Product Description
May 17, 2004 will mark the 50th anniversary of the landmark Brown v. Board of Education desegregation decision. This case is considered to be the most important legal case affecting African Americans in the twentieth century and one of the most important Supreme Court decisions in U. S. Constitution history.

Brown v. Board of Educationcombines separate cases from Kansas(Brown et. Al v. Board of Education of Topeka), South Carolina(Briggs v. Elliott), Delaware (Belton v. Gebhart), Virginia (Davis v. County School Board of Prince Edward Country, Virginia), and the District of Columbia (Boiling v. Sharpe).The Brown companion cases presented segregation at its worst. Although supposedly guaranteeing African Americans "separate but equal" education, schools for African Americans were never equal as many were in run-down buildings with overcrowded classrooms. Many schools had no indoor plumbing or heating and there was little money for books and supplies.Bus service was rarely supplied for African American children who often had to walk past better-equipped white schools to attend segregated schools.

The NAACP (National Association for the Advancement of Colored People) decided to challenge segregation in schools and took the Brown cases to the Supreme Court. After combining the five cases in one large case, the Supreme Court ruled that segregated schools were illegal. Speaking on behalf of the Supreme Court, Chief Justice Earl Warren found that "in the field of public education the doctrine of ‘separate but equal’ had no place. Separate education facilities are inherently unequal." Brown v Board of Education signaled the end of the legality of segregation.

This book will serve as a helpful curriculum guide to educators interested in teaching the details of one of the most important legal cases in African American history. ... Read more

Product Description
Not Only the Master's Tools: African American Studies in Theory and Practice brings together new essays on the ongoing value of black thought. In the service of what the editors call epistemological decolonization of African American studies, the first part examines the grounding of theoretical reason from various perspectives such as Africana philosophy, philosophical anthropology, and black literary theory. The second part offers theoretical explorations of practical reason as it unfolds in the study of slavery, education, queerness, politics, and ethics. Responding to Audre Lorde's famous dictum that "The Master's tools will never dismantle the Master's house", the editors and these internationally renowned scholars ask: "Why not instead devote attention to using those and other tools to build new, more open houses?"

Important for anyone interested in the ongoing importance of ideas, the book is well suited for students and scholars of Africana studies, philosophy, literary theory, educational theory, social and political thought, and postcolonial studies. ... Read more

Product Description
The first book solely devoted to the subject of black fraternity hazing. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (9)

Excellent
This book, though limited in its breadth addresses some fundamentals, that surprisingly has little to do with hazing but African American male psyche. I give kudos to the author for taking the risks, and for amazon, for being one of the only places to get this book. Though full, this book is small enough not to be overwhelming.

Nice book
Before becoming apart of an organization one must have a real view of themselves in order to accept the POSITIVE (there is negative) change that some of these organizations have to offer.I appreciate this book because it gave me the basis to converse about change and being better role models.We come from different backgrounds and to be able to meshpersonalities for the greater good of the community is a wonderful thing.Although I disagree with physical hazing to the extent of pain one should beeducated on the benefits of physical wellness (one could do push ups and be a leader of a group which in turn may give him/her the tools necessary to being a leader in their community.Nevertheless, it was a nice book.

Son at an HBCU loved the book!
My son loaned the book to several friends and they all commented on how well the information about Black Fraternities was presented... timeless.Makes me proud of the jouney that we are on and the accomplishments made.

Black Haze
This book is more than just stories about violence through fraternity hazing, it's also an insightful look at the history of Black America and how these organizations played an important role.I recommend this book to all those that are interested in the history of Black culture and its progression from post disenfranchisement to today.

Brave Book But Foggy Answers
I am such a big fan of the movie "Stomp the Yard," but when asking Greeks about the movie, there was an immediate lash at how the movie was not accurate as to how Greek life really is.I was told that people who were Greeks or who knew anything about Greek life would understand how "stupid" the movie was, so I got curious. In undergrad, I thought about pledging into one particular sorority, but after seeing only ONE Kappa member cross at my school (when there were initially at least 30) and a neophyte having his crutches snatched away from him and Omega members demanding that he hop before he crossed, I quickly changed my mind.I firmly believe in the logo "Slap me and I'll slap you back" and there was absolutely no way I was just going to let someone beat the hell out of me to join their organization.But after speaking with a very dear relative of mine about joining a sorority, I tried to understand the good parts about Greek life.Sadly, the more she told me, the more I concluded that it was not for me.And then I found this book while searching online for material to change my mind about pledging in the graduate chapter.

