Product Description
Pictures can tell a story and portray history in a unique manner. They provide ways of communicating that words cannot. This collection of paintings, drawings and sketches shows how well illustration can chronicle the past. They depict black army personnel at war, as war casualties, at prayer, in peacetime assignments, in training, at play and at leisure, and as military musicians.

From the Revolutionary War to the Persian Gulf War, this reference work is arranged chronologically. Information about the artwork include the title, the time period represented, the artist’s name, the year the piece was produced, the size and medium used, and where the original can be found is supplied for each artwork. A narrative accompanies each. Sections are concluded with a list of Congressional Medal of Honor Recipients from the war being portrayed. An appendix provides profiles of the artists whose work is represented. ... Read more

Product Description

Customer Reviews (1)

A Great Book by a Brilliant Man
Leroy Davis is a briliant scholar and an excellent teacher.His depth of knowledge on John Hope is amazing, and the real man comes through in this great book.

-Adam Rothwell ... Read more

Product Description
This digital document is an article from Encyclopedia of African-American Culture and History, 2nd ed., brought to you by Gale®, a part of Cengage Learning, a world leader in e-research and educational publishing for libraries, schools and businesses.The length of the article is 2745 words.The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase.You can view it with any web browser.The Early Civilizations in the Americas Reference Library provides a comprehensive overview of the history of the regions of the American continents in which two of the world's first civilizations developed: Mesoamerica (the name for the lands in which ancient civilizations arose in Central America and Mexico) and the Andes Mountains region of South America (in present-day Peru and parts of Bolivia, northern Argentina, and Ecuador). In both regions, the history of civilization goes back thousands of years. ... Read more

Product Description
A striking political reality in sub-Saharan Africa in the 1960s was the substitution of military officers for civilians as rulers of a large group of countries. Why did this occur? How have the military regimes functioned? Focusing on the West African state of Sierra Leone, Thomas Cox attempts to answer these and other significant questions. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

Don't bother.Uninformed, poorly written & trite.
It is questionable as to whether the author has ever been in Africa, much less been there in the last 25 years. This book is a "graduate student" book report covering second hand information. Don't wasteyour time or money. Spend the time talking to your family instead.

Warmed over thinking! Not worth the paper or the print.
Where did they find this guy? This book appears to have been reprinted from the 1977 edition which was of no help in understanding Sierra Leone or African soliders. The author must have paid the publisher to reprint it. Reifications are mounted on top of stero-types, and the analysis is at bestpoor. I doubt that the author has even been in Sierra Leone!

Out-of-date and uninformed. Very poorly written book.
This book was of no help in understanding the subject. It appears to have been written by a graduate student who never spend one day in Sierra Leone, much less talked to an African solider. To say it was poorly written is thegreatest kindness possible. Thankfully, I can get my money back. ... Read more

Product Description

Product Description
Designed as a small, easily read text for undergraduates, this book deals with the black soldier, from the use of slaves in the military units of the Spanish Conquistadores and the English and Dutch colonists in the seventeenth century, to the induction of General Colin Powell as head of the Joint Chiefs of Staff in the fall of 1989. The work focuses on a number of themes including the irony of the black soldier fighting for the American concepts of freedom and liberty on the field of battle and not free himself from the racial abuses of the American social system. Intended as a supplemental reading, this book is ideal for military history courses, black history courses, or even United States survey courses. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (4)

A changing Navy
A simple story about a small warship in WWII. A few officers and about a hundred men. Only one serious action against a possible German U-boat. Commissioned in the summer of 1944, de-commissioned in the spring of 1946. Nothing spectacular about SC 1264 (Sub Chaser), except that her crew was almost entirely african-american. She was one of two ships selected to serve as a floating laboratory to see if black Americans could serve in other roles than as mess mates. And it was (un)spectacularly so! It helped making progress towards an integrated US Navy in a time when it was common belief that blacks couldn't serve in other capacities and certainly not serve as petty officers for white sailors, not even thinking about black officers. SC 1264 did all that and more, being the ship where the first future black flag officer of the US Navy got his feet wet.

