African Americans struggle for equality

School Library Journal

Gr 7-10-- Each of these books opens with a discussion of the nature of discrimination and then focuses on a specific ethnic group. Jewish Americans provides a historical, often worldwide, overview and is the least effective of the three because of its broad scope. Hispanic Americans breaks down into brief coverage of specific nationalities, such as Cuban or Mexican Americans, relating the historical events that have led to the groups' immigration and their present-day status here. African Americans touches on their current status in such areas as education, employment, and affirmative action. Each title concludes with sketches of talented individuals, a time line, an annotated bibliography of current but mainly adult books and articles, film and organizational resources, and an index of variable quality. The illustrations, including full-color photos, are crisp and generally well selected. Appropriate for students needing up-to-date and basically realiable information for brief reports, these works skim what the ``Peoples of North America'' (Chelsea) and ``In America'' (Lerner) series cover more thoughtfully and thoroughly. Generalizations abound and occasionally questionable statements such as ``The United States fought the Mexican War in order to expand slave territory'' are made. Dull and even sloppy writing slips by as well, including the unforgivable reference to ``1942'' instead of ``1492.'' --Diane S. Marton, Arlington County Library, VA