This African-American Life: A Memoir - Hardcover

Price, Hugh B.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0895876914 ISBN 13: 9780895876911

Publisher: Blair, 2017

Synopsis

“People who believe a problem can be solved tend to get busy solving it,” William Raspberry wrote in the Washington Post in July 1994. “Hugh B. Price is a believer.”

During his tenure as president and CEO of the National Urban League, Price launched its Campaign for African-American Achievement, pressured the federal government to combat police brutality and racial profiling, defended affirmative action, and helped repair frayed relations between the black and Jewish communities. Yet his role with the League was just one among many accomplishments. Price traces his forbears, among them Nero Hawley, who fought at Valley Forge under George Washington; George and Rebecca Latimer, who escaped slavery by stowing away on a boat and traveling north as master and slave; and Lewis Latimer, who worked with Alexander Graham Bell and Thomas Edison. Price writes about his childhood in a neighborhood near Howard University in Washington, and his student days in a newly integrated high school and then at Amherst and Yale Law School. He covers his varied and highly successful careers, from his early days as a legal services lawyer to his executive position at the Rockefeller Foundation.

“It’s easy to sound radical,” syndicated columnist E. J. Dionne wrote of Price. “By contrast, ideas built on cool reason and the possibility of action often sound moderate. But they can be genuinely radical in their analysis of what’s wrong and of what needs to be done."

Price has held an array of positions of leadership during his life. After obtaining a B.A. from Amherst College, he graduated from Yale Law School. He began his career as a legal services lawyer representing low-income clients in New Haven, CT. During the turbulent 1960s, he served as the first executive director of the Black Coalition of New Haven. In 1978, he began his position as a member of the editorial board of The New York Times, where he wrote editorials on an array of political issues. He served as senior vice-president of WNET/Thirteen in New York, the nation’s largest public television station and in 1984, became director of all national production. In 1988, he was appointed vice-president of the Rockefeller Foundation, where he was instrumental in launching innovative youth initiatives. From 1994 to 2003, he served as president of the National Urban League. He then served as a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution and on the faculty of the Woodrow Wilson School of Public & International Affairs at Princeton University. He lives in New Rochelle, NY.

About this title

From the Inside Flap:

From 1994 to 2003, Hugh Price served as president and CEO of the National Urban League. During his tenure, he tripled the League's endowment, restructured its board of directors and staff; conceived and launched the League's Campaign for African-American Achievement; established the League's Institute for Opportunity and Equality, and established its headquarters on Wall Street. Price's role at the League was just one aspect of his long and impressive life. In This African-American Life, Price traces his family's forbearers, which include several interesting and historically significant ancestors like Nero Hawley, who fought in the American Revolution and served at Valley Forge under Washington and George Latimer and his wife who escaped from slavery in Virginia stowing away on a boat and traveling to the North as a master and salve. When George was spotted by someone from his past, the effort to return him to his master became one of the earliest fugitive slave cases attracting the involvement of Frederick Douglass and William Lloyd Garrison. Price talks about his protected childhood in the segregated neighborhood near Howard University, his love of baseball, his experiences as one of five brothers in his freshman class at Amherst, where he also played baseball and basketball, his courtship of his wife, and then goes on to detail the varied positions he held during his professional career. Throughout his memoir, Price shows how his background led him to champion education and the creation of opportunity to help others reach the high levels he has been able to achieve during his lifetime.

About the Author:

Price has held an array of positions of leadership during his life. After obtaining a B.A. from Amherst College, he graduated from Yale Law School. He began his career as a legal services lawyer representing low-income clients in New Haven, CT. During the turbulent 1960s, he served as the first executive director of the Black Coalition of New Haven. In 1978, he began his position as a member of the editorial board of The New York Times, where he wrote editorials on an array of political issues. He served as senior vice-president of WNET/Thirteen in New York, the nation’s largest public television station and in 1984, became director of all national production. In 1988, he was appointed vice-president of the Rockefeller Foundation, where he was instrumental in launching innovative youth initiatives. From 1994 to 2003, he served as president of the National Urban League. He then served as a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution and on the faculty of the Woodrow Wilson School of Public & International Affairs at Princeton University. He lives in New Rochelle, NY.

About this edition

• Publisher: Blair
• Publication date: 2017
• ISBN 10: 0895876914
• ISBN 13: 9780895876911
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 288