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About Portland observer. (Portland, Or.) 1970-current | View Entire Issue (Feb. 2, 2000)
4 (Bfcwmr In Print Focus V February 2,2000 Page 7 The Black New Yorkers 400 Years of African American History by The Schomburg Center For Research in Black Culture John Wiley & Sons, Inc.; 2000 New Y ork City has been the home o f African Americans for four centuries. Blacks were among the founding fathers and mothers o f pioneer colonial settlements in the future boroughs, and they have remained integral players in the teeming daily drama o f the city. The Black New Yorkers: The Schomburg Illustrated Chronology recreates this unique relationship between a people and a city, and through it chronicles the worldwide African American struggle for freedom and human dignity. This richly produced volume offers a m onum ental assem bly o f pow erful im ages and engrossing text that narrates the African American odyssey from colonial times to the present day. In these pages, you’ll explore all the driving forces and seminal events in each era, from Colonial New York and the Revolutionary War, through the progress and turmoil o f the nineteenth century, to the turbulence and accomplishments o f the twentieth century. In highly detailed, year-by-year entries, you’ll gain insights into familiar events and discover lesser- known but important other facts about these topics and more. Resonant with tales o f trial, courage, and triumph, vibrant and humble history-makers. The Black New Yorkers is a sweeping, powerful record o f the richly diverse heritage o f African Americans in the capital o f black America. It is a perfect reference for the serious student o f history and a browser’s delight for every reader interested in the black experience. Titans of the B.E. 100s Black CEOs Who Redefined and Conquered American Business By Derek T. Dingle John Wiley & Sons, Inc.; 1999 For more than 25 years, Black Enterprise, the premier African American business magazine, has ranked and chronicled the B.E. 100s - its exclusive listing o f the nation’s top-grossing Mack-owned businesses. Generating more than $14 billion in annual revenue and employing more than 55,000 people, these companies represent a vibrant and often overlooked segment o f the American economy. Their CEOs, among the wealthiest and most powerful players in the black business community, have been the vanguard o f an entrepreneurial revolution. They achieved greatness despite a lack o f capital, diminished access, and even outright racism, using their imagination and drive to seize opportunities and break through barriers. First in the Black Enterprise series, Titans o f the B E . 100s profiles eleven o f these remarkable leaders o f the largest black-owned businesses. Covering a broad cross-section o f companies and industries, this compelling book features both today’s emerging entrepreneurs and the established CEOs, revealing the secrets o f how they beat the odds and the hard truths about the myriad challenges they’ve faced. No other book brings together so many contemporary black business success stories. Through in-depth, first- person interviews, you’ll meet the titans who started their companies from the ground up and were relentless in doing so; who filled a void in the consumer market and, in tum, revolutionized whole industries; and who love the companies that they run and are energized by new ventures. Each chapter profiles a different business legend: From John H. Johnson, founder o f Ebony and Jet magazines; to Herman J. Russell, who used $ 125 to create the nation’s largest black- owned construction firm; to Emma C. Chappell, the People’s Banker, who launched the United Bank o f Philadelphia; to Robert L. Johnson, who created Black Entertainment Television and then transformed BET Holdings, Inc. from a single cable network to an entertainment monolith that became the first black-owned business listed on the New York Stock Exchange. Spoken Soul The Story o f Black English By John Russell Rickford and Russell John Rickford John Wiley & Sons, Inc.; 2000 Claude Brown called it “Spoken Soul.” Legendary author James Baldwin referred to it as “incredible music.” Writers from Paul Laurence Dunbar to Toni Morrison and Alice W alker have employed it to fully convey the experiences o f black America. In Spoken Soul: The Story o f Black English, scholar and linguistics expert John R. Rickford and journalist Russell J. Rickford offer a fascinating, definitive history o f the use o f Black English in literature, the performing arts, religion, and everyday conversation. The Rickfords also explore A m erica’s love/hate relationship with Black English and its role in our ongoing dialogue about why and how race matters. From our embrace of Black English as the language of jazz, funk, hip-hop, and rap, to the media-fanned furor surrounding proposals to use Ebonics as a springboard to teaching Standard English, Black English is as deeply rooted in A merica’s politics as it is in A merica’s culture. The R ickfords scrupulously show how education, the media, and society have been affected by the power and tenacity o f Spoken Soul. If you love words or are interested in the connection between language and identity, Spoken Soul intrigue and enlighten you. J ohn R ussell R ii kfokd R u s s ili . J o hn R k m d r p