Compelling stories of overlooked achievements

REVIEWS BY RON WYNN

Each February brings a fresh round of debates regarding the observance of Black History Month. Some feel the celebration is passé, that it implies only one month out of the year should be devoted to a subject that merits year-round scholarship and scrutiny. Others feel that America should concentrate on things that unite, rather than highlight divisions. But those anxious to toss out Black History Month under the rubric of some utopian notion might do well to consider that Dr. Carter G. Woodson felt that Negro History Week, which he helped establish in 1926, would be a stimulus to awaken and generate more study of the accomplishments and achievements of African Americans.

A tribute to higher education

Woodson valued information and knowledge and would certainly laud the release of I'll Find a Way or Make One: A Tribute to Historically Black Colleges and Universities, an authoritative survey written by journalist Juan Williams and Dwayne Ashley, president of the Thurgood Marshall Scholarship Fund. The book blends personal reflection, historical examination, photographs and plenty of detailed information covering all 108 historically black colleges and universities. In many cases, the birth and growth of these institutions revealed a level of unprecedented cooperation between whites and blacks, often in places where social segregation was enforced at the point of a gun. Historically black schools have also had white and foreign faculty, fostered a climate of support for the arts (with the exception in some places of jazz), and developed ambitious, innovative types who neither accepted nor followed conventional thinking in their endeavors. From the great thinker and activist W.E.B. Dubois and Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall to television and film moguls Oprah Winfrey and Spike Lee, these students have been a vital force in American society. But Williams and Ashley also feel that while black colleges and universities will always have a special place and tradition, adjustments must be made and transitions recognized.


Soldiers and slaves

No matter how much people think they know about the slavery era, books like Slavery and the Making of America by James Oliver Horton and Lois E. Horton will unearth facts they didn't know. Experts in early black American history, the Hortons use narratives from the slaves themselves to provide much of the information here. While there are some expected personalities, the more compelling portraits highlight unfamiliar names such as John Roy Lynch, a former slave elected to the House of Representatives in 1872; Sergeant William Carney, the first black American winner of the Congressional Medal of Honor, awarded for his service during the Civil War; and George Middleton, who became a commander of a black regiment in the Revolutionary War.

The Hortons show how slavery affected commerce and industry in both the North and South, how the nation was ensnarled in controversy regarding the practice almost from the beginning, and how the quandary over the fugitive slave issue frequently triggered ugly and brutal riots in Northern cities. They also detail a legacy of revolt and rebellion that counters the notion that most slaves accepted their fate without incident. As the accompanying book for this month's PBS television series, Slavery and The Making of America has set the bar extremely high for the documentary production.

One missing piece in HBO's otherwise marvelous series Band of Brothers was the role played during World War II by nonwhite combatants. Christopher Paul Moore's Fighting for America: Black Soldiers—The Unsung Heroes of World War II corrects that oversight on one front, tracing the achievements, sacrifices and contributions of African Americans to campaigns throughout the war. While these soldiers fought in segregated situations and dealt with second-class treatment from the beginning of their tours to the end, they didn't let that sap their spirit or drain their resolve. Moore includes breakdowns of all the black units in both the European and Pacific campaigns, plus rare photos of everything from black women working in factories stateside to those in the Women's Army Corps (WAC), Army Nurse Corps (ANC) and Women Accepted for Voluntary Emergency Services (WAVES). He also highlights special units like the Tuskegee Air Corps and rifle units.


Horsemen of a different color

There aren't too many folk other than historians who know that there was a time when African Americans ruled horse racing. Black jockeys won at least 13 or 14 of the first 25 Kentucky Derby events, and 12 of the 15 jockeys in the first Kentucky Derby were black. Jimmy Winkfield grew up during that era, and in 1901 and 1902 he won back-to-back Kentucky Derbies, a feat equaled only by three others. Ed Hotaling unveils Winkfield's rise and the disgraceful reaction it provoked in his wonderful book Wink: The Incredible Life and Epic Journey of Jimmy Winkfield.

Hotaling starts with Winkfield's early years as a shoeshine boy in Lexington, Kentucky, then details Winkfield's rise to superstar status at 22 and his highly confident and combative personality that eventually caused him to be blackballed by stable owners in 1903. Undeterred, Winkfield left America and embraced the European racing circuit. He became the "black maestro" in Moscow, and was later highly celebrated in France. He eventually left France and returned to America to become a construction worker for the Works Progress Administration. Winkfield once again emerged as a winner, this time training horses and owning a stable in France despite being in his 70s. He finally died in Paris at 94. Hotaling doesn't sanitize Winkfield or minimize his flaws. Alongside the biographical details, Hotaling shows how racism and economic pressure combined to displace black jockeys and turn horse racing into an all-white sport before the first decade of the 20th century ended.

Beautiful Jim Key: The Lost History of a Horse and a Man Who Changed the World also documents an animal-based story, but quite a different one. Mim Eichler Rivas spotlights Beautiful Jim Key, a horse whose intelligence and ability paved the way for a new appreciation of horses and all other animals as well. Key's owner and trainer was Dr. William Key of Shelbyville, Tennessee, an ex-slave who was also a veterinarian and entrepreneur. Dr. Key eschewed cruelty and the use of force, preferring to use kind words, a gentle touch and a calm, almost reverent demeanor toward his horse.

Dr. Key became a celebrated figure in his own right, a famous black American who wasn't an entertainer, athlete or activist. His stately, dignified and educated image and the results of his training made him a quiet hero during a time long before the civil rights era. He traveled with his horse to places where he was regarded as something below the animal he was presenting, yet his openness, kindness with Jim Key and overall attitude often softened the hearts of those who would otherwise oppose him solely due to his race. Beautiful Jim Key contains some striking descriptions of the horse's maneuvers and performance moves, as well as a poignant account of an amazing relationship between owner/trainer and animal that in a small but significant way helped make a difference socially during the early part of the 20th century.


The great black way

Donald Bogle's previous books chronicling black contributions to film and television have set the stage for his latest work Bright Boulevards, Bold Dreams: The Story of Black Hollywood. Though his other books presented the story of black performers in relationship to what they accomplished while dealing with racism, that is not the main goal of Bogle's new volume. Instead, he shows the rise of an alternate community, one that delighted in its own accomplishments and neither depended on nor looked to its white counterpart for approval. The black Hollywood that emerged during the '20s and continued on into the early '70s, where Bogle ends his overview, had its own class structure, media, support culture and ethos. It wasn't that those in black Hollywood were oblivious to the suffering occurring elsewhere in America. Their response was to create a world where race didn't matter, where they often became power brokers when white stars came to black clubs and events and were deemed outsiders. Performers such as the Nicholas Brothers, Lena Horne, Fredi Washington and publisher Carlotta Bass enjoyed being celebrities among African Americans, and though their stardom was improved either through appearances in "mainstream" films or by keeping contact with the major studios and producers, they truly felt independent and at peace in black Hollywood.


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