Bill Clinton and black America

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

The first black president: "single-parent household, born poor, working-class, saxophone playing, McDonald's-and-junk-food-loving boy from Arkansas" was how Nobel Prize-winner Toni Morrison described Bill Clinton. And, indeed, Clinton enjoyed his highest rating with blacks even when his popularity was at its lowest. This collection of short pieces and interviews with Clinton, edited by USA Today columnist Wickham (Woodholme: A Black Man's Story of Growing up Alone), gathers a wide variety of black professionals, politicians and intellectuals addressing the myriad issues on which African-Americans engaged with the president. Terry Edmonds (Clinton's director of speech writing) captures the heart of this relationship in his statement, "for Clinton, black America was never an afterthought." Harvard Medical School psychiatrist Alvin Poussaint was troubled by Clinton's attack on Sister Souljah "for being anti-white," but was still won over by the president's appointments of black judges, cabinet and subcabinet members, and by his attendance at black churches and singing of hymns. The collection is at its best when it mixes personal anecdotes (law professor Mary Frances Berry telling Clinton jokes during a Black History Month dinner) with substantive analysis, as when William H. Gray III of the United Negro College Fund reports on helping Clinton revise his disastrous Haitian refugees policy. While a great deal of the material here states the obvious (actor/producer Tim Reid's statement that "he's given the black people something that no one has given them at this point: hope"), what comes through again and again is the manner in which his black constituency felt well represented by Clinton. (Feb.) Forecast: Clinton's current Harlem base of operations is just one more gesture of solidarity with the African-American community. But with the former president's political role in flux, this book's main audience will be those wanting a walk through the 1990s' White House domestic policy making as well as the African-Americans and many others with cases of Clinton nostalgia. Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.

Library Journal

As a founding member of the National Association of Black Journalists, USA Today columnist Wickham is well suited to the task of deconstructing the Clinton presidency from an African American perspective. Eschewing a straightforward narrative of those eight years, Wickham instead takes on Clinton from three angles: "Bill Clinton, In His Own Words," featuring interviews with and speeches by the former President on black issues; an appendix of "Clinton Administration Black Appointees," including ambassadors, staff, and judicial appointees; and an excellent collection of brief (two-three page) statements from a wide variety of black intellectuals and journalists on Clinton's appeal to black voters. This section will be extremely valuable to researchers, as the voices range from average individuals to cabinet members to celebrities, such as actor Tim Reid and attorney Johnnie Cochran. As the only major book to appear on this topic to date, Wickham's is an essential purchase for all academic and public libraries. Highly recommended. Anthony J. Adam, Prairie View A&M Univ. Lib., TX Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.

Kirkus Reviews

USA Today columnist Wickham (Woodholme, 1995, etc.) surveys a wide range of African-Americans to find out why so many of them were drawn to the Clinton presidency.