Racial Discrimination, United States - Ethnic & Race Relations, 20th Century American History - Civil Rights, Civil Rights - African American History, General & Miscellaneous African American History, United States History - General & Miscellaneous

African Americans and civil rights

Name: African Americans and civil rights
Author: Michael L. Levine
ISBN: 9780897748599

by Michael L. Levine

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Overview

This well-written narrative, concise but packed with history, chronicles the struggle for African American civil rights. Beginning in 1619 when the first ship carrying Africans arrived in North America and continuing to the present, historian Michael L. Levine gives readers a balanced overview of how U.S. laws have prevented blacks from having the same civil rights as others. The text is accompanied by 65 detailed biographical sketches that describe the roles played by key individuals who worked to advance—or block—the civil rights of African Americans.

About the Author, Michael L. Levine

MICHAEL L. LEVINE, Ph.D., is a freelance editor for Charles Scribner's Reference Books, Macmillan, Inc., where he is editor for Encyclopedia of American Legislative History, Civilizations of the Ancient Near East, and Encyclopedia of Latin American History.

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Editorials

Library Journal

Moving in ten chapters from West Africa and the slave trade to progress and setbacks since 1969, Levine surveys the special and inferior status allotted people of full or partial African descent in the United States from Colonial times. A former researcher at the black trade unionists' A. Philip Randolph Institute, Levine links blacks' role in the economy to their legal and political status. His work as a freelance reference book editor of several volumes, including the Encyclopedia of American Legislative History, strengthens the text; various sections provide biographies, a chronology, a glossary, and further reading, which aid understanding of context and detail. While this work is suitable for general readers, Mary Frances Berry's Black Resistance/White Law: A History of Constitutional Racism in America (A. Lane, 1994) and Donald Nieman's Promises To Keep: African-Americans and the Constitutional Order, 1776 to the Present (Oxford Univ., 1991) remain better choices for serious students.Thomas J. Davis, Arizona State Univ., Tempe

Booknews

A readable account of African Americans' struggle for racial equality from the colonial era to the present, analyzing important issues such as slavery, the Civil War, Reconstruction, and the civil rights movement. Stresses the political and legal dimensions of racism and resistance, also touching on economic, social, and cultural themes. Includes b&w photos and illustrations, biographies of key figures, a chronology, and a glossary. For high school level and up. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)