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    Monday, March 31, 2014

    African Struggles Today: Social Movements Since Independence

    Three leading Africa scholars investigate the social forces driving the democratic transformation of postcolonial states across southern Africa. Extensive research and interviews with civil society organizers in Zimbabwe, South Africa, Zambia, Malawi, Namibia, and Swaziland inform this analysis of the challenges faced by non-governmental organizations in relating both to the attendant inequality of globalization and to grassroots struggles for social justice.
    Sunday, March 30, 2014

    Enslaved Women and the Art of Resistance in Antebellum America

    The historical records and stories of enslaved African women have both creative and life-affirming resistance strategies for how women of the past have dealt with and healed from violence. This book draws on mid-seventeenth to nineteenth-century slave narratives to describe the depths of multi-dimensional oppression and violence in the lives of enslaved African women. Harrison investigates pre-colonial West and West Central African women’s lives prior to European arrival in order to recover those African-derived aesthetic forms, cultural traditions, and religious practices that helped enslaved women combat violence and oppression. The nine strategies of resistance offered as modes of resistance employed by enslaved women are viable modes for modern-day women. Enslaved Women and the Art of Resistance in Antebellum America

    African Women: A Modern History

    Over the last century, the social and economic roles played by African women have evolved dramatically. Long confined to home and field, overlooked by their menfolk and missionaries alike, African women worked, thought, dreamed, and struggled. They migrated to the cities, invented new jobs, and activated the so-called informal economy to become Africa’s economic and social focal point. As a result, despite their lack of education and relatively low status, women are now Africa’s best hope for the future.This sweeping and innovative book is the first to reconstruct the full history of women in sub-Saharan Africa. Tracing the lot of African women from the eve of the colonial period to the present, Catherine Coquery-Vidrovitch explores the stages and forms of women’s collective roles as well as their individual emancipation through revolts, urban migrations, economic impacts, social claims, political strength, and creativity. Comparing case studies drawn from throughout the region, she sheds light on issues ranging from gender to economy, politics, society, and culture. Utilizing an impressive array of sources, she highlights broad general patterns without overlooking crucial local variations. With its breadth of coverage and clear analysis of complex questions, this book is destined to become a standard text for scholars and students alike. [Catherine_Coquery-vidrovitch__Beth_Raps__Translat_bookos-z1.org_

    Women's Work: An Anthology of African-American Women's Historical Writings from Antebellum America to the Harlem Renaissance

    Whether in schoolrooms or kitchens, state houses or church pulpits, women have always been historians. Although few participated in the academic study of history until the mid-twentieth century, women labored as teachers of history and historical interpreters. Within African-American communities, women began to write histories in the years after the American Revolution. Distributed through churches, seminaries, public schools, and auxiliary societies, their stories of the past translated ancient Africa, religion, slavery, and ongoing American social reform as historical subjects to popular audiences North and South. This book surveys the creative ways in which African-American women harnessed the power of print to share their historical revisions with a broader public. Their speeches, textbooks, poems, and polemics did more than just recount the past. They also protested their present status in the United States through their reclamation of that past. Bringing together work by more familiar writers in black America-such as Maria Stewart, Francis E. W. Harper, and Anna Julia Cooper-as well as lesser-known mothers and teachers who educated their families and their communities, this documentary collection gathers a variety of primary texts from the antebellum era to the Harlem Renaissance, some of which have never been anthologized. Together with a substantial introduction to black women's historical writings, this volume presents a unique perspective on the past and imagined future of the race in the United States. [Laurie_F._Maffly-Kipp__Kathryn_Lofton]_Women's_Wo_bookos-z1.org_

    Beyond Small Numbers, Volume 4: Voices of African American PhD Chemists

    The book provides significant insight into the factors that affect the careers of these scientists and, importantly, gives voice to the many men and women who overcame discrimination, prejudice, and racism to build successful scientific careers. Although 70 percent of those interviewed felt that their careers had been hindered by discrimination, less than a handful expressed any regrets about choosing a career in chemistry. Remarkably, these chemists refused to allow racism to stifle their achievement. Although a disproportionate number of the chemists had their birth origins in the South, however, most pursued their careers outside the region and branched out across the nation. Many of those individuals had profound impacts in both industrial and academic settings but this book also chronicles the hardships that many faced. This book provides the opportunity for a full range of voices, from a number of perspectives, to be heard. [Jr__Willie_Pearson]_Beyond_Small_Numbers__Volume__bookos-z1.org_