A nice, small and very readable book.

Great insight
This is another great book for insight into the life and times of black sailors of the 40's. No one account of stories tell all but a collection of different encounters give you a great idea of their experiences.

An Excellent History
Eric Purden wrote a detailed and entertaining history about his subchaser and his experience with its black sailors during the Second World War.This book contains a wealth of information that probably has not been published elsewhere.I was particularly interested in finding facts about the navy's Submarine Chaser Training Center (SCTC), which took over the City of Miami's municipal docks during the war, and this account did not disappoint.I highly recommend it to those researching black military history, subchasers, the SCTC, Center Cmdr. E.F. McDaniel, Florida history, or WWII naval history generally.I rated it with five stars, because of its detailed and valuable contents as well as its easy readability.My only criticism is the book's lack of an index.

Stright-forward and factual, as told by it's C.O.
Told as only one who experienced it could tell it. Black Company is the story of human courage, a pursuit for justice and dignity, set against the backdrop of World War II, and the story of a young man who would evenutally become America's first Black Three-Star Admiral. ... Read more

Product Description

The 97th Army Corps Engineers, an African American unit, worked extensively on completing the Alaska/ Canadian Highway, but the corps' substantial role in this project to defend North America from Japanese attack during World War II has received only scant attention. The Discovery Channel's recent television show about the Alcan Highway offered only brief mention of this unit's contribution.

With this book William E. Griggs, the official photographer for the battalion, amends the long-neglected history. Documenting the record of its service, he took almost a thousand photographs as the 97th traveled from Fort Elgin, Florida, to Seattle and then to Port Valdez and into the interior of Alaska. Published here for the first time are more than a hundred of Griggs's black-and-white photographic images, along with captions he has written to explain the official work of the 97th. Showing members in social and camp life and in road construction and arranged in chronological sequence, the photographs are a record of the previously unproclaimed service these African Americans gave to the defense of their country.

"This compelling collection of photographs," says historian Douglas Brinkley, whose introductory essay places Griggs and his work in historical context, "provides us the only visual documentation of which I am aware of the 97th's role. . . . Moreover, considering the scant availability of documents--visual or otherwise--pertaining to the 97th's unheralded contribution to the highway's creation, this collection of photographs really is a remarkable find."

William E. Griggs (b. 1918) lives in Baltimore. He remains an avid photographer.

Philip J. Merrill, a regular on PBS's Antiques Roadshow, is a leading authority on African American memorabilia and cultural artifacts.

Douglas Brinkley, director of the Eisenhower Center for American Studies at the University of New Orleans, is the author of the American Heritage History of the United States, The Unfinished Presidency: Jimmy Carter's Journey Beyond the White House, and Rosa Parks. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Alaskan Highway
It was a very informative book that I purchased for my father before he got to take a trip down the Alaskan Highway! ... Read more

Product Description
By the time Japan surrendered in 1945, some 700,000 black Americans, almost 10 percent of the total force, were serving in segregated Army units throughout the world.Yet, as this volume makes clear, segregation presented insurmountable impediments to the efficient training and employment of this significant segment of U.S. strength and its debilitating effect on the morale of black troops constantly threatened their usefulness.A war that began with black Americans demanding that their right to fight included complete integration of black servicemen into the armed forces, a prime aim of the nascent American civil rights movement.

"The Employment of Negro Troops" examines in detail the Army’s prewar planning for the use of black soldiers that was based on its perceptions of segregated troops in World War I.But its plans for the carefully restricted use of a limited number of black soldiers were radically transformed by the great influx of black draftees produced by the nondiscrimination clause of the Selective Service Act of 1940 and by pressures brought to bear on an administration generally disposed to accommodate the growing power of the black voter.Much of this pressure was focused on the War Department through the efforts of the Special Aide to the Secretary of War on Negro Affairs, Judge William H. Hastie.Appropriately in a volume whose subject transcends the usual considerations of military manpower, Hastie’s demands are thoroughly evaluated and contrasted with those of his successors.

