Product Description
Paul Bontemps decided to move his family to Los Angeles from Louisiana in 1906 on the day he finally submitted to a strictly enforced Southern custom--he stepped off the sidewalk to allow white men who had just insulted him to pass by. Friends of the Bontemps family, like many others beckoning their loved ones West, had written that Los Angeles was "a city called heaven" for people of color. But just how free was Southern California for African Americans?
This splendid history, at once sweeping in its historical reach and intimate in its evocation of everyday life, is the first full account of Los Angeles's black community in the half century before World War II. Filled with moving human drama, it brings alive a time and place largely ignored by historians until now, detailing African American community life and political activism during the city's transformation from small town to sprawling metropolis.
Writing with a novelist's sensitivity to language and drawing from fresh historical research, Douglas Flamming takes us from Reconstruction to the Jim Crow era, through the Great Migration, the Roaring Twenties, the Great Depression, and the build-up to World War II. Along the way, he offers rich descriptions of the community and its middle-class leadership, the women who were front and center with men in the battle against racism in the American West.
In addition to drawing a vivid portrait of a little-known era, Flamming shows that the history of race in Los Angeles is crucial for our understanding of race in America. The civil rights activism in Los Angeles laid the foundation for critical developments in the second half of the century that continue to influence us to this day. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Definitive History of Black Los Angeles
Douglas Flamming has done scholars, historians, and the public a favor by putting out the first in-depth and fully accessible history of African Americans in Los Angeles.

In his work, Flamming focuses on the life of Charlotta Bass, the editor and publisher of the California Eagle newspaper.She came to Los Angeles in 1910 and died in 1969, and saw the world change around her.She was also an activist who sought to improve the lives of African Americans in southern California.But she did not do it alone.Flamming also tells us the stories of Fred Roberts, John and Vada Somerville and the indefatigable Betty Hill.

He also describes the famous places, such as the busy life on Central Avenue before it became known as South Central.There was the Dunbar Hotel, the only place black people could stay in during those years, and the nationally famous jazz club, the Club Alabam, which was a magnet for the biggest names in the country.

I cannot recommend this book highly enough.If you are a student of Black history, California history, or life in Los Angeles just before and after World War II, get this book.Even if you are not, it is still a great read (aside from being thoroughly documented). ... Read more

Product Description
In 1952, Ralph Ellison (1914–1994) published his novel Invisible Man, which transformed the dynamics of American literature. The novel won the National Book Award, extended the themes of his early short stories, and dramatized in fictional form the cultural theories expressed in his essay collections Shadow & Act and Going to the Territory.

In Shadowing Ralph Ellison, John Wright traces Ellison’s intellectual and aesthetic development, and the evolution of his cultural philosophy, throughout his long career. The book explores Ellison’s published fiction, his criticism and correspondence, and his passionate exchanges with—and impact on—other literary intellectuals during the Cold War 1950s and during the Culture Wars of the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s.

Wright examines Ellison’s body of work through the lens of Ellison’s cosmopolitan philosophy of art and culture, which the writer began to construct during the late 1930s.Ellison, Wright argues, eschewed orthodoxy in both political and cultural discourse, maintaining that to achieve the highest cultural awareness and the greatest personal integrity, the individual must cultivate forms of thinking and acting that are fluid, improvisational, and vitalistic—like the blues and jazz.Accordingly, Ellison elaborated throughout his body of work the innumerable ways that rigid cultural labels, categories, and concepts—from racial stereotypes and fashionable academic theories to conventional political doctrines—fail to capture the full potential of human consciousness. Instead, Ellison advocated forms of consciousness and culture akin to what the blues and jazz reveal; and he portrayed those musical traditions as the best embodiment of the evolving American spirit. ... Read more

Product Description
Not Only the Master’s Tools: African American Studies in Theory and Practice brings together new essays on the ongoing value of black thought. In the service of what the editors call epistemological decolonization of African American studies, the first part examines the grounding of theoretical reason from various perspectives such as Africana philosophy, philosophical anthropology, and black literary theory. The second part offers theoretical explorations of practical reason as it unfolds in the study of slavery, education, queerness, politics, and ethics. Responding to Audre Lorde’s famous dictum that "The Master’s tools will never dismantle the Master’s house," the editors and these internationally renowned scholars ask: "Why not instead devote attention to using those and other tools to build new, more open houses?"

Important for anyone interested in the ongoing importance of ideas, the book is well suited for students and scholars of Africana studies, philosophy, literary theory, educational theory, social and political thought, and postcolonial studies.

Contributors:David Ross Fryer, Jane Anna Gordon, Lewis R. Gordon, Stephen Haymes, Paget Henry, Maulana Karenga, Kenneth Knies, Nelson Maldonado-Torres, and Sylvia Wynter. ... Read more

Product Description
To be a black woman of faith in the American South is to understand and experience spirituality in a particular way. How this understanding expresses itself in everyday practices of faith is the subject of Between Sundays, an innovative work that takes readers beyond common misconceptions and narrow assumptions about black religion and into the actual complexities of African American women's spiritual lives.

