The annual clash in New Orleans between the Grambling State University Tigers and the Southern University Jaguars represents the fiercest and most anticipated in-state football rivalry in Louisiana. The most significant national game to feature historically black colleges and universities is more than a contest; the Bayou Classic is a lavish event, featuring celebrities, a fan festival, and a halftime "Battle of the Bands" that offers an intensity equal to that of the gridiron. In Bayou Classic, Thomas Aiello chronicles the history of the game and explores the two schools' broader significance to Louisiana, to sports, and to the black community. When the Southern University Bushmen football team traveled to Monroe, Louisiana, to play the Tigers of Louisiana Negro Normal and Industrial Institute for the first time on Armistice Day, 1932, few realized they were witnessing the birth of a phenomenon. Aiello recounts Southern's early dominance over the smaller, two-year institution; Southern's acceptance into the Southwestern Athletic Conference; Grambling's hiring of the legendary Eddie Robinson, who would lead the Tigers to 408 wins between 1941 and 1997; Grambling's first victory over Southern; and years of alternating home and away games. In 1974, the rivalry found a neutral site in New Orleans -- first at Tulane Stadium and then the Superdome -- and became the "Bayou Classic." An NBC television contract introduced the Bayou Classic to a nationwide audience and completed the transformation of the game into a major event. The Bayou Classic remains the only nationally broadcast game between two historically black schools. Aiello supplements his colorful narrative with period photographs and informative appendices providing game results, statistics, and all-star teams from every year the schools have played. "To appreciate the rivalry," Coach Eddie Robinson once noted, "you have to realize Grambling and Southern fans are close friends, as well as relatives." Bayou Classic offers a splendid history for fans, friends, and those who want to know more about this special game.

African American athletes have experienced a tumultuous relationship with mainstream white America. Glory Bound brings together for the first time eleven essays that explore this complex topic. In his writings, well-known sports scholar David K. Wiggins recounts the struggle of black athletes to participate fully in sports while maintaining their own cultural identity and pride. Wiggins examines the seminal moments that defined and changed the black athlete's role in white America from the nineteenth century to the present: the personal crusade of Wendell Smith to promote black participation in organized baseball, the triumph of Jesse Owens at the 1936 Olympics and the proposed boycott of the Games, and the response of America's black press and community. Glory Bound demonstrates how the civil rights movement changed the face of American athletics and society forever. With the genesis of the black power movement in sport, Wiggins notes a significant shift in black—and white—America's attention to the African American athlete.

"...provides a detailed look at America's pastime through the lens of pop culture, [an] A-to-Z inventory of how certain aspects of the game affect and reflect broader society."--from publisher description.

On the Shoulders of Our Ancestors is an individual effort to articulate that Africans and African-Americans are achievers, that our history is one of being contributors to society instead of destroyers, that playing the “dozens” or “snapping” is unacceptable in our communities. Our history is not one of killing each other, nor is it one of negativism, but rather it is one of strength, hope, achievement, excellence and creativity. On the Shoulders of Our Ancestors seeks to redirect our youth’s miseducation through reminders of African-American achievement in the form of studying history through the poetic form.

The stories of black American professionals, both historic and contemporary, reveal the hardships and triumphs they faced in overcoming racism to succeed in their chosen fields. This extraordinary four-volume work is the first of its kind, a comprehensive exploration of the obstacles black men and women, both historic and contemporary, have faced and overcome to succeed in professional positions. Voices of Historical and Contemporary Black American Pioneers includes the life and career histories of black American pioneers, past and present, who have achieved extraordinary success in fields as varied as aviation and astronautics, education, social sciences, the humanities, the fine and performing arts, law and government, and medicine and science. The set covers well-known figures, but is also an invaluable source of information on lesser-known individuals whose accomplishments are no less admirable. Arranged by career category, each section of the work begins with a biographical narrative of early black pioneers in the field, followed by original interviews conducted by the editors or autobiographical narratives written by the subjects. In all, more than 150 scholars and professionals share inspiring insights into how they persevered to overcome racism and succeed in an often-hostile world.

Ninety years after W.E.B. Du Bois first articulated the need for "the equivalent of a black Encyclopedia Britannica," Kwame Anthony Appiah and Henry Louis Gates Jr., realized his vision by publishing Africana: The Encyclopedia of the African and African American Experience in 1999. This new, greatly expanded edition of the original work broadens the foundation provided by Africana. Including more than one million new words, Africana has been completely updated and revised. New entries on African kingdoms have been added, bibliographies now accompany most articles, and the encyclopedia's coverage of the African diaspora in Latin America and the Caribbean has been expanded, transforming the set into the most authoritative research and scholarly reference set on the African experience ever created. More than 4,000 articles cover prominent individuals, events, trends, places, political movements, art forms, business and trade, religion, ethnic groups, organizations and countries on both sides of the Atlantic. African American history and culture in the present-day United States receive a strong emphasis, but African American history and culture throughout the rest of the Americas and their origins in African itself have an equally strong presence. The articles that make up Africana cover subjects ranging from affirmative action to zydeco and span over four million years from the earlies-known hominids, to Sean "Diddy" Combs. With entries ranging from the African ethnic groups to members of the Congressional Black Caucus, Africana, Second Edition, conveys the history and scope of cultural expression of people of African descent with unprecedented depth.