There is not a doubt in my mind that I absolutely will never pledge now.The horror stories in the Appendix were so utterly evil to the point where I was begging this book to fiction.But as I know from watching the few experiences at my own alma mater and seeing Greeks go offline so many times, I'm sure they aren't.I'd spoken with Greeks BEFORE I read this book, so much of what the author left out, I knew and REALLY wanted him to reveal, but being a Greek, I knew he wouldn't.

Pros: The author was brave to even write this book, considering he is a Kappa. I thought he should be commended for that, specifically the anecdote about the pledge whose butt was split.Jones takes on an analytical look at the process of pledging; tries to come to some conclusion as to why pledging has increased and become more brutal; why black men feel like they have to have a right of passage through gangs, violence, Greeks, the military, African tradition, etc; and discuss some of the history of hierarchy within these organizations.The author gave readers a more detailed view of why pledging and hazing have become intertwined and why it is so difficult to get other Greeks to stop.I was satisfied that he did point out that a lot of these crazy traditions come from those of the military, and from the family member I spoke with who also agreed on that, it was good to know that he did understand the history of how it is being passed down. Overall, it was very well-written and definitely interesting throughout.

Cons: Jones has a habit of repeating the same points over and over again.He repeatedly made comments about the rights of passage and how Greeks didn't feel "paper" members were real.I went through a couple chapters like "Didn't I read this already?"I wanted him to bring up new points but he seemed to rely on those few that he felt strongly about.If I were a high authority member of the Greeks, after reading this book, I still wouldn't really know how to make hazing stop but keep the pledging tightknit so it wouldn't be just hit-happy folks having the time of their lives during the pledging process.He does make a statement about "paper" members becoming high ranking members, but obviously from the gist of this book, the Greeks do not respect them, so it seems all but impossible for a "paper" member to reach the top.Blaming the lack of punishment on predominantly white universities still does not excuse the black authority members who KNOW things are going on.To say that the white universities need to come down harder says nothing to the BLACK people who are letting it go on.I was looking for a way for the author to explain how potential pledge members could respect an organization without any physical contact, but it seems that the author is a little confused about that as well.

Final thoughts: I'm SO glad I never pledged.This book along with my own unofficial interviews tells me it's just not worth it.I have a blood brother, and he never had to beat me up to make me feel like I love him dearly and would protect him from any harm.Comraderie and trust are much more powerful than a paddle or a skillet to the face. ... Read more

Product Description
The Street Stops Here offers a deeply personal and compelling account of a Catholic high school in central Harlem, where mostly disadvantaged (and often non-Catholic) African American males graduate on time and get into college. Interweaving vivid portraits of day-to-day school life with clear and evenhanded analysis, Patrick J. McCloskey takes us through an eventful year at Rice High School, as staff, students, and families make heroic efforts to prevail against society's expectations. McCloskey's riveting narrative brings into sharp relief an urgent public policy question: whether (and how) to save these schools that provide the only viable option for thousands of poor and working-class students--and thus fulfill a crucial public mandate. Just as significantly, The Street Stops Here offers invaluable lessons for low-performing urban public schools. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (10)

Life at an Inner City Catholic School
This book was an interesting exploration of life at Rice High School, an inner city all-boys Catholic school in New York City. The author honestly explored and presented principal Orlando Gober's tenure there and his unique political and educational beliefs.Several interesting asides also explore the history of Catholic education in the United States.

This book was a compelling and accurate portrayal of life at an inner city Catholic school. I highly recommend it to anyone involved in education.

The street stops here
This is a terrific book- well-written and thoughtful. I recommend it to anyone with an interest in urban education.

