Lavishly illustrated with a unique collection of archive photographs and other material, Black America charts the progress of Black Americans from their earliest days in the Caribbean to the plantations of the Deep South. The book covers their role in society and their culture and follows their mixed fortunes through the Civil War and Reconstruction. Black America also covers the enormous influence that Black Americans have had on American culture -- in literature, art, cinema and music -- throughout the 20th century and explores the civil rights movement and its leaders including Martin Luther King, Malcolm X, and Marcus Garvey. This is a detailed survey of the Black American experience in a single, comprehensively illustrated and powerfully written volume.