I was impressed at the magnificent way that this book brought to light the struggle and dreams of the Mule Train participants. Their beleifs that what was transpiring would make a difference, not just for them, but for all of America. The committment of Mr. Willie Bolden, tasked with the responsibility to see that all went well. His determination and others that dispite several roadblocks insured all travelers were taken care of. The reporting by Jean Pond-Smith showed the realness of this movement without being bias or prejudicial. Her capture of the spirit of the travelers were enligntening and heartwrenching. This book brought home to me many memories that I had long ago moved to the back of mind. That I, along with with mother and three of my sisters were a part of this moment in history.

Absolutely authentic and gut wrenching, this book describes how 2 NYC police detectives solved the "Metropolitan Opera Murder Case" of 1980. Much more than a real "Whodunnit", this true tale says a lot about society and crime, real police work, and all the personalities from the victim, the cops, the suspects, the artists and stage crew, the courts and lawyers, DA's, judge. Simply among the best ever written!

My Bondage and My Freedom, one of Douglass' several autobiographies, a very important book that should be read by anyone interested in United States history generally, or the crucial and often tragic role race has played in that history. Douglass, a former slave, was one of the few African-Americans who achieved prominence in the largely white, new england abolition movement. Douglass was an eloquent writer and (by historical accounts) speaker. His recounting of his experience as a slave, and his reflections on his role as a black former slave in America, are powerful.

I give this book five stars because it has a wonderful cross-section of female and male Harlem Renaissance writers, and also because it includes fiction, prose (articles and essays), and poetry. This volume is nicely compiled, and it is a lovely companion to similar anthologies, such as "Trouble the Water," which is an anthology of black poetry from slavery through modern times. Also, because the Harlem Renaissance happened so long ago, The Portable Harlem Renaissance Reader includes works and excerpts from works that are seemingly out of print, such as a selection by Carter G. Woodson. This book has a lovely variety of practically every genre of literature, and is a must for any African-American studies scholar, though it is a capable volume for any student of literature, period. The only possible drawback of this book is that it contains a lot of excerpts. If you enjoy a certain excerpt (and it is almost guaranteed that you will), finding a copy of its parent body of work will become frustratingly high on your list of priorities. The Harlem Renaissance Reader is truly reccommended.

These nine essays take a close look at how various editors in Mississippi and the South covered the desegregation crisis of the 60s. The courage displayed by them in reporting the news accurately when the majority of their neighbors and customers felt the opposite way makes for very interesting reading. One is struck by the bravery of these editors in sticking to their sense of fair play, justice and accuracy. They played an important, and little known, role in how desegregation was finally accomplished. I highly recommend this book to anyone wanting to understand the South and the events of the 60s there.

This masterpiece of legal scholarship, clearly and eloquently written for the general public (plus police officers, politicians, and lawyers) lays searingly bare the United States's collective shame of the evil practice of racial profiling and stereotyping. The first 3 of the 9 chapters lay the groundwork of the author's thesis via extensive anecdotal evidence, thoroughly supported by direct quotations and direct observations, many of them from police officers as well as innocent victims. Chapter 4 provides a convincing and well-reasoned [I'm a professional statistician] statistical validation of the author's thesis, plus proof that racial profiling actually decreases probabilities of intercepting criminals. Chapter 5 exposes the hidden but corrosive costs of racial profiling, such as disunity among Americans and the cancer of chronic distrust of police and courts. Chapter 6 extends the discussion beyond African-American victims to East Asian, Hispanic, and Near-Eastern victims. The last three chapters provide the encouragement of a road to improvement, including examples of municipalities and police departments already following that road.
Throughout, the author's prose is objective, quietly restrained, and superbly organized and enunciated.

This book contains a number of studies on various aspects of the Transatlantic slave trade. Studies include an examination of mortality rates on slave ships, among both slaves and crew. Other essays address how certain regions of Africa provided slaves for certain regions of America in different periods of the slave trade. Further studies debate the influence of particular African regional and ethnic cultures on various locales in the Americas.

This book offers insight into American, European and African developments over the course of the slave trade. This book should interest anyone studying African-American history, African history, the history of the slave trade, or immigration history.

Those interested should also consider Philip D. Curtin's The Atlantic Slave Trade: A Census, as well as the database on CD ROM edited by David Eltis and company, entitled, The Transatlantic Slave Trade. The information available on CD ROM provided much of the basis for the research in this book.

For more on the slave trade, consider works by Philip Curtin, John Thornton, Joseph Miller, James F. Searing, Boubacar Barry, Richard Roberts, Hugh Thomas, and Paul Lovejoy.

The Wilderness series, a collection of 39 books thus far in my library, is compatible to the world series of baseball. It's the ultimate in the real old west as I dreamed they would be if I had been lucky enough to have lived in those great days of hardship, darring, danger, adventure, independance and many more adjectives that explain how life was back in the 17 and 18 hundreds. No Doctors other than the erbs you could learn to use if you were lucky enough to become a friend of a friendly Indian tribe such as the Shoshones. The fifth story in this series has all of the excitement you want to experience. A gread read.

Most Black History fans think they have DuBois figured out. You either hate him for his haughtiness and elitism or you love his militant stands. This collection of DuBois' writings shows that the truth was somewhere in between. We see DuBois change his mind on Marcus Garvey and the elitist "Talented Tenth" idea. We see DuBois evolve from Integrationism to Black Nationalism to Communism. We basically see a man who is not afraid to change his ideas and admit his errors, a very human and complex man.

