Charles Johnson

One night in the antebellum South, a slave owner and his African-American butler stay up to all hours until, too drunk to face their wives, they switch places in each other's beds. The result is a hilarious imbroglio and an offspring -- Andrew Hawkins, whose life becomes "Oxherding Tale." Through sexual escapades, picaresque adventures, and philosophical inquiry, Hawkins navigates white and black worlds and comments wryly on human nature along the way. Told with pure genius, "Oxherding Tale" is a deliciously funny, bitterly ironic account of slavery, racism, and the human spirit; and it reveals the author as a great talent with even greater humanity.

This work covers Reserve Officer Training Corps (ROTC) detachments at historically African American colleges and universities throughout the United States from the inception of the Student Army Training Corps to the advanced programs currently in place. The armistices following World War I allowed for ROTC programs to be set up, World War II saw a push for recruits, and American participation in Vietnam made use of black soldiers more than ever. Despite African American participation in the military in war and peace, it took nearly 60 years for black collegiate education institutions (around 1973) to fulfill their need for Army, Navy and Air Force ROTC programs producing commissioned officers. The book discusses the beginnings of the ROTC programs at African American colleges with the Student Army Training Corps and the establishment, expansion and reorganization of the programs that followed. The acquisition of Air Force and Navy ROTC programs are discussed and all the revisions to the various programs thereafter, including opening them up to women.

This title explores the areas of chronic illness and pain, which are seen as major problems in the health care system. Because they are unresponsive to both antibiotics and surgery, they are seen as elusive and mysterious.

Twelve stories about the African experience of slavery in America, by the National Book Award-winning novelist. Nothing has had as profound an effect on American life as slavery. For blacks and whites alike, the experience has left us with a conflicted and contradictory history. Now, famed novelist Charles Johnson, whose Middle Passage won the National Book Award, presents a dozen tales of the effects and experience of slavery, each based on historical fact, and each about those Africans who arrived on our shores in shackles. From Martha Washington's management of her slaves, bequeathed to her at the death of the first president, to a boy chained in the bowels of a ship plying the infamous passage from Africa to the South laden with human cargo, from a lynching in Indiana to a hunter of escaped slaves searching the Boston market for his quarry, from an early Quaker meeting exploring resettlement in Africa to the day after Emancipation-the voices, terrors, and savagery of slavery come vividly and unforgettably to life. These stories, told by a master storyteller, transcend history even as they present it, and retell the mythic proportions of a historical period with astounding realism and beauty, power, and emotion.

"QBR's evolving canon is a splendid way to begin honoring black artists." -Charles Johnson, from the Foreword"From critiques of W. E. B. Du Bois's Black Reconstruction in America to Alex Haley's Roots to Langston Hughes's The Ways of White Folks, these short, trenchant essays stimulate and challenge."-Booklist"A celebration of black literature. . .insightful commentary."-Ebony"A rich and surprising assortment." -American Legacy"Delving into a book is an entertaining and edifying way to celebrate and reflect on the rich tapestry of African American history. A great way to start is with Sacred Fire: The QBR 100 Essential Black Books." -Atlanta Journal-ConstitutionCapturing the full sweep of writing from the diaspora--from Africa to the Caribbean to America--Sacred Fire is a soul-stirring collection of provocative analysis on 100 works of literature that have shaped and defined black culture for over 200 years.

"QBR's evolving canon is a splendid way to begin honoring black artists." -Charles Johnson, from the Foreword"From critiques of W. E. B. Du Bois's Black Reconstruction in America to Alex Haley's Roots to Langston Hughes's The Ways of White Folks, these short, trenchant essays stimulate and challenge."-Booklist"A celebration of black literature. . .insightful commentary."-Ebony"A rich and surprising assortment." -American Legacy"Delving into a book is an entertaining and edifying way to celebrate and reflect on the rich tapestry of African American history. A great way to start is with Sacred Fire: The QBR 100 Essential Black Books." -Atlanta Journal-ConstitutionCapturing the full sweep of writing from the diaspora--from Africa to the Caribbean to America--Sacred Fire is a soul-stirring collection of provocative analysis on 100 works of literature that have shaped and defined black culture for over 200 years.

The result of more than fifteen years of research, this genealogy includes the family histories of more than ten ancestral lines primarily hailing from Louisiana and Mississippi. The familes of Frazer, Owen, Bessellieu, Carter, Shaw Wright, Landfair, Briggs, Neill, Tidwell, and Johnson are among those included in this comprehensive volume.

"Winner of the National Book Award" "A novel in the honorable tradition of Billy Budd and Moby Dick...heroic in proportion... fiction that hooks into the mind." -- "The New York Times Book Review" "Long after we'd stopped believing in the great American novel, along comes a spellbinding adventure story that may be just that." -- "Chicago Tribune" "It's a joy to read fiction in which there is a cultivated vision at work...the greatest victory of "Dreamer" is the light it shines on the life of Martin Luther King Jr." --Dennis McFarland, "The New York Times Book Review" "In their remarkable simplicity these stories reach into...the African American experience with surprising freshness and the fluency of years of gathered wisdom. This book is a deeply satisfying reading adventure." -- "Black Issues Book Review"

Shadow of the Plantation focuses on descendants of slaves in one rural Southern community in the early part of this century. In the process, Johnson reviews the troubled history of race relations in the United /States. When reread half a century after it was first written, Shadow of the Plantation is clearly revealed as a remarkably perceptive and fresh comment on race relations and the triumph of individuals over circumstances. Charles Johnson's book is significant for its use of multiple methodologies. The research took place in an ecological setting that was a dynamic element of the life of the community. The book is a multifaceted, interpretive survey of the 612 black families that composed the rural community of Macon County, Alabama, in the late 1920s and early 1930s. Johnson describes and analyzes their families, economic situation, education, religious activities, recreational life, and health practices. Shadow of the Plantation manages to be both historically accurate and foresighted at the same time. It is as much a book about today as it is a discussion of yesterday. This volume is an important study that will be of value to sociologists, anthropologists, and black studies specialists.

Little is known about the many achievements of African American guardsmen in U. S. history from the late nineteenth to the mid-twentieth centuries. This detailed account thus fills an important gap in our knowledge about the establishment of African American militias in 1877 and their service in wartime and peacetime until the integration of the National Guard in 1950. This careful study of extensive primary and secondary sources is intended for military historians and for all who want to know more about African American contributions to the defense of our nation. Following a short introduction providing some historical background, the study launches into a description of the establishment of African American militia organizations in and about 1877 and their involvement in the Spanish American War and in quelling civil disturbances and disasters up to 1914. The history deals next with the service of African American guardsmen units in World War I, their work in the years between the wars, and their involvement in World War II. The story ends with a description of the initial reorganization of these units and their integration into the National Guard in 1949 and 1950. A lengthy bibliography of primary and secondary sources is useful as well in pointing to the role of African American militias and guardsmen in the history of this important period.