Roberts, a Rutgers law professor, examines the sociopolitical reproductive history of black women--concluding this group did and still faces disparate treatment in public policy. The combined impact of race/ethnicity, sex and ecconomic status govern black women's relation to their own bodies--and treatment from policymakers and medical personnel.

While this premise has been previously examined by other scholars, Robert's contribution differs in legal analysis of the state/women relationship specifically as it applies to black women. She also faults fellow feminists for their ignorance, silence, and apathy towards black women's unique reproductive rights.

Begining with a critique of the predominantley white pro-choice movement for preoccupation with white middle class women and the assumption reproductive access means the same thing for all groups, Roberts holds black women's fertility is only valued if a predominantley white society can find ways to benefit from it.

She also notes that illegal abortion took the highest tolls on low-income black women who were unlikely to have the financial and political clout of rich white women to convince doctors to perform theraputic abortions in secret. At the same time, abortion should not be the sole issue of a truly progressive reproductive rights movement because coercive sterilization and contraceptive programs are also painful incidents in black women's reproductive history.

The pro-choice movement should oppose reccent 'welfare reform victories' because of the destruction such punitative measures have on black communities. Although most recipients were and continue to be white, policy debates were flooded with inferred images of the black "welfare queen" to foster and exacerbate racial and class tensions within the most conservative industrialized nation in the world.

Because anything else repeats the very conditions she is seeking to eliminate, a truly progressive reproductive policy supports the rights of all women to control their own bodies. Not enough to perform "multicultural" outreach, all feminist reproductive rights groups must fully intergrate a multi-pronged, class concious approach into their mission statement and policy objectives.

This book is an indispensible text for a social science course on reproductive rights, law, and/or social policy, but should be read by all who are concerned about securing freedom for all.

We all know about the plight of black men in society, the mainstream white society doesn't know about the plight of black women and their role in demonizing us by controlling our reproductive capacities and by destroying black families. Black women have long been stereotyped as breeders of unwanted children, matriarchs, and amoral jezebels. It's time for society to stop seeing blacks as problems and to start finding solutions to the growing poverty, lack of insurance, and family breakdown among blacks by assisting them economically, not by punishing black women's reproduction.

I want to thank Ms. Roberts for having the guts to say what was on her mind in her book.

I am fortunate to have picked up this book at a local feminist bookstore. This book taught me an abundant amount of information regarding the complex connections between reproduction, gender, and race in the United States. Starting with slavery, the author takes the reader all the way through to the present. Unfortunetly not much has changed since then. Society continues to control the reproduction of black women in order to keep the status quo of white male power structures alive and well. The most difficult chapter for me concerned the eugenics movement and forced sterilization. I knew this occurred but was not aware of how systematic it was. Who knows if doctors really stopped sterilizing black women without their consent in the 1970's as the author stated? I wouldn't be surprized if this practice continues. I had to have a couple drinks to process that chapter.

No longer can I hide behind ignorance of these events.

I have used the paperback copy for the past two years during Kwanzaa. Each year I find something I missed before. It is the best book for all ages on the subjects. It tells you everything you want to know.

This is another great reference source by Riley. She writes and tells everything about the holdiay that anyone needs to know. The book is organized in such a way that you can read a section, gain information, put it down and come back for more. I love this book and the cover is beautiful.

Kwanzaa is based on the universal principals of the Creator God and these principles are the part of every person's life, regardless of their culture or ethnicity.

This is an excellent resouce for African American history, well-organized, concise, extensive and enlightening. It begins with a history of Africa, a definite plus. Each chapter starts off with an overview of a time period, all in chronological order, followed by fascinating first-person accounts. Facing the first page of most chapters is a family photo from that time period -it's interesting to see the progression. Not all photos are sharply printed but all reveal truths in telling and immediate ways. Events and dates are personalized in word and picture, what better way can there be to experience history?

Ellen Craft, Ida B. Wells-Barnett and Mary Church Terrell should be familiar names to anyone interested in women's history or black history. Unfortunately, too few are aware of all three women.

The author accompanies brief (40 pages) well-written biographies of each woman with photographs and a timeline of key events in her life. The introduction provides an overview of the significance of each woman, and there is an excellent bibliography.

This book is set at a small college in western Michigan, and has a young freshman girl solve a 150-year-old mystery, as well as learn something about her own great-grandmother. It's a wonderful story, although was written in the early 1950's, so college life includes a lot of socializing and worrying about dates. For it's time, it is remarkably progressive in it's portayal of women college students. The description of college in the '50's is very entertaining, and the mystery is really intriguing. The solution comes pretty fast at the end (this happens a lot in teen mysteries), but I thoroughly enjoyed this book the first time I read it (over 25 years ago), and also the last time, which was this past month. There is also quite a bit of local color, which makes it all the more interesting to Michiganders.

THIS BOOK IS TRULY BEAUTIFUL AND SPIRITUAL. DOROTHY WINBUSH RILEY HAS CREATED A BOOK THAT IS INSPIRATIONAL, HISTORICAL AND ARTISTIC DEPICTING WOMEN OF COLOR. I LOVE IT AND FEEL IT SHOULD BE IN EVERYONE'S COLLECTION.

