A serious and professional presentation of the background and pros and cons of major issues that affect the lives of African Americans:

The major issues for African Americans today, such as poverty, low graduation rates, high rates of out-of wedlock births, and high rates of incarceration, are of critical importance. This volume provides a solid basis for students to understand and debate 9 crucial issues in the context of both the past and present. These issues are slavery reparations, crime and punishment, cultural assimilation, affirmative action, school vouchers, standardized tests, welfare-to-work, stereotypes, and election reform. The history of slavery, segregation, and racism continue to impact African Americans and the rest of American society. For the students of today, born after the major gains of the Civil Rights Movement, this book will reveal how much more progress is still needed. They will find an historical overview of the issues, learn about the main players, and read about the different sides. Under the topical chapters, readers will be able to consider the fuller spectrum of news items, such as whether Bill Cosby's famous comments about African Americans are on target, and what can be done about the voting disenfranchising that exists in practice in the current US political system. Hardback (185 pages). Author: Kevin D. Roberts

Level: A/Interdisciplinary projects/Library-Depot

This collection of essays explores the way race-ethnicity, class, gender, locale, historical background and sexuality interact in shaping the diversity of modern American family life. The essays are written by many of the most important scholars of our time. There are chapters about African Americans, Latinos, Native Americans, Filipinas, Vietnamese, Chinese, immigrants, lesbians, motherhood, the poor, teenage mothers, and class consciousness in various times and places. This is an academic book, but there is lots of inspiration for the teacher and excerpts will be usable at the top end of the gymnasium. Editor: Stephanie Coontz. (475 pages)
Level: Library/Depot/2nd and 3rd years of the gymnasium

In this lyrical, unsentimental, and compelling memoir (written even before Barack Obama had won his seat in the Senate), the son of a black African father and a white American mother searches for a workable meaning to his life as a black American. The story begins in New York, where Obama receives a phone call from Nairobi: his father — a figure he knows more as a myth than as a man — has been killed in a car accident. This sudden death inspires an emotional odyssey for Obama, determined to learn the truth of his father's life and his divided inheritance — first to a small town in Kansas, from which he retraces the migration of his mother's family to Hawaii, and then to Kenya, where he meets the African side of his family, confronts the bitter truth of his father's life, and at last reconciles his divided inheritance. Written at the age of thirty-three, Dreams from My Father is an unforgettable read which illuminates not only Obama's own journey, but also our universal desire to understand our history and what makes us the people we are. (442 pages)
Level: Library/Depot/Interdisciplinary projects/SRP

Maya Angelou's autobiography, in which she tells of her childhood with her grandmother in the American south of the 1930s. She learns the power of a white skin and suffers the trauma of rape by her mother's lover. (288 pages)
Level: B

Now in a cheaper edition! The Oxford Companion to Black British History is an essential resource for understanding the long history of black people in the British Isles, from African auxiliaries stationed on Hadrian's Wall in the 2nd century AD to Mary Seacole, the “Black Florence Nightingale”, Walter Tull, footballer and First World War officer ... and our own day. 400+ articles consider key concepts such as Racism, Emancipation, and Reparations; historical events; literature; music; organizations; leading figures; publications; politics; religion; slavery and much more. This book provides a fine overview of the black presence in Britain and its contribution to British society. (562 pages)
Contents: Introduction; Editors, Advisory Editors, and Contributors; Note to the Reader; Thematic Contents List; A-Z entries; Timeline; Select Bibliography
Level: Library/Depot (partnership with: Historie)

In the first decades of the twentieth century, virulent racism lingered from Reconstruction, and segregation increased. Hostility met the millions of new immigrants from Eastern and southern Europe, and immigration was restricted. Still, even in an inhospitable climate, blacks and other minority groups came to have key roles in popular culture, from ragtime and jazz to film and the Harlem Renaissance. This volume has a decade-by-decade organization to help students understand the crucial race relations of the recent past. It provides comprehensive reference coverage of the key events, influential voices, race relations by group, legislation, media influences, cultural output, and theories of inter-group interactions. The volume covers two decades — coverage for each decade includes Timeline, Overview, Key Events, Voices of the Decade, Race Relations by Group, Law and Government, Media and Mass Communications, Cultural Scene, Influential Theories and Views of Race Relations, and a Resource Guide. This format allows comparison of topics through the decades. The style and layout are clear and accessible. Historical photographs, a selected bibliography, and index complement the text. Author: John F. McClymer. Hardback. (173 pages + Introduction)
Level: Library/Depot — a great resource especially for 2nd and 3rd years of the gymnasium

