Tim Hashaw’s The Birth of Black America: The First African Americans and the Pursuit of Freedom at Jamestown follows the inaugural voyage of almost 30 African men, women and children to these shores (specifically Jamestown, Virginia) in 1619. Very little has been written about the trip until now, and Hashaw’s credentials and expertise as an award-winning reporter are particularly useful as he examines two distinct, related elements in this story. One involves the business/commerce angle, as he shows how England’s attack on a Spanish slave ship and the pirating of its cargo of Africans violated a treaty, causing King James to dissolve the Virginia Company of London and end that firm’s North American monopoly. But the second, more compelling story of The Birth of Black America traces the journey of Africans, showing how they established communities and the foundation for black culture and society that followed. The book also documents how the nation eventually wrestled with the issue of slavery, and looks at some of the ugly racist practices and legislation aimed at these African Americans. Everything from questions of lexicon to determining the exact size of the black population (through the clumsy census practices of the day) is examined, as well as many sordid events that followed. The Birth of Black America closely scrutinizes and evaluates a time and series of happenings about which far too many contemporary citizens know absolutely nothing.

Ron Wynn writes for the Nashville City Paper and other publications.

Donald Bogle’s previous books chronicling black contributions to film and television have set the stage for his latest work Bright Boulevards, Bold Dreams: The Story of Black Hollywood. Though his other books presented the story of black performers in relationship to what they accomplished while dealing with racism, that is not the main goal of Bogle’s new volume. Instead, he shows the rise of an alternate community, one that delighted in its own accomplishments and neither depended on nor looked to its white counterpart for approval. The black Hollywood that emerged during the ’20s and continued on into the early ’70s, where Bogle ends his overview, had its own class structure, media, support culture and ethos. It wasn’t that those in black Hollywood were oblivious to the suffering occurring elsewhere in America. Their response was to create a world where race didn’t matter, where they often became power brokers when white stars came to black clubs and events and were deemed outsiders. Performers such as the Nicholas Brothers, Lena Horne, Fredi Washington and publisher Carlotta Bass enjoyed being celebrities among African Americans, and though their stardom was improved either through appearances in “mainstream” films or by keeping contact with the major studios and producers, they truly felt independent and at peace in black Hollywood.

Beautiful Jim Key: The Lost History of a Horse and a Man Who Changed the World also documents an animal-based story, but quite a different one. Mim Eichler Rivas spotlights Beautiful Jim Key, a horse whose intelligence and ability paved the way for a new appreciation of horses and all other animals as well. Key’s owner and trainer was Dr. William Key of Shelbyville, Tennessee, an ex-slave who was also a veterinarian and entrepreneur. Dr. Key eschewed cruelty and the use of force, preferring to use kind words, a gentle touch and a calm, almost reverent demeanor toward his horse.

Dr. Key became a celebrated figure in his own right, a famous black American who wasn’t an entertainer, athlete or activist. His stately, dignified and educated image and the results of his training made him a quiet hero during a time long before the civil rights era. He traveled with his horse to places where he was regarded as something below the animal he was presenting, yet his openness, kindness with Jim Key and overall attitude often softened the hearts of those who would otherwise oppose him solely due to his race. Beautiful Jim Key contains some striking descriptions of the horse’s maneuvers and performance moves, as well as a poignant account of an amazing relationship between owner/trainer and animal that in a small but significant way helped make a difference socially during the early part of the 20th century.

There aren’t too many folk other than historians who know that there was a time when African Americans ruled horse racing. Black jockeys won at least 13 or 14 of the first 25 Kentucky Derby events, and 12 of the 15 jockeys in the first Kentucky Derby were black. Jimmy Winkfield grew up during that era, and in 1901 and 1902 he won back-to-back Kentucky Derbies, a feat equaled only by three others. Ed Hotaling unveils Winkfield’s rise and the disgraceful reaction it provoked in his wonderful book Wink: The Incredible Life and Epic Journey of Jimmy Winkfield.