    Style and Status: Selling Beauty to African American Women, 1920-1975

    Between the 1920s and the 1970s, American economic culture began to emphasize the value of consumption over production. At the same time, the rise of new mass media such as radio and television facilitated the advertising and sales of consumer goods on an unprecedented scale. In Style and Status: Selling Beauty to African American Women, 1920--1975, Susannah Walker analyzes an often-overlooked facet of twentieth-century consumer society as she explores the political, social, and racial implications of the business devoted to producing and marketing beauty products for African American women. Walker examines African American beauty culture as a significant component of twentieth-century consumerism, and she links both subjects to the complex racial politics of the era. The efforts of black entrepreneurs to participate in the American economy and to achieve self-determination of black beauty standards often caused conflict within the African American community. Additionally, a prevalence of white-owned firms in the African American beauty industry sparked widespread resentment, even among advocates of full integration in other areas of the American economy and culture. Concerned African Americans argued that whites had too much influence over black beauty culture and were invading the market, complicating matters of physical appearance with questions of race and power. Based on a wide variety of documentary and archival evidence, Walker concludes that African American beauty standards were shaped within black society as much as they were formed in reaction to, let alone imposed by, the majority culture. Style and Status challenges the notion that the civil rights and black power movements of the 1950s through the 1970s represents the first period in which African Americans wielded considerable influence over standards of appearance and beauty. Walker explores how beauty culture affected black women's racial and feminine identities, the role of black-owned businesses in African American communities, differences between black-owned and white-owned manufacturers of beauty products, and the concept of racial progress in the post--World War II era. Through the story of the development of black beauty culture, Walker examines the interplay of race, class, and gender in twentieth-century America. [Susannah_Walker]_Style_and_Status_Selling_Beauty_bookos-z1.org_

    African American Troops in World War II

    Osprey's study of the African Americans' involvement in World War II (1939-1945). Despite the contribution of black units to the American Expeditionary Force in World War I (1914-1918), and the commissioning of hundreds of black officers to lead them, the small interwar US Army continued to regard them as unsuited to both leadership roles and handling modern technology. Although African Americans had to strive against prejudice for every chance to show what they could achieve, in fact the wartime US Army conceded opportunities for leadership unparaleled in American civil society at that date. In World War II tens of thousands served in segregated units. While the majority were denied the opportunity of combat, a minority of all-black, black-officered units proved their worth in all theaters and a number of roles: black officer fighter pilots (the "Tuskegee Airmen") blazed the trail, followed by several tank and tank-destroyer battalions and a few field artillery units; and more than 20,000 black infantrymen served under both white and black officers. The Army also created the first fully integrated units, whose success prompted President Truman to order the complete integration of the military in 1948. The US Navy and Marines were slower to allow blacks to serve in combat roles and to commission black officers, but by 1945 two complete ships' companies were composed of African-Americans (though with white officers). [Alexander_Bielakowski__Raffaele_Ruggeri]_African__bookos-z1.org_

    Contemporary African American Women Playwrights: A Casebook

    In the last fifty years, American and World theatre has been challenged and enriched by the rise to prominence of numerous female African American dramatists. Contemporary African American Women Playwrights is the first critical volume to explore the contexts and influences of these writers, and their exploration of black history and identity through a wealth of diverse, courageous and visionary dramas. [Phillip_Kolin]_Contemporary_African_American_Wome_bookos-z1.org_

    African American Women Chemists by Jeannette Brown

    Like pioneers in any field, these women were more than just chemical researchers or educators; they were true "Renaissance women," often dually employed as reporters, editors, activists, or even priests, and playing leadership roles in national and grassroots organizations. Brown's factual accounts, while often impassive and dull, are greatly informative, and are supported by extensive citations of texts, journal articles, and personal interviews. Although books on African American chemists and female African American scientists do exist, this book is the first biographical reference on this specific underrepresented population. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Students of all levels and general readers. [Jeannette_Brown]_African_American_Women_Chemists_bookos-z1.org_

    Modern African Wars (4): The Congo 1960-2002

    From Belgian and French paratroops to Che Guevara and CIA funded Cuban B-26 pilots, the Congo has been a hotbed of African conflict in the late 20th century. When the colonial powers began retreating from Africa in the 1950s and 1960s, the Belgian Congo/Zaire became the bloodiest, most chaotic example of 'how not to do it', and has remained so ever since. A vast region with huge mineral wealth, abandoned in 1960 with virtually no infrastructure or functioning government, it was immediately torn by civil wars. Many whites remained in-country, both as missionaries and to exploit the mines, and Belgian military advisors were caught up in the chaotic conflict that threatened them. White mercenary troops were hired, and in the 1960s these became famous world-wide for some dramatic rescue missions. Manipulated by mining interests, the rich province of Katanga/Shaba seceded from the Republic; Swedish, Irish and 14 other UN contingents had to intervene, and the UN Secretary General was killed there under suspicious circumstances. In the late 1960s even Che Guevara tried to stick his nose in, so the CIA got involved, providing T-28s and B-26s with mercenary Cuban exile pilots. In the 1970s, during the ruinous 30-year dictatorship of General Mobutu, periodic rebellions required the hasty insertion once again of Belgian and French paratroops to save European lives. From the mid-1990s the country split again, becoming the battleground for the largest African war in history, as armies and rebel groups from Rwanda, Angola, Zimbabwe, Uganda, Namibia and other countries crossed into the Congo to support one side or the other, or simply to loot the rich resources. Major operations ended - or paused - in 2002, but the old hatreds and constant lure of the Congo's natural resources continue to boil over into periodic outbreaks. Featuring specially commissioned full-color artwork and rare photographs, this is the harrowing story of the wars that ravaged Congo for four decades. MAA492