Could Have Been Much better
I am reading the book right now...and I'm liking it but I must say that I feel Patrick is writing in a way that is--a little racist.Personally, I cringe every time I read phrases like "the blacks" and "a school with lots of blacks".I feel the same way when people say "that neighborhood is where Jews live" or "Jews generally...", it just makes my skin crawl a bit.Whatever happened to "Black people" or "Black men" or "a predominately Black neighborhood".It just turned me off.That and the way that Patrick seemed determined to view Gober (and other Black men) in a negative light.For example, he seemed to think that being a Black Panther in the past was a totally bad thing, instead of discussing how the experiences Gober must have had growing up in a segregated America might have led him to feel a need to grow confidence in himself by being a member of a group that uplifts Black Americans (notice how that sounds better than "a group that uplifts blacks"?).He also incorrectly stated that minorities are not overrepresented in the military front lines. His site was to a newspaper article.Even a Heritage Foundation study found that Black Americans were overrepresented in the military (http://www.heritage.org/research/nationalsecurity/upload/85083_1.gif for those of you interested).He should have done his research before assuming that Gober was incorrect.

I also felt that he dwelt on the history of Catholic schools (including the history of Irish Catholics) a wee bit too much.Off topic.Isn't there some history that would be on topic he could have talked about...like, oh I don't know, the history of education for Black Americans?As a white woman, I found myself a little embarrassed in the tone of his book.I wish he would have thought some of his statements through before he wrote them.

Otherwise, an interesting book.

A Principal's Struggle to Guide Black Youth
I taught at Rice High School in 2003, right after Gober left, so I never met the guy. There were rumors about why he left, but nobody would say, except that he "had some conflict with the Brothers."

Rice High School is a good school. The students are on time and sober, there is clear penalty for misbehavior, and with that kind of foundation, it's easier to teach the kids. It's an all-boys school, which eliminates the need to "look cool". With no girls around to impress, there's less opportunity to lose face.

Gober was a tough Principal, but also a good one. A lot of these boys didn't have fathers, so he was probably the only man who they could really trust. The author explains the students' mentality toward the teachers; West Indian teachers were used to absolute authority, and had difficulty with the rowdy boys. Black American teachers soured quickly, because the boys wouldn't take orders from someone who was "from the streets." But the White teachers did okay; Back youth were used to White authority figures.

Still there were more complicated problems. The Dean, a large Arab-American from Michigan, resented a lot of the teachers. He felt he was doing their job for them; after all, why should he have to deal with a disruptive boy? Why shouldn't the teacher be controlling the class? I can really relate to this because I ran a suspension site and had to deal with kids who the other teachers couldn't handle.

Gober was vocal about the problems these boys faced. He made no secret of his Afro-Centric attitude, and he wanted this school to have a clear emphasis on educating Black youth. He had a tough job, because Black men were not looked upon positively by these boys. It was the Black men, not the white men, that broke promises, walked out on them, neglected them, etc.

I was at Rice High School for only a short time. Most of the teachers mentioned in the book had left before I arrived, and I was one of six new ones. Olivine Brown was now acting as principal until a replacement was found, and though she was a decent person, she took the kids' side too often. Every time there was a discipline problem, she'd remind me "remember, you are teaching students of color" and "you have to remember that there is a lot of anger left over from slavery." This woman wasn't bad, but she was nuts!

Sometimes Gober was the only one out there trying to be the "man" in the boys' lives. When you have a school full of angry fatherless kids, you have worse problems than paper airplanes and lost homework.

Not Just for Catholics, New Yorkers and Educators
Although this book certainly is of interest to educators and Catholics, to New Yorkers who care about their youngest citizens, to those who know that the civil rights movement remains unfinished--those in "fly over country" must not neglect this book.We in rural America have a stake in ensuring that inner city youth lose none of their few opportunities to escape.While some of what goes on at Rice high is unfamiliar, these kids are ultimately like our own kids and their school friends.When you finish this book, you will care about these kids and cheer their hard-fought victories.You'll also want your schools to take from this book anything that might prevent your community's kids from being lost. ... Read more

Product Description
This digital document is an article from Diverse Issues in Higher Education, published by Cox, Matthews & Associates on January 8, 2009. The length of the article is 751 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: Serving up relevant scholarship.(AFRICAN-AMERICAN STUDIES)
Author: Hilary Hurd Anyaso
Publication: Diverse Issues in Higher Education (Magazine/Journal)
Date: January 8, 2009
Publisher: Cox, Matthews & Associates
Volume: 25Issue: 24Page: 9(1)