Gracefully combining narrative, interviews, and analysis, this book explores the personal, political, and spiritual commitments of a group of Baptist women whose experiences have been informed by the realities of life in a rural, southern community. In these lives, "spirituality" emerges as a space for creative agency, of vital importance to the ways in which these women interpret, inform, and reshape their social conditions--conditions often characterized by limited access to job opportunities, health care, and equitable schooling. In the words of these women, and in Marla F. Frederick's deft analysis, we see how spirituality--expressed as gratitude, empathy, or righteous discontent--operates as a transformative power in women's interactions with others, and in their own more intimate renegotiations of self. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Excellent Anthropology
I had a chance to read an early copy of this book. (Full disclosure: I know Dr. Frederick personally.)As an anthropologist of religion, I very much appreciated her careful ethnographic work in understanding the subject of African-American spirituality.As she points out, the Black Church in the U.S. is generally understood in political and institutional terms; individual experiences of faith get elided into the overarching category of "The Black Church."Thus whether people see this church as a good thing (progressive social institution, empowering ideology) or a bad thing (patriarchal institution of control) they do not necessarily see the nuanced understandings that individuals can hold.Frederick's book is a wonderful companion to those focusing on the history of the black church as an institution or political agent by bringing in the ethnographcially rich element of faith, interpretation and agency from the 'ground up.'Her own perspective as an anthropologist trained at Duke, now a faculty member at Harvard, an African-American woman from the South and a practicing Christian provides a richness to her analysis and relationship with her subject that is often absent from these sorts of works.Well written, interesting, and fun to read. ... Read more

Product Description
From the time of Booker T. Washington to today, and William Julius Wilson, the advice dispensed to young black men has invariably been, "Get a trade." Deirdre Royster has put this folk wisdom to an empirical test--and, in Race and the Invisible Hand, exposes the subtleties and discrepancies of a workplace that favors the white job-seeker over the black. At the heart of this study is the question: Is there something about young black men that makes them less desirable as workers than their white peers? And if not, then why do black men trail white men in earnings and employment rates? Royster seeks an answer in the experiences of 25 black and 25 white men who graduated from the same vocational school and sought jobs in the same blue-collar labor market in the early 1990s. After seriously examining the educational performances, work ethics, and values of the black men for unique deficiencies, her study reveals the greatest difference between young black and white men--access to the kinds of contacts that really help in the job search and entry process. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (4)

DISCRIMINATION ORECONOMICS ?
This is an interesting but flawed study. The author wishes to prove that informal social networks among Whites give them an advantage over Blacks who lack those networks in securing blue-collar jobs. This seems to be a common sense observation and I have no doubt that it is true. However to buttress this theory, the author utilizes interviews of only 38 students from ONE trade school in Baltimore. How this can be extrapolated for the entire country is beyond me. The time period for this study in Baltimore also occurred during a period of economic downturn.

The author also has a particular axe to grind. Her "study" is merely a polemical cheer for affirmative action. Rather than address the structural restraints on the economy such as regulations and taxes, she proposes instead programs that would restrain the effectiveness of informal networks and opts for an affirmative action program of coerced mandates and governmental control. This can only result in conditions going from bad to worse.

The BEST book on race discrimination since maybe ever
Give this book to relatives, friends, students who think that race discrimination is history in America.Royster is a fabulous interviewer and writer.Her fifty young graduates of vocational high school (half African-American, half white) open up to her with heartbreaking honesty.White kids are successful because of the web of older white friends, relatives, and teachers in their school who make sure that they have jobs, even when they have criminal convictions.They praise the skills of some black classmates but feel no obligation to help them, as they themselves have been helped.The black young men think many of the white men are "cool," but make no demands.Anyone who doesn't see the need for affirmative action should read this book.

Exclusionary Networks
In examining the seeming intractability of race and exclusionary tactics of white-male social networks, sociologist, Deirdre A. Royster asks and answers five fundamental questions that serve as a foundation for substantive discussions and analysis, among academic and non-academic audiences alike. Her questions are: (1) What happens when whites and blacks share a track placement, the same teachers, and the same classrooms? (2) Can desegregated institutions, in this post-civil rights era, provide equal foundations and assistance for blacks and whites? (3) Does the problem of embeddedness - in this case, historically segregated job networks - stifle the emergence of cross-racial linkage mechanisms and networks beyond schools? (4) Or does the post-Civil Rights era provide a new, color-blind labor market in which blacks show signs of work-readiness and achievement succeed on a par with white peers in terms of initial employment outcomes?(5) Finally, are black students, as the racial deficits theory suggests, lacking something that should make them less desirable as workers than their white peers? Of her questions, I find number one of considerable interest, for it illustrates what are some outcomes even when the playing field is leveled.

In asking such questions Royster lays a foundation that challenges conventional wisdom as it relates to African Americans and their economic, political, and social achievements.Not unlike a 1992 Atlanta newspaper article by Leonard Steinhorn, wherein he writes, "rather than asking why blacks have achieved so little, it is more appropriate to ask how blacks achieved so much given the odds against them," Royster begins her work by examining the social networks of her African American and American Anglo male respondents; networks that allow for successful school-to-work transitions for white males, but which are lacking in African American blue-collar social circles.Historically, with fewer and fewer African American men in quality blue-collar jobs, coupled with the lack of social networks, young black males seeking entrée into the sector were not met with a hand up, but a proverbial boot in the face.

Examining the landscape of African American unemployment, coupled with massive deindustrialization in many American cities, I conclude that not only do African American males face seemingly entrenched "stigmatization" as articulated by Glenn Loury in his work "The Anatomy of Racial Inequality", they are also victims of a mistaken belief among white males that if an African American male has a particular job the Anglo male covets, it was not earned by merit alone, but by means unavailable to white males, i.e. affirmative action.Recognizing this faulty logic among many white males is particularly telling in that they seem to ignore historical impediments, i.e. deadly threats and actual death faced by African Americans in general and African American males in particular seeking quality employment. Even among black and white males of like educational, social, and economic standing, as proffered by Royster, white males persist in asserting that blacks are undeserving of their position, which some white males argue is due to legislative intervention.

