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Environment and Design book displays FY22: Feb 22: African-American History

About this Exhibit

Books related to African-Americans and cultural landscapes at the Owens Library

African-American and Cultural Landscapes

The Afro-American Tradition in Decorative Arts

Covering basketry, musical instruments, wood carving, quilting, pottery, boatbuilding, blacksmithing, architecture, and graveyard decoration, John Vlach seeks to trace and substantiate African influences in the traditional arts and crafts of black Americans. It is a widespread tradition, he observes, readily visible in areas such as the coastal regions of South Carolina and Georgia but discernible as well in places far to the west and north. Vlach not only examines the form and content of the artifacts and structures but also relates them to the complex cultural context from which they sprang - the interwoven strands of African and European influence.

Landscape and Race in the United States

Landscape and Race in the United States is the definitive volume on racialized landscapes in the United States. Edited by Richard Schein, each essay isnbsp;grounded in a particular location but all of the essaysnbsp;are informed by the theoretical vision that the cultural landscapes of America are infused with race and America's racial divide. While featuring the black/white divide, the book also investigates other social landscapes including Chinatowns, Latino landscapes in the Southwest and white suburban landscapes. The essays are accessible and readable providing historical and contemporary coverage.

Civil Rights Memorials and the Geography of Memory

The creation of memorials dedicated to the civil rights movement is a watershed event in the commemoration of southern and American history, an important reversal in the traditional invisibility of African Americans within the preservation movement. Collective memory, to be sure, is certainly about honoring the past--whether it is Martin Luther King Jr.'s birthplace in Atlanta or the memorial to Rosa Parks in Montgomery--but it is also about the ongoing campaign for civil rights and the economic opportunities associated with heritage tourism. Owen J. Dwyer and Derek H. Alderman use extensive archival research, personal interviews, and compelling photography to examine memorials as cultural landscapes, interpreting them in the context of the movement's broader history and its current scene. In paying close attention to which stories, people, and places are remembered and which are forgotten, the authors present an unforgettable story. As Dwyer and Alderman illustrate, there are reasons why memorials are not often located at the traditional core of civic space--City Hall, the Courthouse, or along Main Street--and location seriously affects their public impact. As the authors reveal, social and geographic marginalization has accompanied the creation and promotion of civil rights memorials, calling into question the relative progress that society has made in the time since the civil rights movement in America began.

The Death Care Industry

A timely, thoughtful, and broad-ranging discussion of the African American cemetery.

Begin with the Past

The Building of the National Museum of African American History and Culture traces the making of this unparalleled museum. Founding director Lonnie G. Bunch III described it as "ten years in the making, and 100 years in the making," and Mabel O. Wilson explores that effort in her narrative. As she discovers, initial calls for a permanent place to collect, study, and present African American history and culture in the early twentieth century never got off the ground. In the late 1990s, the notion began to gain momentum from increasing public interest and Congressional support. In 2003 the museum was officially established. Yet the work of the museum was only just beginning. Wilson takes an in-depth look at the selection of the director, site, and architects in the years that followed. Rising on the National Mall next to the Washington Monument, the museum is a tiered bronze beacon inviting us to understand our past and embrace our future. Wilson explores how the "four pillars" of the museum's mission shaped its powerful structure, and she teases out the rich cultural symbols and homages layered into the design of the building and its surrounding landscape. This book is an important inside look at the making of a monument.

Robert R. Taylor and Tuskegee

Winner of the Southeastern Society of Architectural Historians Award of Excellence Robert R. Taylor and Tuskegee interweaves the life of the first academically trained African American architect with his life's work--the campus of Booker T. Washington's Tuskegee Normal and Industrial Institute. In this richly illustrated architectural history, the author delves into such questions of how a black boy born in North Carolina shortly after the Civil War could earn a professional architecture degree at MIT, and how he then used his design and administrative skills to further Booker T. Washington's agenda of community solidarity and, in defiance of strengthening Jim Crow, the public expression of racial pride and progress. The book also considers such issues as architectural education for African Americans at the turn of the twentieth century, the white donors who funded Tuskegee's buildings, other Tuskegee architects, and Taylor's buildings elsewhere. Individual narratives of Taylor's Tuskegee buildings conclude the volume.

Places of cultural memory : African reflections on the American landscape : conference proceedings

Contents: Freedom's trail : the Florida Cuba connection / Ralph B. Johnson -- Africanisms upon the land : a study of African influenced place names in the USA / Annette I. Kashif -- Autobio-graphic space : reconciling African American identity with the (in)visible past / coleman a. jordan (ebo) -- Rice, slaves, and landscapes of cultural memory / Judith Carney -- The memory of iron : African technologies in the Americas / Candice Goucher -- Bounded yards and fluid borders : landscapes of slavery at Poplar Forest / Barbara J. Heath -- Africanisms on the 'old ship of Zion' : what are these forms and why do they persist? / Audrey Brown -- Interwoven traditions : the conjurer's cabin and African American cemetery at the Jordan Plantation and Frogmere Plantations / Kenneth L. Brown -- Traditional African architecture and its impact on place making : case studies from African and African American communities / Abimbola O. Asojo -- Gardening, yard decoration, and agriculture among peoples of African descent in the rural South and in the Cayman Islands / Richard Westmacott -- Por la encendida calle antillana : African influences on Puerto Rican architecture / Arleen Pabón -- New York's African burial ground mortuary complex in diasporic perspective / Warren R. Perry, Jean Howson, and Ruth Mathis.

Reminiscences of Sea Island Heritage

Lifestyles, customs, superstitions and folklore of St. Helena Island.

Here I Lay My Burdens Down

A research and history of the black cemeteries in Richmond, Virginia.

Historic Black resources : a handbook for the identification, documentation, and evaluation of historic African-American properties in Georgia

This handbook is the product of 1980 planning activities. This handbook represents a significant initiative in historic preservation in the state. Its use will help promote a broader understanding of the state's heritage and a deeper commitment to its preservation.

African-American Gardens and Yards in the Rural South

This book is the first extensive survey of African-American gardening traditions in the rural South. Richard Westmacott has recovered valuable data for those interested in African-American material culture and the history of vernacular gardens by creating measured drawings and physical inventories of African-American gardens in three geographic areas: the low country of South Carolina, the southern piedmont of Georgia, and the black belt of Alabama.

Black Savannah, 1788-1864

Free and enslaved African American residents of Savannah enjoyed similar participation in religious activities, economic pursuits, and social events during the antebellum period. The basis for the existence of meaningful black society in Savannah between 1788 and 1864 was predicated on the influence of the churches.

African-American historic places and culture

African-American historic places and culture: a preservation resource guide for Georgia.

About the summaries

Summaries attached to these titles have been supplied by the book's publisher, and should be considered advertisements (jacket blurbs), not objective reviews.