|
Books by Lerone Bennett
Before the Mayflower: A History of Black America
/
What Manner of
Man: A Biography of Martin Luther King
Pioneers In
Protest,
Black Power U.S.A.
/
The Human Side of
Reconstruction 1867-1877 /
Great Moments in Black History
Forced into Glory: Abraham Lincoln's White Dream
/
The Shaping of Black America
* * * *
*
Lerone
Bennett, Jr. Bio
Lerone Bennett, Jr., prolific writer and social historian, has served on the
editorial staff of Ebony for over 50 years. He has
authored articles, poems, short stories, and over nine books on
African American history and current political challenges facing
blacks. Bennett skillfully explores United States racial history
its struggle for equality.
Born in 1928
Clarksdale, Mississippi, Lerone Bennett Jr. was raised in
Jackson, Mississippi and later became in 1949 a proud graduate
of Morehouse College, the nation's only private, historically
black, four-year, liberal arts college for men in Augusta,
Georgia. After earning his B.A., Bennett began working as a
journalist for the Atlanta Daily World that same year.
In 1952 he became
city editor of Jet. He became associate editor of Ebony
in 1953, promoted to senior editor in 1958 and executive editor
in 1987. Bennett and he was promoted to senior editor of the
magazine in 1958. His history articles have become one of the
magazine's literary hallmarks.
His work at Ebony resulted in Bennett's first book, a seminal
work,
Before the Mayflower: A History of Black America,
1619-1962. The book, with its comprehensive examination of
the history of African Americans in the United States, gave
Bennett a reputation as a first-rate popular historian. In his
eight subsequent books, Bennett has continued to document the
historical forces shaping the black experience in the United
States. His other works include, What Manner of Man?,
Pioneers In Protest and The Shaping of Black America.
His articles have
earned him a reputation for combining literary eloquence and
comprehensive scholarship with readabilty appealing to the
popular market, all the while producing an insightful critique
of racial injustice. His best known books include
Before the Mayflower: A History of Black America,
What Manner of
Man: A Biography of Martin Luther King,
Pioneers In
Protest, Black Power U.S.A.,
The Human Side of
Reconstruction 1867-1877,
Great Moments in Black History,
Forced into Glory: Abraham Lincoln's White Dream and
The Shaping of Black America .
Bennett's numerous
honors include the prestigious Literature Award of the Academy
of Arts and Letters, the Book of the Year Award from Capital
Press Club and the Patron Saints Award from the Society of
Midland Authors. He has served as advisor and consultant to
national organizations and commissions, including the National
Advisory Commission on Civil Disorders.
* * *
* *
* * * * *
 |
Negro Comrades of the Crown
African Americans and the British Empire Fight the U.S. Before Emancipation
By Gerald Horne
Dr. Gerald Horne, professor of History and African American Studies at the University of Houston, said, the American revolt of 1776 against British rule “was basically a successful revolt of racist settlers. It was akin to Rhodesia, in 1965, assuming that Ian Smith and his cabal had triumphed. It was akin to the revolt of the French settlers in Algeria, in the 1950s and 1960s, assuming those French settlers had triumphed.” Dr. Horne explores the racist roots on the American Revolution in his new book, Negroes of the Crown. “It was very difficult to construct a progressive republic in North America after what was basically a racist revolt,” said Horne. “The revolt was motivated in no small part by the fact that abolitionism was growing in London…. This is one of the many reasons more Africans by an order of magnitude fought against the rebels in 1776, than fought alongside them.”In this path-breaking book, Horne rewrites the history of slave resistance by placing it for the first time in the context of military and diplomatic wrangling between Britain and the United States. |
* * *
* *
|
The Warmth of Other Suns
The Epic Story of America's Great
Migration
By Isabel Wilkerson
Ida Mae Brandon Gladney, a
sharecropper's wife, left Mississippi
for Milwaukee in 1937, after her cousin
was falsely accused of stealing a white
man's turkeys and was almost beaten to
death. In 1945, George Swanson Starling,
a citrus picker, fled Florida for Harlem
after learning of the grove owners'
plans to give him a "necktie party" (a
lynching). Robert Joseph Pershing Foster
made his trek from Louisiana to
California in 1953, embittered by "the
absurdity that he was doing surgery for
the United States Army and couldn't
operate in his own home town." Anchored
to these three stories is Pulitzer
Prize–winning journalist Wilkerson's
magnificent, extensively researched
study of the "great migration," the
exodus of six million black Southerners
out of the terror of Jim Crow to an
"uncertain existence" in the North and
Midwest.
|
 |
Wilkerson deftly incorporates
sociological and historical studies into the novelistic
narratives of Gladney,
Starling, and Pershing settling in new
lands, building anew, and often finding
that they have not left racism behind.
The drama, poignancy, and romance of a
classic immigrant saga pervade this
book, hold the reader in its grasp, and
resonate long after the reading is done.
* *
* * *
 |
Across That Bridge: Life Lessons and a Vision for Change
By John Lewis
The Civil Rights Movement gave rise to the protest culture we know today, and the experiences of leaders like Congressman Lewis have never been more relevant. Now, more than ever, this nation needs a strong and moral voice to guide an engaged population through visionary change. Congressman John Lewis was a leader in the American Civil Rights Movement. He was chairman of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) and played a key role in the struggle to end segregation. Despite more than forty arrests, physical attacks, and serious injuries, John Lewis remained a devoted advocate of the philosophy of nonviolence. He is the author of his autobiography, Walking with the Wind: A Memoir of a Movement, and is the recipient of numerous awards from national and international institutions, including the Lincoln Medal; the John F. Kennedy “Profile in Courage” Lifetime Achievement Award (the only one of its kind ever awarded); the NAACP Spingarn Medal; and the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian honor, among many others. |
* * * * *
|
So Rich, So Poor: Why It's So Hard to End Poverty in America
By Peter Edelman
If the nation’s gross national income—over $14 trillion—were divided evenly across the entire U.S. population, every household could call itself middle class. Yet the income-level disparity in this country is now wider than at any point since the Great Depression. In 2010 the average salary for CEOs on the S&P 500 was over $1 million—climbing to over $11 million when all forms of compensation are accounted for—while the current median household income for African Americans is just over $32,000. How can some be so rich, while others are so poor? In this provocative book, Peter Edelman, a former top aide to Senator Robert F. Kennedy and a lifelong antipoverty advocate, offers an informed analysis of how this country can be so wealthy yet have a steadily growing number of unemployed and working poor. According to Edelman, we have taken important positive steps without which 25 to 30 million more people would be poor, but poverty fluctuates with the business cycle. |
 |
* * * * *
The White Masters of the
World
From
The World and Africa, 1965
By W. E. B. Du Bois
W. E. B. Du Bois’
Arraignment and Indictment of White Civilization
(Fletcher)
* *
* * *
Ancient African Nations
* * * * *
If you like this page consider making a donation
* * * * *
Negro Digest /
Black World
Browse all issues
1950
1960
1965
1970
1975
1980
1985
1990
1995
2000
____ 2005
Enjoy!
* * * * *
The Death of Emmett Till by Bob Dylan
/
The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll
/
Only a Pawn in Their Game
Rev. Jesse Lee Peterson Thanks America for
Slavery /
George Jackson /
Hurricane Carter
* *
* * *
The Journal of Negro History issues at Project Gutenberg
The
Haitian Declaration of Independence 1804
/
January 1, 1804 -- The Founding of
Haiti
* * * * *
* *
* * *
ChickenBones Store
(Books, DVDs, Music, and more)
update
24 June 2012
|
