African American Lives

by Henry Louis Gates Jr. (Editor), Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham (Editor)

African American Lives offers up-to-date, authoritative biographies of some 600 noteworthy African Americans. These 1,000-3,000 word biographies, selected from over five thousand entries in the forthcoming eight-volume African American National Biography, illuminate African-American history through the immediacy of individual experience. From Esteban, the earliest known African to set foot in North America in 1528, right up to the continuing careers of Venus and Serena Williams, these stories of the renowned and the near forgotten give us a new view of American history. Our past is revealed from personal perspectives that in turn inspire, move, entertain, and even infuriate the reader. Subjects include slaves and abolitionists, writers, politicians, and business people, musicians and dancers, artists and athletes, victims of injustice and the lawyers, journalists, and civil rights leaders who gave them a voice. Their experiences and accomplishments combine to expose the complexity of race as an overriding issue in America's past and present.

African American Lives features frequent cross-references among related entries, over 300 illustrations, and a general index, supplemented by indexes organized by chronology, occupation or area of renown, and winners of particular honors such as the Spingarn Medal, Nobel Prize, and Pulitzer Prize.

Genres: History

1056 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2004

About the author

Henry Louis "Skip" Gates Jr. is a Professor of African and African-American Studies at Harvard University and Director of the W. E. B. Du Bois Institute for African and African American Research. He is well-known as a literary critic, an editor of literature, and a proponent of black literature and black cultural studies.

Reviews

[Kenneth Williams · Rating 4 out of 5]

Education for American

Perfect book to fill the void created by lack of in depth study of African American contribution to this country

[Tim · Rating 5 out of 5]

Henry Louis Gates Jr. and Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham head up the editorial team of this incredible reference book. 611 notable African American Lives are profiled here (some famous, some not but all making their own contributions). These names were chosen from a total list of 11,000. You will most likely not find yourself reading this book cover to cover, but if you want background information on everyone from Cornel West, Toni Morrison, Jackie Robinson and more obscure names like Noble Drew Ali (introduced Islam to African Americans on a large scale) or John Robinson (pilot for Haile Selassie), then this is an excellent resource.