12. Robert L. Harris Jr., ed., Africana Studies and Research Center, (with Rosalyn Terborg-Penn)
Robert Harris
Columbia Guide to African American History Since 1939 (Columbia University Press, 2006). The editors present a multifaceted approach to African American history of this period, beginning with Marion Anderson’s concert in front of the Lincoln Memorial in 1939. This narrative and reference tool uses a historical survey of key personalities and movements, essays by leading scholars on the African American experience, a chronology of events, and a guide for further study to examine the major developments leading to the reexamination of racial values and practices in American society. The editors explore topics such as African American historical efforts to address racism and inequality, the civil rights and black power movements, changes in immigration patterns that complicated the conventional black/white dichotomy in the United States, and the uneasy existence of a growing African American middle class and a sizable underclass.