Reviews the accomplishments, courage and struggles of African Americans over the past 500 years.

Untold Glory offers a fresh perspective on one of the most fundamental elements of American history—the conquest of new frontiers. In twenty-seven fascinating first-person accounts, African Americans from different eras, backgrounds, and occupations explore and reflect on the meaning of frontier, both literally and metaphorically. This collection chronicles the search for freedom and opportunity and the achievement of success in a wide variety of fields. The contributors all pushed beyond self-imposed or culturally enforced boundaries to pursue their dreams and ambitions. They include Mark Dean, an IBM vice president and member of the Inventors Hall of Fame, who holds three of the original patents upon which the personal computer is based; the civil-rights attorney Oliver W. Hill, one of the architects of the Brown v. Board of Education Supreme Court case; the classical pianist and museum founder Josephine Love; and L. Douglas Wilder, the grandson of slaves who became the first African American governor of Virginia. Illustrated with black-and-white photographs and featuring an incisive introduction by Alan Govenar, Untold Glory is both an important addition to the field of African American history and an engaging, eye-opening look at some of the nation’s most daring, innovative, and influential pioneers.

This four-volume encyclopedia contains compelling and comprehensive information on African American popular culture that will be valuable to high school students and undergraduates, college instructors, researchers, and general readers. From the Apollo Theater to the Harlem Renaissance, from barber shop and beauty shop culture to African American holidays, family reunions, and festivals, and from the days of black baseball to the era of a black president, the culture of African Americans is truly unique and diverse. This diversity is the result of intricate customs forged in tightly woven communities—not only in the United States, but in many cases also stemming from the traditions of another continent. Encyclopedia of African American Popular Culture presents information in a traditional A–Z organization, capturing the essence of the customs of African Americans and presenting this rich cultural heritage through the lens of popular culture. Each entry includes historical and current information to provide a meaningful background for the topic and the perspective to appreciate its significance in a modern context. This encyclopedia is a valuable research tool that provides easy access to a wealth of information on the African American experience.

The proof of any group's importance to history is in the detail, a fact made plain by this informative book's day-by-day documentation of the impact of African Americans on life in the United States. One of the easiest ways to grasp any aspect of history is to look at it as a continuum. African American History Day by Day: A Reference Guide to Events provides just such an opportunity. Organized in the form of a calendar, this book allows readers to see the dates of famous births, deaths, and events that have affected the lives of African Americans and, by extension, of America as a whole. Each day features an entry with information about an important event that occurred on that date. Background on the highlighted event is provided, along with a link to at least one primary source document and references to books and websites that can provide more information. While there are other calendars of African American history, this one is set apart by its level of academic detail. It is not only a calendar, but also an easy-to-use reference and learning tool.

African American Lives offers up-to-date, authoritative biographies of some 600 noteworthy African Americans. These 1,000-3,000 word biographies, selected from over five thousand entries in the forthcoming eight-volume African American National Biography, illuminate African-American history through the immediacy of individual experience. From Esteban, the earliest known African to set foot in North America in 1528, right up to the continuing careers of Venus and Serena Williams, these stories of the renowned and the near forgotten give us a new view of American history. Our past is revealed from personal perspectives that in turn inspire, move, entertain, and even infuriate the reader. Subjects include slaves and abolitionists, writers, politicians, and business people, musicians and dancers, artists and athletes, victims of injustice and the lawyers, journalists, and civil rights leaders who gave them a voice. Their experiences and accomplishments combine to expose the complexity of race as an overriding issue in America's past and present. African American Lives features frequent cross-references among related entries, over 300 illustrations, and a general index, supplemented by indexes organized by chronology, occupation or area of renown, and winners of particular honors such as the Spingarn Medal, Nobel Prize, and Pulitzer Prize.

How language development, socialization, culture, scholing and life experiences affect African-American educational and life success

This second volume of Music in Black American Life offers research and analysis that originally appeared in the journals American Music and Black Music Research Journal, and in two book series published by the University of Illinois Press: Music in American Life, and African American Music in Global Perspective. In this collection, a group of predominately Black scholars explores a variety of topics with works that pioneered new methodologies and modes of inquiry for hearing and studying Black music. These extracts and articles examine the World War II jazz scene; look at female artists like gospel star Shirley Caesar and jazz musician-arranger Melba Liston; illuminate the South Bronx milieu that folded many forms of black expressive culture into rap; and explain Hamilton's massive success as part of the "tanning" of American culture that began when Black music entered the mainstream. Part sourcebook and part survey of historic music scholarship, Music in Black American Life, 1945-2020 collects groundbreaking work that redefines our view of Black music and its place in American music history. Contributors: Nelson George, Wayne Everett Goins, Claudrena N. Harold, Eileen M. Hayes, Loren Kajikawa, Robin D. G. Kelley, Tammy L. Kernodle, Cheryl L. Keyes, Gwendolyn Pough, Bernice Johnson Reagon, Mark Tucker, and Sherrie Tucker

The definitive biography of Alain Locke, the first African American Rhodes Scholar and Harvard PhD in philosophy, Howard University philosophy scholar, and architect of the Harlem Renaissance, who mentored a generation of artists including Langston Hughes and Zora Neale Nurston and promoted the work of African Americans as the quintessential creators of American modernism. This biography explores his professional and private life, including his relationships with white patrons and his lifelong search for love as a gay man.

Growing up in the Jim Crow South, surviving three fires, degradation, discrimination, and marginalization while learning to thrive in a world that was not designed for African Americans could only happen due to one's journey through the Black Sacred Cosmos. My Journey Through the Black Sacred Cosmos is a memoir that chronicles the life of one individual's experiences from adolescence until adulthood. James's parents and school teachers taught him socially and academically how to take care of himself in a hostile world. Yet once he left home for college, he began to realize how difficult it would be to fit in a world outside of his Sacred Cosmos. In order to survive, he had to search out who he was as an African American. Many things were excluded from his educational experience concerning his history and cultural identity, and he was left questioning why he was hated so much for the color of his skin. This caused him to delve deep within himself, trying to understand what it really meant to be an African American, as well as the deeper, rarely discussed, issues of race and racism. Our education system is failing a large percentage of our children because it refuses to change its one-size-fits-all curriculum. Our teachers are certified to educate from a Eurocentric perspective instead of approaching our children with a diversity, equity, and inclusion lens. Like James, many of African American children have experienced complex trauma and adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) which often hinders their ability to succeed in schools with teachers who focus solely on academic content without consideration of the overall needs of their students. Our teachers, counselors, and administrators must be able to identify children with ACEs and understand how to adapt their teaching style to address the social-emotional learning needs of children starting with early childhood education and continuing throughout their academic career. James was protected and educated in his Black Sacred Cosmos, and it was only after he learned to know and love himself that he could better understand and love others. Our children today cannot wait as long as he did, because the world is much different now. It is hoped that this book clarifies some complex issues children often face by peering into the window of what James had to endure and the importance of how the unseen hands within the Black Sacred Cosmos guided him through life. James Wilburn is currently the co-founder of Wilburn and Associates, LLC, a consulting business that provides diversity training, intervention, and cultural awareness programs. He and his wife, Dr. Roberta Wilburn, have a wealth of knowledge and experience that enable them to effectively provide diversity training and consultation to organizations such as the City of Spokane, the Washington Community Forestry Council, and the North Wall School, and others. If you are in need of a motivational speaker, diversity trainer, consultant, or social justice advocate contact Wilburn and Associates, LLC, to see how they can support your diversity needs. For more information, visit their website at wilburnassociates.org or contact them at [email protected].