The volume also analyzes in detail the recruitment of blacks, many unskilled and undereducated, and the challenge of transforming them into soldiers for an Army that for the most part resisted their presence, questioned their competence, and clearly intended to use almost all of them as unskilled laborers and service troops.It also examines the Army’s continuing problem in developing suitable leaders for segregated units.Commanders were most often assigned because of their supposed understanding of blacks (southerners) or because they had failed to make the grade elsewhere.Black officers, on the other hand, were given only limited command responsibility.Prejudice and racial stereotyping tended to destroy their morale and kept many from achieving their leadership potential.By midwar, poor leadership, underutilization, and low morale had combined with the severe discrimination suffered by black soldiers both in the military and civilian community to spark widespread racial violence, what the author calls the "Harvest of Disorder."

The task of bringing the Army more closely into line with its announced policy of separate-but-equal treatment fell to Assistant Secretary of War John J. McCloy, operating through the Advisory Committee on Negro Troop Policies.Working closely with Chief of Staff General George C. Marshall, McCloy and his committee succeeded in winning assignments for black units in the overseas theaters.Eventually two black infantry divisions as well as a number of separate tank, tank destroyer, and artillery battalions and combat support units saw action.At the same time the highly publicized "Tuskegee Airmen," and other black air units were trained and deployed in the war against the Germans.The majority of black soldiers, however, continued to be employed in service units around the world, performing important duties but ones that tended to reinforce old stereotypes about blacks as soldiers.

The integration of black infantry platoons in the divisions along the European battlefront was important as a sign of future change and merits special attention in this volume.Smashing a favorite segregationist argument, the performance of these units was free of any racial problems.Their competence, along with that of thousands of other black soldiers, portended the racial transformation of the Army into a fully integrated force just six years later.

KEY TOPICS:1. Army racial policies, 1920-45 (Chs. I, II).2. Organization and training of black troops (Chs. V, IX).3. Racial violence in the Army (Chs. IV, VIII, XII, XV).4. Black women in the Army (Ch. XIV).5. The deployment and operations of black air units (Ch. XVI).6. Physical fitness of minority soldiers (Ch. X).7. Effect of morale on military performance (Ch. XI).8. Selective Service and military manpower policy (Ch. XIV). ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Absolutely the best and most useful book I have ever read
Written by Ulysses Lee, a young black captain, from 1947-1951, Army waited 13 years until 1964 to publish and never publicized widely. However, to its credit Army had to conclude that it simply was too good to ignore.Reissued in 1994 by the Chief of Military History.Scholarly and beautifully written, Lee succinctly explains and documents without bitterness or rancor racism in America, with focus on the military--letters, official documents, and photographs. Facts and arguments presented are irrefutable.A starting point for anyone who sincerely wants to understand race in America, its heritage, and what really happened during and between World Wars I and II.The President's Council on Race would do well to begin its deliberations with Ulysses Lee. ... Read more

Product Description

Customer Reviews (1)

a fresh look at the role of black soldiers in the west
Unlike most "contribution" books on black soldiers in American history which treat them simply as dark-skinned, blue-jacketed white men, Christian's work focuses on the meaning of African Americans' militaryservice for race relations in Texas.This state, both a century ago andnow, lay at the nexus of several cultures and races, including Anglos,Hispanics, and Blacks.The presence of black troops strangely revealedsimilarities between the other two groups with regard to anti-black racism,indicating that Mexicans themselves adopted much of the"southern" outlook toward English-speaking minorities. Christian's book will not sell as well as others on this topic, likeLeckie's for example, because he addresses little of the "saddles andboots" history that campaign narrative fans are so fond of.But hemoves military history in an admirable new direction, taking on questionsthat social historians have asked for twenty years.His approach andmethodology are somewhat traditional, ignoring many books on the sociologyof race which could complement his study, and the writing is a tad dry. But those problems are minor.Hopefully this study will gain the place itdeserves, both in African American history and the history of the army inTexas. ... Read more

