The African Americans. - book reviews

Black Enterprise, April, 1994 by Frank McCoy

If you collect African-American memorabilia, then you'll want to add The African Americans edited by Charles M. Collins and David Cohen to your library. This is not another good-looking but shallow coffee table book - it is nothing short of an amalgam of African-American life. Its strength is not simply that the introduction was written by John Hope Franklin, one of the deans of black history, or that one of its co-authors was the creator of the Day In The Life series of photography books. The beauty of this book is its timing and sweep.

It is a comprehensive pictorial overview of black achievement in the arts, sports, business and other areas, selected from the best work of both black and white photographers. And it couldn't have arrived at a better moment, as African-American children are assaulted by a constant stream of negative images. The book contains legendary figures, such as Dance Theatre of Harlem founder Arthur Mitchell, entrepreneur Percy Sutton, the late international businessman Reginald F. Lewis and journalist Charlayne Hunter-Gault, as well as new idols, such as rap impresario Russell Simmons, filmmaker Julie Dash and thirty-something businessmen Thomas Walker and Carl Jones, creators of Cross Colours clothing. An added surprise for BE readers is that you first saw many of these images presented here in this magazine.

Yet the real heroes shown in this book are average African-Americans: Detroiters William and Carolyn Wright who adopted five brothers ranging in age from four to 15; Louisiana oyster dredgers doing an ancient task; and Florence Johnson, the creator of Call-A-Granni, an in-hotel and in-home child-care service. Their lives are our lives, and our lives are richer and fuller than most people know.