Distributed by Gale, a part of Cengage Learning ... Read more

Product Description
Lora-Ellen McKinney provides an extraordinary resource that brings an African American perspective to Christian education. Providing both a theological and a practical guide, the author's inclusive approach offers recommendations, tips, guide questions, and references for educators working with a wide-range of learners, including those with special needs. The result is an accessible book that offers educators a guide to providing Christians of African origin a framework for teaching truth, faith, discipleship, training, and all of the Christian principles necessary for leading Christ-like lives in and outside of their communities. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Excellent study guide
This is an excellent guide for ALL churches. The charts areuser friendly . The text is easy to follow, implement, and understand. the definitions are clear and concise. Lay persons can use and understand, as well as follow and implement.

excellent, east to use resource for christian educators!
This book is a tremendous addition to the tools available to African American churches. It provides historical information about Christian education; easy-to-understand tips for teaching all age groups and ability levels; definitions of African-centered Christian education and resources for materials (purchased, adapted, or designed); how to evaluate your programs; case studies of churches with Afri-Christian structures; and interviews from churches actively engaged in Christian education. This book makes you think about how to design programs that meet the needs of modern churches, are specific to the faith history and traditions of the African American church, and are applicable to all denominatons.This will be the text for all of my teachers! ... Read more

Product Description
In this revision of Soul Stories, Dr. Wimberly moves even more in the direction of Christian Education with African American families.  Soul stories link persons' everyday life with the Christian Scriptures. The soul stories in this revised volume take on a cross-generational orientation with emphasis on linking stories of family identities, events, relationships, and story plot with Bible stories and exemplary Christian faith stories found in the African Diaspora. This orientation builds on an awareness of the continued fragmentation of Black family life and the disconnect between generations on one hand, yet, on the other hand, the profound yearning of Black people for a common family history.  The goal of Dr. Wimberly's model is to enliven the values associated with the image of "village" in order to empower and equip African Americans today. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (4)

The Stories That Link Our Lives Together
It would be easy for someone who isn't African American to skim over this work while perusing through titles on Christian education, thinking, "OK, this one doesn't apply to me," and I admit, the book's title, though accurate, does seem to limit its audience. The purpose of my review here will be to try to convince those who are either not Afro-American or who don't work in a community with a sizeable Black population to still read it.

Wimberly is writing the revised edition of her book at a time when the Black family is under crisis, and she tailors her work to not only help individuals grow in faith, hope, and liberation from oppressive structures and life circumstances, but also to strengthen the family unit, including the intergenerational church family. She proposes that a way churches can help do this is through the practice of "story linking"--sharing stories from Scripture, church history, and their own past and then connecting them to the here-and-now. Through the sharing, listening, reflecting upon, and personalizing of these stories of faith, trial, victory, and hope, we can find the "liberating wisdom" they possess, and then go and apply that wisdom to our own lives and communities.

Wimberly's book is eminently practical, as she thoroughly breaks down each process, using multiple examples to show how her model works in "real life." Her work is populist in that it emphasizes the fact that everyone has valuable lessons to share, bringing validation to parishioners regardless of class, age, gender, formal educational level, etc., as she creates a communal narrative theology. She shows how one can incorporate cultural resources such as spirituals and Gospel songs, using them as "links" with the Biblical past, and there is no reason why more contemporary cultural expressions, including hip hop, couldn't serve the same generation-bridging purpose.

Although Wimberly writes from a Black liberation theology perspective, there is no reason why the praxis of her book should be limited to a particular ethnic group. In fact, I wish Wimberly herself had done this some more; my only criticism of the book is it seems to take too much of an ethnocentric position at times, as if every sermon has to come from that place, which would be difficult to maintain in an increasingly multicultural society anyway. I do believe, though, that any conscientious Christian minister could benefit from studying her clearly explained story linking principles and apply them successfully in their own cultural setting. I find her method of linking Biblical and historical stories with contemporary situations very helpful, and gained more insight into some African American experiences in the process.

Soul Stories
Book Review: Soul Stories

Name of Book; Soul Stories: Author; Anne Streaty Wimberly: Number of Pages; 155. Anne stories' are about " The Soul's Search for Liberation and Vocation" in African Americans. She is an Associate Professor of Christian Education and Church music at Atlanta's Interdenominational Theological Center, an experienced teacher and researcher. Based on her years of teaching across all ages and cultures, especially in the African American Culture, she feels she has developed and reintroduced a "new-yet-old" teaching style. Anne further believes this type of teaching can be resourceful and successfully implemented when "working with black children, youth and adults in their struggles to experience themselves as whole."