Product Description
Born in 1856 in Thomasville, Georgia, Henry Ossian Flipper was nine at the end of the Civil War. His parents, part of a privileged upper class of slaves, were allowed to operate an independent business under the protection of their owner. This placed Henry in an excellent position to take advantage of new educational opportunities opening up to African Americans and he graduated from the United States Military Academy at West Point in 1877.
Flipper served at Fort Sill in what is now Oklahoma; took part in the Indian Wars; and served at Fort Davis in Texas, where a court-martial relating to missing funds ended his Army career with a dishonorable discharge. He later was an assistant to the Secretary of the Interior during the early 1920s Harding administration, and died in 1940.
Investigations into the circumstances of Flipper's court-martial resulted in an upgrade to honorable discharge in 1976 and a posthumous pardon from President Clinton in 1999. Passages from Flipper's 1878 autobiography and excerpts from contemporary military reports and newspaper articles contribute firsthand observations to this biography of West Point's first black graduate. ... Read more

Product Description
Much has been written about the life of abolitionist William Lloyd Garrison (1805–79), but relatively little attention has been paid to his wife, Helen Benson Garrison, and their seven children. In "Growing Up Abolitionist," Garrison's public image recedes into the background and the family's private world takes center stage.

The lives of the Garrison children were shaped within the context of the great nineteenth-century campaigns against slavery, racism, violence, war, imperialism, and the repression of women. As children, they became apprentices of these movements and grew up adoring their dissident parents. Collectively and individually, they carried on their parents' values in distinctive ways.

Their path was not always easy. When the Civil War erupted, the entire family had to come to grips with a basic contradiction in their lives. While each member passionately yearned for the end of slavery, all but the eldest son, George, who served as an officer with the 55th Massachusetts Colored Regiment, opposed military participation.

The Civil War years also brought four marriage partners into the Garrisons' lives—Ellen Wright, Lucy McKim, and Annie Anthony (all abolitionist daughters) and Henry Villard, a German-born journalist who later became a railroad magnate and publisher of the "New York Evening Post" and the "Nation."

Raised by loving parents to be political activists, the Garrison children, as adults, assumed positions as leaders or participants in those radical causes of their day that most closely reflected their upbringing: racial justice, women's rights, anti-imperialism, and peace. ... Read more

Product Description
Seraile provides an interesting study of the role of black soldierss from New York State during the Civil War.Despite opposition from Horatio Seymour, the governor of New York, more than 4,000 men served in the crucial battles.This book fills a gap in the history of the Civil War and provides historians with a valuable glimpse into the lives of these brave men and their families. ... Read more

Product Description
This is an OCR edition without illustrations or index. It may have numerous typos or missing text. However, purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original rare book from the publisher's website (GeneralBooksClub.com). You can also preview excerpts of the book there. Purchasers are also entitled to a free trial membership in the General Books Club where they can select from more than a million books without charge. Original Published by: Isaac Knapp in 1838 in 94 pages; Subjects: Miscegenation; Slavery; Blacks; Slaves; Biography ... Read more