Partially employing Granovetter's theory of the strength of weak ties, Royster, shows how white males partake in a system often unnoticed by black males and never given a second thought by white males themselves.So much so, that white males do not observe that even when they engage in "typical `boys will be boys behavior'," white males are not without access to a web of networks. She goes on to write, "whereas white men can be thought of as second-chance kids, black men's opportunities were so fragile that most could not have recovered from even the relatively insignificant mishaps that white men report in passing."Such comments in "passing" by Royster's white male respondents illustrates their lack of an acute understanding of their "white-skin privilege" as articulated by Peggy McIntosh and their membership within a social structure/network that affords many opportunities for "mishaps" to be routinely accepted by both peers and potential employers.Mishaps that often leaves the African American male possessing a criminal record and effectively barred from potentially lucrative employment.

Royster does a very good job of writing in an approachable style for non-academics and in a way that is intellectually redeeming for the hardcore academic mind.While some researchers may find fault with her "passing" as white to gather data, little can be said against both its utility and effectiveness of moving into a comfort zone with her respondents, such that her interviews with white males prove both disturbing and enlightening. As she states at the outset, "because I can pass for white, I have often overheard conversations among whites to which people of color are not ordinarily privy," Royster understands the risks, but proceeds and produces a masterful work.

Overall, Royster has provided a work that, as William Julius Wilson noted, "will be widely read and cited."For this work and the ideas generated, this reviewer applauds the author's efforts and contributions.

Right on, Dr. Sistagirl!
Since so many conservatives think that racism no longer exists, the market will cure all evils, and blacks do poorly because of individual rather than social failures, Dr. Royster puts these ideas to the test.She interviews 25 white men and 25 black men who studied the same vocational courses at the same high school to see if they did just as well in the marketplace.Though the black men get just as good grades and attend classes just as much, their individual initiative does not explain why their white counterparts consistently found jobs easier, were paid more, worked in fields in which they prepared, and were just generally better off.

So many people nowadays feel that racism is so nebulous in the post-civil rights era that surely it must not exist.Dr. Royster explodes this idea and gives American racism a real face.In this study, white employers would forgive white males with criminal backgrounds but condemn black men in the same situation.White teachers gave black males verbal support but they only went out of their way to find actual jobs for white, male students.White males had tons of contacts who could find them jobs, no questions asked; while black men were consistently asked to prove their skills and proceed through bureaucracy.White male job applicants met white employers in predominantly-white parks, golf courses, churches, and many other places where few black males would have access.White employers would rather tell white applicants "You didn't get hired due to affirmative action" rather than "You were far from the most qualified person."The only successful black in this study said he has to constantly grin and bow and that white co-workers purposely used racist epithets hoping to make him explode and get fired.Though white males unanimously agreed that "who you know" gets you into doors, they never once realize that they know more well-off peopole than black men.In addition, though white males consistently fared better than their black counterparts, white employers would continually imply that they must give preferential treatment to them to counteract affirmative action policies.

This book is well-written and sophisticated, though I think lay readers will be able to understand it generally.This book doesn't become overly descriptive and fall into simple narrative.The first individual interviewee discussed isn't brought up until page 66 of this 200-paged book.

Dr. Royster stated that she originally intended to interview black and white females as well, but didn't due to time constraints and a lack of an interviewing pool.Thus, this is men's studies by default.Still, since the trades mentioned here are predominantly male, this exclusion makes sense.In fact, Dr. Royster suggests that black males have limited contacts because they can only go to similarly-classed black women, rather than the powerful white male mentors that young white males had.This was a fascinating gender politic.

Dr. Royster describes herself as "a very, light-skinned African American."Hence, white subjects revealed things to her that she is sure they wouldn't have revealed to a phenotypically black researcher.This undercover interviewing is fascinating, but lead to truthful and accurate results.

Though a new scholar, Dr. Royster critiques the most famous living black sociologist, Dr. W.J. Wilson, yet he even has to admit that her research is excellent.(See the back cover of the book.)

I wasn't expecting this book to be a sociological study.I thought it would be a history of racism in labor movements and unions.Still, I was not displeased by the results.I am a better person for having found and read this text.Big applause to Dr. Royster. ... Read more

Product Description
In June 1867, the San Francisco Elevator---one of the nation's premier black weekly newspapers during Reconstruction---began publishing articles by a Californian calling herself "Ann J. Trask" and later "Semper Fidelis."Her name was Jennie Carter (1830-1881), and the Elevator would print her essays, columns, and poems for seven years.

Carter probably spent her early life in New Orleans, New York, and Wisconsin, but by the time she wrote her "Always Faithful" columns for the newspaper, she was in Nevada County, California. Her work considers California and national politics, race and racism, women's rights and suffrage, temperance, morality, education, and a host of other issues, all from the point of view of an unabashedly strong-minded African American woman.

