Portraits of African American Life since 1865: : The Human Tradition in America Nina Mjagkij Rowman & Littlefield Publishers

Portraits of African American Life since 1865

Textbook

Portraits of African American Life since 1865

Textbook

Description

Portraits of African American Life since 1865 is an intimate study of the lives of 14 African Americans since the end of the Civil War. Written by established and rising scholars, these diverse biographies offer a rich portrayal of the African American experience over the last 150 years. Unlike many other books in the field which celebrate the contributions of African American leaders, this volume explores the lives of ordinary individuals who pursued a variety of endeavors from politics, labor reform, religion, medicine, sports, business, and, importantly, civil rights. Through the lives of these men and women who struggled to defy great odds, this text demonstrates the major themes in African American history. Editor Nina Mjagkij includes the largely untold stories of the Highgate sisters, two northern black teachers whose lives exemplify the African American thirst for education and penchant for racial uplift through schooling; Father of the Kansas Exodus, Benjamin 'Pap' Singleton; Pan-African Congress member and international peace movement activist Addie Waites Hunton; and Lester A. Walton, a journalist, foreign minister, and political activist who fought tirelessly for the birthright of citizenship for African Americans in a country that systematically denied that claim. In these engaging passages, students will meet Edgar Daniel Nixon, a forgotten Father of the Civil Rights Movement; Sgt. Allen Thomas, Jr., who served in the Vietnam War; civil servant and civil rights activist, Elmer Henderson; and educator and feminist, Anna Julia Cooper. They will become acquainted with fraternal society leader William Washington Browne, who fostered life insurance among African Americans and advocated black owned banks; Richard Henry Boyd, who established the National Baptist Publishing Board, the largest publishing house owned and controlled by black Americans; and Timothy Drew, 'Noble Drew Ali,' founder of the Moorish Science Temple of America, who fused religion with black nationalism, paving the way for other militant separatist groups. In these pages, students will also encounter Willard Townsend, the highest ranking African American official in the Congress of Industrial Organizations, and Roberta Church, the first African American woman in the South to hold the elected position of Republican State Committeewoman. Compelling as well as informative, Portraits of African American Life since 1865 gives students a heightened understanding of the evolution of what it has meant to be black and American through more than 150 years of U.S. history. This book is ideal for African American history courses.

Chapter 1 Edmonia G. and Carolina v. Highgate: Black Teachers, Freed Slaves, and the Betrayal of Black Hearts
Chapter 2 Benjamin "Pap" Singleton: Father of the Kansas Exodus
Chapter 3 William Washington Browne: Fraternal Society Leader
Chapter 4 Richard Henry Boyd: Black Business and Religion in the Jim Crow South
Chapter 5 Anna Julia Cooper: Educator, Clubwoman, and Feminist
Chapter 6 Noble Drew Ali: Popular Religion in the Promised Land
Chapter 7 Ma Rainey: Mother of the Blues
Chapter 8 Addie W. Hunton: Crusader for Pan-Africanism and Peace
Chapter 9 Lester A. Walton: A Life Between Culture and Politics
Chapter 10 Willard Townsend: Black Workers, Civil Rights, and the Labor Movement
Chapter 11 Elmer Henderson: Civil Servant and Civil Rights Activist
Chapter 12 Roberta Church: Race and the Republican Party in the 1950s
Chapter 13 Edgar Daniel Nixon: Founding Father of the Civil Rights Movement
Chapter 14 Sgt. Allen Thomas, Jr.: A Black Soldier in Vietnam

Product details

Published	May 01 2003
Format	Paperback
Edition	1st
Extent	252
ISBN	9780842029674
Imprint	Rowman & Littlefield Publishers
Dimensions	226 x 157 mm
Series	The Human Tradition in America
Publisher	Bloomsbury Publishing

Nina Mjagkij has assembled an excellent collection of wide-ranging, engagingly written essays that illuminate the lives of both well-known and obscure African Americans across the long decaades since slavery's end. Portraits of African American Life since 1865 is a treasure trove of fresh insights and exciting biographical details about provocative African Americans who command our attention.

Darlene Clark Hine, author of Black Victory: The Rise and Fall of the White Primary in Texas
Portraits of African American Life since 1865 offers what many essay collections do not-a shared approach by its fourteen contributors to captivatingly provide little-known histories of African American women and men from the end of slavery to the present. Perhaps most impressive is the volume's readability: each chapter begins with a concise abstract of the contributor's essay and then goes on to present straightforward historical accounts of the lives of often overshadowed and unsung heroes of racial uplift. Indeed, the useful ways in which each contributor ties the individual life stories of the book to well-known historical events and figures makes the collection a rare resource for expanding one's knowledge of African American history and culture.

Journal Of African American Studies
Professor Mjagkij and her colleagues have produced a set of sharp interpretations and much more. Each of these essays provides a wealth of information for scholars at every stage of development. The general reader will find intellectual stimulation; the bright undergraduate will get a crash course historical methods; the dissertation student will be brought rapidly up to speed; the senior scholar will find a convenient refresher in matters adjacent to his or her own specialty. Everyone will find something original and useful in these exciting articles-I certainly did.

Wilson J. Moses, professor of history, The Pennsylvania State University
This remarkable collection of essays shows that the struggles of African Americans were not only led by prominent national leaders but also by courageous men and women who worked in their shadows. Using the biography as a lens through which to view and interpret black life and culture, Nina Mjagkij and her collaborators extend the boundaries of African American history.

Dr. Henry Louis Taylor, Jr., University of Buffalo