It has ever been the boast of the Jewish people, that they support their own poor, declared Kentucky attorney Benjamin Franklin Jonas in 1856. Their reasons are partly founded in religious necessity, and partly in that pride of race and character which has supported them through so many ages of trial and vicissitude. In That Pride of Race and Character, Caroline E. Light examines the American Jewish tradition of benevolence and charity and explores its southern roots. Light provides a critical analysis of benevolence as it was inflected by regional ideals of race and gender, showing how a southern Jewish benevolent empire emerged in response to the combined pressures of post-Civil War devastation and the simultaneous influx of eastern European immigration. In an effort to combat the voices of anti-Semitism and nativism, established Jewish leaders developed a sophisticated and cutting-edge network of charities in the South to ensure that Jews took care of those considered their own while also proving themselves to be exemplary white citizens. Drawing from confidential case files and institutional records from various southern Jewish charities, the book relates how southern Jewish leaders and their immigrant clients negotiated the complexities of fitting in in a place and time of significant socio-political turbulence. Ultimately, the southern Jewish call to benevolence bore the particular imprint of the regionOCOs racial mores and left behind a rich legacy."

In the wake of the Civil Rights movement, a new, loosely-organized social movement was born in the struggle for cultural representation. Rhea terms it the "Race Pride movement," and shows how American minorities carried the struggle for cultural inclusion into museums, schools, and universities, yielding dramatic and lasting change.

Written with the general reader in mind, a thorough, nontechnical discussion of race problems and awareness in various nations of the world.

The true measure of a nation's worth in this great family of nations is proportionate to that nation's contribution to the welfare and happiness of the whole. Similarly, an individual is measured by the contributions he or she makes to the well being of the community in which he or she lives. If inventions therefore have played the important part here assigned to them in the gradual development of our complex national life, it becomes important to know what contributions the African American has made to the inventive skill of this country. In this book you will learn that the African American has contributed a disproportionate amount of creativity and resourcefulness on a list of more than 1100 U.S. Patents for inventions ranging from the propeller, the gas mask, air conditioning, pain relieving drugs, heart pace-maker controls and cellular phones to the elevator, rapid-fire guns, nuclear reactors and three-stage rockets. Throughout their long history, African Americans have created a rich, complex and highly diverse culture laced with outstanding role models who have helped make America the strongest country in the world.

From the glitz and glamour to the power struggles and private dramas, this intriguing portrait of New York’s African-American elite uncovers all the secrets only an insider could reveal ... Sture Jorgenson’s rise from a dishwasher to part-owner of a trendy restaurant has him rubbing elbows with many powerful people, but when Sture gains entrée into The Pride, he becomes part of a coterie of New York’s most accomplished black men and women. Paul Taylor, Sture’s business partner, is a charter member of The Pride. Accustomed to the good life, complete with a luxurious townhouse, fine wine, and fine women, Paul learns that even the good life has its complications. Diedre Douglas, Paul’s brilliant ex-wife, is on top in the business world, but there’s a new challenge around the corner she might not be able to best. And fellow Pride member Gordon Perkins is Wall Street’s top black investment banker, a man whose brilliance and drive are exceeded only by his insatiable appetite for control and cruelty. Those who get close to him get hurt—with one notable exception...