Anne Argued that this model and style of teaching are best demonstrated by a process of linking Christian Faith Stories with every day life experiences. In this exercise, the participants are encouraged to reflect critically on historical events, along with current life experiences. As a result they are able to discern the liberating activity of God and accept his calling for their vocations.According to Anne, this model can be both encouraging and inspiring in the lives of those who are faced with life circumstances with which they can identify. Anne listed" five primary assumptions undergird the story- linking model in Christian Education". (1) The reclaiming of the story-linking process found in the early slave community. (2) Story-linking model is appropriately undertaken in an intergenerational Christian educational setting. (3) Similarity between the issues as well as the contexts that are addressed in Scriptures and the issues and the contexts African Americans address today. (4) The model can be appropriately used in traditional setting, such as church, bible study settings, homes, communities, and across ages. (5) The model holds importance for Christian education leaders, teachers and participants alike.

I thoroughly enjoyed the reading of this book. If I had to rate on a scale from 1-5, I would give it a 4.5. As a reader, I didn't find research, other than her case studies, to support her argument. However, I would recommend this book especially to Christian Educators. The model of linking Faith Stories to Everyday life experiences, in my opinion, could be utilized cross- cultures.At some point in our lives we can all reflect back to a time or a crisis in our life. By linking it to a Scripture could be a form of liberating us from our problem, or having a better understanding of what is going on in our life.

Soul Stories Review
Soul Stories by Anne Streaty Wimberly explains, by use of case studies and activities, a four step process of Proclaiming the story to our youth in Christian Education.This African American view of Christian Education, offers instruction to adults for a "How to..." when teaching other youth.Dr. Wimberly states the importance of understanding the liberation thought of the early African American Educators and it's importance to the art of vocation.The book is laid out for the reader to engage in study of the African American prespective of educating the Christian Faith.Using four primary pahses, the reader can examine the everyday story, the Christian Faith story in the Bible, the Christian Faith story in African American heritage and in Christian Ethical decision making.These processes will enhance a person's understanding of the biblical text in how it liberates one to follow the call to a God inspired vocation.

Soul Stories
Soul Stories offers a practical model for teaching adults. The author engages the reader through the use of storylinking, in conjunction with reflective excercises and activities.This book is easily adaptable for allteaching styles. You'll find the real life stories enlighting.Can be usedfor any audience. ... Read more

Product Description
In this previously untold story of African American self-education, Heather Andrea Williams moves across time to examine African Americans' relationship to literacy during slavery, during the Civil War, and in the first decades of freedom. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (4)

Encouraging
Finally a book that acknowledges the grass efforts of the nameless folks who took up the grass roots call of "Each one, teach one" effort in the difficult post-Civil War era.As limiting as it was, there was nothing else in place to address the manmouth job of getting generations of now free African American literate.Interesting, provacative read.

Excellent descriptive work of African American education, but not powerfully interpretive
This research is a much needed contemporary history of the education of African Americans in the South from slavery through reconstruction and the beginnings of the common (public) school. It addresses the question from the local, 'grassroots' perspective--Williams explores how blacks sacrificed to build schools, pay for teachers, advocate for their own education, and how these individuals striving for freedom inspired a movement for education across the South. Poor whites, seeing blacks entering schools, were driven to anger, jealousy, violence, and imitation. Some whites enrolled in freedpeoples schools, as they believed them superior to the poor white schools in the neighborhood (if there were any).

Williams' work could definitely use an update and a broadening of perspective. Her research is education-centric--she does not consider broader social forces at play in her analysis, or if she does, she brings them up for a paragraph before moving on.In other words, she does not string her analysis along broader themes of race/ism, freedom, democracy, etc, all at play during this period. Education was in fact the very foundation of new conceptions of democracy: it was foundational to the ideology of freedom, and it was not coincidental that freedpeople associated education with a way up in the world. They were in some ways appropriating a republican ideology of free labor that valued education as foundational.

By not considering the broader context--the North, the new forces of industrialization and the changing meaning of labor, contestations of freedom, and so on, Williams' point is less forceful, less connected. However, as descriptive work, and as *the* contemporary (21st century) work on the subject, this is definitely must-reading.

