Negro Research Articles

A Visit to the Village Elder: From Deep Deuce to Harlem and Back Again

Ralph Ellison's Juneteenth is dedicated To That Vanished Tribe into Which I Was Born: The American Negroes.1 I am a member of that tribe. Our was Deep Deuce, the Negro quadrant of Northeast Oklahoma City from Territory days through the early 1960s. Our elders included many men and women of Du Bois' Talented Tenth, dedicated to mutual support and advancement of the race. Mr. Ellison was not only village elder and griot but also America's.Like the tradition in Africa, Ralph Ellison's weaving of story, history, and music tapped into the consciousness of a society undergoing continual growth pains. His work reminded America and American Negroes of who we were, who we are, and what we yet can become. Like any true son of the soil, he carried the village-Deep Deuce-with him, without being bowed by the burden, for he turned Oklahoma red clay into art for others to celebrate, and from which they could learn and grow strong.For decades, some critics have pondered the question: if Ellison loved Oklahoma so much, why did he not return more often? I, in turn, pondered why one would ask. What was so difficult to understand? In many ways, he never left the Territory, only added to its reach. Note, I said the Territory-as a shorthand for the metaphysical place, a subjective experience embedded in, but transcending, objective data.When Ralph Ellison needed a more direct and deep connection, he did not need to travel to the black West; the West came East, embodied in his dearest friend since childhood, Mr. Jimmy Stewart. I was honored to be Jimmy Stewart's niece in the extended family system. When I arrived in New York City in the 1970s, it was time for Uncle Jimmy to make the customary introductions: for me to pay my respects to the Ellisons, and for them to give me their (informal) blessing.We shared a love of Harlem and of Deep Deuce. I was born in Harlem; lived in Deep Deuce. Ellison was born in Deep Deuce; lived in Harlem. Both of us saw these worlds in ways that contradicted the fashion of black sociologists and political scientists of the 1970s and later. It made him of an outlier in his era; and made me an outlier in mine. An insistence upon valuing the internal lives of people was not part of the econometric and statistical approach to American history that was overtaking the field when I was in graduate school.Perhaps that was the beginning of my sense that the Ellisons' apartment was a refuge. Not only as a connection with the village and tribe, but as a hope that there could be a future for scholars who valued the intangible as much as, and sometimes more than, the tangible.Ellison's complex world view, nurtured in Oklahoma, insisted that the tangible aspects of life in Harlem-the ruggedness of life there, . . . the hardship, the poverty, the sordidness, the filth-must not be allowed to override the something else that is subjective, willful, and complexly and compellingly human. Ellison believed this ineffable quality makes for strength and our endurance and promise.2The something else that Ellison entreats other artists and intellectuals to value is, I believe, coterminous with the cultural heritage that Ellison credits to his Oklahoma roots. In his own words:We were forced into segregation, but within that situation we were able to live close to the larger society and to abstract from that society enough combination of values-including religion and hope and art-which allowed us to endure and impose own idea of what the world should be and of what man should be, and of what American society should be. I'm not speaking of power here, but of vision, of values and dreams. Yes, and of will.3There was no denial of racism in the Ellison household. Indeed, the center of gravity for me in the apartment was a photograph-nay, one of THE (original) photographs-of fire hoses and police dogs in Birmingham, Alabama, turned on civil rights demonstrators, including children. …

Lincoln and the “Necessity” of Tolerating Slavery before the Civil War

AbstractIn an unsent 1860 letter, Abraham Lincoln mocked Sidney Fisher's claim that the “institution [of slavery] is a necessity imposed on us by the negro race.” And yet, Lincoln himself had often said that while slavery was an evil, the founders had to tolerate it where it existed owing to “necessity.” This raises the questions: What kinds of arguments about slavery and “necessity” did Lincoln find legitimate, and what kinds did he find to be illegitimate? In Lincoln's view, what exactly was it that necessitated the toleration of slavery where it existed at the time of the founding and into the 1850s? Lincoln's answers to these questions depart from the answers offered by Fisher, Thomas Jefferson, and Henry Clay; this departure helped pave the way not only to Lincoln's later embrace of emancipation, but also his eventual movement toward the position that African-Americans would and should be full citizens.

