100 Amazing Facts About the Negro

July 10, 2017
Harvard professor Gates (Life upon These Shores) leads readers on a broad and inviting tour of black history with this compendium modeled after journalist Joel Rogers’s 1957 book 100 Amazing Facts About the Negro with Complete Proof: A Short Cut to the World History of the Negro. Gates’s version, an outgrowth of his writings published on the website the Root, consists of 100 brief essays written in a question-and-answer format on such wide ranging topics as “Who was the first black person to see the baby Jesus?”; “Who were the black passengers on the doomed Titanic voyage?”; and “What happened to Argentina’s black population?” Illustrated with one image per entry, the collection is peppered with information about little-known events in far-away places (such as Argentina, France, and Iraq) and far-removed times (the oldest entry covers ancient Greece). The work is particularly rich in 19th-century American history, with entries on Richard Potter, the first American ventriloquist; Henry “Box” Brown, who escaped slavery in Virginia in 1849 by shipping himself to Philadelphia in a cargo box; and on the raid on Harpers Ferry and the Colfax Massacre. Gates’s book is aimed at readers with limited knowledge of African-American history rather than scholars, and its tendencies toward exaggeration, titillation, irony, and debunking make for an easy romp, with enough obscure tidbits to entertain and inform specialists as well. Illus.

August 1, 2017
A collection of vignettes about the black experience in the United States and around the globe.In 1957, respected Pittsburgh Courier journalist Joel A. Rogers published a book, 100 Amazing Facts About the Negro with Complete Proof, based on research he had conducted for his columns. His work provided a counter to white supremacist myths and proved to be a source of pride for the black community, which too often read and heard histories that excluded them. Gates (Life upon These Shores: Looking at African American History, 1513-2008, 2011, etc.), the prolific scholar and popularizer of black history, presents this book as an homage and update to the work of "Mr. Rogers." Indeed, just as Rogers had compiled his brief essays for his book from his columns, Gates similarly draws from his series, which carried the same title as this volume and ran in the online magazine The Root, which Gates co-founded. The entries are brief, averaging about four pages. In his acknowledgments, the author also reveals that these essays, though ultimately bearing his name, are the product of the research team he leads at the Hutchins Center for African & African American Research at Harvard. The pieces range widely in chronology, theme, and geography, and his facts about the "Negro" (the anachronism is intentional, part of the tribute to Rogers) most heavily emphasize the African-American experience but also explore Africa and the diaspora across the Americas and in Europe. The pieces are generally well-written and engage with secondary sources and occasional primary documents on his topics. The title of each entry is a question. The first--"which journalist was among the first to bring black history to the masses?"--introduces Rogers and thus the book. The rest range widely and are fairly consistent. It will not be necessary for readers to tackle this book from front to back; it rewards dipping into occasionally, as Gates sometimes surprises, sometimes intrigues, and rarely disappoints.

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Starred review from August 1, 2017
The initial, 1957 edition of 100 Amazing Facts about the Negro with Complete Proof by journalist and black history devotee Joel A. Rogers was derived from his weekly Your History (later called Facts about the Negro ) columns for the Pittsburgh Courier, which ran from 1934 until the year of his death, 1966. Now, renowned historian Gates picks up the baton, updating the book's 100 amazing facts with recent research, including, in a nod to his PBS documentary series, Finding Your Roots, for which he wrote the companion volume, genealogical and DNA studies and conclusions. Presumably, Gates retains Negro because Rogers used it and for the word's original intent to refer to the African diaspora. Indeed, this fresh investigation relays centuries of events in the lives of numerous historical figures of African descent not only in the U.S. but also in Europe, Central America, and the Middle East. This compilation of portraits of select soldiers and saints, authors and athletes, royalty and rebels, and escapees and entrepreneurs, provides a much needed foundation for historical and cultural identity. By setting this new standard, Gates paves the way for future editions exploring achievements in science and technology and the visual and performing arts. HIGH-DEMAND BACKSTORY: Scholar, writer, filmmaker, and public intellectual Gates has tremendous presence and his latest book will be strongly promoted.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2017, American Library Association.)

August 1, 2017

The 1936 publication of this title led to its author, J.A. Rogers, becoming a leading historian of his day. Although a longtime popular black history book, with its amassed facts covering varied aspects of the African diaspora, this volume has been criticized for its lack of scholarship. Here, historian and scholar Gates (And Still I Rise: Black America Since MLK), an admirer of the original text, reframes the work, relying on meticulous research. Presented in question-and-answer format, it tackles everything from biographical entries to articles relating to the economy, the government, and the institution of slavery. Entries include "Who Was the First Black Saint?"; "Did Russia's Peter the Great Adopt an African Man as His Son?"; "Who Were the Black Passengers on the Doomed Titanic?"; and "Did Martin Luther King Jr., Improvise His 'I Have a Dream' Speech?" Previous books on black trivia, such as Jeffrey C. Stewart's 1001 Things Everyone Should Know About African-American History, are traditional in content and organized by subject; Gates presents topics and facts that are fascinating and unique. VERDICT An entertaining and informative read for those with an interest in black history and who enjoy historical trivia.--Tiffeni Fontno, Boston Coll. Educational Resource Ctr.

Copyright 2017 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

June 1, 2017

Preeminent scholar Gates both honors and updates 100 Amazing Facts About the Negro with Complete Proof: A Short Cut to the World History of the Negro, published in 1934 by mostly self-taught African American journalist/historian Joel A. Rogers, with a fun and informative book illuminating African American history in question-and-answer format.

Copyright 2017 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.