I am a soon-to-be-teacher and have used this book for both art and life-science lessons. The striking illustrations really made Bold and Bright... a great choice for introducing contrast in an art lesson. And, although the information presented about each of the animals is minimal, I found the book to be a useful supplement to how creatures depend upon their visual appearance for survival. I especially liked how the book pointed out that not all black and white animals have those colorings for the same reasons. For instance, some use their color for camoflauge, while others use it to point out to preditors that they are poisonous. I'm really glad I have this book as part of my growing classroom library--the kid's loved it, and I'm sure I'll refer to it over and over again, for many different lessons.

Dorothy Porter's research that went into this book was not the slave trade or slave uprisings and the violence that characterized the 1760 (pre-revolutionary) through 1837 (pre-Civil War and Emancipation) period of American/African history although mention is made.

Porter introduces and reproduces significant documents of the period (at least 26 years before the Emancipation Proclamation - June 19th, 1863 - and the end of the Civil War) that tell of the trials, tribulations, day-to-day goings-on and achievements of "free" blacks throughout the period, typically in urban centers such as Boston, New York and Philadelphia, where newspapers and publishing houses were likely to be.

The result in fact closely mirrors the state of black society in urban United States today. Her chapter headings: I. Mutual and Fraternal Organizations -- II. Societies for Educational Improvement -- III. Significant Annual Conferences -- IV. To Emigrate or Remain at Home? -- V. Spokesmen in Behalf of Their "Colored Fellow Citizens" -- VI. Saints and Sinners -- VII. Narratives, Poems and Essays

Porter's book should be required reading if there is any interest in the nascency of the abolition, segregation and women's suffrage movements OR of the impact of the Revolution, changing economic conditions and markets, and burdensome influx of "freed" and "escaped" slaves coming up from the "slave" states on existing black communities in the "free" states.

"A Renaissance In Harlem", is one of the better history books I have read this year. In fact it is one of the better books that I have read in a long time regardless of genre. There are many reasons a book like this goes unnoticed, however to mention any of them, instantly is to be branded with the various labels created by simpletons. If you enjoy reading History, read this collection of work, it will not disappoint.

As part of the New Deal, the Federal Government paid several thousand writers across the nation to write about what they observed. The collection of stories that is included in this volume all center upon Harlem and its so-called Renaissance. These essays are written by some writers that are well known, and by several who cannot be traced to this day. They all share a level of excellence that can result when talented people write about a place they are a part of. This collection is not a romanticized view of Harlem, The Apollo Theater, or any other landmarks you may know. The stories are stripped of all pretense, they each are small documentaries of what life was like for those who lived, worked, exploited, and were exploited by Harlem's unique population. It would be easy to dwell on portions of this book that would raise the anger that remains associated with various groups. This may be part of the reason this book was not embraced. Free Speech is a difficult taskmaster, and this may explain why these stories found their home in the archives of The Library Of Congress until they were finally brought to the light of day.

You will read of what, "Rent Parties", rapidly became once they were fashionable. The life of, "Thursday Girls", will leave you as numb as the stories of John Steinbeck. And for those who may think that the exploitation by today's televangelists is nauseating, come to know, "Father Divine", who entered Harlem in a one off custom built Dusenberg.

"Amateur Night at The Apollo", will bring insight into this famed theater that is as important as the polished versions so often written of this landmark. Fatso the Slickster, Big Bess, and Kingfish will entertain and sadden. And the story, "Finger Waves and Nu Life Pomades", will roll as smoothly across the minds eye as it does the ear.

My favorite part of the book was the manner these writers recorded the spoken word. They wrote what they heard, and while at times a reader may pause to get in step with some of these street poets, the language is priceless. This speech was a centerpiece of the stories of street vendors and the songs that made their days pass and their goods sell. Men and women who had their street music they would adapt as the blocks they passed changed, and the colors and religions of those who lived there changed as well.

This is a wonderfully collection of a piece of American History. No brief comment can do the work of these writers justice, and certainly is not enough to thank those who found, collected and edited the lives into this book.

It is a treasure, a gift, and a literary time capsule.

Spruill-Redford's book paints a beautifully accurate picture of North Eastern North Carolina. Her dedication to discovering the truth about her ancestors is admirable and thorough. The only caveat is Spruill-Redford's sweeping statements about the history of Somerset. She is inclined to believe that the reason behind all of the Collins' actions is to further their control over their slaves. Their conscious effort to keep families together, in example, is just one more way for the Collins' men to keep their slaves from running away. While this may have been, even probably was, the case, presenting that opinion as a definite is bad historical practice. Several examples of similar conclusions could be cited. The book must be understood as one woman's journey to uncover the lives of a people whose story desperately needed to be told, but not as an inherently fair historical document. Bias marred an otherwise admirable venture. It is reasonable to expect a reader, however, to pick up on these statements and analyze them accordingly. Somerset Homecoming is nonetheless a must-read, especially for locals.

In this book, Dorothy Redford shows the power of tenacity and courage. She had a dream--to uncover the past, to discover the story of her enslaved ancestors--and she sacrificed and toiled until she found out the truth, bit by bit. The inspiration is that she did not stop there. Now she lives that dream by educating others, both by her book and at the plantation where she is executive director, about the reality of slavery life. I recommend this book highly to anyone who admires or hopes to immulate someone who has realized a dream.

I read this the first time because it was a new genealogy book at my local library. More than just an engaging story about a woman's search for a heritage to pass down to her daughter, it also qualifies itself as the best "How To" on African-American Genealogy, because in the course of telling her story, Ms. Redford explains how she found her information. I recommend it all the time to friends researching African American family history.