The Brownies' Book: Preserving African American Memories through Textual Lineage

22 | BLACK HISTORY BULLETIN VOL. 78, NO. 2 78 No.2 THE BROWNIES’ BOOK: PRESERVING AFRICAN AMERICAN MEMORIES THROUGH TEXTUAL LINEAGE By LaVerne Gyant As editor of the Crisis magazine, W. E. B. Du Bois wrote a monthly column, “The Children’s Number,” which ZDV¿UVWSXEOLVKHGLQ2FWREHU³7KH&KLOGUHQ¶V1XPEHU´GLVFXVVHGFXUUHQWLVVXHVWKDWDIIHFWHG\RXQJSHRSOHDQG their achievements.1 According to Du Bois, it was “easily the most popular number of the year.”2 In the 1919 edition of the Crisis, Du Bois announced the publication of The Brownies’Book, a new periodical for Black children—which became the¿UVWSXEOLFDWLRQWRWDUJHW$IULFDQ$PHULFDQFKLOGUHQ3 Historically, The Brownies’ Book will be remembered as a hallowed publication that sought to preserve young people’s memories and spark their curiosities through textual lineage. In Du Bois’s announcement of the publication, he characterized The Brownies’Book as a thing of Joy and Beauty, dealing in Happiness, Laughter, Emulation, and designed for Kiddies from Six to Sixteen. It will seek to teach Universal Love and Brotherhood for all little folk—black and brown and yellow and white. Of course, pictures, puzzles, stories, letters from little ones, clubs, games and oh everything.4 The Brownies’Book grew out of Du Bois’s concern for what Black children were learning and their daily experiences in schools. It also grew from a letter a young girl wrote about her desire to learn about Black history and her hatred for Whites.5 The stated goals of The Brownies’Book were: 1. To make colored children realize that being “colored” is a normal beautiful thing. 2. To make them familiar with the history and achievement of the Negro race. 3. To make them know that other colored children have grown into beautiful, useful and famous people. 4. To teach them a delicate code of honor and action in their relations with white children. 5. To turn their little hurts and resentments into emulation, ambition and love of their homes and companions. 6. To point out the best amusement and joys and worth-while things of life. 7. 7RLQVSLUHWKHPWRSUHSDUHIRUGH¿QLWHRFFXSDWLRQVDQGGXWLHVZLWKDEURDGVSLULWRIVDFUL¿FH6 According to Harris, these goals sought to teach children “knowledge of and respect for African culture.”7 'X%RLV$XJXVWXV*UDQYLOOH'LOODQG-HVVLH5HGPRQ)DXVHWRIIHUHGWKH¿UVWLVVXHRIThe Brownies’ Book in January 1920. It was published by Du Bois and Dill publishers, sold for 15 cents a month or $1.50 for a year’s subscription, DQGKDGDFLUFXODWLRQRI$VRQHRIWKH¿UVWSHULRGLFDOVIRUFKLOGUHQThe Brownies’ Book was published from 1920 WKURXJK,QWKH¿QDOLVVXHRIThe Brownies’Book, Du Bois noted that they needed a minimum of 12,000 subscriptions and that the economic times were the reasons they had to stop publishing it. The fault has not been with our readers. We have an unusually enthusiastic set of subscribers. But the magazine was begun just at the time of industrial depression following the war, and the fault of our suspension therefore is rather in the times, which are so out of joint, then in our constituency.8 In The Brownies’ Book, there were stories and poems by Jessie Redmond Fauset, Augusta E. Bird, Nella Larson, $XJXVWXV*'LOO/DQJVWRQ+XJKHV(I¿H/HHDQG$OSKRQVR6WDIIRUG6WRULHVJDPHVSRHPVDQGSX]]OHVZHUHDOVRZULWWHQ by children from around the world. Sections in the periodical included “The Judge,” written by Jessie Redmond Fauset, who had conversations with children—Billikins, Billie, William, and Wilhelmina—about their parents, their behavior, their friends, their schoolwork, and Black history. “The Jury” focused on letters from children. Then there was “As the Crow Flies,” which focused on multicultural awareness, responsibility, and international news, written by Du Bois. The other sections included “Playtime,” which offered puzzles and games from around the world; “Our Little Friends,” which praised BLACK HISTORY BULLETIN VOL. 78, NO. 2 | 23 78 No.2 and highlighted photographs of children; “Little People of the Month,” which featured African American children excelling in academics, music, writing, and art...

