Jazz Age and Harlem Renaissance Semester Project (Fuller): Resources: Books and Ebooks

-- Tells the stories of notable groups of people of color -- A companion series to the award-winning Black Americans of Achievement biographies Learn more about the history, development, and key figures involved in this organization.

The compelling story of the earliest calls for desegregation and racial justice in the South. "Make room on your library shelf . . . for John Egerton's magnificent Speak Now Against the Day. His book is a stunning achievement: a sprawling, engrossing, deeply moving account of those Southerners, black and white, who raised their voices to challenge the South's racial mores. . . . [This] is an eloquent and passionate book, and . . . one we cannot afford to forget.--Charles B. Dew, New York Times Book Review "A rich and inspiring story. . . . [Egerton] has uncovered a buried treasure.--Studs Terkel "[A] superb book, measured but eloquent.--Dan T. Carter, Washington Post Book World

This is Who We Were: In the 1920s explores American life in the 1920s. This new series is sure to be of value as both a serious research tool for students of American history as well as an intriguing climb up America's family tree. The richly-illustrated text provides an interesting way to study a truly unique time in American history.

An electrifying story of the sensational murder trial that divided a city and ignited the civil rights struggle In 1925, Detroit was a smoky swirl of jazz and speakeasies, assembly lines and fistfights. The advent of automobiles had brought workers from around the globe to compete for manufacturing jobs, and tensions often flared with the KKK in ascendance and violence rising. Ossian Sweet, a proud Negro doctor-grandson of a slave-had made the long climb from the ghetto to a home of his own in a previously all-white neighborhood. Yet just after his arrival, a mob gathered outside his house; suddenly,shots rang out: Sweet, or one of his defenders, had accidentally killed one of the whites threatening their lives and homes. And so it began-a chain of events that brought America's greatest attorney, Clarence Darrow, into the fray and transformed Sweet into a controversial symbol of equality. Historian Kevin Boyle weaves the police investigation and courtroom drama of Sweet's murder trial into an unforgettable tapestry of narrative history that documents the volatile America of the 1920s and movingly re-creates the Sweet family's journey from slavery through the Great Migration to the middle class. Ossian Sweet'sstory, so richly and poignantly captured here, is an epic tale of one man trapped by the battles of his era's changing times. Arc of Justiceis the winner of the 2004 National Book Award for Nonfiction.

To some Americans, the Eighteenth Amendment, which banned alcohol and marked the start of the Prohibition era, was seen as a solution to the nation's problems. Unfortunately, Prohibition gave rise to such illegal and often dangerous activities as bootlegging, homemade liquor making, gang violence, and speakeasy operation. After thirteen unsuccessful years, Prohibition was repealed. Highlighting the people involved, author Suzanne Lieurance traces the exciting events of this unique period in United States history.

It began with the best of intentions. Worried about the effects of alcohol on American families, mothers and civic leaders started a movement to outlaw drinking in public places. Over time, their protests, petitions, and activism paid off--when a Constitional Amendment banning the sale and consumption of alcohol was ratified, it was hailed as the end of public drunkenness, alcoholism, and a host of other social ills related to booze. Instead, it began a decade of lawlessness, when children smuggled (and drank) illegal alcohol, the most upright citizens casually broke the law, and a host of notorious gangsters entered the public eye. Filled with period art and photographs, anecdotes, and portraits of unique characters from the era, this fascinating book looks at the rise and fall of the disastrous social experiment known as Prohibition. Bootleg is a 2011Kirkus Best Teen Books of the Year title. One ofSchool Library Journal's Best Nonfiction Books of 2011. YALSA Excellence in Nonfiction Finalist in 2012.

Harlem in the 1920s and '30s was the epicenter of a flourishing in African-American literature with the poetry and prose of Langston Hughes, Zora Neale Hurston, Gwendolyn Brooks, and Claude McKay, to name a few. This volume examines the defining themes and styles of African-American literature during this period, which laid the groundwork for contemporary African-American writers.

The epic tale of the five owners who shepherded the NFL through its tumultuous early decades and built the most popular sport in America   The National Football League is a towering, distinctly American colossus spewing out $14 billion in annual revenue. But it was not always a success. In The League, John Eisenberg focuses on the pioneering sportsmen who kept the league alive in the 1920s, 1930s, and 1940s, when its challenges were many and its survival was not guaranteed. At the time, college football, baseball, boxing, and horseracing dominated America's sports scene. Art Rooney, George Halas, Tim Mara, George Preston Marshall, and Bert Bell believed in pro football when few others did and ultimately succeeded only because at critical junctures each sacrificed the short-term success of his team for the longer-term good of the league.   At once a history of a sport and a remarkable story of business ingenuity, The League is an essential read for any fan of our true national pastime.    

From the former executive director of the Pro Football Hall of Fame comes a sweeping and lively history of the National Football League, timed to coincide with the NFL's 100th anniversary season.   "I can think of no one better qualified--or more enthusiastic--to chronicle the National Football League's century-long history than Joe Horrigan."--Marv Levy, Hall of Fame NFL coach The NFL has come a long way from its founding in Canton, Ohio, in 1920. In the hundred years since that fateful day, football has become America's most popular and lucrative professional sport. The former scrappy upstart league that struggled to stay afloat has survived a host of challenges--the Great Depression and World War II, controversies and scandals, battles over labor rights and competition from rival leagues--to produce American icons like Vince Lombardi, Joe Montana, and Tom Brady. It is an extraordinary and entertaining history that could be told only by Joe Horrigan, former executive director of the Pro Football Hall of Fame and perhaps the greatest living historian of the NFL, by drawing upon decades of NFL archives. Compelling, eye-opening, and authoritative, NFL Century is a must-read for NFL fans and anyone who loves the game of football. Advance praise for NFL Century "Joe Horrigan takes the reader on a delightful tour of the seminal moments of the NFL in the past one hundred years--the players, owners, coaches, executives, and historical events that made the game of football the most popular in America. It's a wonderful walk down memory lane for any football fan, young or old."--Michael Lombardi, author of Gridiron Genius   "There is no one--and I mean no one--who knows more about the history of the NFL than Joe Horrigan, the heart and soul of the Pro Football Hall of Fame. As the gold standard of sports leagues celebrates its one hundredth season, it's appropriate that the gold standard of sports historians has written NFL Century, an entertaining and educational journey."--Gary Myers, New York Times bestselling author of Brady vs Manning

A galvanizing history of how jazz and jazz musicians flourished despite rampant cultural exploitation The music we call "jazz" arose in late nineteenth century North America--most likely in New Orleans--based on the musical traditions of Africans, newly freed from slavery. Grounded in the music known as the "blues," which expressed the pain, sufferings, and hopes of Black folk then pulverized by Jim Crow, this new music entered the world via the instruments that had been abandoned by departing military bands after the Civil War. Jazz and Justice examines the economic, social, and political forces that shaped this music into a phenomenal US--and Black American--contribution to global arts and culture. Horne assembles a galvanic story depicting what may have been the era's most virulent economic--and racist--exploitation, as jazz musicians battled organized crime, the Ku Klux Klan, and other variously malignant forces dominating the nightclub scene where jazz became known. Horne pays particular attention to women artists, such as pianist Mary Lou Williams and trombonist Melba Liston, and limns the contributions of musicians with Native American roots. This is the story of a beautiful lotus, growing from the filth of the crassest form of human immiseration.