Black Stars of the Harlem Renaissance

by James Haskins, Eleanora E. Tate, Clinton Cox

AFRICAN AMERICAN HISTORY COMES TO LIFE Discover why young people all over the country are reading the Black Stars biographies of African American heroes. Here is what you want to know about the lives of great black men and women during the fabulous Harlem louis "satchmo" armstrong eubie blake thomas andrew dorsey w. e. b. du bois duke ellington james reese europe jessie redmon fauset marcus garvey w. c. handy fletcher henderson langston hughes zora neale hurston hall johnson henry johnson oscar micheaux philip payton jr. gertrude "ma" rainey paul robeson augusta savage noble sissle bessie smith james van der zee dorothy west carter g. woodson "The books in the Black Stars series are the types of books that would have really captivated me as a kid." -Earl G. Graves, Black Enterprise magazine "Inspiring stories that demonstrate what can happen when ingenuity and tenacity are paired with courage and hard work." -Black Books Galore! Guide to Great African American Children's Books "Haskins has chosen his subjects well . . . catching a sense of the enormous obstacles they had to overcome. . . . Some names are familiar, but most are little-known whom Haskins elevates to their rightful place in history." -Booklist "The broad coverage makes this an unusual resource-a jumping-off point for deeper studies." -Horn Book

Genres: History

128 pages, Kindle Edition

First published August 31, 2002

About the author

Haskins, James (1941–2005), author of nonfiction books for juveniles and adults, biographer, educator, critic, editor, and educational consultant. Born into a large family in a racially segregated middle-class section of Demopolis, Alabama, where he was not allowed to visit the town's public library, James S. Haskins was deeply affected by the swirl of events related to the mid-century civil rights movement. He received his bachelor's degree in history at Alabama State College, but limited career opportunities in the South in the early 1960s led him to seek employment in New York City. Two years of selling newspaper advertisements and working as a Wall Street stockbroker brought him to the realization that he was better suited for a career in education and thus he applied for a position in the New York City public school system. After teaching music at several locations, he found a job teaching a special education class at P.S. 92. Obsessed with the plight of his inner-city pupils, he was glad to discuss their problems with anyone who would listen, including a social worker who encouraged him to write his thoughts and experiences in a diary. This resulted in the publication of his first book, Diary of a Harlem Schoolteacher (1969), which was widely acclaimed. This initial success attracted the attention of major publishers who approached him to write books for children and adolescents.

An admitted need to reconcile social disparities and a desire to interpret events to young people and to motivate them to read and be influenced by accomplished individuals—particularly deprived youth whom he felt had far too few role models to read about—led him to author more than one hundred books on a diverse array of topics. Written for a general audience of juveniles, his titles include The War and the Protest: Viet Nam (1971), Religions (1973), Jobs in Business and Office (1974), The Consumer Movement (1975), Your Rights, Past and Present: A Guide for Young People (1975), Teen-age Alcoholism (1976), The Long Struggle: The Story of American Labor (1976), Who Are the Handicapped (1978), Gambling—Who Really Wins (1978), Werewolves (1981), and The New Americans: Cuban Boat People (1982).

Haskins launched his college teaching career in 1970 and continued lecturing on psychology, folklore, children's and young adult literature, and urban education at schools in New York and Indiana before landing a full-time professorship in the English department at the University of Florida at Gainesville in 1977. That same year he authored The Cotton Club, a pictorial and social history of the notorious Harlem night club, which seven years later was transformed into a motion picture of the same name directed by Francis Ford Coppola.

Among his books intended for adults or college-level readers are The Psychology of Black Language (1973) with Dr. Hugh Butts; Black Manifesto for Education (1973), which he edited; Snow Sculpture and Ice Carving (1974); Scott Joplin: The Man Who Made Rag-time (1978); Voodoo and Hoodoo: Their Tradition and Craft as Revealed by Actual Practitioners (1978); Richard Pryor, A Man and His Madness (1984); and Mabel Mercer: A Life (1988). He has contributed numerous critical essays and reviews to periodicals. Still, he is best known for his biographies, tailored for elementary and high school students. Most of these recount the triumphs of well-known contemporary African Americans, with whom many young people readily identify. The long list of persons he has profiled (often using the pen name Jim Haskins) include Colin Powell, Barbara Jordon, Thurgood Marshall, Sugar Ray Leonard, Magic Johnson, Diana Ross, Katherine Dunham, Guion Bluford, Andrew Young, Bill Cosby, Kareem Adbul-Jabbar, Shirley Chisholm, Lena Horne, and Rosa Parks. Biographies of prominent individuals who are not African American include Indira and Rajiv Gandhi, Shirley Temple Black, Corazón Aquino, Winnie Mandela, and Christopher Columbus.

Reviews

[David Luong · Rating 3 out of 5]

The reason I chose this book is that I wanted to know more historic figures that lived during the Renaissance era. For instance, I had already know Langston Hughes, and read many of his books. He was a very significant author, who develops a variety of rhetoric, and creative styles in his work. Anyways, this book mentions many famous black people, with their historical background, and the accomplishments they have made during the Harlem Renaissance. Once I finished, not only did I learned more about Hughes, but also another famous leader, named Booker T. Washington, an intelligent educator who revolutionized black people in the U.S.

Still, I enjoyed this book because I learned something new,such as the reason for the Harlem Renaissance, and how it made a vital influence on Harlem residents in New York City, especially in the present-day.

[Danny Lam · Rating 3 out of 5]

If i wasn't finding sources for my American History research paper, i wouldn't have found such an amazing and informative non-fiction book on the lives of Harlem Renaissance contributors. I thought this would be the best book for a research paper, or maybe just a nice bedtime story if you are interested in history. Anyways, this book captures the lives of many African Americans, like Langston Hughes, who made great contribution to the literature of the Harlem Renaissance. One portion of this book gave a detailed biography of Hughes and how his childhood was and how he was able to become successful. Overall, I think this book was great and i strongly suggest people to read it.