Anna Sewell's novel Black Beauty is a timeless classic for readers of all ages, but has a main demographic of females from the age 9 to 16.
The story takes place in 19th century England. IT follows the life and experience of a horse named Black Beauty. The horse is born on a farm and sold at the age of four. His first owner Squire Gordon is a great loving man. Black Beauty is treated with respect and dignity. The story follows the horse as he is then sold from owner to owner. He becomes neglected and abused by carriage owners. A loving and gentle man finally purchases Black Beauty. He cares about the horses and treats them well. Black Beauty is finally happy as a carriage horse when tragedy strikes. His owner is struck with illness and is forced to sell the horse. Black Beauty is sold to a poor owner and is neglected. He longs to go back home to squire Gordon's farm and live a happy life once again.

The book is uniquely enough from the horse's point of view. This helps children connect with the horse, and makes the book more interesting and easy to follow along with. The heart breaking tale of a horse's life that will readers leave on the edge of their seat wanting to keep reading, dying to find out what happens next. The book goes into detail about how animal abuse used to be in the early 1900's. Older children have and will continue to enjoy this book for generations to come.

Since pictures & illustrations are as much a part of a child's imagination as the written word, then this book beautifully combines both, with the abundant B&W line illustrations by illustrator Lucy Kemp-Welch, in addition to the 12 colour plates included - all in keeping with the time period this novel is set in. A wonderful edition to any child's library. I've been reading horse-topic related books for as long as I can remember; but the very 1st horse story that left an indelible impression on me was ANNA SEWELL's " BLACK BEAUTY ".

It really openend my eyes as to the abuse and cruelty - and majestic fraility - that these wonderful creatures suffer at the hands of their human counterparts.

Ms Sewell opted to write this book from " the horse's point of view " and she was one of the very few authors that was able to pull this off with such great success.

This book also, laid the cornerstone for the ASPCA aims and goals, and brought to light the conditions and treatment of working horses in 20th century London, England ( and elsewhere ).

The story is such a wonderful tale of a horse's life from start to finish; told with a quiet dignity and warmth - and serves as a successful analogy also, as to how humans should interact with one another.

This book also laid the cornerstone for my interest and love of horses, and further spurred my interest in reading about all things Equine.

From there, and I went on to read all of Walter Farley's "The Black Stallion" series ( I used to collect the hardcover editions), and Marguerite Henry's books, and National Velvet(which really wasn't about a horse per se, but more about a little girl who's dreams come true), and anything else I could get my horsey-hungry hands on!

I now keep a copy of Anna Sewell's "Black Beauty" in my library at home, and have given a copy to my daughter to read.

This is a tale that sensitizes the reader to the plight of horses at the hands of their human caregivers, trainers, etc - all told from the horse's mouth ( so to speak )..!

And lest we think that the inhumane treatment of horses has abided since this book was written - one only has to follow the controversy surrounding the use of "Premarin", or abusive training methods of gaited horses, or the Thoroughbred racing industry, or rodeo...etc.

There is still much to be gleaned about the exploitation and abuse of animals from this book - which will always remain a timeless classic.

Kim C. Montreal, 05/2000

Since pictures & illustrations are as much a part of a child's imagination as the written word, then this book beautifully combines both, with the abundant B&W line illustrations by illustrator Lucy Kemp-Welch, in addition to the 12 colour plates included - all in keeping with the time period this novel is set in. A wonderful edition to any child's library.

I've been reading horse-topic related books for as long as I can remember; but the very 1st horse story that left an indelible impression on me was ANNA SEWELL's " BLACK BEAUTY ".

It really openend my eyes as to the abuse and cruelty - and majestic fraility - that these wonderful creatures suffer at the hands of their human counterparts.

Ms Sewell opted to write this book from " the horse's point of view " and she was one of the very few authors that was able to pull this off with such great success.

This book also, laid the cornerstone for the ASPCA aims and goals, and brought to light the conditions and treatment of working horses in 20th century London, England ( and elsewhere ).

The story is such a wonderful tale of a horse's life from start to finish; told with a quiet dignity and warmth - and serves as a successful analogy also, as to how humans should interact with one another.

This book also laid the cornerstone for my interest and love of horses, and further spurred my interest in reading about all things Equine.

From there, and I went on to read all of Walter Farley's "The Black Stallion" series ( I used to collect the hardcover editions), and Marguerite Henry's books, and National Velvet(which really wasn't about a horse per se, but more about a little girl who's dreams come true), and anything else I could get my horsey-hungry hands on!

I now keep a copy of Anna Sewell's "Black Beauty" in my library at home, and have given a copy to my daughter to read.

This is a tale that sensitizes the reader to the plight of horses at the hands of their human caregivers, trainers, etc - all told from the horse's mouth ( so to speak )..!

And lest we think that the inhumane treatment of horses has abided since this book was written - one only has to follow the controversy surrounding the use of "Premarin", or abusive training methods of gaited horses, or the Thoroughbred racing industry, or rodeo...etc.

There is still much to be gleaned about the exploitation and abuse of animals from this book - which will always remain a timeless classic.

Kim C. Montreal, 05/2000