'Magic Negro', Saint or Comrade: Representations of Nelson Mandela in Film

“In the late 1980s, Nelson Mandela stood alone against the apartheid state.” This comment taken from the DVD Box set cover of Nelson Mandela: From Freedom to History summarises the approach taken by many of the cinematic and televisual representations of Mandela. Linked with this is a statement by the CEO of Marriott which speaks of Mandela as “an individual who changed the arc of history through his or her singular contribution, not as a function of the era or the movement but because of what they did alone.” Together, these descriptions attempt to appropriate Mandela for a sanitised version of western individualism which sees him variously as a liberal icon, saintly hero, or the celebrity one-off “magic negro”, in Okwongo’s damning phrase taken from his magisterial valedictory piece “Mandela will never, ever be your minstrel” (Okwongo 2013). In the process, Mandela’s role in the anti-apartheid...

The Panama Cannonball’s Transnational Ties: Migrants, Sport, and Belonging in the Interwar Greater Caribbean

Abstract The interwar years saw the creation of a circum-Caribbean migratory sphere, linking British colonial sending societies like Jamaica and Barbados to receiving societies from Panama to Cuba to the Dominican Republic to the United States. The overlapping circulation of migrants and media created transnational social fields within which sport practice and sport fandom helped build face-to-face and imagined communities alike. For the several hundred thousand British Caribbean emigrants and their children who by the late 1920s resided abroad, cricket and boxing were especially central. The study of sport among interwar British Caribbean migrants reveals overlapping transnational ties that created microcultures of sporting excellence. In this mobile and interconnected world, sport became a critical realm for the expression of nested loyalties to parish, to class, to island, to empire, and to the collective they called “Our People,” that is, “the Negro Race,” worldwide.

An Academic Parable: Robert W. Fogel's Raft

The book Time on the Cross: The Economics of American Negro Slavery, by Robert W. Fogel and Stanley L. Engerman achieved great fame as a revolutionary interpretation of North American slavery, even though at the time it was criticized in detail by specialists in quantitative economic history. We believe that to quote it as a pioneering quantitative study of slavery has become an academic meme, which does not adequately reflect the severe criticism suffered by the book during the years following its publication. This text looks back to the book’s release and the subsequent debates in the ideological and methodological context of the time, also discussing its criticized flaws, with the aim of comparing the contribution of these authors with those of other scholars on slavery.

