African American Perspectives

It's Black History Month in February, and many librarians are already busy making plans. Glen Cove P.L., NY, will be running a program called History of Slavery and the Abolitionist Movement on Long Island; Iowa City P.L. plans to offer a "School's Out," or Saturday Family Special, with the Darwin Turner Action Theater about African American folklore; and librarians at John D. Rockefeller Jr. Lib., Williamsburg, VA, have been scrutinizing paper and digital sources for more information about African Americans in Colonial Virginia. Other librarians interested in doing their own programs should take a look at the rich variety of viewpoints presented by the forthcoming titles featured here. Just consider: former San Francisco mayor Willie Brown assays the 2008 elections, John Edgar Wideman takes a fictional look at a political activist, and black Communists fight for the rights of some innocent men. Other authors reflect on everything from gambling to integration, slavery, health, and civil rights. One recent, much-talked-about publication that is not on our list but should be on yours is Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas's memoir, My Grandfather's Son.

Actress Sanaa Lathan, singer Brandy Norwood, and journalist Elinor Tatum are just a few of the successful women paying tribute to their dads in this intimate look at black fatherhood. Compiled by children's book author Vassel, this work has compelling personal essays and stunning photographs.

Once labeled "the real Slick Willie" by Bill Clinton, Brown, now heading his own Institute on Politics and Public Service, served 30 years in the California State Assembly and in 1996 became the first African American mayor of San Francisco. Here, he offers anecdotes of his days as a politician along with some piercing commentary on the 2008 elections.

Hadjii, who wrote, directed, and starred in the film called Somebodies, recounts his adventures growing up black in the South in the 1980s and 1990s. Some of his memories are humorous—he recalls playing in the street and finding ways to escape church—but he also takes a look at race in America.

In this work, Williams, a former gang leader, convicted murderer, and Nobel Peace Prize nominee who was executed in prison in 2005, details how he turned his life around while on death row and became an antigang activist.

Aaron's (Push) latest novel features grocery bagger Spencer Lewis and Tia Stern, a washed-up actress who hires him as her personal assistant. What starts out as a dream job for Spencer becomes a nightmare; after a steamy relationship develops, the two create a successful modeling firm—and then Tia, the dramatic diva, goes ballistic. (Xpress Reviews, 10/9/07)

A bus driver named P is seriously addicted to gambling in this tragic novel, set in Miami. Allen (Churchboys and Other Sinners) paints a portrait of a family man who loses control as he uses up his life savings, shoots one of his sons, and eventually commits suicide.

In this latest from the author of Upstate, 15-year-old Shivana believes that all black women fall into the same situation: single and pregnant by men who don't stick around. So it's no surprise that she conceives by the married man whose children she babysits after school, leading to some real fireworks with her mother.

A sequel to Tryin' To Sleep in the Bed You Made, which was an Essence best seller, this novel focuses on best friends and business partners Gayle and Pat, who really do keep on tryin' as they struggle with issues like infidelity, domestic violence, illegitimacy, and an eating disorder.

Jackson (What a Woman Wants) introduces us to soon-to-be-married Sonya Morrison and the little black book she presents to her cousin. Courtney has not met Mr. Right, but when she meets a handsome, wealthy older man, that gift from Sonya turns out to be more of a curse than a blessing.

Set in Revere, MS, where blacks live on one side of town and whites on the other, this suspenseful novel by Johnson (Maiden of Fire) deals with integration in the 1960s. The story is jump-started by the sheriff's investigation of the mysterious death of a white man.

Liz Spocott, a 19-year-old runaway slave, gets shot by her catcher but is able to kill him and escape again with 14 others through eastern Maryland's swamps. McBride (The Color of Water) bases his story on historical events, invoking memories of abolitionists like Frederick Douglass and Harriet Tubman.

McDonnell's first novel, a fantasy, revolves around Loic, a wealthy, young, light-skinned warrior, and Satha, an older, dark-skinned woman from a poor clan whom he wants to marry. After some resistance, she agrees to his proposal, but they have to endure a yearlong courtship, or half-marriage, before they can tie the knot.

