African American History and Culture

Across black America during the Golden Age of Aviation, John C. Robinson was widely acclaimed as the long-awaited "black Lindbergh." Robinson's fame, which rivaled that of Joe Louis and Jesse Owens, came primarily from his wartime role as the commander of the Imperial Ethiopian Air Force after Italy invaded Ethiopia in 1935.

The forgotten true story of American war hero John Charles Robinson, a.k.a. The Brown Condor of Ethiopia, and the commander of the Imperial Ethiopian Air Corps during the brutal Italo-Ethiopian War of 1935. Simmons brings to life Robinson's success in becoming a pilot, his expertise in building and assembling his own working aircraft, his influence on the establishment of a school of aviation at Tuskegee Institute.

The Tuskegee Airmen Chronology: A Detailed Timeline of the Red Tails and Other Black Pilots of World War II provides a unique year-by-year overview of the fascinating story of the Tuskegee Airmen, embracing important events in the formation of the first military training for black pilots in United States history, the phases of their training at various airfields in Tuskegee and elsewhere, their continued training at other bases around the United States, and their deployment overseas, first to North Africa and then to Sicily and Italy.

From its beginnings in the 15th New York National Guard through its training in the explosive atmosphere in the South, its singular performance in the French army during World War I, and the pathos of postwar adjustment--this book reveals as never before the details of the Harlem Rattlers' experience, the poignant history of some of its heroes, its place in the story of both World War I and the African American campaign for equality--and its full importance in our understanding of American history.

The African American leader discusses his political philosophy and reveals details of his life, shedding light on the ideas that enabled him to gain the allegiance of a still growing percentage of the black population.

With knowledge, spirit, good humor, and passion, THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR. brings to life a remarkable man whose thoughts and actions speak to our most burning contemporary issues and still inspire the desires, hopes, and dreams of us all.

The most comprehensive anthology of primary sources available, spanning the entire history of the American civil rights movement.

Freedom Rights expands our understanding of the movement by engaging issues of local and national politics, gender and race relations, family, community, and sexuality. The volume addresses cultural, legal, and social developments and also investigates the roots of the movement. Each essay highlights important moments in the history of the struggle, from the impact of the Young Women's Christian Association on integration to the use of the arts as a form of activism.

Beyond Rosa Parks, Coretta Scott King, and Dorothy Height, most Americans, black and white alike, would be hard-pressed to name other leaders at the community, local, and national levels. In Lighting the Fires of Freedom Janet Dewart Bell shines a light on women's all-too-often overlooked achievements in the Movement.

Marshall Frady, the reporter who became the unofficial chronicler of the civil rights movement, here re-creates the life and turbulent times of its inspirational leader. Deftly interweaving the story of King's quest with a history of the African American struggle for equality, Frady offers fascinating insights into his subject's magnetic character, with its mixture of piety and ambition.

Based on the archives used in the prize-winning PBS television series, this unique companion to Eyes on the Prize II is the only oral history of America's civil rights movement from 1954 to the present.

This superb reissue of Harlem Renaissance brings to a new generation of readers one of the great works in African-American history and indeed a landmark work in the field of American Studies.

This volume provides new historical and literary insights into the Harlem Renaissance, returning attention to it not only as a broad expression of artistic work but also as a movement that found catharsis in art and hope in resistance.

From "one of the greatest writers of our time" (Toni Morrison)--the author of Barracoon and Their Eyes Were Watching God--a collection of remarkable stories, including eight "lost" Harlem Renaissance tales now available to a wide audience for the first time.

Gathering a representative sampling of the New Negro Movement's most important figures, and providing substantial introductory essays, headnotes, and brief biographical notes, Lewis' volume--organized chronologically--includes the poetry and prose of Sterling Brown, Countee Cullen, W. E. B. Du Bois, Zora Neale Hurston, James Weldon Johnson, and others.

The (Underground) Railroad in African American Literatureoffers a brief history of the African American experience of the railroad and the uses of railroad history by a wide assortment of twentieth-century African American poets, dramatists, and fiction writers.

This is the first readers' advisory guide to focus specifically on African American literature. It is designed to help book professionals better serve not only African American readers, but all readers who enjoy works by African American authors.

A breathtaking achievement, this Concise Companion is a suitable crown to the astonishing production in African American literature and criticism that has swept over American literary studies in the last two decades. It offers an enormous range of writers-from Sojourner Truth to FrederickDouglass, from Zora Neale Hurston to Ralph Ellison, and from Toni Morrison to August Wilson.

Readings in African American Language: Aspects, Features and Perspectives is the most comprehensive collection in African American Vernacular English (AAVE) available that provides various theoretical approaches of its origin, development, and advantages. The contributors provide many different perspectives and topics relevant to the study of African American language as an academic, social, cultural/linguistic entry in the field of language study.

Do you want to know when Duke Ellington was king of The Cotton Club? Have you ever wondered how old Miles Davis was when he got his first trumpet? From birth dates to gig dates and from recordings to television specials, Leonard Feather and Ira Gitler have left no stone unturned in their quest for accurate, detailed information on the careers of 3,300 jazz musicians from around the world.

The author explores the evolution of hip hop and the backlash against it, from Detroit Mayer Kwame Killpatrick, the nation's first hip hop mayor, to the reception of the music on college campuses, where debates over its misogyny thrive.

A must have book for all jazz afficionados and fans alike. Here, Dan Morgenstern, winner of six Grammys and director of the Institute of Jazz Studies, brings together all of his significant work in one volume. He scrutinises the careers of jazz's most iconic figures, among them Ella Fitzgerald and Duke Ellington.

In the twentieth century, African Americans not only helped make popular music the soundtrack of the American experience, they advanced American music as one of the preeminent shapers of the world's popular culture. Vast numbers of black American musicians deserve credit for this remarkable turn of events, but a few stand out as true giants. David Stricklin's superb new biography explores the life of one of them, Louis Armstrong.

At once the most lucrative, popular, and culturally oppositional musical force in the United States, hip hop demands the kind of interpretation Imani Perry provides here: criticism engaged with this vibrant musical form on its own terms. A scholar and a fan, Perry considers the art, politics, and culture of hip hop through an analysis of song lyrics, the words of the prophets of the hood.

The history of slavery is central to understanding the history of the United States. Slavery and the Making of America offers a richly illustrated, vividly written history that illuminates the human side of this inhumane institution, presenting it largely through stories of the slaves themselves.

This collection assembles more than forty speeches, lectures, and essays critical to the abolitionist crusade, featuring writing by William Lloyd Garrison, Frederick Douglass, Lydia Maria Child, Wendell Phillips, Harriet Beecher Stowe, and Ralph Waldo Emerson.

Written as a narrative history of slavery within the United States, Unrequited Toil details how an institution that seemed to be disappearing at the end of the American Revolution rose to become the most contested and valuable economic interest in the nation by 1850.

A groundbreaking history demonstrating that America's economic supremacy was built on the backs of slaves.

An interactive book about slavery based on material from the Black Holocaust Museum.

Drawing from narratives of former slaves to provide accurate and poignant insights, this book presents descriptions in the former slaves' own words about their lives before, during, and following the Civil War.