This book examines Memphis's symbolic meaning and value as a Negro leagues baseball city during Jim Crow. It locates the main intersections between black professional baseball and the South in the four decades that spanned the modern Negro leagues era and analyzes the racial dynamics in the city through the lens of the Memphis Red Sox, a black-owned and operated organization that stood as a pillar of success. Baseball also provides a way to examine the racial inequalities and issues that pervaded the city in those years. A black-owned stadium served as a forum for political assertion and an arena for real political struggle for blacks in Memphis.

Discover an Historic Hidden Treasure in African American History With more than 30,000 interred in its 15 acres, Zion Cemetery is the largest African American community burial ground in Memphis. It was opened in 1876 by former slaves to establish a sacred burial ground for people of color. It is the final resting place of luminaries like Reverend Morris Henderson, who led the founding of the cemetery, and Dr. Georgia Patton Washington, Tennessee's first African American physician. Lynching victims Thomas Moss, Calvin McDowell and William Stewart rest there. The cemetery is also the final home of Thomas Franks Cassels and the grandparents of Dr. Benjamin Hooks. Dr. Peatchola Cole-Jones details the rich history and more.

The stories of black American professionals, both historic and contemporary, reveal the hardships and triumphs they faced in overcoming racism to succeed in their chosen fields. This extraordinary four-volume work is the first of its kind, a comprehensive exploration of the obstacles black men and women, both historic and contemporary, have faced and overcome to succeed in professional positions. Voices of Historical and Contemporary Black American Pioneers includes the life and career histories of black American pioneers, past and present, who have achieved extraordinary success in fields as varied as aviation and astronautics, education, social sciences, the humanities, the fine and performing arts, law and government, and medicine and science. The set covers well-known figures, but is also an invaluable source of information on lesser-known individuals whose accomplishments are no less admirable. Arranged by career category, each section of the work begins with a biographical narrative of early black pioneers in the field, followed by original interviews conducted by the editors or autobiographical narratives written by the subjects. In all, more than 150 scholars and professionals share inspiring insights into how they persevered to overcome racism and succeed in an often-hostile world.

One of the largest southern cities and a hub for the cotton industry, Memphis, Tennessee, was at the forefront of black political empowerment during the Jim Crow era. Compared to other cities in the South, Memphis had an unusually large number of African American voters. Black Memphians sought reform at the ballot box, formed clubs, ran for office, and engaged in voter registration and education activities from the end of the Civil War through the Brown v. Board of Education decision of 1954. In this groundbreaking book, Elizabeth Gritter examines how and why black Memphians mobilized politically in the period between Reconstruction and the beginning of the civil rights movement. Gritter illuminates, in particular, the efforts and influence of Robert R. Church Jr., an affluent Republican and founder of the Lincoln League, and the notorious Memphis political boss Edward H. Crump. Using these two men as lenses through which to view African American political engagement, this volume explores how black voters and their leaders both worked with and opposed the white political machine at the ballot box. River of Hope challenges persisting notions of a "Solid South" of white Democratic control by arguing that the small but significant number of black southerners who retained the right to vote had more influence than scholars have heretofore assumed. Gritter's nuanced study presents a fascinating view of the complex nature of political power during the Jim Crow era and provides fresh insight into the efforts of the individuals who laid the foundation for civil rights victories in the 1950s and '60s.

Memphis has been an important city for African Americans in the South since the Civil War. They migrated from within Tennessee and from surrounding states to the urban crossroads in large numbers after emancipation, seeking freedom from the oppressive race relations of the rural South. Images of America: African Americans in Memphis chronicles this regional experience from the 19th century to the 1950s. Historic black Memphians were railroad men, bricklayers, chauffeurs, dressmakers, headwaiters, and beauticians, as well as businessmen, teachers, principals, barbers, preachers, musicians, nurses, doctors, Republican leaders, and Pullman car porters. During the Jim Crow era, they established social, political, economic, and educational institutions that sustained their communities in one of the most rigidly segregated cities in America. The dynamic growth and change of the post-World War II South set the stage for a new, authentic, black urban culture defined by Memphis gospel, blues, and rhythm and blues music; black radio; black newspapers; and religious pageants.

