple description, I can say this book is like if the Delaney Sisters were social activists. I have given away several copies of this book, as well as her history of her remarkable family. (PROUD SHOES, now back in print so grab it while you can.) The house where she grew up in Durham, N.C. still stands, very near my own home, and her many relatives continue to tell stories about Ms. Murray with pride.

2 comments about The Black West: A Documentary and Pictorial History of the African American Role in the Westward Expansion of the United States.

1. What I didn't learn about American history surprised me. I had heard the charges that school textbooks focused on the achievements of white males, but it didn't register with me until I read this book. As a white American, I am thankful to know the contributions made by brave African American pioneers. I believe race relations in our country can only improve if we educate ourselves about other cultures and races and seek the truth. I checked out this book from the library, but I plan to buy a copy for myself and for my son. Thank you, William Loren Katz



2. This is a wonderful history book. It is well written, well documented, and an excellent choice of material. Good photos, too. I highly recommend this book if you enjoy: Black history, women's history, Old West history, and entertaining non-fiction. Some day, I will read this again!

3 comments about The Sweet Hell Inside: The Rise of an Elite Black Family in the Segregated South (National Book Award Winner).

1. 
   Interesting read title does not clearly depict the nature of the book. The title makes it seem as a dark story of an african american family in the south. The book chronicles the struggle and racism that faced by this family and many families during the civil war time period.



2. This book caught me so well, that even though I left my original copy on an airplane, I had to get another copy! In this book, I found it much more than just about the Harleston family. There was so much in there about the history of Charleston, the beginnings of Jazz and Blues, and the the transformation of the South in the late 1800's and 1900's.

   There was a lot to like about this book: the style, the pace, the depth of the family history, as well as the way the events were placed in the course of what was happening at the time. I particularly enjoyed the information related to the music and art of the time.

   This is a tremendous book, and a great read. While I realize it could have been about 100-200 more pages, I would have liked to know more about the life of Edwina during her adult years. While she was one of the few members of the her family still alive in the mid-1900's, it seems the meat of the book ended in the 1930's.

   A highly recommended book, a sure one to keep around...and pass around!




3. 1/29/03 After scanning through the many pages of illustrations and photographs and portraits of the Harleston family ,I found the book even more intriguing by going to the 'Notes'(pgs 353-371) and the Index(Pgs 375-384) and follwing through on the events in the lives of certain of the Harlestons(e.g.):Eloise"Ella" Harleston and Edwin A."Teddy" Harleston.

4 comments about North Pole Legacy: Black, White, and Eskimo.

1. This is an amzing current day historical account given by Dr Counter on his childhood hero Matthew Henson's and Robert Peary's North Pole discovery and the legacy they left.



2. found this in my local library, and it was a great read. For a neuroscientist to be the writer, he is also a good writer. One passage describes as Peary's wife, coming to the artic from New York City on a relief ship, must have seen an Inuit woman with a Inuit child of white skin complexion, and "must have understood. A stoic woman", as the book describes, decided in not saying anything. Very very detailed, it filled the dots in many areas. Would have liked a critical analysis of the 1912 Henson book "A Polar Explorer" in light of the culture during the time it was written, and how it would have been re-written today, since the book publication could only be possible after Peary's review. And would have also mentioned more about the meteorites found and hauled in the 1890's. But still, the amount of detail and effort in stringing it all together is majestic.



3. I've read a good number of books by and about Peary, Henson, Rasmussen, Freuchen, Ehrlich, and others, and this is the best of the lot. It's a fascinating story that recounts the Peary/Henson trek to the N Pole and bundles it with such topics as Eskimo culture, race relations a century ago, and race relations today. Throughout it all, Dr. Counter writes with great sensitivity and objectivity about controversial topics. That he was able to discover the modern relations of Matthew Henson and bring them to the states for reunion and recognition is remarkable. If you are at all interested in history, the N Pole expeditions, or artic living, you'll really enjoy this book.



4. I just heard this book's author on the radio, and was so impressed by him. He's a Harvard professor who got interested in the story of Matthew Henson, a black man who explored the Arctic and discovered the North Pole along with Robert Peary. The professor, Dr. Counter, has gone to the Arctic several times now, and has befriended the sons and grandsons of both Henson and Peary. Before Dr. Counter, nobody in the US even knew that these explorers had fathered children up there. And Dr. Counter has done a lot to get Henson recognition here in the States, where institutionalized racism has minimized his role in history.

No comments about Confronting the Color Line: The Broken Promise of the Civil Rights Movement in Chicago.