In these pages, black women from all walks of life candidly reveal
how they overcame challenges just like the ones you're facing now. From
Ilyasah Shabazz, Sonia Sanchez, and Patti LaBelle to single moms and
spiritual leaders, these diverse females have two things in common: the
color of their skin-and the prevailing will to overcome adversity.
Here, for the first time, African American women have bonded
together in print to discuss the issues that have touched their lives.
Their powerful, provocative, and ultimately uplifting stories relate, with
raw honesty, the experiences only their sisters can truly understand-from
abortion, AIDs, and date rape to love, sex, racism, and money.
Feeling lost and alone? Convinced nobody knows how you feel? Certain
there's no way out? You're wrong! Your sisters have been in your shoes.
With their help and your own inner strength of faith, you'll soon be
taking the first precious steps toward healing from within-and liberating
the magnificent woman you've always dreamed of becoming.
As President of the National Urban League, Hugh B. Price
understands the challenges that await our children as they enter
the mainstream of American society. In Achievement Matters,
he tells us to reject the self-destructive mindset that teaches
our children to accept academic mediocrity. A highly respected
writer and public speaker, Mr. Price gives practical tips on
improving children's literacy and achievement levels, while
instilling a lifelong enthusiasm for education as a reward in
itself. He provides a framework for change, offering practical
tips for parents to help their youngsters become good readers
and high achievers, describing the benchmark skills required of
students in each grade, and explaining how to make sure your
child isn't being steered away from courses essential for future
success. He recommends proven techniques for cutting through the
educational bureaucracy to create an environment conducive to
learning, and where teachers and the school systems themselves
are held accountable.
You will also discover the keys to becoming an effective,
informed advocate in the educational community, as well as
strategies for communicating with teachers and administrators
for the maximum benefit of your child, and African American
children in general.
From getting the latest technology into your child's
classrooms, to providing after-school and summer programs to
give our youth direction and keep them away from the drugs and
violence that have claimed so many, this book offers real help
for making a powerful, positive impact.
This vital resource for parents and caregivers ties into the
National Urban League's ongoing Campaign for African American
Achievement, a broad based public awareness and community
mobilization movement designed to close the academic gap between
black students and their counterparts. Filled with insightful
personal stories, fascinating anecdotes from successful
students, and valuable contact information for parents and
caregivers, Achievement Matters is a critical tool for
guiding your child to improved academic performance, and their
brightest possible future.
In this
groundbreaking, candid, and necessary book, the man New York
magazine calls "The Untouchable" delivers his manifesto for
change and puts forth a startling, often controversial, and
wholly inspiring vision of a new America--one that is inclusive
of all Americans, not just a chosen few. While serving time for
his act of civil disobedience in Vieques, Sharpton stepped back
and looked at America. Now, he's ready to empower America and
get the country talking about things that matter to us all--from
the economy to foreign policy, family values to the hip hop
movement, the war on drugs to the conflict between Palestine and
Israel. Sure to ignite a firestorm of debate, Al On America
is a old new vision in a time when vision is needed more than
ever. It is a stirring call to action delivered by a man who has
faith in the future of America and the passion, knowledge, and
foresight to take her there.
In this revealing
new book, Lawrence C. Ross, Jr., author of the Los Angeles
Times bestseller The Divine Nine, profiles men and
women from diverse walks of life, economic backgrounds, and
cultures, with one thing in common. Here, such figures as New
York Times bestselling author E. Lynn Harris; poet Nikki
Giovanni; Dave Matthews Band musician Boyd Tinsley, and Member
of British Parliament David Lammy are filed side-by-side with
everyday brothers and sisters living through similar challenges
and triumphs. They allow the author, and in turn the reader, to
walk in their shoes…and the results are as unique and
unforgettable as the black experience itself
Each profile
chronicles a day in the life of a diverse group of people who
speak of the current black experience. Doormen, lawyers,
students, artists, and even prisoners raise their voices along
with those of the rich and famous, including celebrities such as
Jeffrey Wright, Cornel West, Sonia Sanchez, and Nikki Giovanni.
With different languages, different world views, and different
standards of living, all of these people has their African
heritage in common...but what else? What beliefs, values, and
everyday activities unite a Jamaican Rastafarian, a British
soccer star, and an American welfare mother? The answers
discovered by author Lawrence Ross become a rich compendium of
shared experience and astonishing revelations.
Illustrated with
forty photographs, The Ways Of Black Folks is a
provocative overview of a people, one that will inspire dialogue
and controversy while it celebrates a unity that neither
circumstances nor geography can divide.
Dr.
Don Elligan, a clinical psychologist working in Chicago and
Boston, was looking for a way to connect to the angry young
black men in his office. Abusing drugs and alcohol and making
poor choices about their future, they desperately needed help in
changing their lives. But when Dr. Elligan spoke to them in his
language, they tuned him out. He had to learn to understand and
communicate in theirs—the language of hip-hop, or rap. To do
that, he developed his widely praised program called Rap Therapy
Now,
he makes Rap Therapy accessible to all concerned adults—parents,
guardians, teachers or counselors. In a clearly written,
straightforward guide, Dr. Elligan explains how to reach out to
today’s young people by developing an understanding their
culture: why the pants have to be bigger, the lyrics raunchier,
and the music raw and throbbing like their troubled world. He
shows how rap artists such as Salt-n-Pepa, Outkast, Dr. Dre, and
LL Cool J comment on sex, drugs, politics, society, and family,
influencing urban kids in a variety of ways, from clothing to
language. And he explains why the movement and the music so
appeal to teenagers who use the slang and rhyming lyrics to
express their emotions, challenges, and dreams, as well as to
shock and exclude adults.
Along with compelling real-life stories from his practice, Dr.
