About this title: This fictionalized account of the life of aviatrix Elizabeth "Bessie" Coleman, the first female African-American to receive a pilot's license, is told through a series of poems/eulogies presented at her funeral by those who knew her or knew of her adventures, celebrating Coleman's achievements while informing readers of the circumstances of her ...
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Note: This is a general synopsis. Each listing is described below.
Edition: 8th Printing
Binding: Mass Market Paperback
Publisher: Fawcett, Greenwich, Conn.
Date Published: 1969
Description: Good. 12mo-over 6¾"-7¾" tall. Some underlining and margin notes to text. Small tears to wraps. Minor soiling. More of a reading copy. read more
Edition: Reprint.
Binding: Mass-market paperback
Publisher: Signet Classics, New York
Date Published: 1969
ISBN-13:9780451514585ISBN:0451514580
Description: Good. No dust jacket as issued. Totally clean & unmarked inside. Cracked spine. Moderate wear to covers and spine. Corners are just slightly bent. Mass market (rack) paperback. Glued binding. Audience: General/trade. read more
Binding: Mass Market Paperback
Publisher: SIGNET
Date Published: 1969
ISBN-13:9780451521750ISBN:0451521757
Description: Good. Ex-Library (college) with usual markings. Text is clean and unmarked, though tanned. Cover shows light wear and tanning.; 100% Satisfaction Guaranteed! Free Delivery Confirmation! Ships same or next business day! read more
Description: Good. Shows some signs of wear, and may have some markings on the inside. Shipped to over one million happy customers. Your purchase benefits world literacy! read more
"Not only do I find Du Bois a good commentator on society, but his writing alone reduces me to a pile of mush. And it's frankly creepy how much his depictions of America after the civil war struck a chord with me--a lot of what he observes still applies to American society today. The following is a passage that turned into a paper for one of my classes: "I held him in my arms, after we had sped far away from our Southern home,--held him, and glanced at the hot red soil of Georgia and the breathless city of a hundred hills, and felt a vague unrest. Why was his hair tinted with gold? An evil omen was golden hair in my life. Why had not the brown of his eyes crushed out and killed the blue?--for brown were his father's eyes, and his father's father's. And thus in the Land of the Color-line I saw, as it fell across my baby, the shadow of the Veil.""
"This book shows Dubois as a smart man. Although this book is informative to what life was like for Black people post-Emancipation, his writing style is really disjointed. He swings from describing the black soul in metaphors to a more textbook sociological way of writing. It makes sense that the book is actually more of independent essays rather than one coherent work of nonfiction.
Having said that, I do enjoy his metaphor of the veil that separates Black men from society and the constant striving that Black people undergo in order to unite two disparate notion of himself, namely, being Black at the turn of the century, and thus condemned to hopelessness and indentured servitude and that of American which is the beacon of hope and the feeling of a better tomorrow in which equality reigns.
I also enjoyed his critic of Booker T. Washington stance as incomplete in the struggle for Negroes. Even though Washington advocated black self-fulfillment through economic development, DuBois argues that it economic development has to be coupled to a political voice in order for Blacks to achieve the representation they need in America.
Another thing I found interesting is what he points out to be the role of Rev. as the defacto chief of the Black voice. Just like in other civilizations in which there is a dispossessed people, it seems that the Negro turn to spiritual leaders as people who can advocate their welfare thus when the Negro was disenfranchised, it was Rev. Martin Luther King who took on the cause of justice. Similarly, India's independence movement started with Ghandi who was also a holy man.
It is also interesting that he talks about the two types of Negros that grow out of a society based on descrimination and one that actively thwarts their ambition. One is the type who becomes a criminal because he seeks to confront the bs and the other is the two-faced politician who excepts the here and now in order to economically thrive but at the expense of showing what he actually is feeling. At the root of both those type is a common denominator of anger and rage at the injustices of their present situation. Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man will later echo these two stereotypes one in the incarnation of Ras the destroyer and the other of the Booker T Washington like administrator.
In one story, it shows a person who strove for knowledge but that knowledge made him aware of the prejudice and injustices of the world and because he was open to it, he could never be happy. I wonder if ignorance of prejudicism actually helps people of today since their is a lot more opportunities in today's society than their once was. Maybe people who are ignorant actually do better and are happier in life because they strive more and spend less time thinking about the injustices of the world.
At one point, DuBois talks about Black leaders who mentor their race out of the veil. I hope once Obama is done being president, he will dedicate his post-presidency to empowering Black people and other minority groups by providing a mentoring circle of prominent minorities to their respective youth so it will be finally clear that the US is the ultimate land of opportunity for all its citizens. I would also hope that he will create or support those non-profits who already foster inter-racial dialogue."
"DuBois is honest enough to admit his own shortcomings in this book, so I won't belabor them here. In brief, the first sections on education, the Reconstruction, and social policy are much stronger than the later sections on music and culture. Overall, DuBois strikes me as brilliant and honest, perhaps too honest for his own good. Much of the material and views contained within this book have become normative, but not all. One has to wonder what the author would write today. Unfortunately for this audiobook, sing-song narration spoils the typically crisp writing."
"You must experience this book by reading it for the first time. I don't know how I left college without ever reading essential DuBois. The book is basically a snap shot of the historical events he witnessed, his observation and relations with people and commentary. The writing style AWESOME, complicated, and balanced, all at the same time.
What I can appreciate most is that the book is as much a guide on credit, debt, personal financial loss and charity, as it is on social and political science.
Shortly after the war the freedmen contributed $750,000 to their educational betterment, purchased land, started various business enterprises, and saved with the Freedmen's Bureau Bank. This showed incredible thrift on their part, a kind of thrift that can be admired even today."
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