    African American Communication: Exploring Identity and Culture

    What communicative experiences are particular to African Americans? How do many African Americans define themselves culturally? How do they perceive intracultural and intercultural communication? These questions are answered in this second edition of African American Communication: Exploring Identity and Culture. Informing multiple audiences interested in African American culture, from cultural researchers and practitioners to educators, policymakers, and community leaders, this innovative and invaluable resource examines the richness and depth of African American communication norms and patterns, as well as African American identities. Positive and healthy African American identities are centrally positioned throughout the book. Applying the cultural contracts theory and the communication theory of identity, authors Michael L. Hecht, Ronald L. Jackson II, and Sidney A. Ribeau explore relationships among African Americans, as well as between African Americans and European Americans, while highlighting the need for sensitivity to issues of power when discussing race, ethnicity, and culture. This wide-ranging volume provides an extensive review of the relevant literature and offers recommendations designed to encourage understanding of African American communication in a context extending beyond Eurocentric paradigms. Considering African American identity with a communicative, linguistic, and relational focus, this volume: *Defines African American identities by describing related terms, such as self, self-concept, personhood and identity; *Explores Afrocentricity and African American discourse; *Examines the status of African Americans in the United States using census statistics and national studies from other research agencies; *Considers identity negotiation and competence; and *Features a full chapter on African American relationships, including gendered, familial, intimate, adolescent and adult, homosexual, friendship, communal, and workplace relationships. African American Communication: Exploring Identity and Culture begins an important dialogue in the communication discipline, intercultural studies, African American studies and other fields concerned with the centrality of culture and communication as it relates to human behavior. It is intended for advanced students and scholars in intercultural communication, interpersonal communication, communication theory, African American/Black studies, social psychology, sociolinguistics, education, and family studies. [Sidney_A._Ribeau__Michael_L._Hecht__Ronald_L._Jac_bookos-z1.org_

    Art and Eternity: The Nefertari Wall Paintings Conservation Project 1986-1992

    This is the final report on the conservation of the wall paintings in the tomb of Nefertari in the Valley of Queens, Egypt. This highly successful collaborative venture brought together scientists and conservators from all over the world to address the problems facing one of the most beautiful monuments of antiquity. The painstaking process that saved this cultural treasure in situ is documented here by those most intimately involved in its rescue. Other articles deal with the archaeology of the Valley, the iconography of the tomb, the original techniques and materials used by the artists, photographic documentation of the wall paintings, and literary sources for their study. 0892361301

    African Masculinities: Men in Africa from the Late 19th Century to the Present

    While masculinity studies enjoys considerable growth in the West, there is very little analysis of African masculinities. This volume explores what it means for an African to be masculine and how male identity is shaped by cultural forces. The editors believe that to tackle the important questions in Africa--the many forms of violence (wars, genocides, familial violence and crime) and the AIDS pandemic--it is necessary to understand how a combination of a colonial past, patriarchal cultural structures and a variety of religious and knowledge systems creates masculine identities and sexualities. The work done in the book particularly bears in mind how vulnerability and marginalization produce complex forms of male identity. The book is interdisciplinary and is the first in-depth and comprehensive study of African men as a gendered category. [Lahoucine_Ouzgane__Robert_Morrell]_African_Mascul_bookos-z1.org_

    African Women and Apartheid: Migration and Settlement in Urban South Africa

    A key mechanism of apartheid in South Africa was the set of restrictions placed on the movements of Africans; in particular, African women were subject to lives of daily surveillance and highly regulated housing, employment and mobility. Here Lee explores the lives and testimonies of three generations of African women in Cape Town during the apartheid (1948-94) and post-apartheid periods. Through life histories and a wealth of evidence, Lee considers how African women differently experienced apartheid, offering an intimate account of their attempts to locate "home" in the urban setting. The various strategies of settlement African women crafted over five decades provide a compelling portrait of adaptation, resilience and change. Drawing together perspectives from anthropology, history, human geography and development studies, African Women and Apartheid will be valuable to anyone with interests in South African culture and society, gender, urbanization, the African family, oral history and memory. [Rebekah_Lee]_African_Women_and_Apartheid_Migrati_bookos-z1.org_

    African Americans and the Civil War

    Students learn about the various parts that African Americans played in the Civil War. Includes photographs and illustrations, bibliography, glossary, and an index. 8 chapters, 134 pages [Ronald_A._Reis]_African_Americans_and_the_Civil_W_bookos-z1.org_

