TIMUEL D. BLACK, JR. is a prominent civil rights activist, noted jazz historian, and professor emeritus of social sciences at the City Colleges of Chicago. Born in Birmingham, Alabama, he moved to Chicago as a baby, and has lived here since. He holds a B.A. from Roosevelt University and a master's degree from the University of Chicago.
"Black has produced compelling oral history certain to stand
alongside classics on black Chicago that start with St. Clair Drake
and Horace Clayton's Black Metropolis." --Library Journal
"A two-hour interview may only scrape the surface of a life, but
Black's 36 oral histories exceed the sum of their parts. Black, a
jazz historian and professor, frankly selects subjects whom he
personally knows--and most people Black knows turn out to be
fascinating. Many of the biographies of these political leaders,
activists, artists and educators turn on how their considerable
gifts were made manifest in the "promised land" of Chicago in the
early 20th century. Among all the leitmotifs--a dissertation could
be written on the repetition of the words "money," "education" and
"hustle"--the conflict between national identity and racial
identity emerges as one of the most profound. On the day WWI ends,
nine-year-old Robert Colin makes a small fortune selling American
flags, enough to finance his family's move to Chicago. They arrive
just as a race riot explodes. "That riot took all the religion out
of me and all the patriotism as well because of what they did to
blacks," he says. Corneal Davis, who will go on to become an
Illinois state representative, gets his first job in Chicago by
putting down "American" as his race. "But ain't it a shame," he
says, "that after I've been soldiering and risking my life for this
country, now I can't put down 'colored' and even get myself any
kind of a job in a city like this?" In these moments, oral history
offers the richness of novels with the punch of nonfiction, and
even the casual reader, who may not appreciate Black's scrupulous
attention to dates or his sentimental reminiscing with his
subjects, will delight in this invaluable resource." --Publishers
Weekly
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