Amazon.com: African American Historic Places: National Register of Historic Places, Beth L. Savage: Books

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Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com
This engaging resource contains information about 800 black historic sites in 42 states, Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands. Often, they are places where people lived, such as the Paul Laurence Dunbar House in Dayton, Ohio; or the Blanche K. Bruce house in Washington, D.C., home of the second black man who served in the U.S. Senate. But there are also schools, hospitals, clubs, colleges, forts, cemeteries, and more. The listings (organized alphabetically by state), include brief descriptions and addresses, making this useful for those curious about black historic sites in their town or state or for anyone planning a vacation tour of historic sites.

From Booklist
After decades of neglect, the places associated with African American history are becoming the subject of reference works. Indeed, librarians have a bounty of titles to choose among. First there was George Cantor's Historic Landmarks of Black America (Gale, 1991), a travel guide to more than 300 sites in 45 states and Ontario, followed by Henry Chase's In Their Footsteps (Holt, 1994), another travel guide. Chase identifies more sites than Cantor; he covers 46 states, Ontario, and Nova Scotia. Both books note access policies, hours, admission cost, location, and phone number. Cantor tells motorists how to reach sites open to the public.

Significance as judged by the compilers was the primary consideration in selecting sites for Chase's and Cantor's books. In African American Historic Places, the significance of sites has been certified by their inclusion in the National Register of Historic Places, a standard that necessarily limits coverage to the U.S. The criteria whereby more than 62,000 sites have been listed in the National Register are explained briefly in the introduction. From these were selected some 800 that relate to African American history. All three guides organize sites by state. However the other two employ a regional progression, suitable to trip planning. African American Historic Places organizes 41 states (plus the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands) alphabetically. As in its parent publication, the two-volume National Register of Historic Places (U.S. Department of the Interior, 1976), state sections are organized by county. Site descriptions are somewhat more thorough than the thumbnail sketches in the National Register. Because it is designed as an identification tool rather than as a trip planner, African American Historic Places lists only addresses and does not note telephone numbers, access policies, or admission charges. The introduction, however, notes that approximately three-fourths of the properties are privately owned and not open to the public. Black-and-white photographs are provided for some of the sites.

Eight introductory essays provide context for understanding the historical significance of the sites. Representative sites include Brown Chapel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Selma, Alabama, which figured prominently in the 1965 voting-rights campaign; the Chicago home of the founder of the Chicago Defender newspaper; and Langston Hughes' house in Harlem. There are indexes by state and city, by occupations, by names of individuals or organizations, and by subject. Since the National Register of Historic Places does not single out sites related to African American history, this is a very useful tool. Given its strict criteria for inclusion of sites, African American Historic Places complements Cantor's and Chase's travel guides. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Inside This Book (learn more)

First Sentence:
TWO GENERATIONS of Americans have grown up with a Muppet friend Kermit, a little green frog, who was smart and a little devilish and who sang a song with lyrics and a melody that lifted our spirits and embedded itself in our minds-"It's not that easy being green." Read the first page

Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
stone slave quarters, first black architect, rural black schools, black church building, oldest black congregation, stone spring houses, first black congregation, surviving properties, first black high school, state historic preservation officers, roughly bounded, slave chapel, black congregants, local black residents, black business district, local black community,

African American Historic Places (Paperback)

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