    Freedom Struggles: African Americans and World War I

    For many of the 200,000 black soldiers sent to Europe with the American Expeditionary Forces in World War I, encounters with French civilians and colonial African troops led them to imagine a world beyond Jim Crow. They returned home to join activists working to make that world real. In narrating the efforts of African American soldiers and activists to gain full citizenship rights as recompense for military service, Adriane Lentz-Smith illuminates how World War I mobilized a generation. Black and white soldiers clashed as much with one another as they did with external enemies. Race wars within the military and riots across the United States demonstrated the lengths to which white Americans would go to protect a carefully constructed caste system. Inspired by Woodrow Wilson's rhetoric of self-determination but battered by the harsh realities of segregation, African Americans fought their own "war for democracy," from the rebellions of black draftees in French and American ports to the mutiny of Army Regulars in Houston, and from the lonely stances of stubborn individuals to organized national campaigns. African Americans abroad and at home reworked notions of nation and belonging, empire and diaspora, manhood and citizenship. By war's end, they ceased trying to earn equal rights and resolved to demand them. This beautifully written book reclaims World War I as a critical moment in the freedom struggle and places African Americans at the crossroads of social, military, and international history. [Adriane_Lentz-Smith]_Freedom_Struggles_African_A_bookos-z1.org_

    A Woman's War: The Professional and Personal Journey of the Navy's First African American Female Intelligence Officer

    When Gail Harris was assigned by the U.S. Navy to a combat intelligence job in 1973, she became the first African American female to hold such a position. Her 28-year career included hands on leadership in the intelligence community during every major conflict from the Cold War to Desert Storm to Kosovo, and most recently at the forefront of one of the Department of Defense's newest challenges: Cyber Warfare. At her retirement, she was the highest ranking African American female in the Navy. A Woman's War: The Professional and Personal Journey of the Navy's First African American Female Intelligence Officer is an inspirational memoir that follows Gail Harris's career as a naval intelligence officer, sharing her unique experience and perspective as she completed the complex task of providing intelligence support to military operations while also battling the status quo, office bullies, and politics. This book also looks at the way intelligence is used and misused in these perilous times. [Gail_Harris]_A_Woman's_War_The_Professional_and__bookos-z1.org_

    There is No Such Thing as a Natural Disaster: Race, Class, and Hurricane Katrina

    There is No Such Thing as a Natural Disaster is the first comprehensive critical book on the catastrophic impact of Hurricane Katrina on New Orleans. The disaster will go down on record as one of the worst in American history, not least because of the government’s inept and cavalier response. But it is also a huge story for other reasons; the impact of the hurricane was uneven, and race and class were deeply implicated in the unevenness. Hartman and. Squires assemble two dozen critical scholars and activists who present a multifaceted portrait of the social implications of the disaster. The book covers the response to the disaster and the roles that race and class played, its impact on housing and redevelopment, the historical context of urban disasters in America and the future of economic development in the region. It offers strategic guidance for key actors - government agencies, financial institutions, neighbourhood organizations - in efforts to rebuild shattered communities. [Chester_Hartman__Gregory_D._Squires]_There_is_No__bookos-z1.org_

    Adventures in the Bone Trade: The Race to Discover Human Ancestors in Ethiopia's Afar Depression

    As co-founder of the expedition that discovered Lucy, and leader of most of the first site-surveys in the Afar Depression in Ethiopia, Jon Kalb has years of experience with the region, its politics, and the scientists involved in the excavations. A participant himself in the "bone wars" that accompanied these discoveries, Kalb recounts the cutthroat competition and back stabbing that were often part of the media-highlighted race to find the oldest hominid fossil. He weaves this story in the rich fabric of Ethiopian society and politics, the plight of the regions peoples, and the international maneuverings for control of the fossil finds. [Jon_Kalb]_Adventures_in_the_Bone_Trade_The_Race__bookos-z1.org_

    African American Women and the Vote, 1837-1965

    [ann_d._gordon_bettye_collier-thomas_john_h._bra_bookos-z1.org_

    Uneasy Alliances: Race and Party Competition in America

    Uneasy Alliances is a powerful challenge to how we think about the relationship between race, political parties, and American democracy. While scholars frequently claim that the need to win elections makes government officials responsive to any and all voters, Paul Frymer shows that not all groups are treated equally; politicians spend most of their time and resources on white swing voters--to the detriment of the African American community. As both parties try to attract white swing voters by distancing themselves from blacks, black voters are often ignored and left with unappealing alternatives. African Americans are thus the leading example of a "captured minority." Frymer argues that our two-party system bears much of the blame for this state of affairs. Often overlooked in current discussions of racial politics, the party system represents a genuine form of institutional racism. Frymer shows that this is no accident, for the party system was set up in part to keep African American concerns off the political agenda. Today, the party system continues to restrict the political opportunities of African American voters, as was shown most recently when Bill Clinton took pains to distance himself from African Americans in order to capture conservative votes and win the presidency. Frymer compares the position of black voters with other social groups--gays and lesbians and the Christian right, for example--who have recently found themselves similarly "captured." Rigorously argued and researched, Uneasy Alliances is a powerful challenge to how we think about the relationship between black voters, political parties, and American democracy. In a new afterword, Frymer examines the impact of Barack Obama's election on the delicate relationship between race and party politics in America. [Paul_Frymer]_Uneasy_Alliances_Race_and_Party_Com_bookos-z1.org_

