Black History Month: Tennesseans

Presents the profiles of fifty famous American heroes from several backgrounds such as political, medical, environmental, presidential, and scientific. Also includes the authors' web site for additional information on each hero.

Since its founding, Nashville has been a center of black urban culture in the Upper South. Blacks—slave and free—made up 20 percent of Fort Nashborough's settlers in 1779. From these early years through the Civil War, a growing black community in Nashville, led by a small group of black elites, quietly built the foundations of a future society, developing schools, churches, and businesses. The Civil War brought new freedoms and challenges

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This narrative provides a comprehensive history of America's Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs). The book concludes that race, the Civil Rights movements, and black and white philanthropy had much affect on the development of these minority institutions. Northern white philanthropy had much to do with the start and maintenance of the nations HBCUs from 1837 into the 1940s. Even from 1950 to 1970, HBCUs depended upon financial support...

A frank examination of Aretha Franklin, Mark Bego's definitive biography traces her career accomplishments from her beginnings as a twelve-year-old member of a church choir in the early 1950s, to recording her first album at the age of fourteen and signing a major recording contract at eighteen, right up through untimely passing in 2018. Originally positioned to become a gospel star in her father's Detroit church, Aretha had a privileged urban upbringing;...

The daughter of a slave forms a gospel singing group and goes on tour to raise money to save Fisk University.

Recounts the life of the famous blues singer who flourished during the 1920s.