Hotaling starts with Winkfield’s early years as a shoeshine boy in Lexington, Kentucky, then details Winkfield’s rise to superstar status at 22 and his highly confident and combative personality that eventually caused him to be blackballed by stable owners in 1903. Undeterred, Winkfield left America and embraced the European racing circuit. He became the “black maestro” in Moscow, and was later highly celebrated in France. He eventually left France and returned to America to become a construction worker for the Works Progress Administration. Winkfield once again emerged as a winner, this time training horses and owning a stable in France despite being in his 70s. He finally died in Paris at 94. Hotaling doesn’t sanitize Winkfield or minimize his flaws. Alongside the biographical details, Hotaling shows how racism and economic pressure combined to displace black jockeys and turn horse racing into an all-white sport before the first decade of the 20th century ended.

One missing piece in HBO’s otherwise marvelous series Band of Brothers was the role played during World War II by nonwhite combatants. Christopher Paul Moore’s Fighting for America: Black Soldiers The Unsung Heroes of World War II corrects that oversight on one front, tracing the achievements, sacrifices and contributions of African Americans to campaigns throughout the war. While these soldiers fought in segregated situations and dealt with second-class treatment from the beginning of their tours to the end, they didn’t let that sap their spirit or drain their resolve. Moore includes breakdowns of all the black units in both the European and Pacific campaigns, plus rare photos of everything from black women working in factories stateside to those in the Women’s Army Corps (WAC), Army Nurse Corps (ANC) and Women Accepted for Voluntary Emergency Services (WAVES). He also highlights special units like the Tuskegee Air Corps and rifle units.

No matter how much people think they know about the slavery era, books like Slavery and the Making of America by James Oliver Horton and Lois E. Horton will unearth facts they didn’t know. Experts in early black American history, the Hortons use narratives from the slaves themselves to provide much of the information here. While there are some expected personalities, the more compelling portraits highlight unfamiliar names such as John Roy Lynch, a former slave elected to the House of Representatives in 1872; Sergeant William Carney, the first black American winner of the Congressional Medal of Honor, awarded for his service during the Civil War; and George Middleton, who became a commander of a black regiment in the Revolutionary War.

The Hortons show how slavery affected commerce and industry in both the North and South, how the nation was ensnarled in controversy regarding the practice almost from the beginning, and how the quandary over the fugitive slave issue frequently triggered ugly and brutal riots in Northern cities. They also detail a legacy of revolt and rebellion that counters the notion that most slaves accepted their fate without incident. As the accompanying book for this month’s PBS television series, Slavery and The Making of America has set the bar extremely high for the documentary production.

Dr. Carter G. Woodson valued information and knowledge and would certainly laud the release of I’ll Find a Way or Make One: A Tribute to Historically Black Colleges and Universities, an authoritative survey written by journalist Juan Williams and Dwayne Ashley, president of the Thurgood Marshall Scholarship Fund. The book blends personal reflection, historical examination, photographs and plenty of detailed information covering all 108 historically black colleges and universities. In many cases, the birth and growth of these institutions revealed a level of unprecedented cooperation between whites and blacks, often in places where social segregation was enforced at the point of a gun. Historically black schools have also had white and foreign faculty, fostered a climate of support for the arts (with the exception in some places of jazz), and developed ambitious, innovative types who neither accepted nor followed conventional thinking in their endeavors. From the great thinker and activist W.E.

B. Dubois and Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall to television and film moguls Oprah Winfrey and Spike Lee, these students have been a vital force in American society. But Williams and Ashley also feel that while black colleges and universities will always have a special place and tradition, adjustments must be made and transitions recognized.

A welcome departure from the grim accounts in the Arsenault volume comes via Hokum: An Anthology of African-American Humor. Novelist Paul Beatty, whose own works The White Boy Shuffle and Tuff are satiric triumphs, personally selected this compendium of routines, speeches, folktales, poetry, snippets from theater and film, even some rap lyrics. Some are delivered in pristine English, others in wildly profane fashion, but together they illuminate the wealth of the black comedic tradition. Though few readers would associate Dr. W.E.

B. Dubois or Sojourner Truth with hilarity, their contributions are just as funny as those of Hattie Gossett or Wanda Coleman. Not quite a history of black comedy, Hokum serves more as a reference guide through various eras, showing how humor and comedy have changed over the years, and how laughter and wit have sometimes been as effective in the fight against racism as marches and votes.

