The black experience in America - starting from its origins in western Africa up to the present day - is examined in this seminal study from a prominent African American figure. The entire historical timeline of African Americans is addressed, from the Colonial period through the civil rights upheavals of the 1960s and 1970s. The most recent scholarship on the geographic, social, economic, and cultural journeys of African Americans, together with vivid portraits of key black leaders, complete this comprehensive reference.

INCLUDES INDEX.

The African past -- Before the Mayflower -- The founding of Black America -- Behind the cotton curtain -- Blood on the leaves: revolts and conspiracies -- The generation of crisis -- The jubilee war: witnesses and warriors -- Black power in the old South -- The life and times of Jim Crow -- Red, White, and Black: race and sex -- From Booker T. Washington to Martin Luther King, Jr. -- The time of the whale -- Landmarks and milestones -- Black firsts.