American negro reference book / edited by John P. Davis

The book has 25 separate chapters, each of which can be read as a separate unit covering a special topic; but which also, when taken together, gives the reader a complete, new look at the amazing and dramatic road the Negro has taken in his 300 years on the American continent. Here scholars of proved merit from lead ing universities have pooled their research and study to bring into a single book a sound, accurate, judicious appraisal of the American Negro.

Fascinating and sometimes fresh new facts, never before published, abound in this wide-ranging work. To many it will be a revelation to learn that Negro slaves fought in colonial militia in the Seven teenth Century or that free Negroes in New York actually voted for President of the United States before the Civil War. They will be amazed at the prediction of some "experts" that the Negro would be extinct by 1920. We see Lincoln as an early believer in the resettlement of Ne groes in Africa; the anti-Negro action of some Union Generals; New England's support of the slave trade despite abo litionist sentiment and many more. items as significant and revealing.

Here too is the heartening story of Negro accomplishment: Negroes in art, music and drama; Negroes in medicine and in science; Negroes in education and in sig nificant governmental posts; rank-and-file Negroes gradually increasing their level of housing, learning, income, health and morale. Charts and other data are sup plied abundance. There is a summary chapter of historical outline, a unique double index, and other aids to quick reference and rewarding study.