Earl Lewis

this book is the only comprehensive illustrated history of African Americans. Written by the most prominent of the new generation of historians, the book describes how African Americans have shaped and changed the history of this country. It traces the history of Africans in the Americas from Reconstruction to the present. The book looks at American history from the unique perspective of African Americans, paying special attention to the forging of African-American communities, the changing status of African Americans over time, and the transformation that has been wrought social protest. Primary sources are used extensively, and the authors will contribute a ne foreword.

The two volumes of Kelley and Lewis's To Make Our World Anew integrate the work of eleven leading historians into the most up-to-date and comprehensive account available of African American history, from the first Africans brought as slaves into the Americas, right up to today's black filmmakers and politicians. This second volume covers the crucial post-Reconstruction years and traces the migration of blacks to the major cities. It describes the remarkable birth of the Harlem Renaissance, the hardships of the Great Depression, and the service of African Americans in World War II. Readers witness the struggle for Civil Rights in the 1950s and '60s and finally, the emergence of today's black middle class. Here is a panoramic view of African-American life, rich in gripping first-person accounts and short character sketches that invite readers to relive history as African Americans have experienced it.

Even as lawsuits challenging its admissions policies made their way through the courts, the University of Michigan carried the torch for affirmative action in higher education.In June 2003, the Supreme Court vindicated UM's position on affirmative action when it ruled that race may be used as a factor for universities in their admissions programs, thus confirming what the UM had argued all along: diversity in the classroom translates to a beneficial and wide-ranging social value. With the green light given to the law school's admissions policies, Defending Diversity validates the positive benefits gained by students in a diverse educational setting.Written by prominent University of Michigan faculty, Defending Diversity is a timely response to the court's ruling. Providing factual background, historical setting, and the psychosocial implications of affirmative action, the book illuminates the many benefits of a diverse higher educational setting -- including preparing students to be full participants in a pluralistic democracy -- and demonstrates why affirmative action is necessary to achieve that diversity.Defending Diversity is a significant contribution to the ongoing discussion on affirmative action in higher education. Perhaps more important, it is a valuable record of the history, events, arguments, and issues surrounding the original lawsuits and the Supreme Court's subsequent ruling, and helps reclaim the debate from those forces opposed to affirmative action.Patricia Gurin is Professor Emerita, Department of Psychology, University of Michigan. Jeffrey S. Lehman, former Dean of the University of Michigan Law School, is President of Cornell University. Earl Lewis is Dean of Rackham Graduate School, University of Michigan.

A modern Cinderella must defend her fairy-tale marriage in a scandal that rocked jazz-age America. When Alice Jones, a former domestic, married Leonard Rhinelander in 1924, she became the first black woman to be listed in the Social Register as a member of one of New York's wealthiest families. Once news of the marriage became public, a scandal of race, class, and sex gripped the nation—and forced the couple into an annulment trial.

Since the Civil War, African Americans have made great efforts to empower themselves. Focusing on Norfolk, Virginia, Earl Lewis shows how blacks have had to balance competing inclinations for conscious inaction and purposeful agitation as they sought to promote their own interests at home and in the workplace. In Their Own Interests presents a cross-section of southern urban blacks--the power-brokers and lesser-knowns, Garvey followers and communist enthusiasts--who came to live in Norfolk between the Civil War and the Civil Rights Movement. Lewis seeks to recreate the texture of African-American life by examining the lives of the people after they moved to the city--the jobs and assistance they secured, the houses, families, and institutions they built, the battles they waged, and the culture they shared. In Their Own Interests moves African-American urban and social history beyond the current intellectual crossroads. Drawing on a variety of sources, Lewis tells the interconnected story of race, class, and power in twentieth-century Norfolk. His study has far-reaching implications and should be of wide interest.