In Miller's (Satin Doll) latest, blond, blue-eyed Shanika Ann Jenkins decides to pass as a white woman since none of her coworkers at the PR firm where she's employed suspect that she is African American. But she must finally face who she is when she meets and falls for a handsome black businessman.

Mink (Hot Like Fire) and Diamond (Feel the Fire) portray four young women trying their best to escape the hood in this first in a series of street lit novels set in the Atlanta housing projects. Named Bentley Manor, this development is also home to two longtime residents who know how difficult it is to leave the ghetto.

This new novel from Ray (In Another Man's Bed) features Traci Evans, a widow whose husband died while cheating on her with another woman. So she's determined not to open her heart to love again, until she meets her next-door neighbor's son.

With Venus's difficult pregnancy and Jake's murder charges behind them, the couple decides to leave Los Angeles for Atlanta. But there's still trouble to come in this latest from Thomas (Nappily Married): Jake fears his case will be reopened, and the biological father of Venus's daughter demands parental rights.

In this debut, former Sesame Street regular Valentine introduces Remmi, an actress who's determined to make it big as a video star in the male-dominated world of Hollywood. To that end, she befriends and beds anyone who could turn her dreams into reality.

There's a lot of steamy drama in this second title in the "Black Door" series (after The Black Door). Velvet introduces Mason, the manager of a club designed for women; Terra, an heiress seeking stardom; and Sage, inheritor of a media empire, who are mutually involved in a search for love.

This follow-up to God's Gym is narrated by Thomas, who's trying to write a book about political activist Frantz Fanon (1925–61), author of The Wretched of the Earth. The story also revolves around Thomas's aging mother and his brother, who's serving time in Pennsylvania. (LJ 10/1/07)

In this sequel to True to the Game, Gena Scott is mourning the loss of her drug-dealing boyfriend, Quadir. That doesn't keep her from enjoying his money or dating Jay, but what she doesn't know will hurt her: this guy is her boyfriend's nemesis and is out to kill her.

Cardiologist Mieres and Parnell, a registered nurse, present a simple plan to help women of color prevent heart disease, showing them how to lose weight and lower their blood pressure and cholesterol with an inexpensive, easy-to-follow diet and exercise program.

In 1931, in Scottsboro, AL, nine African American men were wrongly accused of raping two white women. An all-white jury found them guilty, and eight were sentenced to death. Here, Howard (American history, Bloomsburg Univ.) presents the voices of activists like Harry Haywood and William Patterson, who took the lead in organizing protests to free these innocent men.

Long before the Civil War, former slaves Lucy and Abijah Prince became, respectively, the first published African American poet and an entrepreneur. With a family and property, they achieved the American dream—though they had to fight to keep their land. Gerzina (Black London) crafts an inspiring tale.

Blair (English, Univ. of Michigan) examines the relationship between literature and photography from the 1930s to the 1970s and beyond, highlighting the collaboration of Langston Hughes and Roy DeCarava, as well as James Baldwin and Richard Avedon, and offering Lorraine Hansberry's responses to civil rights images.

Holmes, an independent scholar, and Wall (English, Rutgers Univ.) present a stirring tribute to the late author of Those Bones Are Not My Child, with help from notables and friends like Amiri Baraka, Nikki Giovanni, Ruby Dee, and others. The book includes poems, personal essays, and critiques.

The last surviving member of the Harlem Renaissance, West (1907–98), a contemporary of Zora Neale Hurston and Richard Wright, wrote several short stories and two novels. This collection of her forgotten pieces, thankfully unearthed, explores family life, childhood, and marriage.

McQueen (1911–95) is best known for playing a young slave named Prissy in the Civil War epic Gone with the Wind, a role much criticized as an offensive caricature of black women. In this book, Bourne (Ethel Waters: Stormy Weather) provides an intimate portrait of McQueen's life and career, from her early years to the day she turned her back on Hollywood.

In this moving collection, Barnett (history & Africana studies, Sarah Lawrence Coll.) conducts interviews with leading African American performing artists, including Abbey Lincoln, Dionne Warwick, and Miriam Makeba. By showing us what they've accomplished, she helps us understand how they made their mark in the music industry.