Ron Wynn writes for the Nashville City Paper and other publications.

Raymond Arsenault’s Freedom Riders: 1961 and the Struggle for Racial Justice covers a shorter, more specific time frame. The Freedom Riders were a courageous, racially integrated group of volunteers who traveled together on buses from Washington, D.C., to the heart of Dixie. They openly defied segregation laws and bore the brunt of vicious attacks, including firebombings and physical assaults that occurred in full view of the police. The sheer brutality that was presented on the front pages of major metropolitan newspapers shocked the Kennedy administration into finally protecting the Freedom Riders. Arsenault’s book goes into exacting detail about rides, destination points and vicious acts of retribution during the pivotal year of 1961. It outlines a story of supreme courage against unspeakable cruelty and disgusting bigotry, and presents the Freedom Riders as one group that probably hasn’t gotten the recognition it deserves for its crucial role in the civil rights movement.

Ron Wynn writes for the Nashville City Paper and other publications.

Noted historian Nell Irvin Painter goes back even further than the days of the covered wagon with Creating Black Americans: African American History and Its Meanings: 1619 to the Present. Painter blends striking visual depictions with extensive analysis, covering everything from the extent of the African slave trade in North and South America to slavery in the U.S., Reconstruction, and the emergence and development of black culture, politics, economics and community life. She blends candid photos, stills and action shots of key community leaders and hard-working regular folks by artists ranging from Romare Bearden to Kara Walker, and her descriptive portraits are equally diverse, including familiar figures such as Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X and lesser-known names such as Olaudah Equiano (one of the first African slaves able to record his own account of captivity). Exhaustive yet easily understood and digested,Creating Black Americans supplies plenty of knowledge without ever becoming pedantic or dry.

Ron Wynn writes for the Nashville City Paperand other publications.

One historical area where African-American involvement is frequently overlooked is in the development of the American West. Historian William Loren Katz’s newly updated and reprinted work The Black West thoroughly corrects this oversight. Katz’s pioneering volume covers every phase of African-American life out West, from fur trading and homesteading to serving as scouts, guides and explorers to the military campaigns of the Buffalo Soldiers. First published in 1971 and now in its fifth edition, The Black West has an improved photo archive, offering more rare shots of black riders, ropers, cavalry members and ranchers, and includes a fresh section on black women on the last frontier. Katz also touches on such areas as black participation in rodeos and the creation of western films designed for African-American audiences. While longtime fans of westerns have always known who Nat Love, aka Deadwood Dick, and Mary Field, aka Stagecoach Mary, were, The Black West provides new information for those fooled by John Wayne films and TV shows like Gunsmoke into thinking only whites wielded six-guns and broke broncos.

Ron Wynn writes for the Nashville City Paper and other publications.

Known in the early 20th century as the site of a black cultural renaissance and later as a symbol of urban decline, Harlem has long been considered a center of African-American life. This unique community is showcased in an attractive new photo-essay book, Spirit of Harlem: A Portrait of America’s Most Exciting Neighborhood. The collection was created by writer Craig Marberry and photographer Michael Cunningham, the duo who previously collaborated on Crowns, a surprise hit book about the church hats worn by black women.

In their latest effort, Marberry and Cunningham steer clear of celebrities and focus their attention on the everyday people who live and work in Harlem. This storied neighborhood on the northern end of Manhattan, which the poet Langston Hughes described as an “island within an island,” is home to people of diverse ethnicities and occupations. Spirit of Harlem profiles many of these residents with black-and-white photos and brief essays based on Marberry’s interviews with the subjects. We meet a literary agent, a preacher, a nun and a saxophonist, among others, who share their vision of the neighborhood they call home. “I love Harlem,” says hat shop owner Junior “Bunn” Leonard, a native of Trinidad who makes one-of-a-kind hats for his customers. “If I took my hat shop downtown, I could get two, three times, what I get in Harlem. But it’s not about that.” As Gordon Parks notes in a foreword, these voices taken together produce a varied portrait of this changing and revitalized community, reflecting “the vivid soul of Harlem, light refracted into a rainbow of colors.”