Product Description
An Epic History from Jamestown to the Million Man March Strong Men Keep Coming "In her own special, provocative language, Tonya Bolden gives a voice to the voiceless, a name to the nameless. Revelations abound in Strong Men Keep Coming, and this is her singular take on the endless parade of black men who have fought, sung, cajoled, tricked, worked, wrote, or roped their way into the American experience.… She has assembled a most rewarding cast, a phenomenal coterie of role models and phantoms, and she has done a splendid job of telling their stories." —Herb Boyd, coeditor Brotherman: The Odyssey of Black Men in AmericaAmazon.com Review
The quirky, engaging voice of TonyaBolden seems perfectly suited to testify to the tenacious legacyof black men in America; her endearing enthusiasm and deep respect forAfrican American men are irresistible, as clear in her first words asin the finest details of her sketches. "I am the daughter of a blackman in America, granddaughter of black men in America,great-great-granddaughter of black men in America. I am a niece,cousin, sister, aunt--and have been a wife and lover--of black men inAmerica. How can I not want to know about their journey?"

Bolden has taken an idiosyncratic approach in her tribute, but onethat she pulls off with aplomb. Detailing the lives of over a hundredAfrican American men, from the 17th century to the present, Bolden hasmade some expected choices, like Jesse Jackson, A. Philip Randolph,and Frederick Douglass. But she devotes considerable time to ordinarymen, such as a small-town business owner in 1920s Oklahoma and aformer slave who testified before Congress about being terrorized atthe voting booth. Even some of Bolden's omissions, such as PaulRobeson, get their due by default, as we learn about the men whoplayed important roles in their lives; a sketch of Robeson's fatherWilliam Drew tells a more subtle story about the gifted actor andsinger than we might have learned from more direct examination.

Despite Bolden's unusual approach and sometimes erratic choices,Strong Men Keep Coming tells its story well, a tale whose moralis "that despite the bondage, despite the postbellum oppression,despite the wretches and traitors to the race, strong blackmen--thinkers, creators, builders, fighters, givers of goodthings--they have kept and will keep coming." --Paul Hughes ... Read more

Product Description
A renowned law professor's intimate chronicle of her family's history as pioneers of social justice, and the price her father paid for their achievements.

During Reconstruction, Herschel V. Cashin was a radical republican legislator who championed black political enfranchisement throughout the South. His grandson, Dr. John L. Cashin, Jr., inherited that passion for social justice and formed an independent Democratic party to counter George Wallace's Dixiecrats, electing more blacks to office than in any Southern state. His "uppity" ways attracted many enemies. Twice the private plane Cashin owned and piloted was sabotaged. His dental office and boyhood home were taken by eminent domain. The IRS pursued him, as did the FBI. Ultimately his passions would lead to ruin and leave his daughter, Sheryll, wondering why he would risk so much.

In following generations of Cashins through the eras of slavery, Reconstruction, Jim Crow, civil rights, and post-civil rights political struggles, Sheryll Cashin conveys how she came to embrace being an agitator's daughter with humor, honesty, and love. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (6)

Viewing Struggles for Freedom through the Soul of "The Agitator's Daughter"
The Agitator's Daughter: A Memoir of Four Generations of One Extraordinary African-American Family

