African Americans in the West [Hardcover]

Based on the latest research, this work provides a new look at the lives of African Americans in the Western United States, from the colonial era to the present.

From colonial times to the present, this volume captures the experiences of the westward migration of African Americans. Based on the latest research, it offers a fresh look at the many ways African Americans influencedand were influenced bythe development of the U.S. frontier.

African Americans in the Westcovers the rise of the slave trade to its expansion into what was at the time the westernmost United States; from the postCivil War migrations, including the Exodusters who fled the South for Kansas in 1879 to the mid20th century civil rights movement, which saw many critical events take place in the Westfrom the organization of the Black Panthers in Oakland to the tragic Watts riots in Los Angeles.

An interpretative rather than an encyclopedic reference, Flamming's (Bound for Freedom) historical guide offers an energetic narrative illuminating the lives of pioneering African Americans, from Colonial-era Afro-Spaniards to African Americans who moved West following the two modern-era Great Migrations. Maps detailing geographical delineations, general migration patterns, and regional ethnic concentrations open the book. The ten subsequent chronologically organized chapters trace the movement of African Americans from Revolutionary-era slavery to freedom through the social upheavals of the 1960s, the nationalist movements of the 1970s, and issues of the contemporary period. A vital companion to William Loren Katz's pictorial history, The Black West. Library Journal

Part of the outstanding ABC-CLIO 'Cultures in the American West' series,African Americans in the Westhas as its primary focus an impressive history of African American involvement wlCd