    Colonial Genocide and Reparations Claims in the 21st Century: The Socio-Legal Context of Claims under International Law by the Herero against Germany for Genocide in Namibia, 1904-1908

    More and more, the descendants of indigenous victims of genocide, land expropriation, forced labor, and other systematic human rights violations committed by colonial powers are seeking reparations under international law from the modern successor governments and corporations. As the number of colonial reparations cases increases, courts around the world are being asked to apply international law to determine whether reparations are due for atrocities and crimes that might have been committed long ago but whose lasting effects are alleged to injure the modern descendants of the victims. Sarkin analyzes the thorny issues of international law raised in such suits by focusing on groundbreaking cases in which he is involved as legal advisor to the paramount chief of the Herero people of Namibia. In 2001, the Herero became the first ethnic group to seek reparations under the legal definition of genocide by bringing multi-billion-dollar suits against Germany and German companies in a number of U.S. federal courts under the Alien Torts Claim Act of 1789. The Herero genocide, conducted in German South-West Africa (present-day Namibia) between 1904 and 1908, is recognized by the UN as the first organized state genocide in world history. Although the Herero were subjected to Germany's First Genocide, they have, unlike the victims of the Holocaust, received no reparations from Germany. By machine-gun massacres, starvation, poisoning, and forced labor in Germany's first concentration camps, the German Schutztruppe systematically exterminated as many as 105,000 Herero women, and children, composing most of the Herero population. Sarkin considers whether these historical events constitute legally defined genocide, crimes against humanity, and other international crimes. He evaluates the legal status of indigenous polities in Africa at the time and he explores the enduring impact in Namibia of the Germany's colonial campaign of genocide. He extrapolates the Herero case to global issues of reparations, apologies, and historical human rights violations, especially in Africa. [Jeremy_Sarkin]_Colonial_Genocide_and_Reparations__bookos-z1.org_

    Genocide by Denial: How Profiteering from HIV/AIDS Killed Millions

    Genocide by Denial: How Profiteering from HIV/AIDS Killed Millions traces the carnage of HIV/AIDS from its Ugandan epicentre in the villages of Kasensero, along the shores of Lake Victoria, through sub-Saharan Africa and onto the rest of the world. The author's involvement in the struggle against the virus started in 1989, soon after his return from a long exile in Europe and the Middle East. On arrival he found the disease devastating his country, compelling him to fight the modern-age plague. He became one of the leaders in a protracted fight against the scourge and an advocate for universal access to life-saving antiretroviral therapy. In this book the author exposes the incredible self-indulgence of the pharmaceutical companies and the cold-heartedness of the rich world that turned a blind eye until it was far too late, and then responded too slowly with too little. The book details his challenge to the powerful pharmaceutical companies that insisted on profitable business as usual, ignoring the lives of millions, and his call for more ethical and humanitarian ways of trade, involving crucial life-saving drugs, and a new world order to ensure entitlement of the poor to rapid humanitarian relief. [Peter_Mugyenyi]_Genocide_by_Denial_How_Profiteer_bookos-z1.org_

    The Harlem Hellfighters

    New York Times bestselling author Walter Dean Myers and renowned filmmaker Bill Miles deftly tell the true story of the unsung American heroes of the 369th Infantry Regiment of World War I in The Harlem Hellfighters: When Pride Met Courage. At a time of widespread bigotry and racism, the African American soldiers of the 369th Infantry Regiment put their lives on the line in the name of democracy. The Harlem Hellfighters: When Pride Met Courage is a portrait of bravery and honor. [Walter_Dean_Myers__Bill_Miles]_The_Harlem_Hellfig_bookos-z1.org_

    To Advance their Opportunities: Federal Policies Toward African American Workers from World War I to the Civil Right Act of 1964

    To Advance Their Opportunities chronicles the development of federal policies and programs impacting African American workers, examining the fascinating and rarely seen workings of federal bureaucracies as they attempted to rein in racism in the nation's federally funded workplaces. The book traces the hard-won gains made by African American workers and the crucial role of the civil rights movement and its supporters in urging the federal government to action. This scholarly and timely work also brings to light the little known story of the birth of affirmative action. [Judson_Maclaury]_To_Advance_Their_Opportunities__bookos-z1.org_

    African American Urban History since World War II

    Historians have devoted surprisingly little attention to African American urban history of the postwar period, especially compared with earlier decades. Correcting this imbalance, African American Urban History since World War II features an exciting mix of seasoned scholars and fresh new voices whose combined efforts provide the first comprehensive assessment of this important subject. The first of this volume’s five groundbreaking sections focuses on black migration and Latino immigration, examining tensions and alliances that emerged between African Americans and other groups. Exploring the challenges of residential segregation and deindustrialization, later sections tackle such topics as the real estate industry’s discriminatory practices, the movement of middle-class blacks to the suburbs, and the influence of black urban activists on national employment and social welfare policies. Another group of contributors examines these themes through the lens of gender, chronicling deindustrialization’s disproportionate impact on women and women’s leading roles in movements for social change. Concluding with a set of essays on black culture and consumption, this volume fully realizes its goal of linking local transformations with the national and global processes that affect urban class and race relations. [Kenneth_L._Kusmer__Joe_W._Trotter]_African_Americ_bookos-z1.org_

