The Black 100

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

A useful collection of mini-profiles of black American leaders in the struggle for equality, this book is marred by the author's admittedly unscientific attempt to rank his subjects by importance. Salley ( What Color Is Your God? Black Consciousness and the Christian Faith ) places Martin Luther King Jr. first and Frederick Douglass second, but overemphasizes certain leaders of the colonial period: the founders of the Free African Society and the Negro Masonic Order are rated well ahead of Thurgood Marshall and Malcolm X. The profiles are usually fair-minded, but Salley sanitizes a few, ignoring James Baldwin's homosexuality and Louis Farrakhan's alleged anti-Semitism. While Salley includes Bill Cosby, Toni Morrison and Colin Powell, he sometimes lacks a contemporary edge, listing filmmaker Oscar Micheaux but not Spike Lee, playwright Lorraine Hansberry but not August Wilson and academic Kenneth Clark but not Henry Louis Gates Jr. Photos not seen by PW. (Jan.)

Library Journal

Who are the most influential African Americans living and dead? Salley, an educator and writer ( What Color Is Your God? , Citadel, 1988), gives his own answer to that question, ranking his choices by their importance to the growth of African American society. For example, he includes David Walker, author of the antislavery pamphlet Walker's Appeal (1829), Mordecai Johnson, the first black president of Howard University, and writer Maya Angelou but omits poet Gwendolyn Brooks and Virginia Proctor Florence, the first black librarian. The biographies are quite good, as are the quotes by and about each person that accompany each article. Though solid, this work duplicates the material already available in The Negro Almanac (Gale, 1990), Who's Who Among Black Americans, 1992 (Gale, 1991), and Black Leaders of the 20th Century ( LJ 4/1/82). It is recommended for public and academic libraries that are either starting up an African American history reference collection or need access to biographies in a hurry. For libraries that have the references listed above, this may not be a necessary purchase.-- Danna C. Bell-Russel, Marymount Univ. Libs., Arlington, Va.

From The Critics

This work is not a traditional biographical reference source, although sketches are included for 81 men and 21 women of African-American descent, ranging in time from 1619 to today. The author has selected persons who are the "collective giant on whose shoulders African-Americans stand in their unending quest for full economic, political and social equality" and then has ranked these individuals, from 1 to 100, based on the contribution of each to the "ongoing struggle to realize full citizenship." The rankings were not formulated in a scientific or quantitative mode but were based on the author's evaluation of the impact each profiled individual has had on "the struggle of Blacks to be whatever they choose." Salley is an entrepreneur, a former government official, a superintendent emeritus of the Newark (New Jersey) public school system, and the author of "What Color is Your God? Black Consciousness and the Christian Faith" (1988) The individuals profiled here come from all periods of American history, worked in a multiplicity of professions, and represent a wide variety of viewpoints. Featured personalities are famous, ranging from Martin Luther King (#1) to Rosa Parks (#100), from Hank Aaron (#87) to Phyllis Wheatley (#19), and from Clarence Thomas (#98) to Harriet Tubman (#12). Each entry opens with a portrait, followed by a two- to six-page biographical sketch, including both factual data and the rationale for the ranking of the subject. Typically, the narrative features quotations both by and about the person and an explanation of how the individual relates to other featured subjects. For instance, the entry for James Baldwin (#49) opens with a quote from Maya Angelou on his significance as a black writer who dared "to confront this racist nation," and this theme is explored through the remainder of the vignette. Salley explains how Baldwin was an author-activist who avoided taking sides with the tactics of either Martin Luther King or Malcolm X, but rather, "he always saw his role as a writer to give blacks a superior moral and spiritual sense, which would keep them from becoming as debased as racist whites in America." No full citations to references are included in the profiles, but some entries provide a selected list of works by the profiled individual. The volume concludes with a selected bibliography and an index For the vast majority of the subjects profiled in "The Black 100", a host of biographical reference sources exist, such as "The Negro Almanac" ["RBB" Ap 15 90], "Notable Black American Women" ["RBB" Ap 15 92], "African American Biographies" ["RBB" Ag 1 92], and "Contemporary Black Biography" ["RBB" Ap 1 92], and any of these more comprehensive and traditional sources are preferred for the reference collection. However, "The Black 100" is written in a readable style and is sure to create controversy, as any book of rankings does. Public, high school, and undergraduate libraries may want to consider purchasing this work for circulating collections because of the unique perspective provided by the author.

Booknews

Biographical sketches and illustrations of 81 men and 21 women who fill the 100 slots (two shared) in which educator Salley ranks African Americans according to his opinion of their contribution to the struggle for equality. Updated from 1993 and 1994 editions to include Oprah Winfrey and August Wilson. Others come from politics, music, sports, religion, literature, the arts, and other fields. Annotation c. by Book News, Inc., Portland, Or.