Afro-American History: Primary Sources - Softcover

AFRO-AMERICAN HISTORY has been studied and taught for many years in black schools and colleges in the South and border areas. Since the founding of the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History by Carter G. Woodson in 1915, it has been promoted by this organization as well. Only recently, however, have courses in black history been offered in predominantly white institutions throughout the nation or in predominantly black schools in Northern ghetto areas. And only recently has the general reading public become aware of this field. The systematic, though not always deliberate, denial of a significant past to the black American community has tended to distort the self-image of Americans, white and black. Much of the writing and teaching of American history, when it has considered the black rain at all, has viewed him as a slave up to 1863 and as a problem after that. Today, however, Afro-American history is becoming established as an important segment of American history. More and more, Americans are recognizing that ours is a history of many Americas and not just one. (From the Preface)