Volume II: A History of African Americans from 1880
July 3, 2000
A detailed survey of African-American life before the 21st century, this volume contains 10 essays by academics, arranged chronologically to provide an invigorating history from the Middle Passage to the election of Maxine Waters to the House of Representatives and the death of Amadou Diallo at the hands of New York City police officers in 1999. In a chapter covering the Great Depression and WWII, William Trotter reveals that blacks called the New Deal "the raw deal" and the National Recovery Act "the Negro Run Around." Noralee Frankel's "Breaking the Chains" explains how, after the Civil War, many black farmers became landless sharecroppers in the shadow of federal programs designed to alleviate the suffering of the poor. James R. Grossman documents how "curriculum and school leadership reflected different notions of how black Americans could attain full citizenship in a nation seemingly committed to their subordination." Other offerings discuss "rent parties," the transformation of the union movement from a roadblock to a facilitator of black rights, the development of Roosevelt's "Black Cabinet," Marcus Garvey, Jimi Hendrix and The Cosby Show. The scholarship sparkles throughout, offering not just the "what," but also the "why" of the social, cultural and political events shaping the present. Editors Kelley and Lewis have synthesized the vast knowledge of contemporary African-American studies into a single, fluid volume that provides an intelligent introduction to the history's intricacies, divisions and accomplishments.