Recovering Carter's work from obscurity, this volume represents one of the most exciting bodies of extant work by an African American journalist before the twentieth century.Editor Eric Gardner provides an introduction that documents as much of Carter's life in California as can be known and places her work in historical and literary context. ... Read more

Product Description
Examines the consequences of welfare reform for Black women fleeing domestic violence. ... Read more

Amazon.com Review
Gunnar Myrdal belongs in a category with Alexis de Tocquevilleand J. Hector St. John de Crevecoeur--non-American authors who havewritten essential works on the American character. In 1954, theSwedish-born Myrdal delivered this massive (and massively influential)book on the status of American blacks. It is a somewhat depressingaccount of segregation and lynch law, but it is also full of optimism.Myrdal's hopefulness appears to have been justified. Black Americansstill face many problems, but their place in American life has muchimproved, thanks to a near-complete revolution in racial attitudesamong whites and a highly successful civil rights movement. If welearn about the present by reading about the past, then An AmericanDilemma has much to teach us today, especially about how far theUnited States has come. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

Monumental - but not without flaws
The importance of this book cannot be overstated - it is still the most exhaustive effort to date to document every aspect of the black American condition, from medical history to birth rates to the black church and social clubs. Myrdal systematically shreds the institutions of segregation and racial indocrination. As for providing groundwork for changing these systems, however, he falls short. Myrdal is too vague in his theories of white morality and causation of black poverty and never draws solid conclusions. There is also no mention of actual contact or conversation with any black people - Myrdal fails to see blacks as much more than a palimpsest of the white experience. I think he would have done better to push the white psyche aside and interact more with the focus of his study. Ralph Ellison noted, "Can a people live and develop over three hundred years simply by _reacting_? Are American Negroes simply the creation of white men, or have they at least helped to create themselves out of what they found around them?"

Thoughtful and Thought-Provoking
Writing against the backdrop of WWII, Myrdal confronted the contradiction between the US belief "All men are created equal" and the reality that African-Americans earned less for the same work as whites, lived in atrocious conditions, died at an earlier age. He argues that if Americans had believed that God made some poor, others rich, this contradiction could have been acceptable.But because Americans believed "all men are equal," the fact that African-Americans were manifestly living in worse conditions lead US society to seek a justification in the doctrine of racial inferiority. This book grasped the contradiction in US society, and foresaw that change was imminent, but Myrdal did not see that it was those under-educated and overworked African-American men and women themselves who would form the backbone of Civil Rights Movement. He expected that the white elites in power would have to change in order for the situation of African-Americans to improve.One reason this book is relevant today is Myrdal's theory of cumulative causation, which suggests that government intervention will be necessary to reverse the tendency of white race prejudice to maintain a low standard of living for African-Americans.In days where economic theories attacking the logic of affirmative action are widespread, here is an eloquent statement of the logic behind the original ideas for affirmative action.

Myrdal's Analysis Too Important to be Ignored
During the long course of our studies of social trends that undermine our collective humanity, we have frequently come across significant research studies that provide critical keys to our understanding.Such is the casewith AN AMERICAN DILEMMA: THE NEGRO PROBLEM AND MODERN DEMOCRACY.TheSwedish researcher Gunnar Myrdal, under a grant sponsored by the CarnegieFoundation, produced this landmark study which was published in 1944 byHarper and Row publishers.Some fifty years after its publication ANAMERICAN DILEMMA still stands as perhaps the most comprehensive, andunsettling, analysis of America's relationship with its African members. At nearly 1500 pages, including footnotes and index, Myrdal's study isawesomely comprehensive.Disturbing revelation follows revelation as thescientist, trained in economics, explores every imaginable aspect of Negrolife and at various times even proposes methods by which America mighteventually relieve itself of its longstanding "problem." From thebeginning of this country's history, at the heart of America's ethniccrisis lies the very real potential of sustained and systematic planning tomanage Blacks as a material resource as opposed to human beings in alltheir potential.I will take this thought further to state that Myrdal'sstudy stands as a virtual blueprint for a contemporary campaign toundermine the aspirations of the Black citizenry.The ultimate form ofthis repression can only be described as systematic genocide--by everydefinition of the word.By Myrdal's own words, his study is quitethorough, encompassing not only every aspect of Negro life but examiningthe varied attitudes of the dominant white majority. ... Read more

Product Description
The first book solely devoted to the subject of black fraternity hazing. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (9)

Excellent
This book, though limited in its breadth addresses some fundamentals, that surprisingly has little to do with hazing but African American male psyche. I give kudos to the author for taking the risks, and for amazon, for being one of the only places to get this book. Though full, this book is small enough not to be overwhelming.

Nice book
Before becoming apart of an organization one must have a real view of themselves in order to accept the POSITIVE (there is negative) change that some of these organizations have to offer.I appreciate this book because it gave me the basis to converse about change and being better role models.We come from different backgrounds and to be able to meshpersonalities for the greater good of the community is a wonderful thing.Although I disagree with physical hazing to the extent of pain one should beeducated on the benefits of physical wellness (one could do push ups and be a leader of a group which in turn may give him/her the tools necessary to being a leader in their community.Nevertheless, it was a nice book.

Son at an HBCU loved the book!
My son loaned the book to several friends and they all commented on how well the information about Black Fraternities was presented... timeless.Makes me proud of the jouney that we are on and the accomplishments made.

Black Haze
This book is more than just stories about violence through fraternity hazing, it's also an insightful look at the history of Black America and how these organizations played an important role.I recommend this book to all those that are interested in the history of Black culture and its progression from post disenfranchisement to today.

Brave Book But Foggy Answers
I am such a big fan of the movie "Stomp the Yard," but when asking Greeks about the movie, there was an immediate lash at how the movie was not accurate as to how Greek life really is.I was told that people who were Greeks or who knew anything about Greek life would understand how "stupid" the movie was, so I got curious. In undergrad, I thought about pledging into one particular sorority, but after seeing only ONE Kappa member cross at my school (when there were initially at least 30) and a neophyte having his crutches snatched away from him and Omega members demanding that he hop before he crossed, I quickly changed my mind.I firmly believe in the logo "Slap me and I'll slap you back" and there was absolutely no way I was just going to let someone beat the hell out of me to join their organization.But after speaking with a very dear relative of mine about joining a sorority, I tried to understand the good parts about Greek life.Sadly, the more she told me, the more I concluded that it was not for me.And then I found this book while searching online for material to change my mind about pledging in the graduate chapter.

