No Boundaries: A Cancer Surgeon's Odyssey  

by LaSalle D. Leffall, Jr., M.D.

In this insightful and instructive autobiography, Dr. LaSalle D. Leffall Jr.--renowned surgeon, oncologist, professor, and medical spokesman--chronicles a life of outstanding service and scholarship. As the first African American president of the American Cancer Society, Dr. Leffall helped focus national attention on the disturbing disparities between black and white Americans in cancer prevalence, treatment, and mortality.

During his more than 50 years of medical practice and advocacy, he has taught thousands of medical students and hundreds of surgeons. Read why he firmly believes, as his father told him long ago, that, "With a good education and hard work, combined with honesty and integrity, there are no boundaries."

Horace T. Ward:                                                    

Desegregation of the University of Georgia, Civil Rights Advocacy, and Jurisprudence        

by Maurice C. Daniels

Horace T. Ward was the first African American to sue for admission to an all-white college or university in Georgia. Though unsuccessful, his protracted lawsuit for admission to the University of Georgia (UGA) School of Law played a pivotal role in the desegregation of higher education in that state nearly a decade later. Ironically, Ward went on to a distinguished and precedent-setting career as a civil rights litigator, state senator, and judge in the state superior and federal courts—becoming the first African American appointed to such lofty judicial positions in Georgia. Recounting Ward’s struggles and achievements, Maurice C. Daniels, professor and associate dean of UGA’s School of Social Work, adeptly contextualizes one man’s life within the complex, compelling history of desegregation and civil rights in America.   

And Then We Heard the Thunder                                                      

by John Oliver Killens

And Then We Heard the Thunder follows the dreams, lies, and anguish of black World War II GI Solomon Sanders during his tour of duty in Indochina, Australia, and the United States. Harvard-trained in the law and a political moderate, Sanders is married to an upper-middle-class black woman who pushes him to “make something of himself” by becoming an Army officer. Given his credentials, he appears a shoo-in for Officer Candidate School, yet he rejects the opportunity as the vestiges of Jim Crow racism, the strains of war, and his interactions with disgruntled black troops thrust him into black activism. Forced to make common cause with his race rather than with the Army, he and some fellow soldiers write a letter to American newspapers about the poor treatment of blacks in the military. For this outcry, they encounter harassment and further discrimination, resulting in a full-scale battle between black and white troops and a blood-curdling climax to this second novel by acclaimed African American author John Killens.

Mel Watkins, an editor of the New York Times Book Review, writes a penetrating introduction that places And Then We Heard the Thunder squarely within the context of the times in which it was written. This edition also contains an appendix of reviews the novel received when first published in 1962.

A Right Worthy Grand Mission:                                                    

Maggie Lena Walker and the Quest for Black Economic Empowerment  

Cloth         Paperback     

by Gertrude Woodruff Marlowe

Howard University Press is proud to offer the first researched-based biographical study on the life of Maggie Lena Walker.   A Right Worthy Grand Mission: Maggie Lena Walker and the Quest for Black Economic Empowerment reveals the untold story of one of the nation’s most outstanding Black Leaders.   A contemporary of Mary Church Terrell and Nannie Helen Burroughs, Maggie Lena Walker throughout her life demonstrated an overreaching commitment to race vindication.  From 1890 until her death Ms. Walker was the Right Worthy Grand Secretary of the Independent Order of St. Luke. The Independent Order of St. Luke was a Black burial society that provided low-cost  cooperative insurance to cover funeral expenses.  Through her outstanding leadership the organization branched out to other business ventures including a newspaper, The St. Luke Herald, a clothing store and the St. Luke Penny Savings Bank. The bank opened in 1902 and is the oldest Black-owned bank in the nation. It  is based in Richmond, Virginia and is now known as the Consolidated Bank and Trust. Written by the late Gertrude Woodruff Marlowe, an acclaimed social anthropologist, this biography serves as a personal tapestry upon which she weaves the events and moments that shaped the life of this human rights activist and phenomenal business woman.  

First Freed: Washington, D.C., in the Emancipation Era    

edited by Elizabeth Clark-Lewis

On April 16th, 1862, nine months before the Emancipation Proclamation was signed, enslaved Africans residing in the District of Columbia were freed by an act of Congress. The District of Columbia Emancipation Act, signed by President Abraham Lincoln and funded to the tune of nearly a million dollars, not only ended slavery in the Nation’s Capital, but for the first time offered monetary compensation to both slaves and slave owners. This revised edition of award-winning author and historian Elizabeth Clark-Lewis’s 1998 volume, published to commemorate the 140th anniversary of Emancipation in the District of Columbia, provides readers with critical research and information about this often overlooked and under-examined aspect of local and national history. Presenting seven essays from the proceedings of a community-based conference held in Washington, D.C., First Freed sheds new light on the capital city’s unique role in the perpetuation and demise of slavery in the United States.