Posthumously inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame on March 13, 2006, trumpeter Davis was a leading figure in the jazz world. These articles, written over a period of 60 years, explore both his career and his personal life, with pieces on his arrest in New York and his marriage to actress Cicely Tyson.

Pearson, an actress in the TV drama The Wire, was born a crack baby in Baltimore and raised in a foster home. Here, with collaborator Ritz, she chronicles living on the streets, dealing drugs, and ending up in prison for killing a woman in self-defense. (Xpress Reviews, 10/21/07)

This essay collection, edited by Massood (film studies, Brooklyn Coll.), examines some of the movies of film director/producer Lee, whose work deals with controversial social and political issues. Among the contributors, all leading scholars in the field of cinema studies, are writer bell hooks on feminism in She's Gotta Have It, Professor S. Craig Watkins on masculinity in Get on the Bus, and Professor Anna Everett on history in Malcolm X.

Presidential candidate Obama is the only African American in the U.S. Senate. Here, Dupuis (political science, Univ. of Central Florida) and Boeckelman (politics, Western Illinois Univ.) show how his stirring speech at the Democratic National Convention in 2004, his policy recommendations, and his charismatic style have put him in the national spotlight.

Speaking from experience, Williams, a trained social worker now heading her own public relations firm, offers a compelling look at depression in the African American community. By chronicling her own battles with the debilitating disease, as well as the stories of other sufferers, from entertainers to athletes, she sheds light on the healing process.

Beginning with a biography of the 1993 winner of the Nobel prize in literature, Gillespie (English, Univ. of Toledo) examines Morrison's novels, short stories, children's books, and nonfiction. There are also entries on related topics like abolition and relevant people, places, and influences.

Daddy Grace (1881–1960), the flamboyant bishop from the Cape Verde Islands, founded the United House of Prayer for All People, a Pentecostal church, in Massachusetts in 1919. Here Dallam (religion, Temple Univ.) examines the life of a man who wore purple suits and flashy jewelry and accepted large donations from his poor followers.

In this polemic, conservative radio talk-show host Elder rails against the mind-set that keeps men like Al Sharpton, actor Danny Glover, and sports figures who shout about racism and unfairness in the public eye. Instead, he points to Bill Cosby, Barack Obama, and Tiger Woods as role models.

Educator and businessman Hart, a builder who helps develop distressed urban neighborhoods, offers his ideas for the reconstruction of the city devastated by Hurricane Katrina in August 2005. Hart doesn't stint, addressing all the issues that have affected New Orleans and its black population.

Johnson (Working While Black: The Black Person's Guide to Success in the White Workplace) encourages African Americans who are unhappy with or merely surviving on their jobs to leave and find their passion elsewhere. She then highlights four surefire ways to make an exit: start your own business, pursue art, become a freelancer, or do something unconventional.

In the black community, "selling out" refers to those who knowingly or carelessly act against the interests of their own people. In this work, Kennedy (Interracial Intimacies) examines the meaning of that expression while considering how and why luminaries like Condoleezza Rice, Colin Powell, and Clarence Thomas have been branded for betraying their race.

These readings, edited by professors Gates and Jarrett, examine the transition of blacks from colored to Negro between Reconstruction and World War II, with notables like Booker T. Washington, W.E.B. DuBois, Marcus Garvey, Anna Julia Cooper, and Zora Neale Hurston reflecting on such themes as education, literature, art, poetry, music, and much more.

In this portrait, Wright, publications editor for the Black AIDS Institute, explores the lives of three young gay men of color. He focuses on their experiences, their friends and families, and their activities as he details their journeys in trying to belong.

Part history, part travel guide, this book focuses mostly on the South and the civil rights struggle in the 1940s, 1950s, and 1960s. Cobb (coauthor, Radical Equations) begins in the U.S. capital and works his way to sites in North Carolina and Alabama, where pioneers of the movement marched, met in churches, and sat in at lunch counters.