Southern Conservatives at Bay

Southern Conservatives at Bay Joseph Crespino (bio) William P. Hustwit . James J. Kilpatrick: Salesman for Segregation. Chapel Hill : University of North Carolina Press , 2013 . ix + 310 pp. Illustrations, notes, bibliography, and index. $34.95 . John J. Langdale III . Superfluous Southerners: Cultural Conservatism and the South, 1920–1990. Columbia : University of Missouri Press , 2012 . x + 177 pp. Notes, bibliography, and index. $50.00 . These days, it seems all but impossible to turn on a television without encountering a conservative talking head. Fox News has daily shows hosted by Bill O’Reilly and Sean Hannity, and all the major networks and cable channels regularly feature conservative commentators: old hands like George Will, Charles Krauthammer, and David Brooks; former politicians such as Newt Gingrich, Mike Huckabee, and Sarah Palin; or fiery authors like Anne Coulter, Dinesh D’Souza, and Michelle Malkin. One need not believe in liberal media bias to admit that this has not always been the case. Time was when only a small handful of conservatives could be seen on television. William F. Buckley, Jr., was one of the first, with his theatrical performances as host of Firing Line. Much less known, yet important as a predecessor to today’s pugnacious pundits, was James J. Kilpatrick (1920–2010), the subject of a new biography by William P. Hustwit. Kilpatrick was a heroic forerunner for the modern Right, at least according to Richard Viguerie, the direct mail innovator and longtime conservative activist: “In the dark ages of conservatism—before direct mail, before Rush, before the Fox News Channel, and way before the Internet, there was Kilpatrick with his columns and national television appearances. He gave encouragement to millions of conservatives as he expressed their beliefs” (p. 219). Kilpatrick spent most of his career in print journalism, beginning with the Richmond News Leader in 1941. A native of Oklahoma City, he graduated from the University of Missouri School of Journalism in the midst of the Depression, a few years after his father had run off with his secretary and abandoned the family. His father’s caddishness left Kilpatrick with “a deep concern for financial stability,” according to Hustwit. It also seems to have played a role [End Page 529] in Kilpatrick’s penchant for seeking out father figures. The first was the arch-conservative publisher of the News Leader, John Dana Wise, who chastised his young reporter anytime a liberal sentiment slipped into one of Kilpatrick’s columns. Wise also put him through a reading course of conservative classics. Soon enough Kilpatrick’s columns would be sprinkled with quotes from Edmund Burke, John Randolph, and, his new favorite, Russell Kirk. Another mentor to Kilpatrick was Virginia’s powerful senator, Harry Byrd, the man who coined the term “massive resistance” to describe the white South’s response to Brown v. Board of Education. Hustwit shows the central role that Kilpatrick played in galvanizing white resistance to the Brown ruling. A talented writer, his impassioned editorials were reprinted widely across the South. More than anyone else, he was responsible for the short-lived interposition fad of the mid-1950s, when Southern legislatures dusted off the Virginia and Kentucky Resolutions as justifications for ignoring the Court’s order to desegregate. He was a skillful speaker too. He got the better of Martin Luther King in 1960 during a nationally televised debate on NBC; even Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee activists watching the debate in Atlanta reportedly declared King “no match” for the Virginia editor (p. 112). In his eagerness to please his powerful mentors, Kilpatrick was not afraid to get rough. Some of his segregationist writings from the 1960s are shocking, particularly given how easily he insinuated himself into the Washington establishment just a decade later. Hustwit maintains an admirable tone in covering this material, allowing Kilpatrick to indict himself with his own quotations. “In terms of values that last, and mean something, and excite universal admiration and respect, what has man gained from the history of the Negro race?” Kilpatrick asked in his 1962 book The Southern Case For School Segregation. “The answer, alas, is ‘virtually nothing’” (p. 145). In the aftermath of the March on Washington, Kilpatrick wrote a scathing article for the Saturday...

A Genealogy of ‘Globalization’: The Career of a Concept

‘Globalization’ is an extraordinary concept. It is a complicated concept that burst upon the world relatively recently, but soon became a household concern. It is a concept that was rarely used until the 1990s, but processes of globalization had been happening for centuries. This article follows the genealogy of the concept from its unlikely beginnings in the 1930s–1950s to the heated scholarly debates across the end of the twentieth century to the present. Before it became a buzz word, the concept of ‘globalization’ began to be used in the most unlikely fields: in education to describe the global life of the mind; in international relations to describe the extension of the European Common Market; and in journalism to describe how the ‘American Negro and his problem are taking on a global significance’. The article begins to answer the question ‘Through what lineages and processes did the concept of globalization become so important?’ Drawing on textual research and interviews with key originating figures in the field of global studies, the article attempts to get past the usual anecdotes about the formation and etymology of the concept that center on alleged inventors of the term or references to first use of ‘globalization’ various dictionaries. The article tracks the careers of major scholars in relation to the career of the concept.

El Pueblo Negro: Identity Politics in Mexico

A growing conundrum facing Mexico is the underdevelopment of communities inhabited by Black nationals. The political consequences of marginalization, evident in present‐day conditions of poverty, stem from the historical and linguistic negation of the African presence in Mexico and its relevance in the country's overall social and political evolution. In national politics, the problem has seldom been engaged because the disparity in wealth distribution is considered a result of the exclusion of the Indian. When Blacks are considered, there is a popular refocusing on Latin American Afro‐descendants that “folklorizes” the “other” under a fictitious celebratory veil of multiculturalism. This article addresses the socioeconomic dynamics in Black Mexican communities, focusing attention on the burgeoning social movement in the Costa Chica that is addressing issues of invisibility and recognition of el Pueblo Negro in Mexico. By detailing a Diasporan account of Black identity, the authors argue that los Negros can strategically employ a vindication of Blackness in Mexico in their fight for social justice, ultimately uniting citizens in the quest.