A crucially important book
Books on education in the Reconstruction period are relatively rare; some of the more important ones--Northern Schools, Southern Blacks, and Reconstruction: Freedmen's Education, 1862-1875 (Contributions in American History) by Ronald Butchart and Soldiers of Light and Love: Northern Teachers and Georgia Blacks, 1865-1873 by Jacqueline Jones--are themselves getting old by now. Even another, updated book in the vein of Butchart's or Jones's would've been valuable, but Williams's book is different in both scope and focus, and it makes a vital contribution to educational history and the history of race relations.

For one thing, Williams's book focuses on black education broadly, not just on the school and not just in the Reconstruction period. Williams's book includes not only information on the freedpeople's schools that are the subject of other studies in post-Civil War education for African Americans but also on the "underground" learning taking place in the slave quarters and elsewhere prior to emancipation. Williams is also interested in more than the "Yankee schoolmarm," who has been frequently studied (though, admittedly, not that often in recent decades). Instead, taking the lead of such scholars as James Anderson (The Education of Blacks in the South, 1860-1935), Williams focuses on black initiative in founding, running, and maintaining schools despite white indifference and hostility. While the northern missionary teacher is--rightly--a part of this story, so too are the "native" black teachers who taught other African Americans, formally and informally. While other books and articles have attested to ex-slaves' desire for learning, Williams's book goes to great lengths to illustrate it through a rich array of primary sources and extended examples. Where Self-Taught truly shines is in its highly detailed exploration of the intricacies of starting, staffing, and maintaining schools for African Americans in the immediate postwar period; equally impressive are her efforts to discuss the role of black teachers, both those from the North and those native to the South.

Williams is less successful, however, in contextualizing her study, both historically and historiographically, and the two aspects of the problem are closely related. Williams objects to Butchart's earlier study on the grounds that Butchart seems to her to be suggesting that northern whites imposed education on southern blacks. This is, in fact, a misreading of Butchart's main point. He argues not that southern African Americans had education imposed on them per se (he's quite willing to acknowledge that they themselves wanted education) but that schooling was, in essence, a weak lever for creating social justice, where land reform would've been a more powerful tool. Williams's misreading here points to the larger historical problem of her work: black education is treated mostly in a vacuum. While she does an admirable job of conveying the variety of white northern and southern attitudes to black education, Williams doesn't really explore the issue of what value, ultimately, education had for African Americans in the South. Clearly, it had personal importance, and there were clearly cases where education helped individuals, but Williams's book doesn't really grapple with the thorny question of whether education aided freedpeople economically and politically. Indeed, as the book ends and Reconstruction efforts wane, we get the distinct (and, I think, correct) impression that increasing levels of literacy and education generally weren't able to forestall generations of discriminatory laws and practices. In short, Williams treats education unproblematically, as if it were, ipso facto, as important as its seekers made it out to be, as if (were it attained) it would achieve the full panoply of goals African Americans (and many whites) believed it would, including civil, political, and perhaps even social equaliy between the races.

In general, Williams spends relatively little time explaining the nature of Reconstruction itself; this is a legitimate enough approach, but potential readers should be aware that terms such as "presidential Reconstruction" and "Redeemers" are going to be used without much gloss.

Ultimately, Self-Taught is a great contribution to historical literature and truly covers new ground (as well as old ground in an invigorating way). I would highly recommend this book, even as I would suggest that some of its premises be interrogated.

profound piece of scholarship
African American efforts to become literate during slavery is frequently associated with the experience of bondage in the U.S. The story of Frederick Douglass is emblematic of the enslaved person's attempt to assert, through literacy,his or her humanity. The written word represented to those trapped in the blight of slavery a means to free the mind. As Heather Williams so brilliantly documents in this seminal work, Self Taught: African American Education in Slavery and Freedom, the black quest for literacy did not ebb with the abolishment of slavery. African American hunger for education in the wake of slavery, according to the author, was insatiable. Formerly enslaved men, women and children flocked to the standard of education with an enthusiam and determination that often invoked negative reactions from surrounding white populations. Reactions from Northern whites, who journeyed South to teach blacks, tended toward admiration.