There is not a doubt in my mind that I absolutely will never pledge now.The horror stories in the Appendix were so utterly evil to the point where I was begging this book to fiction.But as I know from watching the few experiences at my own alma mater and seeing Greeks go offline so many times, I'm sure they aren't.I'd spoken with Greeks BEFORE I read this book, so much of what the author left out, I knew and REALLY wanted him to reveal, but being a Greek, I knew he wouldn't.

Pros: The author was brave to even write this book, considering he is a Kappa. I thought he should be commended for that, specifically the anecdote about the pledge whose butt was split.Jones takes on an analytical look at the process of pledging; tries to come to some conclusion as to why pledging has increased and become more brutal; why black men feel like they have to have a right of passage through gangs, violence, Greeks, the military, African tradition, etc; and discuss some of the history of hierarchy within these organizations.The author gave readers a more detailed view of why pledging and hazing have become intertwined and why it is so difficult to get other Greeks to stop.I was satisfied that he did point out that a lot of these crazy traditions come from those of the military, and from the family member I spoke with who also agreed on that, it was good to know that he did understand the history of how it is being passed down. Overall, it was very well-written and definitely interesting throughout.

Cons: Jones has a habit of repeating the same points over and over again.He repeatedly made comments about the rights of passage and how Greeks didn't feel "paper" members were real.I went through a couple chapters like "Didn't I read this already?"I wanted him to bring up new points but he seemed to rely on those few that he felt strongly about.If I were a high authority member of the Greeks, after reading this book, I still wouldn't really know how to make hazing stop but keep the pledging tightknit so it wouldn't be just hit-happy folks having the time of their lives during the pledging process.He does make a statement about "paper" members becoming high ranking members, but obviously from the gist of this book, the Greeks do not respect them, so it seems all but impossible for a "paper" member to reach the top.Blaming the lack of punishment on predominantly white universities still does not excuse the black authority members who KNOW things are going on.To say that the white universities need to come down harder says nothing to the BLACK people who are letting it go on.I was looking for a way for the author to explain how potential pledge members could respect an organization without any physical contact, but it seems that the author is a little confused about that as well.

Final thoughts: I'm SO glad I never pledged.This book along with my own unofficial interviews tells me it's just not worth it.I have a blood brother, and he never had to beat me up to make me feel like I love him dearly and would protect him from any harm.Comraderie and trust are much more powerful than a paddle or a skillet to the face. ... Read more

Product Description
In 1964 an Urban League survey ranked Los Angeles as the most desirable city for African Americans to live in. In 1965 the city burst into flames during one of the worst race riots in the nation's history. How the city came to such a pass--embodying both the best and worst of what urban America offered black migrants from the South--is the story told for the first time in this history of modern black Los Angeles. A clear-eyed and compelling look at black struggles for equality in L.A.'s neighborhoods, schools, and workplaces from the Great Depression to our day, L.A. City Limits critically refocuses the ongoing debate about the origins of America's racial and urban crisis.
Challenging previous analysts' near-exclusive focus on northern "rust-belt" cities devastated by de-industrialization, Josh Sides asserts that the cities to which black southerners migrated profoundly affected how they fared. He shows how L.A.'s diverse racial composition, dispersive geography, and dynamic postwar economy often created opportunities--and limits--quite different from those encountered by blacks in the urban North. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (4)

Well written history of African American LA
_L.A. City Limits_ documents the history of black migration to Southern California, starting from the 1920's. Blacks, fleeing racism in the South and other parts of the US, believed that California would be free of these problems.

Although free from the Jim Crow of the South (people could sit anywhere they wanted to on the bus, or be served in most stores without problems), the three big problems blacks ran into in Southern California were:

1. Employment discrimination. Blacks weren't hired, or if they were, were stuck in the most menial, undesirable jobs. White co-workers, and unions were often more of an obstacle to black employment than the companies themselves.

2. Housing discrimination. With few exceptions, blacks were only allowed to move into South Central LA and Watts. A variety of legal and illegal means were used to keep them out of other parts of Los Angeles, or the suburbs. Even nearby cities like Compton and Lynwood would not see that many blacks until later....

(Related to the above was transportation availability--as the suburbs developed, jobs moved there. People in Watts without a car were at a clear disadvantage, as the bus service was inadequate for reaching these suburbs)

3. in Los Angeles, unlike the South or Midwest,Mexicans competed with blacks for the lower level jobs. The level of discrimination they faced, as compared with that faced by blacks, varied (sometimes much less, sometimes a lot more). Throughout the time scale of the book, the author compares the Mexican experience with the African-American one.

The book provides good coverage of the 1920's and 30's, the war years, and all the way up through the 1965 Watts riots and their aftermath. It tends to lose steam, though, when describing events after the mid-70's.

Should be required reading for every Californian
This book is clear, well-written and very readable. For the first time, I understand the hope my parents must have had when they migrated to Los Angeles in 1957.

Recently, I was speaking to 20-somethings about my mom's yearning to attend high school since here Louisiana hometown did not have a school for her.Slack-jawed, they marveled that someone still alive would have experienced these acts that they thought were in the distant past.

This should be required reading for all Californians.