Folk Iambics: Prosody, Vestiges, and Sterling Brown'sOutline for the Study of the Poetry of American Negroes

Studies of the New Negro Renaissance have long emphasized the emergence in black poetry of the vernacular and of folk-oriented rhythms in particular. Sterling Brown's critical work and poetry show, however, that traditional English meters had a central role in the discourse and poetics of New Negro poetry. Reading his 1931Outline for the Study of the Poetry of American Negroestogether with James Weldon Johnson'sBook of American Negro Poetry(1922) suggests that these meters counteracted dominant racialized ideas about black bodies, rhythms, and song. The polymetrical surface of Brown's own early poem “When de Saints Go Ma'ching Home” (1927) reveals that Brown treated iambic pentameter as a vernacular form, destabilizing entrenched divisions between conventional and innovative, white and black, past and present. Future studies of black poetry might therefore look to prosodic hybridity as a powerful critique of audience ideology.

The Negro in Illinois: The WPA Papers

The Negro in Illinois: The WPA Papers

Joanne Burke, dir. When African Americans Came to Paris. 2012. Six films, 4–8 minutes each. English. New York. Blue Lion Films. $100.00.

Joanne Burke, dir. When African Americans Came to Paris. 2012. Six films, 4-8 minutes each. English. New York. Blue Lion Films. $100.00.When African Americans Came to Paris, by the award-winning documentarian Joanne Burke, gives viewers a glimpse into the lives of several African American figures who sought opportunities in Paris during the Jim Crow era in the United States. DVD consists of six videos that intersperse archival film footage from Paris at the time and photos from and about the subjects of each section. Each section also features commentaries from various scholars. In the end, the viewer comes away with a brief introduction to several important historical and cultural figures.The first video, 'W.E.B. DuBois and the 1900 Paris Exposition, focuses on Du Bois's exhibition of African American life in the Universal Exposition of Paris in 1900. Called The Exhibit of the American Negro, the show, which was very popular among the visitors to the exposition, included hundreds of photos of urbanized, educated African Americans in the South only thirty-five years after the abolition of slavery. video discusses how the exhibit, although shut out of the official U.S. pavilion, was able to be viewed a short distance away thanks to the efforts of Du Bois and his crew to find an alternative space.The second video, Henry Ossawa Tanner: An Artist in Exile, tells the story of the artist whose famous painting The Banjo Lesson is known the world over. Scholarly commentary is interspersed with images of Tanner's work and a voiceover that describes the obstacles and physical violence that he faced in the United States because of racial prejudice. It is contrasted with the freedom he found in Paris and the accolades that he received as he neared the end of his life.The third video discusses the 369th Infantry Regiment, a black army unit that fought in France in World War I. Although American blacks who enlisted in the army did so out of a sense of patriotism, the white-run army employed them mainly as manual laborers. It was only when France became desperate for Fighters that black men were allowed into combat. Once allowed onto the battlefield they spent more time at the frontlines than any other American outfit and fought so fiercely that the Germans gave them the nickname Hellfighters. Nevertheless, when they returned home they faced an increase in bigotry and violence.The fourth video takes as its subject Lt. James Reese Europe, a little known American musician and war hero who was the first African American officer to lead troops in combat in World War I. He was also New York's leading black orchestra conductor, who regularly performed at Carnegie Hall, and a businessman who organized small bands. He and his band performed internationally and made several musical recordings. Though a rising star, his life was tragically cut short at the age of thirty-nine. …

How I Discovered Poetry by Marilyn Nelson (review)

Reviewed by: How I Discovered Poetry by Marilyn Nelson Deborah Stevenson Nelson, Marilyn. How I Discovered Poetry; illus. by Hadley Hooper. Dial, 2014. [112p]. ISBN 978-0-8037-3304-6 $16.99 Reviewed from galleys R* Gr. 7-12. This slender verse memoir draws on both previously published and new work to paint “a portrait of the artist as a young American Negro girl,” following young Marilyn from 1950 to 1959, age four to thirteen. The nearly fifty poems (each subtitled with location and date) offer snapshots of her life with her family as they followed a peripatetic Army existence, moving from place to place as her father, a high-ranking officer, changed postings and her mother found new teaching jobs. Her family were often the “First Negroes” for townies and classmates, but they nonetheless generally rooted into each new place, Marilyn finding solid friends and excelling academically. Notes of the era are effectively played as young Marilyn imagines fighting the Red Menace and absorbs adult commentary about “that lady in Montgomery” and “a boy named Emmett.” The tightly written yet musing poems (many of them unrhymed sonnets) effectively capture single moments as slices of a larger, longer trajectory of growth, travel, and inquiry. Young Marilyn’s capable, confident family (“Daddy corrects white men who call him boy./ Even when they’re in police uniforms”) provides a solid foundation for both her and the narrative trajectory, and her need to find herself over and over again in each new location provides an unusual opportunity for self-awareness and reflection that understandably translates into becoming a poet. Attractive and subtle design adds appeal, with poem titles in slate blue and simple decorative spot art, usually dichromatic, neatly supplying both a retro visual quotation and contemporary currency; [End Page 370] occasional family photographs provide additional immediacy. Use this to bring a vivid personal touch to an exploration of the era, or as a gloriously personal entry in a poetry unit that will prompt eager imitation. Final illustrations not seen. Copyright © 2014 The Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois

W.E.B. Du Bois's exhibit of American Negroes: African Americans at the beginning of the twentieth century

W.E.B. Du Bois's exhibit of American Negroes: African Americans at the beginning of the twentieth century

Lara Putnam. Radical Moves: Caribbean Migrants and the Politics of Race in the Jazz Age.

During the late 1800s and early 1900s thousands of British West Indians migrated throughout the Americas, to other Caribbean islands, to Latin America, and to the United States. They sought opportunities in the gold mines of Venezuela, the canal zone of Panama, the banana and sugar plantations of Central America and Cuba, and on the streets of New York City. In so doing, they transformed the modern world in profound ways, forever altering how we understand and practice race, politics, nation, empire, and culture. These “radical moves,” moreover, were at the heart of two crucial historical moments. At the turn of the twentieth century, the mobility of British West Indians was accepted, even encouraged (if not uniformly welcomed), as a source of labor for expanding economies and national “development” tied to the emerging United States empire. West Indians went everywhere, saw everything, and believed they were at the center of global transformations of race, nation, and empire. They came to see themselves as a collective, as “the Great Negro Race,” and challenged the very ways in which people related to one another, their governments, and their nations. By the 1920s and 1930s, however, economic contraction combined with nativism to produce anti-black immigration laws throughout the Americas. Although such laws were often brutally enacted and severely restricted the movement of people who had come to see mobility as a fundamental feature of modern life, the exclusion of migrants did not lead to their wholesale retreat. They continued to think about themselves, their communities, their cultures, and their rights in radical ways.

Pattern of variations in superficial palmar arch in 134 Negro cadaveric hands.

To investigate the incidence of anatomical variations of superficial palmar arch in Negro population. A total of 134 upper limbs comprising 74 right and 60 left specimens embalmed with formaldehyde were used for the investigation. The hand was dissected with palmar aponeurosis identified and removed to expose the ulnar and radial arteries. A complete superficial arch was observed in 73.9% specimens. In 70.1% cases the superficial branch of the ulnar artery communicated with its radial arterial counterpart. In 3.0% cases the arch was formed entirely by the ulnar artery while in a single case (0.8%), a rare pattern was observed in which the superficial palmar branch of the ulnar artery gave rise to the princeps pollicis artery as its terminal branch with the exclusion of radialis indicis that had its origin from deep palmar branch of radial artery. The incomplete arch constituted 26.1% of the entire palmar arch formation. In our Negro population study, deviation from normal anatomical pattern was common. Therefore, a review of vascular pattern prior to invasive or intervention surgery is strongly recommended to be able to detect anomalies likely to necessitate modification of surgical procedures.

Neutralize, Equalize and Disseminate Discord…: Dalmacio Negro and His Book “Introduction to the History of the Forms of State”

Review: Historia de las formas del Estado: una introduccion by Dalmacio Negro (Madrid: El Buey mudo, 2010).

Talking Translation: An Interview with Lawrence Hill

This interview with Canadian writer Lawrence Hill addresses some of the difficulties faced by translators of his work, particularly when attempting to render period dialogue and Black idiom as authentically as possible. Much of the discussion focuses on his novel A Book of Negroes (also published under the title Someone Knows my Name , and, in French, as Aminata ). The author is asked to reflect on what is lost−and gained−in translation.