The one theme threading its way through this book is agency. Agency is what African Americans demonstrated as they acted on their own initiative to steal the education denied them by slave owners. It was that same agency that blacks drew upon to create their own educational opportunities in the era of Reconstruction. Williams relays numerous accounts of blacks, partially to fully literate, teaching other blacks, building schools and trying to obtain resources such as books and writing material to keep the schools functional. Freed people did more than seek education. They sought to operate as active partners with Northerners in their own educatiional development. They refused to be sidelined or patronized. In several instances African American educational self reliance reaped rich dividends in the form of lasting institutions. The black soldiers of the 62nd and 65th United States Colored Infantry, for example, made financial contributions that established Lincoln University.

Williams highlights white Southern resentment of blacks' educational aspirations. Such resentment was accompanied by jealousy. Southern whites' fear of dominance by educated blacks generated violence.At the same time black eagarness for education, sparked a desire on the part of Southern whites for public schools. Public school systems, widespread in the North prior to the Civil War, were practically nonexistent in the south of the same period. That blacks contributed to the rise of public education in the south does not figure prominently, if at all in the landscape of American history. That a small minority of whites risked ridicule to attend black schools established by Northerners, due to the superior academic performance of black students, may not be widely known by scholars or laypersons.

The author reveals much in Self Taught that has remained hidden in the shadows of history. Drawing from a wealth of sources, Williams shatters the spurious idea that blacks, freshly emerged from slavery, were too helpless or too ignorant to embark upon a direction of individual and collective uplift in the form of literacy and education. Nor, as the author conveys, were they so cowed by subservience as to prevent them from making their voices heard, and their demands felt in the cause of advancement. Self Taught is an extremely interesting read. No full length study that I am aware of has focused exclusively on black education in the immediate years following the Civil War. Heather Williams has written a classic, one that should be required reading for college courses dealing with the Civil War and Reconstruction periods. ... Read more

Product Description
Studies the educational and social lives of African American males. The book pays attention to educational attainment, job procurement, and quality of life, discussed against the backdrop of student background and schooling. Its aim is to improve the academic and social outcomes of this population. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Education and Black Males
This anthology covers a diverse array of topics on black males and their education, including computer classes, gifted program selection, special education courses, etc.It roughly covers elementary school to the university level.

This books mixes academic summaries with personal anecdotes.This may frustrate academics who want something more rigorous or everyday people that want something more chatty.Also, many chapters start with theory and past studies and end with bullet-pointed recommendations.Again, this may frustrate the two opposing types of readers.

There is a very noticeable absence here.The authors NEVER state that black male students would benefit from having more black teachers.The book quotes many black male students who can name black and non-black instructors that they admire.I am sure the contributors did not want to be essentialist and argue that like must teach like.However, I also wonder if there is a resignation here that assumes the teaching pool will remain predominantly white even as public school student populations become moreand more black.

This book is fair-minded in its criticism.It does suggest that institutional racism and the racism of teachers may hurt black male students.However, it also covers black male students that do not take rigorous courses, drop out of school voluntarily, start fights or conduct gang activities that get them expelled, etc..Many will appreciate the coverage of push and pull dynamics that have created this educational crisis.

This book is sure to be helpful for many undergraduate education majors that must write papers.I am almost sure one of the photos on the cover comes from another book on black males and education. ... Read more

Product Description
Before the founding of the United States, enslaved Africans advocated literacy as a method of emancipation. During the Reconstruction period after the Civil War, blacks were at the forefront of the debates on the establishment of public schools in the South. In fact, a wealth of ideas about the role of education in American freedom and progress emerged from African American civic, political, and religious communities and was informed by the complexity of the Black experience in America. Education as Freedom: African American Educational Thought and Activism is a groundbreaking edited text that documents and reexamines African-American empirical, methodological, and theoretical contributions to knowledge-making, teaching, and learning and American education from the nineteenth through the twenty-first century, the most dynamic period of African-American educational thought and activism. African-American thought and activism regarding education burgeoned from traditional academic disciplines, such as philosophy and art, mathematics and the natural sciences, and history and psychology; from the Black church as well as from grassroot political, social, cultural, and educational activism, with the desire to assess the stake of African Americans in modernity. ... Read more

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Discusses the correlation between ones' self conception andones' academic performance.African centered rites is a process ofrituals and ceremonies based on African concepts. ... Read more