Publisher's Synopsis
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.