Excellent text
Well researched, written, accessible, and informative.
Useful to anyone interested in LA history, African-American history, and urban studies.A good book for undergrads, too.

historical intelligence in social storytelling
This is a great book. A special book. Here's why:

Josh Sides has given Los Angeles the kind of racial history that Mike Davis brought to bear on our popular image of the city and the kind of countervailing narrative that Chester Himes might have appreciated. This book's detailed look at Los Angeles shows us how the city's racial texture has changed, but it is also concerned to challenge how lazy we have all become in habitually characterizing racial LA as a city that can be reduced to the Watts Riots, OJ, gang violence, and Rodney King. As Sides tells the story, Los Angeles presents with a genuinely American paradox. Its racial story is a narrative of strife and difficulty, but it is also one of success and hope that rivals any other city's in the United States.

This book is perfectly readable, and it leaves you wondering how we can all think more carefully about what is actually happening in America, beneath easy stereotypes and lazy, stock media representations of race. ... Read more

Product Description
The Street Stops Here offers a deeply personal and compelling account of a Catholic high school in central Harlem, where mostly disadvantaged (and often non-Catholic) African American males graduate on time and get into college. Interweaving vivid portraits of day-to-day school life with clear and evenhanded analysis, Patrick J. McCloskey takes us through an eventful year at Rice High School, as staff, students, and families make heroic efforts to prevail against society's expectations. McCloskey's riveting narrative brings into sharp relief an urgent public policy question: whether (and how) to save these schools that provide the only viable option for thousands of poor and working-class students--and thus fulfill a crucial public mandate. Just as significantly, The Street Stops Here offers invaluable lessons for low-performing urban public schools. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (10)

Life at an Inner City Catholic School
This book was an interesting exploration of life at Rice High School, an inner city all-boys Catholic school in New York City. The author honestly explored and presented principal Orlando Gober's tenure there and his unique political and educational beliefs.Several interesting asides also explore the history of Catholic education in the United States.

This book was a compelling and accurate portrayal of life at an inner city Catholic school. I highly recommend it to anyone involved in education.

The street stops here
This is a terrific book- well-written and thoughtful. I recommend it to anyone with an interest in urban education.

Could Have Been Much better
I am reading the book right now...and I'm liking it but I must say that I feel Patrick is writing in a way that is--a little racist.Personally, I cringe every time I read phrases like "the blacks" and "a school with lots of blacks".I feel the same way when people say "that neighborhood is where Jews live" or "Jews generally...", it just makes my skin crawl a bit.Whatever happened to "Black people" or "Black men" or "a predominately Black neighborhood".It just turned me off.That and the way that Patrick seemed determined to view Gober (and other Black men) in a negative light.For example, he seemed to think that being a Black Panther in the past was a totally bad thing, instead of discussing how the experiences Gober must have had growing up in a segregated America might have led him to feel a need to grow confidence in himself by being a member of a group that uplifts Black Americans (notice how that sounds better than "a group that uplifts blacks"?).He also incorrectly stated that minorities are not overrepresented in the military front lines. His site was to a newspaper article.Even a Heritage Foundation study found that Black Americans were overrepresented in the military (http://www.heritage.org/research/nationalsecurity/upload/85083_1.gif for those of you interested).He should have done his research before assuming that Gober was incorrect.

I also felt that he dwelt on the history of Catholic schools (including the history of Irish Catholics) a wee bit too much.Off topic.Isn't there some history that would be on topic he could have talked about...like, oh I don't know, the history of education for Black Americans?As a white woman, I found myself a little embarrassed in the tone of his book.I wish he would have thought some of his statements through before he wrote them.

Otherwise, an interesting book.

A Principal's Struggle to Guide Black Youth
I taught at Rice High School in 2003, right after Gober left, so I never met the guy. There were rumors about why he left, but nobody would say, except that he "had some conflict with the Brothers."

Rice High School is a good school. The students are on time and sober, there is clear penalty for misbehavior, and with that kind of foundation, it's easier to teach the kids. It's an all-boys school, which eliminates the need to "look cool". With no girls around to impress, there's less opportunity to lose face.

Gober was a tough Principal, but also a good one. A lot of these boys didn't have fathers, so he was probably the only man who they could really trust. The author explains the students' mentality toward the teachers; West Indian teachers were used to absolute authority, and had difficulty with the rowdy boys. Black American teachers soured quickly, because the boys wouldn't take orders from someone who was "from the streets." But the White teachers did okay; Back youth were used to White authority figures.

Still there were more complicated problems. The Dean, a large Arab-American from Michigan, resented a lot of the teachers. He felt he was doing their job for them; after all, why should he have to deal with a disruptive boy? Why shouldn't the teacher be controlling the class? I can really relate to this because I ran a suspension site and had to deal with kids who the other teachers couldn't handle.

Gober was vocal about the problems these boys faced. He made no secret of his Afro-Centric attitude, and he wanted this school to have a clear emphasis on educating Black youth. He had a tough job, because Black men were not looked upon positively by these boys. It was the Black men, not the white men, that broke promises, walked out on them, neglected them, etc.

I was at Rice High School for only a short time. Most of the teachers mentioned in the book had left before I arrived, and I was one of six new ones. Olivine Brown was now acting as principal until a replacement was found, and though she was a decent person, she took the kids' side too often. Every time there was a discipline problem, she'd remind me "remember, you are teaching students of color" and "you have to remember that there is a lot of anger left over from slavery." This woman wasn't bad, but she was nuts!