One-Third of a Nation: African American Perspectives  

edited by Lorenzo Morris and Ura Jean Oyemade  Bailey

By the year 2000, minorities, chiefly Hispanics and African Americans, will constitute one-third of the population of this nation. Against that demographic background, One-Third of a Nation presents a collection of essays that give a historical overview, outline current situations, and propose solutions for areas of major concerns in African-American life, such as employment, housing, health care, and political participation. Howard University Press is proud to make One-Third of a Nation: African American Perspectives available to a 21st-century audience. 

The American Paradox: Politics and Justice   

by Patrick J. Gallo

The American Paradox: Politics and Justice is an account of political trials of the last 200 years. Patrick J. Gallo explores the implications of political trials for the American justice system. According to the American Orthodox Political Ideology, the trial is the vehicle for administering justice and ensuring impartial review of evidence. But in political trials defendants’ political views carry more weight than the evidence. Criminal charges are secondary. The real purpose of political trials is to remove the defendants from society or discredit their views. The result is a miscarriage of justice in individual cases and, ultimately, the weakening of the judicial system.

The Black Seminole Legacy and North American Politics, 1693-1845                    

by Bruce Edward Tyman

The Black Seminole Legacy explores the influence wielded by fugitive slaves who fled to Florida and formed alliances with Native peoples, mainly Seminoles. It tells the hidden story of the impact that those people, known as Black Seminoles, had on the political policies of Spain, Britain, and the United States from 1693 to 1845. Using government documents from those countries, the author shows how Black Seminoles affected and even influenced U.S. presidents, including Washington, Jefferson, Madison, Monroe, and Jackson. The book reveals the important role of Black Seminoles in Spanish survival in Florida and in Florida's’ acquiring statehood. The Black Seminole Legacy introduces new insights into Native and African American relationships.

Genocide in Rwanda: A Collective Memory                                                      

edited by John A. Berry and Carol Pott Berry

During the hundred days between early April and mid July 1994, nearly a million Rwandans were systematically murdered by their own compatriots at the order of their own government. Their only crime was that they had been born Tutsis. Commemorating the fifth anniversary of this atrocity, Genocide in Rwanda: A Collective Memory, which is told in the voices of those Rwandans who survived, presents a comprehensive examination of the cyclical violence and the culture of impunity that culminated in catastrophe. This book goes beyond superficial “tribalist” explanations as it frankly addresses these questions: How and why did the genocide happen? What led to it? Who was responsible for it? Genocide in Rwanda shows the human face of history, giving a personal context of events leading up to and extending through the genocide. Contributors include genocide survivors, Rwandan journalists, academics, human rights activists, members of the former and president Rwandan Patriotic Army, and United Nations experts. The testimony of people who were there is balanced with historical and political analysis. The views of the genocidal architects are presented through first-time translations of hate radio broadcasts transmitted from Zaire by the former government in exile. Also presented is a concise interpretation of legal issues involved in prosecuting the authors of genocide, along with a dialogue on the role of the United Nations and the international community in Rwanda.

Manichean Psychology: Racism and the Minds of People of African Descent     

by Camara Jules P. Harrell   

Most of the current research is concerned with the third domain. Scholars have generated analyses of deteriorated family structures, negative attitudes, violent behavior, and poor academic achievement, among others. Some excellent studies have also been completed on stimulus events and the racist environments. Very little research has been done on the second domain, the mental process. It is the purpose of Manichean Psychology to fill this void. Essentially, Manichean Psychology’s focus is the mental processes that occur in a racist environment. Although stimulus (input) and response (output) events are discussed, the material in each chapter concentrates on the mental events and activities that involved in processing the former and producing the latter.

Singular Like a Bird: The Art of Nancy Morejon 

edited by Miriam Decosta-Willis

Singular Like a Bird comprises a collection of eighteen essays by scholars who examine the work of Afro- Cuban writer, Nancy Moréjon. Also included are a comprehensive bibliography, an interview with the poet, and a collection of her art.

Black Writers and Latin America: Cross-Cultural Affinities                

by Richard Jackson                                                                                                  

The interplay of influences among African-American men and women of letters and people of the Afro-Hispanic world reveals the international dimension of their literatures. Affinities among these writers have their source in Africa and in the common new world experiences of slavery, racism, and colonialism. In this study, the author begins by examining the influence of Africa and Spain upon the literatures of African Americans and Latin Americans. He explores the reciprocal exchange of influences among artists of African descent in the United States and in Latin America—from established writers to a new generation of writers, including women. Among those writers are Richard Wright, Robert Hayden, Gayle Jones, Nicolás Guillen, Nelson Estupinan Bass, and Nancy Moréjon. Notable are the literary influences and wide travels of Langston Hughes in the 1920s.

Mordecai: The Man and His Message   

by Richard I. McKinney

A History of the Black Press  

edited by Armistead S. Pride and Clint C. Wilson II
 

A History of the Black Press is based upon a well-researched manuscript in Dr. Pride's papers from the Manuscript Division of the Moorland-Spingarn Research Center, Howard University. Through reorganization and exhaustive research to ascertain source materials from among hundreds of original and photocopied documents, clippings, personal notations, and private correspondence in Dr. Pride's files, Dr. Wilson completed this compelling and inspiring study of the black press from its inception in 1827 to 1997.