I couldn't get enough of the stories that Sheryll Cashin strung together in "The Agitator's Daughter." It was an adventure experiencing the lives of her family, the Cashins, an African American family who, over several generations, embodied in their unwavering committment to "freedom and justice for all" a never-say-die spirit that has "Yes We Can" at its very core.
This is a history lesson for the ages. It begins in the days of slavery when Lucinda Bowdre, a woman of color and an Irishman, John Cashin, brought seven children in the world.
From there the reader is taken on a journey through the Cashin's lives beyond slavery through Reconstruction, on to the days of Jim Crow, past the civil rights era up to the political struggles that exist in our world today.
The Cashins are of light skin, some of them able to pass for white, but they have made black political enfranchisement their reasons for living, their passion. Agitating for social justice is like breathing air to them. Helping black people rise in dignity out of poverty is in their DNA.
Sheryll Cashin gets so much of the family lore from her father, Dr. John Cashin, Jr.She brings to life his renditions of marching among the violence that erupted on the bridge leg of the Selma to Montgomery March for Voting Rights. She learns from him how he helped Martin Luther King pursue his dream; how he founded the National Democratic Party of Alabama to counter George Wallace's Dixiecrats; how he got blacks elected to a multitude of offices in Alabama; how he campaigned for governor among people who wished him dead; how if it had anything to do with Civil Rights the Cashin family pretty much had it covered.
Oh, there are so many beautiful and indelible images in this story. One, in particular, keeps coming to mind.I see Ms. Cashin's mom and dad along with Don and Myrna Copeland, a white couple with whom they had marched and organized in Alabama and other southern states, showing up at the Grand Ole Opry in Nashville with four front-row-center seats. This was in 1963 when black performers and black people out on the town weren't "expected or allowed" - especially not arriving in a Rolls Royce wearing an evening gown and white tie and tails with Don looking sharp in a snappy chauffeur's uniform and Myrna dressed as a maid. Eyes must have peered out at them like Mr. Magoo's. Would white servants be refused? No. And neither were the Cashins. They all strode in just as proud as they could be. "Another lily-white realm had been conquered through bloodless audacity." To use the vernacular of the day: That is how they rolled.
Activists say "The victory, if there is one, is often in the mere act of trying." And, along these lines, Sheryll Cashin illustrates ever so eloquently through her stories that there's very little that the Cashins haven't tried in their efforts to make their people free.
For anyone who enjoys a good old fashion story of good winning over evil, of justice winning over narrow mindedness, of love winning over hate, "The Agitator's Daughter" is the book to read.

The Agitator's Daughter
The Agitator's Daughter by Sheryll Cashin is a wonderful book exposing a personal look at one family's significant contribution to African American voting power in the United States. The impact this family had on the civil rights movement went beyond its base in the Birmingham Alabama region and highlights how dedication and stamina can bring about change even if at personal costs. This book ought to be required reading for any student of American history and the author commended for her diligence in putting together a well written and thoughtful American memoir.The Agitator's Daughter: A Memoir of Four Generations of One Extraordinary African-American Family

An Extraordinary Read
Full disclosure: I was a former student of author Sherryl Cashin (former being the key word here--there's no incentive for me to provide anything but a truthful review).In the classroom we could pick up on her dedication to providing high quality instruction and issues of equality.Even these traits offered little clue of the illustrious family line described in her new book, The Agitator's Daughter.The book takes a honest and emotionally open look into the accomplishments, motivations, and struggles of an African-American family that has been politically prominent for several generations.The Agitator's Daughter will likely cause all who read it to reflect on their own "inheritance."While I am not smart enough to identify genius, Cashin make masterful connections between her lineage and the progress of both African-American rights and relationships between individuals of various socioeconomic backgrounds generally.

Let's face it--many people will receive nary a nickel of financial inheritance from their parents.In this memoir Cashin reflects on the priceless gifts children and adults receive from their parents, loved ones or if that term doesn't apply, relatives.This legacy includes an abundance of knowledge about their family's past and the strength and will to persevere despite obstacles placed in their path, no matter what their background may be.These are invaluable lessons that echo throughout life.Cashin shows how this legacy makes it possible for individuals to instill within themselves self reliance, work ethic, and the need to help others and/or engage in formalized service activities, whether overtly or covertly.

Cashin reveals her feelings towards her inheritance in a very candid manner by telling her intriguing family story.The family history lovingly passed to her from her father served as a motivating factor for writing this family memoir.Cashin notes that "[a] confident man tends to talk about himself, and Daddy is more confident than most." She greatly benefited from her father's talkativeness and passes the knowledge given to her by her father on through her memoir.The memoir also synthesizes information from archives research, family documents, and an ancestry website.

