The history of America is, in part, inextricably the history of its black inhabitants. This book celebrates their part in the shaping of modern America, before and after the bloody Civil War that ended slavery and up to the present. After emancipation in 1865 black families drifted to the industrial north to find work. Poverty and second-class citizenship fueled the richly expressive traditions of jazz, ragtime, soul music and the blues. After that came World War II, Korea and Vietnam, when American blacks fought for the American ideal. Today it is the figures of Jesse Norman, Jesse Jackson, Colin Powell and Bill Cosby who inspire black Americans.
- ISBN10 1853750891
- ISBN13 9781853750892
- Publish Date 15 September 1993
- Publish Status Out of Print
- Out of Print 14 August 1996
- Publish Country GB
- Publisher Welbeck Publishing Group
- Imprint Prion Books Ltd
- Edition 2nd Revised edition
- Format Hardcover
- Pages 192
- Language English