Study of Knowledge, Attitude and Practice about sickle cell anemia in patients with positive Sickle Cell Status in Bardoli taluka

Background: Sickle cell anaemia is widely distributed in African and American negroes. It also seen in Arabian peninsula, Indian Subcontinent and parts of Europe. A high prevalence has been demonstrated in various tribal communities of Gujarat. Aims & Objective: To assess Knowledge, Attitude and Practice about sickle cell anaemia in patients with positive Sickle Cell Status. Materials and Methods: Cross Sectional Observational Study from June 2010 to May 2011. 276 patients with purposive sampling in Bardoli Taluka having sickle cell positivity in age group of 18 to 30 years were taken. Results: Only 16% of the study participants knew correct symptoms of Sickle cell anaemia. 30 % patients were availing the treatment of some kind. It was observed that females were more active as compared to males in taking medication for Sickle Cell Anaemia and the difference between them was found to be significant. It was found that 96 % of the study participants had received Color coded cards after testing showing the high accomplishment of mass screening programs in identifying Sickle Cell Status by simple means. But approximately 90% didn’t know the cause of disease and only 52 (18 %) were counselled about this disease. More than 95% of the participants were unaware regarding their haemoglobin status. Conclusion: All the strategies for the prevention of this outrageous disease will be effective only if they are utilized to its maximal extent by creating more awareness to the affected and also the other population.

Artistic Ambassadors: Literary and International Representation of the New Negro Era by Brian Russell Roberts (review)

Reviewed by: Artistic Ambassadors: Literary and International Representation of the New Negro Era by Brian Russell Roberts Z. Hall Artistic Ambassadors: Literary and International Representation of the New Negro Era. By Brian Russell Roberts. Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press. 2013. “The ambassadorial tradition in African American writing has remained uninterrogated in relation to one of the New Negro era’s major arenas of political culture. This political culture operated on the planetary scale of official internationalism, and it became co-constitutive with the cultural politics of New Negro artistic ambassadorship” (14). American studies, and African American and black diasporan literature and culture scholar Brian Roberts probes U.S. international diplomacy of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries to illuminate the “strong and weak, formal and informal, connections between official internationalism and African American culture” (10). His work “offers critical access to previously unrecognized black internationalists tradition produced as African American and U.S. imperial cultures have met and shaped one another” (8). Roberts arranges dialogues among the fields of anti-imperialist critique, African American literary studies, and studies in black transnationalism to demonstrate how the literary and diplomatic performances of African American writers functioned rhetorically to, at some moments, undercut [End Page 216] U.S. diplomatic intentions yet, at other moments, operated as a means of promoting the imperial sway of the United States. Arranged in three parts, Artistic Ambassadors outlines the interlocking dimensions of race, aesthetic, and international representation, and “outlines the ways in which black work in diplomacy played previously unsuspected roles in shaping major African American representational concerns, including the capacity of New Negro race men to speak for the nation’s black masses, the methods of race representation under dispute in the Booker T. Washington/W. E. B. Du Bois debate, and the signifying status of women and the black diaspora within domestic and international African American cultures” (6). Roberts examines the aesthetic and political representations of famous figures such as Frederick Douglass, James Weldon Johnson, Richard Wright, and others and brings them into dialogue with the work of lesser-known black official and unofficial writer-diplomats of the New Negro era. Part one articulated the struggles faced by luminaries such as Frederick Douglass and lesser known African American diplomats in creating a narrative for the New Negro to supplant the myth of the Old Negro—ranging from Jim Crow to Zip Coon, Rastus to Sambo, Uncle Tom to Aunt Jemima—created by white Americans. Part two described a politics of immanence in which race becomes incidental to New Negro internationalism. Insider status becomes paramount though performances of immanence were inevitably imperfect and incomplete. Part three examined the “integration of hip knowingness of black vernacular culture into official diplomacy’s traditionally staid approach to internationalism” (118). It would have been informative if this work examined how the antecedent rhetoric of the Old Negro contained in U.S. cultural exports, predating and contemporary with the deployment of African American diplomats, weighed on the effectiveness of the representatives. Robert’s debut book is a challenging and enlightening interrogation of the international and literary projects of New Negro era figures. In addition to African American and American Studies scholars, this text is of interest to political science and international studies scholars, and literary critics. Z. Hall Independent Scholar, Kansas City, Missouri Copyright © 2014 Mid-America American Studies Association