Cashin first traces her family line through five generations.She begins with the biracial union of an Irish slaveowner and "mulatto" slave.The author's great-grandfather Herschel Cashin was one of the couple's seven children. He eventually became one of Alabama's first Black lawyers and a proponent of political rights for African-Americans.Herschel Cashin played a substantial role in Reconstruction gains for African-American progress and equality. He used the law and legislation to obtain voting rights for Blacks, and worked with other trailblazers such as Booker T. Washington, one instance in the book showing that "a disempowered people will always have disagreements about how to proceed."

As another book reviewer stated, to whom much is given, much is required.Some individuals who have much and recognize the truth in this statement reach out to loved ones, close friends, and individuals in their immediate community to contribute.The agitator in the memoir , "Daddy" to Cashin and "John Logan" to readers,felt compelled to reach out to disadvantaged individuals generally and advocate for equal rights.John Logan was a dentist by trade.

John Logan corralled and collaborated with multiracial groups of individuals of varying socioeconomic means to work towards their common goal of equal rights for all.He became a full-fledged activist after completing his graduate studies and traveling to Europe.In Europe, John Logan's "historical consciousness deepened with the humanitarian treatment he received."John Logan was motivated by his grandfather Herschel Cashin's civil rights work and empathy for individuals of lesser means.The agitator sacrificed greatly in battling racial inequality.John Logan's work and the work of other pioneers paved the way for an African-American (now President Elect who also helped others and now has the opportunity to effect change on a massive scale)and a woman to head the U.S. presidential ticket.

Cashin explores the depths to which the agitator would go in following in his great-grandfather's footsteps and how her family was affected with anecdotes and ample research.It takes an agitator to address the status quo.John Logan overcame barriers based on race through strategic action.The agitator was a wealthy man who poured his heart and fortune into his political causes and friendships.He experienced devastating results that significantly affected Cashin's entire immediate family.His monetary generosity particularly impacted the family.

Cashin also offers little nuggets of knowledge relied on by African-Americans during less racially harmonious times. Cashin includes the experiences of others growing up in a time where the nation struggled with inequality and her experiences growing up as a "first" and "only."These experiences made it possible for children today of all stripes to grow up in welcoming environments and attend schools without encountering bigotry where teachers encouraged all students.

This memoir is perfect for individuals or groups that want a book that tells an engaging personal family story where themes affecting all of our lives such as history, politics, race relations, internal struggle, socioeconomic class are linked to introspection and progress.Cashin forthrightly discusses her journey in wrestling with her legacy.The Agitator's Daughter provides invaluable insight and serves as inspiration to others to discover and grow their own "inheritance."

A Wonderful Tale
Full disclosure. Sheryll is a colleague of mine whose office is two doors away. I have known her since she started teaching and have nothing but the highest regard for her, both personally and professionally.

That said, Sheryll has written an extraordinary book. At one level, it is the story of four generations of privileged black professionals who have been deeply committed to to racial and social justice, particularly for blacks in the Deep South whose struggles for such justice she describes through her family's efforts in politics, education and professional life. She traces the history of the black struggle for equality from Reconstruction to the present day, using family stories as the focal point for political events. Her family knew the leaders in every generation and they appear both as historical figures and real people as the history unfolds.

If that were all that the book was about, it would be worth reading. But it is very much more. it is a story of her family with all its strengths and weaknesses, successes and failures, laughter and tears. Sheryll is fortunatethat her family, to a substantial extent, kept the papers, photographs and memorabilia from generation to generation and, in this generation, the memorabilia now include the oral histories that Sheryll was able to take from her relatives while they (or, in the case of her father, are) alive. Not all of us are lucky enough to have those resources available nor, if we are, the skill to make them come alive.

Sheryll's family is one that believed, and still believes, that with privilege goes the responsibility to improve the lives of those who do not share that privilege, no matter what the social and financial costs may be. And, as she makes clear, costs there are that members of the family must bear, each in their own fashion. Her father is a fascinating and complex man with whom Sheryll has had a deeply loving and complex relationship. She does not avoid confronting both the love and the anger she felt over the years. Indeed, it is the deeply personal nature of her writing about her family that is the most moving part of the book.