Elligan provides selected pro-social rap songs to use in Rap
Therapy, and specific curricula for various issues from anger
management in young men to improving self-esteem in young women.
A book of hope and real help, Rap Therapy is an essential
tool for using the sound that has captured troubled kids’
imaginations to make a difference in their lives
Embodying the best qualities of education pioneers Joe Clark
and Jaime Escalante, Salome Thomas-EL is a black man dedicated
to changing the lives—and dreams—of inner city kids. Born in
1964, one of eight children, Salome grew up in the Philadelphia
projects. But identified early as “gifted,” he had doors opened
to him that are closed to most. In a media-related job, talking
with superstars such as Julius Erving and Maurice Cheeks, he was
on the fast track to success. But he couldn’t forget his roots,
or the children of the inner city.
In the late 1980s, he went back into disadvantaged
neighborhoods and into the classroom. As teacher, mentor, and in
most cases, the only positive male role model in these
children’s lives, Salome Thomas-EL would do something
extraordinary: he would lead the girls and boys of his school to
victory as they competed in three major championships. Chess
championships.
Reviving the chess club, the Mighty Bishops, Salome taught
his pupils to resolve conflict with their minds instead of their
fists. They went into regional competitions, to the nationals in
Tennessee, and to the U.S. Open in Orlando. Not knowing they
were expected to lose, they won. In the years between 1996 and
2000, Mr. Thomas-EL helped scores of other schools begin similar
programs. But in the same years, twenty of his students were
murdered.
Clearly, chess wasn’t enough. Now in this compelling memoir,
Salome Thomas-EL tells of what else needed to be done, from
implementing the 100-book challenge program, to Saturday
tutoring and in-school breakfasts. As his efforts began to have
a citywide impact, the offers began pouring in for promotions,
for advancement, for his going elsewhere.
He chose to stay, and the results are an inspiration to us
all.
What’s black,
white, and “red” all over? The old riddle has a new answer:
Dexter Jeffries, the youngest son of Communist parents—a Jewish
mother and a black father—growing up in 1950s America.
Too light to be
black, too dark to be white, from a very early age Dexter
wondered where he fit in. Finding his place in a changing
country would be a journey filled with anger, turmoil, pain, and
enlightenment. In a loving, racially mixed home where being
progressive meant not only having radical views, but acting on
them, Dexter helped break the color barrier at nine years old
when he was among the first group of black children bused to a
white Queens neighborhood. But it was much earlier—at the age of
five—that he had his first identity crisis, caught in the limbo
between black and white.
Therapy, a name
change, a stint in the U.S. Army, and jobs ranging from cab
driver to filmmaker and English Professor all played a part in
forging his character and beliefs. While his brother became a
rebel bent on self-destruction and his sister emulated Richard
Wright as an expatriate in Mexico and Europe, Dexter followed
his own path, discovering conflicts that had as much in common
with Kafka as Ellison. In literature he found a window into
truth, and the message—conveyed by Joyce, Thoreau, and
DuBois—that would change everything. Create yourself.
Alive with the
rhythms and riffs of the jazz that helped a struggling young man
through the toughest times, Triple Exposure is a
provocative, moving and often hilarious memoir that deftly
examines questions of identity, race, and family from an
unforgettable perspective.
African-American single mothers can raise children
who are self-assured, happy, and healthy. Single Mamahood, a
down-to-earth, sister-to-sister guide, teaches women that they can
realistically challenge the obstacles before them. It teaches them to put
their energies into taking care of their children's needs and shows them
how to develop healthy relationships with their children's father, their
peers, and extended family.
The author acknowledges that many children of single mothers engage
in criminal activity, score on the lower end of standardized achievement
tests, and are most likely to become single parents themselves. This book
helps to break the cycle.
Complete with real stories of single mamas, Single Mamahood
offers suggestions on how to deal with work, school, child support,
discipline, dating again, and more. Women who follow this approach to
parenting will be given an alternative to feeling victimized or desperate.
And their children will no doubt feel totally loved and self-assured,
knowing that they can do anything—just like their mothers.
Kelly Williams, a single mother, is a health and lifestyle reporter
at a television station in Tampa Bay, Florida. She lives in St.
Petersburg, Florida
Donald Thornton, a ditchdigger in Fort Monmouth, New Jersey, decided
to do the grandest thing he could think of: make a success of his
daughters' lives. With the help of his equally remarkable wife, Tass, who
worked as a cleaning woman, he cajoled, prodded, and inspired his girls to
hit the books while steering them away from the kind of trouble that would
keep them stuck in a life of poverty. And all the while, Donald Thornton
worked two full-time jobs to keep a roof over their heads, food in their
bellies, and proper clothing on their backs.
The Ditchdigger's Daughter is an inspiring portrait by a
loving daughter of a father whose pervasive common sense, folk wisdom, and
untutored but right-on insights gave his children their road map to a
better life. It is the story of a man who dared to dream that his black
daughters would someday become doctors—and who guided them to achieve the
seemingly impossible goals he set for them.
It is also the story of an astute businessman who formed his bright
and talented girls into a rhythm-and-blues band that played Harlem's
Apollo theatre and won a recording contract, which Donald tore up when he
discovered it required his girls to leave school. Instead, the Thornton
sisters played colleges on weekends, earning enough money to pay for their
education, yet not allowing their music to interfere with their studies.
Today, all six of Donald Thornton's daughters are successful,
independent, accomplished woman who've risen to stand on equal terms with
anyone. Two of the Thornton sisters are indeed doctors; one became a
dentist, one a lawyer, one a nurse, and one a court stenographer—a tribute
to a remarkable man whose strong values and fierce love for his daughters
gave them a lasting belief in themselves and the strength to overcome the
many obstacles they faced on their astonishing road to success.