    African Women's Movements: Transforming Political Landscapes

    Women burst onto the political scene in Africa after the 1990s, claiming more than one third of the parliamentary seats in countries like Angola, Mozambique, South Africa, Tanzania, Uganda, and Burundi. Women in Rwanda hold the highest percentage of legislative seats in the world. Women's movements lobbied for constitutional reforms and new legislation to expand women's rights. This book examines the convergence of factors behind these dramatic developments, including the emergence of autonomous women's movements, changes in international and regional norms regarding women's rights and representation, the availability of new resources to advance women's status, and the end of civil conflict. The book focuses on the cases of Cameroon, Uganda, and Mozambique, situating these countries in the broader African context. The authors provide a fascinating analysis of the way in which women are transforming the political landscape in Africa, by bringing to bear their unique perspectives as scholars who have also been parliamentarians, transnational activists, and leaders in these movements. [Aili_Mari_Tripp__Isabel_Casimiro__Joy_Kwesiga__Al_bookos-z1.org_

    Boys Into Men: Raising Our African American Teenage Sons

    Two noted psychologists, who are parents themselves, share their wisdom in this indispensable book on raising African-American boys. With the success of books such as Raising Cain and Real Boys comes the awareness of the increasing need we have to help boys grow into healthy, happy men. But for African-American boys, the statistics are often grim. They enter this world having a distinct disadvantage, still the target of racism, prejudice, and discrimination. Now, in the first book of its kind, husband and wife psychologists Drs. Nancy Boyd-Franklin and A. J. Franklin address the long overdue issues involved in raising African-American teenage boys and how to combat the overwhelming influences that can negatively affect these young men. Parents and educators will learn how to deal with problems such as violence, drugs, sex, and racism, as well as with the effects of music, the media, and sports. Based on the authors' own experience as psychologists and as the parents of four children, and including stories from dozens of other African-American families, Boys into Men offers simple, effective strategies for problem-solving, improving communication, and instilling a positive racial identity in African-American boys. This important book includes resources on finding a professional counselor as well as offering related reading, websites, and helpful organizations. [Nancy_Boyd-Franklin__Pamela_A._Toussaint__A._J._F_bookos-z1.org_

    Divided We Fail: The Story of an African American Community That Ended the Era of School Desegregation

    Despite the intent of the Brown decision, racial politics since the landmark ruling have yielded so much resegregation of public schools as to challenge the decades-old desegregation orders that black and white parents often found dysfunctional. Education reporter Garland chronicles the little-known role of black parents in the 2007 U.S. Supreme Court ruling against the use of race in assigning students in public schools. The parents of children attending Central High School in Louisville, Kentucky, were motivated by the massive firing of black teachers and closing of traditional black schools when they failed to attract white students, whose parents opted out of the public school system. Garland, who grew up in Louisville and whose mother worked in the public schools as a social worker, offers heart-wrenching portraits of the families who suffered through the violence of desegregation and the loss of treasured community institutions, which led them to fight to end efforts in what had become a one-sided process. This is a compelling look at the complexities of race and class in the continued struggle for racial parity and high-quality education Divided we Fail - Sarah Garland

    Saturday, March 29, 2014

    The Negro's Civil War: How American Blacks Felt and Acted During the War for the Union

    In this classic study, Pulitzer Prize-winning author James M. McPherson deftly narrates the experience of blacks--former slaves and soldiers, preachers, visionaries, doctors, intellectuals, and common people--during the Civil War. Drawing on contemporary journalism, speeches, books, and letters, he presents an eclectic chronicle of their fears and hopes as well as their essential contributions to their own freedom. Through the words of these extraordinary participants, both Northern and Southern, McPherson captures African-American responses to emancipation, the shifting attitudes toward Lincoln and the life of black soldiers in the Union army. Above all, we are allowed to witness the dreams of a disenfranchised people eager to embrace the rights and the equality offered to them, finally, as citizens. DOWNLOAD LINK

    Malik Goes to School: Examining the Language Skills of African American Students From Preschool-5th Grade

    Malik Goes to School: Examining the Language Skills of African American Students From Preschool-5th Grade synthesizes a decade of research by the authors, Holly Craig and Julie Washington, on the oral language and literacy skills of African American children from preschool to fifth grade. Their research has characterized significant influences on the child's use of AAE and the relationship between AAE and aspects of literacy acquisition. The research has also led to the characterization of other nondialectal aspects of language development. The outcome has been a culture-fair, child-centered language evaluation protocol. DOWNLOAD LINK