Owned by his father, Isaac Harold Anderson (1835–1906) was born a slave but went on to become a wealthy businessman, grocer, politician, publisher, and religious leader in the African American community in the state of Georgia. Elected to the state senate, Anderson replaced his white father there, and later shepherded his people as a founding member and leader of the Colored Methodist Episcopal church. He helped support the establishment of Lane College in Jackson, Tennessee, where he subsequently served as vice president. Anderson was instrumental in helping freed people leave Georgia for the security of progressive safe havens with significantly large Black communities in northern Mississippi and Arkansas. Eventually under threat to his life, Anderson made his own exodus to Arkansas, and then later still, to Holly Springs, Mississippi, where a vibrant Black community thrived. Much of Anderson’s unique story has been lost to history—until now. In The Recovered Life of Isaac Anderson, author Alicia K. Jackson presents a biography of Anderson and in it a microhistory of Black religious life and politics after emancipation. A work of recovery, the volume captures the life of a shepherd to his journeying people, and of a college pioneer, a CME minister, a politician, and a former slave. Gathering together threads from salvaged details of his life, Jackson sheds light on the varied perspectives and strategies adopted by Black leaders dealing with a society that was antithetical to them and to their success.

Mason Temple, the headquarters of the Church of God in Christ (COGIC), looms large in the history of the Civil Rights Movement because of its connection to the late Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. who delivered his last sermon there during the Sanitation Workers Strike on April 3, 1968. This book highlights the unsung contributions local activists from the COGIC made to the historic strike and to the broader civil rights struggle in Memphis. It troubles the rigid otherworldly versus this-worldly binary that has inaccurately framed black religious activism and bolstered the view that saints’ theology influenced their detachment from the civil rights struggle. It explores the Memphis Movement from the angle of activist saints and describes their involvements in civil rights organizations such as the Ministers and Citizens League, the Memphis Branch of the NAACP, and the Community on the Move for Equality. Ultimately, analysis of Memphis saints’ activism reveals local grassroots activists’ vigorous commitment to working to galvanize and mobilize black pastors and churches to work collaboratively to advance the freedom struggle, including through coordinating voter registration drives, aiding desegregation efforts, and assisting sanitation workers in their struggle for economic justice. This work provides a historical blueprint and a source of inspiration for fostering collective activism among denominationally diverse black churches in the 21st century.

The proof of any group's importance to history is in the detail, a fact made plain by this informative book's day-by-day documentation of the impact of African Americans on life in the United States. One of the easiest ways to grasp any aspect of history is to look at it as a continuum. African American History Day by Day: A Reference Guide to Events provides just such an opportunity. Organized in the form of a calendar, this book allows readers to see the dates of famous births, deaths, and events that have affected the lives of African Americans and, by extension, of America as a whole. Each day features an entry with information about an important event that occurred on that date. Background on the highlighted event is provided, along with a link to at least one primary source document and references to books and websites that can provide more information. While there are other calendars of African American history, this one is set apart by its level of academic detail. It is not only a calendar, but also an easy-to-use reference and learning tool.

"Moving and illuminating….It is through stories like these that we begin to understand people living with Alzheimer's, and maybe—through empathy and compassion—we can heal what can't yet be cured."—Lisa Genova,, author, New York Times bestselling Still Alice This groundbreaking multicultural anthology shares moving personal stories about the impacts of Alzheimer’s and dementia. An estimated 5.7 million Americans are afflicted by Alzheimer’s disease, including 10 percent of those over sixty-five, and it is the sixth leading cause of death. But its effects are more pervasive: for the nearly 6 million sufferers, there are more than 16 million family caregivers and many more family members. Alzheimer’s wreaks havoc not only on brain cells; it is a disease of the spirit and heart for those who suffer from it but also for their families. This groundbreaking anthology presents forty narratives, both nonfiction and fiction, that together capture the impact and complexity of Alzheimer’s and other dementias on patients as well as their caregivers and family. Deeply personal, recounting the wrenching course of a disease that kills a loved one twice—first they forget who they are, and then the body succumbs—these stories also show how witnessing the disease and caring for someone with it can be powerfully transformative, calling forth amazing strength and grace. The contributors, who have all generously donated their work, include Edwidge Danticat, Julie Otsuka, Elizabeth Nunez, Meryl Comer, Greg O’Brien, Dr. Daniel Potts, Sallie Tisdale, and Nihal Satyadev. Reflecting the diversity and global nature of the dementia crisis, this anthology is published in collaboration with UsAgainstAlzheimer’s.