Sometimes Gober was the only one out there trying to be the "man" in the boys' lives. When you have a school full of angry fatherless kids, you have worse problems than paper airplanes and lost homework.

Not Just for Catholics, New Yorkers and Educators
Although this book certainly is of interest to educators and Catholics, to New Yorkers who care about their youngest citizens, to those who know that the civil rights movement remains unfinished--those in "fly over country" must not neglect this book.We in rural America have a stake in ensuring that inner city youth lose none of their few opportunities to escape.While some of what goes on at Rice high is unfamiliar, these kids are ultimately like our own kids and their school friends.When you finish this book, you will care about these kids and cheer their hard-fought victories.You'll also want your schools to take from this book anything that might prevent your community's kids from being lost. ... Read more

Product Description
Unprecedented in scope and approach, this collection explores debates about the signal issues of the black experience in the United States from the late eighteenth century to the present. Over 160 primary writings—essays, speeches, petitions, editorials, newspaper and journal articles, manifestos, political cartoons, poems, and fiction—map the controversies surrounding emigration and migration, black nationalism and separatism, violent and nonviolent protest, black women's rights, the existence of a black aesthetic, the role of religion in the civil rights struggle, and affirmative action, among other key debates. ... Read more

Product Description
Bill Russell was not the first African American to play professional basketball, but he was its first black superstar. From the moment he stepped onto the court of the Boston Garden in 1956, Russell began to transform the sport in a fundamental way, making him, more than any of his contemporaries, the Jackie Robinson of basketball. In King of the Court, Aram Goudsouzian provides a vivid and engrossing chronicle of the life and career of this brilliant champion and courageous racial pioneer. Russell's leaping, wide-ranging defense altered the game's texture. His teams provided models of racial integration in the 1950s and 1960s, and, in 1966, he became the first black coach of any major professional team sport. Yet, like no athlete before him, Russell challenged the politics of sport. Instead of displaying appreciative deference, he decried racist institutions, embraced his African roots, and challenged the nonviolent tenets of the civil rights movement. This beautifully written book--sophisticated, nuanced, and insightful--reveals a singular individual who expressed the dreams of Martin Luther King Jr. while echoing the warnings of Malcolm X. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

A Great Book About Sports -- and Much More
I'm not really a sports person, but I could not stop reading this book.

I found myself drawn into the stories that Goudsouzian tells.One is the story of Bill Russell himself, an amazing athlete and quirky personality who rose to be one of the greatest basketball players of all time and a founder of the Celtics mystique.

But this is not simply a biography of one man.Goudsouzian also narrates the civil rights movement and the "rise of the black athlete" through the story of Russell's life.Like all good books about a single person, Goudsouzian puts Russell the man into his times to show how each shaped the other.Russell became a crusader for racial equality and black pride both in his on-the-court play and his off-the-court life.This is also the tale of the evolution of modern sports and how basketball went from being a small-time enterprise to an enormous cultural influence in America, thanks in large part to men like Russell.

Goudsouzian is a master historian who has done an amazing amount of research, but he's also a fabulous writer.The book sizzles with a "you-are-there" style of sports writing that puts the reader into the heat of the action.At the same time, Goudsouzian is able to step back with the historian's breadth of vision to show us what it all means and why the life of this one man -- impressive on its own terms -- points to larger themes in American history.

This book is a must-read for anyone interested in recent US history, especially African-American history, as well as the history of sports in America.

Bill Russell: Revolutionary
No basketball player defined the sixties the way that Bill Russell did. From 1959 to 1969, Russell led the Boston Celtics to ten NBA championships, including eight straight.* During this period, Russell was the central force of the greatest dynasty in the history of the sport. The Celtics helped transform the NBA from an obscure professional basketball league into a prominent sport that has become an important part of American popular culture and entertainment.

Russell's Celtics revolutionized the NBA. Before he joined the Celtics in 1956, professional basketball was essentially a lily-white, slow, earthbound sport. But Russell helped change all of that. He infused a black aesthetic into basketball and altered the patterns of the game. The changes could be seen in the way Russell rebounded the ball: he flew into the air, snatched the ball off the rim, and in one motion whipped an outlet pass to Bob Cousy or K.C. Jones, igniting a fast-break. Traditionally, basketball coaches taught their players never to leave their feet on defense. Russell ignored this rule. He leaped off the parquet floor and blocked shots, frustrating and intimidating shooters. Sometimes he simply jumped and caught a player's errant shot in midair. Russell's defense stretched the possibilities of the game. He cultivated a faster and more athletic sport.

In Aram Goudsouzian's King of the Court, we learn that Russell challenged racial boundaries on and off the court. When he arrived in Boston in December 1956, Russell was the only black player on the Celtics and only 15 African Americans held roster spots in the NBA. Russell was not the first black player in the league, but he was the NBA's first black superstar. Over the course of his thirteen seasons, Russell and the Celtics symbolized integration in American life. By 1969, Russell's last season, the NBA had become a predominantly black sport.

But Russell refused to believe that his integrated teams were evidence of racial progress in America. Goudsouzian documents the courtside racial taunts that Russell heard, the hate mail he received, and the discrimination he faced in the South and in Boston. Goudsouzian is a master storyteller whose vivid narrative shows how Russell embodied the tensions of the civil rights movement and how he confronted racial discrimination. In King of the Court, readers will learn how Russell became one of the first outspoken, politically active black athletes in America, at a time when athletes avoided controversial social and political issues. Russell's defiant behavior off the court challenged traditional standards of behavior for black athletes, paving the way for younger, more militant black athletes.

