Product Description: Black Los Angeles started small. The first census of the newly formed Los Angeles County in 1850 recorded only twelve Americans of African descent alongside a population of more than 3,500 Anglo Americans. Over the following seventy years, however, the African American founding families of Los Angeles forged a vibrant community within the increasingly segregated and stratified city...read more

Product Description: The academy may claim to seek and value diversity in its professoriate, but reports from faculty of color around the country make clear that departments and administrators discriminate in ways that range from unintentional to malignant...read more

Product Description: "Written in a highly polished yet informal style, this book will appeal to readers interested in memoirs of accomplished businesswomen and African American success, as well as those who want a glimpse into the fast-paced world of a top-level ad executive...read more

Product Description: Since the Black women's literary renaissance ended nearly three decades ago, a profitable and expansive market of self-help books, inspirational literature, family-friendly plays, and films marketed to black women has emerged. Through messages of hope and responsibility, the writers of these texts develop templates that tap into legacies of literacy as activism, preaching techniques, and narrative formulas to teach strategies for overcoming personal traumas or dilemmas and resuming one's quality of life...read more

“Hobbs unearths four lynchings that are critical to the understanding of the origins of civil rights in Florida. The oral histories from the victims’ families and those in the communities make this a valuable contribution to African American, Florida, and civil rights history.”—Derrick E. White, author of The Challenge of Blackness   “A compelling reminder of just how troubling and violent the Sunshine State’s racial past has been. A must read.”—Irvin D.S. Winsboro, editor of Old South, New South, or Down South?   Florida is frequently viewed as an atypical southern state—more progressive and culturally diverse—but, when examined in proportion to the number of African American residents, it suffered more lynchings than any of its Deep South neighbors during the Jim Crow era.             Investigating this dark period of the state’s history and focusing on a rash of anti-black violence that took place during the 1940s, Tameka Hobbs explores the reasons why lynchings continued in Florida when they were starting to wane elsewhere. She contextualizes the murders within the era of World War II, contrasting the desire of the United States to broadcast the benefits of its democracy abroad while at home it struggled to provide legal protection to its African American citizens.             As involvement in the global war deepened and rhetoric against Axis powers heightened, the nation’s leaders became increasingly aware of the blemish left by extralegal violence on America’s reputation. Ultimately, Hobbs argues, the international implications of these four murders, along with other antiblack violence around the nation, increased pressure not only on public officials in Florida to protect the civil rights of African Americans in the state but also on the federal government to become more active in prosecuting racial violence.     

Product Description: In 1964, sociologist William McCord, long interested in movements for social change in the United States, began a study of Mississippi’s Freedom Summer. Stanford University, where McCord taught, had been the site of recruiting efforts for student volunteers for the Freedom Summer project by such activists as Robert Moses and Allard Lowenstein...read more

Product Description: Most times left solely within the confine of plantation narratives, slavery was far from a land-based phenomenon. This book reveals for the first time how it took critical shape at sea. Expanding the gaze even more widely, the book centers on how the oceanic transport of human cargoes--known as the infamous Middle Passage--comprised a violently regulated process foundational to the institution of bondage...read more

Hundreds of thousands of African Canadian children demand and deserve quality education that promotes success both within and outside of school. Recognizing that the education these young people receive will shape their lives as citizens, the contributors to this volume provide an important, timely analysis of the educational experiences of African Canadian children and youth. With contributions from leading and emerging scholars, The Education of African Canadian Children critically responds to and comments on the historical, cultural, institutional, and informational contexts and problems of the learning lives of these children. The authors offer a comprehensive history of African Canadians’ encounters with the education system, the current challenges they are facing, and opportunities for more inclusive and democratic educational practices that will better serve this population. Advocating for cultural redemption and learning success for a population that is not being served well by Canadian public education systems, this book will benefit teachers, students, government program managers, policy makers, and educational researchers. The first multi-authored work of its kind, The Education of African Canadian Children opens new debates and possibilities for change for those concerned with education in their communities and their country.

Product Description: This book comprehensively reviews the factors that facilitate access and success of Black students in STEM majors in higher education, and it shares compelling testimonies from Black STEM professionals that will help inspire the next generation of Black scientists and engineers...read more

Product Description: While examining the arguments made in favor of egalitarianism, this book debunks the notion that the United States is now or has ever been a nation offering equal opportunity to all.• Exposes the extent to which inequality exists―and has always existed―in the United States• Traces the deep roots of the American concern about inequality and the ways in which that concern has taken different forms over time, from the movement for free homesteads, to the Populist movement, to the Progressives, to the career of Huey Long, to Occupy Wall Street• Blends intellectual, social, and political history to explore arguments for and against equality of opportunity and equality of condition• Shows the impact of such arguments at various levels of politic...read more

Conceived at the same conference that produced the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), the Student Interracial Ministry (SIM) was a national organization devoted to dismantling Jim Crow while simultaneously advancing American Protestant mainline churches' approach to race. In this book, David P. Cline details how, between the founding of SIM in 1960 and its dissolution at the end of the decade, the seminary students who created and ran the organization influenced hundreds of thousands of community members through its various racial reconciliation and economic justice projects. From inner-city ministry in Oakland to voter registration drives in southwestern Georgia, participants modeled peaceful interracialism nationwide. By telling the history of SIM--its theology, influences, and failures--Cline situates SIM within two larger frameworks: the long civil rights movement and the even longer tradition of liberal Christianity's activism for social reform.Pulling SIM from the shadow of its more famous twin, SNCC, Cline sheds light on an understudied facet of the movement's history. In doing so, he provokes an appreciation of the struggle of churches to remain relevant in swiftly changing times and shows how seminarians responded to institutional conservatism by challenging the establishment to turn toward political activism.