I'll Find a Way or Make One: A Tribute to Historically Black Colleges and Universities [Hardcover]

Dwayne Ashley (Author), Juan Williams (Author), Adrienne Ingrum (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0060094532 | ISBN-13: 978-0060094539 | Publication Date: November 2, 2004

A comprehensive and definitive guide to America's 107 historically black colleges and universities, this commemorative gift book explores the historical, social, and cultural importance of the nation's HBCUs and celebrates their rich legacy.

Included in this one-of-a-kind collection are:

• Detailed profiles of each HBCU
• Illuminating portraits of distinguished HBCU graduates such as Leontyne Price, Thurgood Marshall, Spike Lee, and Oprah Winfrey
• Little-known anecdotes about pre-Civil War efforts to educate blacks, such as how a white pastor founded what became Lincoln University after his black protégé was excluded from Princeton's Theological Seminary
• Rare photographs and archival materials featuring the likes of Eleanor Roosevelt addressing students at Howard University

Chronicling the history of education in the African American community, I'll Find a Way or Make One is not only an unprecedented salute to historically black colleges and universities, but also an indispensable account of some of the most important events of African Americana and American history.

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

For those who would question the continued need for historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs) in a "post–civil rights era," Williams (Eyes on the Prize), a senior correspondent for NPR, and Ashley, president of the Thurgood Marshall Scholarship Fund, offer this celebration of those institutions. Beginning with a look at newly freed African-Americans' yearnings for education and the Freedman's Bureau's early attempts to gauge the need (and support) for black schools, the authors move forward to profile the 100-plus HBCUs operating today. They highlight the many HBCU students who rose to prominence, from the Harlem Renaissance's brilliant Langston Hughes and Zora Neale Hurston to the present day's media superstars Oprah Winfrey and Ed Bradley, filmmaker Spike Lee and political leaders David Dinkins and Vernon Jordan. They argue that HBCUs "were often hubs for African American communities, with black-owned businesses springing up to serve the students... [and staff] making their homes around the schools" and suggest that "HBCUs are the heart of black political thinking, art, and culture." Filled with history and anecdote, this volume offers a walk through the past and a peek at the future of America through the gift of HBCUs and their graduates. Photos.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

Given the obstacles to educating slaves and freedmen, historically black colleges and universities have defied the notion that blacks could not or should not be educated. The authors provide the historical context for the yearning for education to advance the individual and the race. They trace the origins of black colleges and universities and the influences of abolitionists, black churches, white missionaries, and philanthropists from the colonial era, through the Port Royal experiment on the eve of the Civil War, through Reconstruction. The debate between W. E. B. DuBois and Booker T. Washington, pitting liberal arts against vocational education, influenced the emphasis of black colleges for generations to come, even as institutions faced changes wrought by desegregation, the civil rights movement, and the black power movement. The book includes brief sketches of the 108 colleges and universities as well as brief profiles of their more prominent graduates, including Martin Luther King Jr and Oprah Winfrey. Photographs, historical narrative, and archival materials add to the value of this important resource. Vanessa Bush
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 480 pages
• Publisher: Amistad (November 2, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0060094532
• ISBN-13: 978-0060094539
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 7.8 x 1.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.2 pounds
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,706,464 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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