I highly recommend this book to anyone who is interested in learning about Russell, the history of the NBA, or the civil rights movement. Goudsouzian covers it all: the Wilt-Russell rivalry, the commercial growth of professional basketball, Russell's relationship with Red Auerbach, his involvement in the civil rights movement, the explosive racial history of Boston in the 1960s and 1970s, and the legacy of the Celtics' dynasty. This is unquestionably one of the best sport biographies written in the last decade. Don't take my word for it. Read it yourself.

*Russell won 11 total championships in 13 seasons.

A Serious But Still Engaging Account of Russell's Life and Impact
I've been a fan of Goudsouzian's work since I came across his seminal biography of Poitier a few years ago. I admired that book as a successful effort at chronicling Poitier's career and personal relationships without descending to the cheap but all-too-common trick of sensationalizing his romantic life and Hollywood connections in order to move books. In King of the Court, Goudsouzian maintains the same even, academic tone to his work. His account of Russell's basketball career is thoroughly researched but not overlong at 280 pages. The author's writing style is succint yet engaging.In terms of content, I particularly liked how Goudsouzian intertwined accounts of Russell's successes in sport with commentary on the racial and political climate of the times. In this way he paints a balanced portrait of Bill Russell as both athlete and cultural symbol. Overall an excellent read. ... Read more

Product Description
Study the Bible and Bible history from an African background and viewpoint. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Great Afro-centric Bible
I think that this a great bible for the average African-American Christian.I like how they give the translations for the names in theBible in the beginning and the pictures of the biblical figures being ofAfrican descent.It allows the reader to identify more with the teachingsand the words of the Bible in relation to their life being of Africandscent.A must-have item for African-American Christians. ... Read more

Product Description
Roy L. Brooks reframes one of the most important, controversial, and misunderstood issues of our time in this far-reaching reassessment of the growing debate on black reparation. Atonement and Forgiveness shifts the focus of the issue from the backward-looking question of compensation for victims to a more forward-looking racial reconciliation. Offering a comprehensive discussion of the history of the black redress movement, this book puts forward a powerful new plan for repairing the damaged relationship between the federal government and black Americans in the aftermath of 240 years of slavery and another 100 years of government-sanctioned racial segregation. Key to Brooks's vision is the government's clear signal that it understands the magnitude of the atrocity it committed against an innocent people, that it takes full responsibility, and that it publicly requests forgiveness-in other words, that it apologizes. The government must make that apology believable, Brooks explains, by a tangible act that turns the rhetoric of apology into a meaningful, material reality, that is, by reparation. Apology and reparation together constitute atonement. Atonement, in turn, imposes a reciprocal civic obligation on black Americans to forgive, which allows black Americans to start relinquishing racial resentment and to begin trusting the government's commitment to racial equality. Brooks's bold proposal situates the argument for reparations within a larger, international framework-namely, a post-Holocaust vision of government responsibility for genocide, slavery, apartheid, and similar acts of injustice. Atonement and Forgiveness makes a passionate, convincing case that only with this spirit of heightened morality, identity, egalitarianism, and restorative justice can genuine racial reconciliation take place in America. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

Reparations Now!
Excellent read for serious minded reparations scholars.Reparations are truly about redressing the past for a better future.The author presents a strong argument that atonement, forgiveness, and racial reconciliation can only be achieved through the act of reparations.His model is one that is feasible, reasonable, and promising.

A pretty flimsy book
Yes, it does provide a new model for black reparations.However, the book thinks it is smarter than it is.The author makes an extremely weak case for even having black reparations in the first place.The case is essentially that Germany did it, so we should too.It ignores several key points, such as who will actually be hurt by the reparations (non-blacks) and the issue of fighting injustice with injustice.He wants repartions for slavery, but the victims and perpitrators are long dead. If you are looking to be convinced that there should be reparations, this certainly is not the book.If you are ready to jump to the conclusion that we need them (I certainly am not) then I guess this could be a possible way to go at it.Check out the Penn and Teller season 4 episode on reparations.

A NEW Model for Black Redress in America
Many people who oppose the idea of reparations and redress in America today are confusing the redress movement with the tort-based reparations idea inspired by General Sherman's Field Order 15 granting freed slaves the mythical "40 Acres and a Mule."Since Andrew Johnson undid much of the work that Lincoln invested himself in to insure that Reconstruction would level the playing field, black Americans have been seeking a form of redress that would account for the 400 years of capital stolen from slaves by the American government.Professor Brooks presents an alternative to the Tort Model that focuses on not the financial ramifications of redress, but more importantly on the Progression of Truth towards a self realization by the perpetrator - the US government.While many confuse the word reparations with "money", Professor Brooks' Atonement Model deals with the idea of redress and an official apology from the perpetrator to the victims.This is a must read for all Americans.Given the proper exposure, this model should seek roots in the black community and redifine what reparations proponents are seeking. ... Read more

Product Description
As Karyn R. Lacy's innovative work in the suburbs of Washington, DC, reveals, there is a continuum of middle-classness among blacks, ranging from lower-middle class to middle-middle class to upper-middle class. Focusing on the latter two, Lacy explores an increasingly important social and demographic group: middle-class blacks who live in middle-class suburbs where poor blacks are not present. These "blue-chip black" suburbanites earn well over fifty thousand dollars annually and work in predominantly white professional environments. Lacy examines the complicated sense of identity that individuals in these groups craft to manage their interactions with lower-class blacks, middle-class whites, and other middle-class blacks as they seek to reap the benefits of their middle-class status. ... Read more