African Americans (Coming to America) - Hardcover

Boyle, David; Moreno, Barry

9780764156281: African Americans (Coming to America)

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0764156284 ISBN 13: 9780764156281

Publisher: Barrons Educational Series Inc, 2003

They arrived in North America as slaves of the first European settlers, and their history is largely one of hardship and injustice. Here is their story, including their emancipation in the 1860s, their leadership in the civil rights movement of a century later—but also their artists, intellectuals, musicians, educators, military heroes, athletes, and social leaders. There are brief, vivid sketches of important individuals, including Sojourner Truth, Ralph Ellison, Louis Armstrong, Martin Luther King, Jr., Colin Powell, and others.

This important new series documents and dramatizes the immigration experience of untold numbers of men, women, and children who arrived in America from the four corners of the world. As they assimilated into American society, they enriched the nation’s character and experience. Many of America’s immigrants passed through the Ellis Island Immigration Center in New York Harbor during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. What were the initial hopes and fears of these new arrivals? Where did they first settle, and what kinds of work did they find? Which elements from their various cultures have since blended into the national scene and helped reshape what has become modern America? The first titles in this dramatic series bring alive the experiences of four important ethnic groups, with contemporary photos and first-person accounts of their dramatic, life-changing experiences. Readers glimpse each group’s social customs, family life, traditional food and drink, festivals, and much more. There are also brief but vivid capsule biographies of famous individuals who rose to prominence from each ethnic group. Approximately 150 illustrations in each book.

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From the Back Cover:

[cover copy]
The story of African Americans differs from that of other nationalities, since it is one of both forced expatriation and enslavement, and of the continuing struggle for equality. In "Coming to America: African Americans, David Boyle explores their harrowing history, from the arrival of the first 20 captive African Americans in 1619, through the abolition of the slave trade and the Civil War, to the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s and the increasing pride in African-American heritage. In this book, you'll also find the story of African-American culture: spirituals, blues, jazz, and rap; the Harlem Renaissance of the 1920s and the Black Arts Movement of the 1960s; and of African-American greats such as Martin Luther King, Louis Armstrong, Sidney Poitier, Mohammad Ali, and Jesse Owens.
Titles in this series:
African Americans Italian Americans Irish Americans Jewish Americans
[flap copy]
For the world's oppressed, poor, or simply opportunistic, America has always offered hope, luck, and the chance for a new start. "Coming to America is a nostalgic and evocative series using the authentic voices and personal accounts of the people who undertook--willingly or unwillingly--the often-dangerous voyage to the new country. Authored by specialists in their subjects under the general editorship of Barry Moreno, a curator at Ellis Island Museum, the books contain dozens of voices that speak clearly down the generations. They relate the engrossing stories of their personal histories, their journeys, how they were received, and what they made of their new lives in America.
David Boyle is a U.K.-based writer on economics and politics. He became interested inthe story of African-American immigration while studying the oral history of African Americans as a personal project.
Barry Moreno is a historian at the Ellis Island Museum. He has worked on a book of interviews of the immigrants passing through Ellis Island in different decades, and was the author of the Statue of Liberty Encyclopedia.

About the Author:

Barry Moreno is an historian at New York’s famous Ellis Island Museum, site of America’s most important early-twentieth-century immigration center.

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