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African-American History for Dummies
by Ronda Racha Penrice
Wiley Publishing, Inc.
Paperback, $19.95
432 pages, illustrated
ISBN: 978-0-7645-5469-8
Book Review by Kam Williams
 African-American
history, to be clear, is so much more than a handful of
extraordinary individuals or practices like slavery, Jim Crow, and
civil rights. A lot of it is painful, but it's also inspiring and
triumphant... It took the Civil War, the civil rights movement of
the 1960s, and a lot of struggle in between to secure African
Americans the basic right to citizenship that white Americans took
for granted.
[This book] isn't a big sermon on the struggle; instead, it's a
straightforward, interesting (I hope!), and honest overview of
African-American history from Africa through the transatlantic slave
trade, slavery, the Civil War, Reconstruction, Jim Crow, and the
1960s civil rights movement until now. Along the way, that history
birthed a culture that includes the black church and education as
well as sports, music, literature, television, and film.
Excerpted from the Introduction
I majored in black studies in college way back when the new field of
study was still generally being dismissed as a joke or, at best, as
undeserving of being the focus of extensive scholarly research. So,
my interest was particularly piqued by the publication of this book
for a few of reasons.
First, I wondered whether the subject-matter would be presented in a
serious and dignified fashion, given the "for Dummies" subtitle.
Secondly, I was curious about how comprehensive the text would be,
and whether the author would even be able to address most of the
significant events in African-American history in a work of just
over 400 pages. And finally, and perhaps most importantly, I wanted
to get a sense of the opus point of view, since there's a big
difference between talking about memorable milestones from the
perspective of the victims of racism and that of the perpetrators.
The good news is that African-American History for Dummies
passes the first two tests with flying colors. The tome is
encyclopedic in scope, yet surprisingly engaging in tone, being
written by someone with a gift for serving up a chronological
collection of facts on a zillion different topics in a lyrical style
that sounds downright conversational. Credit for achieving this feat
goes to author Ronda Racha Penrice, a Columbia University graduate
who has served as an editor at the Quarterly Black review, and who
has written for such publications as essence, AOL Black Voices, Vibe
and Africana.com.
Where I do take issue with her otherwise praiseworthy approach are
on the rare occasions that she seemingly attempts to be on both
sides of the fence
when discussing hot button issues such as the N-word (Slaves
sometimes referred to themselves as niggers.) and the Dred
Scott Decision (The Supreme Court decided that, because Scott was
African American, he wasn't a citizen and therefore couldn't sue
anybody).
By trying hard not to offend anyone in the above quoted entries, Ms.
Penrice risks, in the first instance, misleading impressionable
young minds into believing that the N-word was a slur first used by
blacks. As for Dred Scott, the actual ruling unequivocally deemed
African Americans, beings of an inferior order, and altogether unfit
to associate with the white race, either in social or political
relations, and so far inferior that they had no rights which the
white man was bound to respect, a far crueler declaration than the
author's relatively benign interpretation.
Thus, African American History for Dummies is recommended
reading for those who would prefer the truth at times tempered by
euphemisms which appear intended to make the ordeal endured by
blacks in this country over the ages sound a lot less monstrous than
it undoubtedly was. The historical equivalent of smooth jazz.
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Lloyd
Kam Williams 