Biography

Profiles of Contemporary African American Leaders

The third in a series profiling African Americans’ contributions to history.

Some have called him a slave, minister, a family man, murderer, and a revolutionary. Nat Turner is the controversial figure who rose from the ashes of obscurity to leaving and indelible impression of religious rigor and bloodshed on the very fabric of America; and quite possibly the world. Here is the story of a slave who was one of body but not of the mind and the spirit. Nat Turner, a slave himself, who would lead (60) other slaves to commit the unthinkable…the murder of (55) white women and children during the slave revolt at Southampton, Virginia in 1831. Even after his eventual capture and subsequent execution, Nat Turner stood by his actions and convictions because he believed that he was an instrument of God, and if it required the killing of white women and children to bring America into the light that its own hands were purged in the blood of the African slave; so be it!

In this book I plan to chronicle who the real Nat Turner was…a slave, minister, and finally, an African American hero. I will utilize scholarly books from noted authors who proved that many of us have been mis-educated about Nat Turner.

Patrick Henry who history scholars call one of the Founding Fathers once said “Give me liberty or give me death”. Nat Turner attempted to take liberty by force for the freedom of all African American slaves, and in the end welcomed death with open arms.

A Biographical History of African Americans is the most comprehensive, pocket sized, scholarly volume on African American biography published in the last three decades. The book gives an introductory overview to African American history, followed by a selection of notable African American subjects, arranged in four topical and chronological periods. It is diverse as to gender, geography and vocations. The work has been particularly concerned with profiling notable subjects who have not appeared in other dictionaries, directories or encyclopedias. While it can be used as a text or supplementary reader as well as a general reference work, its readable style will also appeal to a popular audience.

On Monday, December 1,1986, Glen Dunnam almost lost his life in a “three-wheeler” accident. While on a hunting expedition, Glen was riding his three-wheeler when an unseen half-inch steel cable that was stretched across the road hit his neck. The cable nearly decapitated him, severing his trachea, esophagus and the nerves leading to his voice box. Miraculously, his jugular veins and spinal cord were undamaged. His rapid recovery baffled the doctors who said his recovery was indeed “miraculous.”

A product of nearly two decades of research and writing, The Dictionary of Twentieth Century Black Leaders is the most authoritative work of its kind.

From Louis Armstong and Ella Jo Baker to Juanita Kidd Stoutt and Whitney Young, representative African Americans from all walks of life are profiled.

Particular attention has been paid to African Americans who impacted public policy in the United States, but who have not been profiled in previous biographical compilations. Each entry is written by a scholar with intimate knowledge of his or her subject.

This is the story of a little boy searching for his identity.

A boy born into a world of turmoil and havoc; a world where not all was well; where war, starvation and bombs; confusion, lies, and deceit; were the rule, and food, safety and happiness were the exception.

A boy without a heritage. A boy in search of his past. A boy in search of his biological father.

It is the story of a little boy's fears and anxieties in a country far, far away where life was an uncertainty and death a looming promise; where the world was upside down.

But a boy, that, with the help of his family, rose above the devastation suffered as a child and became a man loved and respected by others.

It is not a story of failure!

It is, really, when you think about it a story of success and triumph!