    From Whence Cometh My Help: The African American Community at Hollins College

    In 1842 Charles Lewis Cocke arrived in Roanoke, Virginia, with sixteen slaves; there, he founded Hollins College, an elite woman's school. Many of the early students also brought their slaves to the college with them. Upon Emancipation some of the African Americans of the community "mostly women" stayed on as servants, forming what is now called the Hollins Community. Although the servants played an integral part in the college's success, students were strongly discouraged from acknowledging them as people. Rules forbidding any "familiarity" with the servants perpetuated a prejudicial attitude toward the African American community that would persist well into the 1940s. Determined to give voice to the African American community that served as the silent workforce for Hollins College, Ethel Morgan Smith succeeded in finding individuals to step forward and tell their stories. From Whence Cometh My Help examines the dynamics of an institution built on the foundations of slavery and so steeped in tradition that it managed to perpetuate servitude for generations. Interviewing senior community members, Smith gives recognition to the invisible population that provided and continues to provide the labor support for Hollins College for more than 150 years. Although African American students have been admitted to the college for roughly thirty years, to date only one person from the Hollins Community has graduated from the college. From Whence Cometh My Help explores the subtle and complex relationship between the affluent white world of Hollins College and the proud African American community that has served it since its inception. Interweaving personal observations, historical documents, and poetry throughout a revealing oral history, Smith shares her fascinating discoveries and the challenges involved in telling a story silenced for so long. DOWNLOAD LINK

    The Price They Paid: Desegregation in an African American Community by Vivian Gunn Morris and Curtis L. Morris

    In this compelling book, the authors put a human face on desegregation practices in the South. Focusing on an African American community in Alabama, they document not only the gains but also the significant losses experienced by students when their community school was closed and they were forced to attend a White desegregated school across town. This volume is an in-depth look at the unmet promises of school desegregation that can help us provide a quality education for all children in the 21st century. DOWNLOAD LINK

    Social Workers Speak out on the HIV/AIDS Crisis: Voices from and to African American Communities

    Written by a team of nationally recognized African American social work professionals with extensive and distinguished backgrounds of HIV/AIDS service, the book examines the crisis facing African American communities. The editors strive to convey to academics, researchers, and students the magnitude of the crisis and that individuals and organizations serving African Americans need to be able to respond to the service delivery needs this crisis brings. The crisis is evident in the fact that by year 2000 fully 50% of all AIDS cases will be among African Americans—who only constitute 12% of the nation's population. This book serves as a wake-up call and is designed to stimulate discussion and planning for new models of service to all African Americans and HIV prevention, education, and treatment. DOWNLOAD LINK

    Hip Hop Family Tree Book 1: 1975-1981

    This encyclopedic comics history of the formative years of hip hop captures the vivid personalities and magnetic performances of old-school pioneers and early stars like DJ Kool Herc, Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five, plus the charismatic players behind the scenes like Russell Simmons; Debbie Harry, Keith Haring and other luminaries make cameos. DOWNLOAD LINK

    The Dark Tree: Jazz and the Community Arts in Los Angeles

    While he was still in his twenties, Horace Tapscott gave up a successful career in Lionel Hampton’s band and returned to his home in Los Angeles to found the Pan Afrikan Peoples Arkestra, a community arts group that focused on providing affordable, community-oriented jazz and jazz training. Over the course of almost forty years, the Arkestra, together with the related Union of God’s Musicians and Artists Ascension (UGMAA) Foundation, were at the forefront of the vital community-based arts movements in black Los Angeles. Some three hundred artists—musicians, vocalists, poets, playwrights, painters, sculptors, and graphic artists—passed through these organizations, many ultimately remaining within the community and others moving on to achieve international fame. Based primarily on one hundred in-depth interviews with current and former participants, The Dark Tree is the first history of the important and largely overlooked community arts movement of African American Los Angeles. Brought to life by the passionate voices of the men and women who worked to make the arts integral to everyday community life, this engrossing book completes the account began in the highly acclaimed Central Avenue Sounds, which documented the secular music history of the first half of the twentieth century and which the San Francisco Examiner called “one of the best jazz books ever compiled.” DOWNLOAD LINK

    Abiding Courage: African American Migrant Women and the East Bay Community

    Between 1940 and 1945, thousands of African Americans migrated from the South to the East Bay Area of northern California in search of the social and economic mobility that was associated with the region's expanding defense industry and its reputation for greater racial tolerance. Drawing on fifty oral interviews with migrants as well as on archival and other written records, Abiding Courage examines the experiences of the African American women who migrated west and built communities there. Gretchen Lemke-Santangelo vividly shows how women made the transition from southern domestic and field work to jobs in an industrial, wartime economy. At the same time, they were struggling to keep their families together, establishing new households, and creating community-sustaining networks and institutions. While white women shouldered the double burden of wage labor and housework, black women faced even greater challenges: finding houses and schools, locating churches and medical services, and contending with racism. By focusing on women, Lemke-Santangelo provides new perspectives on where and how social change takes place and how community is established and maintained. DOWNLOAD LINK