Race relations in the 1920s ranged from an epidemic of lynchings of African Americans, race riots, and the execution of Italian immigrants Sacco and Vanzetti to citizenship for American Indians but not for Mexican immigrants. As the 1930s unfolded, there was more discrimination of Latinos and a legal lynching in the Scottsboro Boys trial, and German Jewish children were refused refuge from Hitler's Germany. This volume has a decade-by-decade organization to help students understand the crucial race relations of the recent past. It provides comprehensive reference coverage of the key events, influential voices, race relations by group, legislation, media influences, cultural output, and theories of inter-group interactions. The volume covers two decades — coverage for each decade includes Timeline, Overview, Key Events, Voices of the Decade, Race Relations by Group, Law and Government, Media and Mass Communications, Cultural Scene, Influential Theories and Views of Race Relations, and a Resource Guide. This format allows comparison of topics through the decades. The style and layout are clear and accessible. Historical photographs, a selected bibliography, and index complement the text. Author: Leslie V. Tischauser. Hardback. (173 pages + Introduction)
Level: Library/Depot — a great resource especially for 2nd and 3rd years of the gymnasium

The 1940s and 1950s were decades of far-reaching change and mobilization in the United States. White culture strove to make nonwhites invisible with segregation and discrimination as Southern blacks continued the Great Migration north and the government brought in Mexican labor via the Bracero Program to take up labor slack while U.S. troops were overseas. The rise of the civil rights movement and Brown v. Board of Education (which struck down segregation in schools 1954) were some results. This volume has a decade-by-decade organization to help students understand the crucial race relations of the recent past. It provides comprehensive reference coverage of the key events, influential voices, race relations by group, legislation, media influences, cultural output, and theories of inter-group interactions. The volume covers two decades — coverage for each decade includes Timeline, Overview, Key Events, Voices of the Decade, Race Relations by Group, Law and Government, Media and Mass Communications, Cultural Scene, Influential Theories and Views of Race Relations, and a Resource Guide. This format allows comparison of topics through the decades. The style and layout are clear and accessible. Historical photographs, a selected bibliography, and index complement the text. Author: Thomas J. Davis. Hardback. (173 pages + Introduction)
Level: Library/Depot — a great resource especially for 2nd and 3rd years of the gymnasium

Few decades in American history were as full of drama and historical significance as the 1960s and 1970s. In the 1960s, a revolution in race relations occurred, seeing the rise of the Civil Rights Movement, Black Power, the American Indian Movement, and the Latino labour movement. The focus in the 1970s was on carrying out the reforms of the previous decade, with the resulting white backlash. This volume is a source to help students understand the crucial race relations of the recent past. It provides comprehensive reference coverage of the key events, influential voices, race relations by group, legislation, media influences, cultural output, and theories of inter-group interactions. The volume covers two decades — coverage for each decade includes Timeline, Overview, Key Events, Voices of the Decade, Race Relations by Group, Law and Government, Media and Mass Communications, Cultural Scene, Influential Theories and Views of Race Relations, and a Resource Guide. This format allows comparison of topics through the decades. The style and layout are clear and accessible. Historical photographs, a selected bibliography, and index complement the text. Author: Thomas Upchurch. Hardback. (180 pages + Introduction)
Level: Library/Depot — a great resource especially for 2nd and 3rd years of the gymnasium

This book looks at the new generation of white supremacists who seem respectable in their business suits but are reaching a dangerously wide audience – especially through their exploitation of the popular fear of immigration. Two articles also look at the situation in Europe. Editor: Mitchell Young. (119 pages)
Level: Mainly Second and Third year Gymnasium