Those who love Faulkner, about whose South Sheryll is writing, or Wallace Stegner as he traces family history through Angle of Repose, will respond immediately and viscerally to this book. Everyone else will be drawn in by Sheryll's ability to integrate history, politics, justice, family and feeling. Read it!

An Inspirational Tale
Professor Cashin's book is a stunning achievement-moving, historically relevant and inspirational, the more so because she tells her family's story with honesty, warts and all.

The measure of this book, and any good book is the level of intellectual stimulation in engenders in the reader. The measure of an outstanding book is the level of intellectual stimulation it engenders in the reader and the emotional tingle generated by sensitive treatment of subject matter and the deployment of appropriate language. This combination induces self-searching in the reader. Having completed it yesterday, my mind remains in a state of excitation. My emotions continue to tingle. I am inspired once again to feel that any change, anything, remains possible, which is something marvellous to experience two years short of fifty, idealism long sandpapered away by life.

Professor Cashin's father, for whom she plainly bears a complex and profound love, and whom she plainly and justifiably holds in so high regard, must now know his daughter has, in her own poignant and sensitive way, made a telling contribution to the cause to which he dedicated his life. Her mother, whose influence over Professor Cashin was plainly as great as her father's must be looking down upon her daughter and smiling in quiet contentment.

David Myers
Port of Spain
Trinidad and Tobago ... Read more

Product Description
Few Americans know the history-changing story of the USSMason, a World War II warship manned by an African-Americancrew that served as a role model for the integration of U.S. Navyships. At a time when most blacks in the Navy were relegated to messduties, the crew of the USS Mason escorted six convoys acrossthe perilous North Atlantic, from the weeks leading up to the D-Dayinvasions until V-E day in 1945. As part of the so-calledHunter-Killer groups that defeated the German U-boats, they helped winthe Battle of the Atlantic. Proudly We Served: The Men of theUSS Mason tells the story of these brave men and theircontributions to the Allied victory. Their success had a direct impacton President Harry S Truman's decision to integrate all of America'sarmed forces after the war. Recommended in 1944 for a commendation fortheir heroic actions during a violent storm, the Mason sailorsfinally received that commendation in 1995, after the publication ofthis book in hardcover and the release of a companion documentary. Themen and ship have been further honored by the Navy's decision to namea new destroyer (DDG 87) after the Mason and propagate itsproud heritage into the twenty-first century. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

A nice history and of special interest to me
My father (Wm.H. Farrell) was one of the officers on the Mason.He was the Engineering officer.When I was a kid, he "regaled" me with stories about the ship and crew.His favorites were the dog that got tossed into the drink off of Newfoundland, the big storm the ship experienced in I believe '44, and the time they were in port in the Azores and woke up to find a German submarine berthed near by to them.He thought very highly of the 1st Captain (Binford?).I think in general, he was pleased with the effort that Mary Kelly gave to this book.It wasn't until I was a teenager that I found out that the crew was black Americans.My father was always interested in the ship first (and especially the engine room!) and never distinquished crew members to me by their color.

A look at the Navy and racism of yesteryear.
Although this book covers a very interesting time period andthe story of the men USS Mason, it lacks readability. The tool of letting each person tell his storyat each phase of the action leaves the book disjointed and hard to read. Historically it is wonderful and that Ms. Kelly told this story is admirable but this is not the way todo future books.The history and subject of this book make it a must read despite the disjointed story telling.

Kelly finds forgotten heroes then lets them tell their story
Mary Pat Kelly's Proudly We Served strikes an important balance.She successfully weaves the narrative with the men's own words, which are poignant and powerful. The battles they faced on shore with racism and with the US Navy were as tough as facing German U-Boats in the Atlantic. This book is vital because it points to a significant historical event that even naval historians aren't familiar with: the only African American crew on a US warship in WWII ... Read more