    Their Highest Potential: An African American School Community in the Segregated South

    African American schools in the segregated South faced enormous obstacles in educating their students. But some of these schools succeeded in providing nurturing educational environments in spite of the injustices of segregation. Vanessa Siddle Walker tells the story of one such school in rural North Carolina, the Caswell County Training School, which operated from 1934 to 1969. She focuses especially on the importance of dedicated teachers and the principal, who believed their jobs extended well beyond the classroom, and on the community's parents, who worked hard to support the school. DONLOAD LINK
    Friday, March 28, 2014

    Historical Dictionary of African American Cinema

    On 4 July, 1910, in 100-degree heat at an outdoor boxing ring near Reno, Nevada, film cameras recorded—and thousands of fans witnessed—former heavyweight champion Jim Jeffries' reluctant return from retirement to fight Jack Johnson, a black man. After 14 grueling rounds, Johnson knocked out Jeffries and for the first time in history, there was a black heavyweight champion of the world. At least 10 people lost their lives because of Johnson's victory and hundreds more were injured due to white retaliation and wild celebrations in the streets. Public screenings received instantaneous protests and hundreds of cities barred the film from being shown. Congress even passed a law making it a federal offense to transport moving pictures of prizefights across state lines, and thus the most powerful portrayal of a black man ever recorded on film was made virtually invisible. This is but one of the hundreds of films covered in the Historical Dictionary of African American Cinema, which includes everything from The Birth of a Nation to Crash. In addition to the films, brief biographies of African American actors and actresses such as Sidney Poitier, James Earl Jones, Halle Berry, Eddie Murphy, Whoopi Goldberg, Denzel Washington, and Jamie Foxx can be found in this reference. Through a chronology, a list of acronyms and abbreviations, an introductory essay, a bibliography, appendixes, black-&-white photos, and hundreds of cross-referenced dictionary entries on actors, actresses, movies, producers, organizations, awards, film credits, and terminology, this book provides a better understanding of the role African Americans played in film history

    Writings of Frank Marshall Davis: A Voice of the Black Press

    Frank Marshall Davis (1905-1987) was a central figure in the black press, working as reporter and editor for the Atlanta World, the Associated Negro Press, the Chicago Star, and the Honolulu Record. Writings of Frank Marshall Davis presents a selection of Davis's nonfiction, providing an unprecedented insight into one journalist's ability to reset the terms of public conversation and frame the news to open up debate among African Americans and all Americans. During the middle of the twentieth century, Davis set forth a radical vision that challenged the status quo. His commentary on race relations, music, literature, and American culture was precise, impassioned, and engaged. At the height of World War II, Davis boldly questioned the nature of America's potential postwar relations and what they meant for African Americans and the nation. His work challenged the usefulness of race as a social construct, and he eventually disavowed the idea of race altogether. Throughout his career, he championed the struggles of African Americans for equal rights and laboring people seeking fair wages and other benefits. In his reviews on music, he argued that blues and jazz were responses to social conditions and served as weapons of racial integration. His book reviews complemented his radical vision by commenting on how literature reshapes one's understanding of the world. Even his travel writings on Hawaii called for cultural pluralism and tolerance for racial and economic difference. Writings of Frank Marshall Davis reveals a writer in touch with the most salient issues defining his era and his desire to insert them into the public sphere. John Edgar Tidwell provides an introduction and contextual notes on each major subject area Davis explored.

    Flames after Midnight: Murder, Vengeance, and the Desolation of a Texas Community

    What happened in Kirven, Texas, in May 1922, has been forgotten by the outside world. It was a coworker's whispered words, "Kirven is where they burned the [Negroes]," that set Monte Akers to work at discovering the true story behind a young white woman's brutal murder and the burning alive of three black men who were almost certainly innocent of it. This was followed by a month-long reign of terror as white men killed blacks while local authorities concealed the real identity of the white probable murderers and allowed them to go free. Writing nonfiction with the skill of a novelist, Akers paints a vivid portrait of a community desolated by race hatred and its own refusal to face hard truths. He sets this tragedy within the story of a region prospering from an oil boom but plagued by lawlessness, and traces the lynching's repercussions down the decades to the present day. In the new epilogue, Akers adds details that have come to light as a result of the book's publication, including an eyewitness account of the burnings from an elderly man who claimed to have castrated two of the men before they were lynched.
    Wednesday, March 26, 2014

    In Search of the Blues: A Journey to the Soul of Black Texas

    The rich, complex lives of African Americans in Texas were often neglected by the mainstream media, which historically seldom ventured into Houston's Fourth Ward, San Antonio's East Side, South Dallas, or the black neighborhoods in smaller cities. When Bill Minutaglio began writing for Texas newspapers in the 1970s,

    The Browning of America and the Evasion of Social Justice

    Considers the effects of the browning of America on philosophical debates over race, racism, and social justice.
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