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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.
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