Creating Black Americans: African American History and Its Meanings, 1619 to the Present Review

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(More customer reviews)Nell Irvin Painter is the Edward Professor of American History at Princeton University. She is author of many books on the Black experience and African American history in the United States, including 'Sojourner Truth: A Life, A Symbol' and 'Southern History across the Color Line'. This book, 'Creating Black Americans: African American History and Its Meanings, 1619 to the Present', is a broad, sweeping text that stirs and involves the reader in the long and significant history of this people in North America. Beginning with the Middle Passage and slave trade that brought the majority of Africans to the Western Hemisphere, Painter continues her narrative through to very recent events, including the appointments of Colin Powell and Condaleeza Rice as Secretaries of State for the United States.
Painter draws on early stories and official histories, biographical accounts and legends, well-known events and little known incidents. One person highlighted is Olaudah Equiano, one of the earliest of the African slaves to write his account. As one might expect, Painter's pieces on Sojourner Truth and others of her generation are particularly good.
Painter also draws on the official history of the quest for civil rights. She looks at famous court cases, like the Dred Scott decision, Plessy v. Ferguson (which made 'separate but equal' a legal standard), Brown v. Board of Education (which knocked down the same 'separate but equal' as being unworkable), and other political and legal events in the quest for civil rights, even those sometimes viewed as separate from the Civil Rights Movement proper, which is also highlighted in good detail.
There is also a good discussion of the Black culture in terms of art, literature, film, music and other aspects. The Harlem Renaissance of the 1920s is highlighted, as are the figures who came out of this period - Langston Hughes, Duke Ellington, Wallace Thurman, and Zora Neale Hurston, not to mention the very influential Apollo Theatre, helped launch the careers of such talent as Billie Holiday, Ella Fitzgerald and James Brown, and later Michael Jackson.
Painter's historical survey includes a good coverage of the Civil War and the Abolitionist movement, including the aftermath of the unfulfilled promises of Reconstruction.
This is a well-illustrated book, with over a hundred photographs and other graphics, and an engaging style of text that keeps the attention of the reader very much engaged.


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