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| Foreward
To I,
Too, Sing America |
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WE, TOO, SING AMERICA!
The idea for the book, I, TOO, SING AMERICA was born
at an exhibit of African-American art and photography that
we attended five years ago. Among the few attendees in the
Museum of African-American Art in Los Angeles, we were struck
by the power of the works displayed and wondered how many
people knew of the vast contributions of our people to the
arts.
Coincidentally, a friend had given Paula a book of days
that captured the lives and activities of writers. A quick
scan of the book revealed that just three African-Americans
were included! While we respected them immensely, we knew
that Langston Hughes, Toni Morrison, and Richard Wright
were only part of a rich African-American literary heritage.
We wanted more people to know of the authors who sustained
us, who inspired us in our lives. We began to dream of a
living chronicle of our contributions, our culture, and
our heroes that was not relegated to the margins of history.
As Langston Hughes so powerfully described in the poem from
which this book takes its title, too long have our history
and art been kept "in the kitchen." And yet pioneering
historians like Carter G. Woodson fought that dismissal
by a society enamored of its racist view of Americans of
African descent. One of Woodson's most enduring accomplishments
was the establishment of Negro History Week in 1927 to celebrate
the achievements of black people. A ringing success, since
1976 we have been deluged with information on black history
for an entire month (a great improvement, to be sure), yet
relatively little the rest of the year.
But the simple truth is that African-American history is
not a February media event, but a daily part of the fabric
of this country. In recognition and celebration of this
fact, we compiled I, TOO, SING AMERICA, a unique book that
shows how black history is an African-AMERICAN phenomenon,
rich in contributions to what has made this country great
and full of milestones that deserve every American's contemplation.
Certainly politics, history, and religion are covered, but
so too are African-Americans' contributions in education,
medicine, science, business, literature, sports, and entertainment.
I, TOO, SING AMERICA celebrates over 500 years of familiar
dates in black history and little known facts, such as the
achievement of African-American inventors who are responsible
for providing the sugar we use, fountain pens, golf tees,
and many more innovative and useful products. Or how the
"Negro National Anthem" came to be written. Or
the African ancestry of such notable men of arts and letters
as John James Audubon, Aleksandr Pushkin, and Alexandre
Dumas.
I, TOO, SING AMERICA also includes many ironies in African-American
history, such as the death of noted antilynching advocate
Ida B. Wells-Barnett on the same day as the Scottsboro Boys'
arrest; the deaths of noted Harlem Renaissance poets Claude
McKay and Langston Hughes on the same day nineteen years
apart; the shared birthdays of noted African-American men
of letters W.E.B. DuBois and Haki Mahubuti and poets Gwendolyn
Brooks and Nikki Giovanni; or the withdrawal from office
of the first appointed African-American governor, P.B.S.
Pinchback of Louisiana, on the same day that the only elected
African-American governor, L. Douglas Wilder of Virginia,
took office 117 years later.
Equally important, I, TOO, SING AMERICA is filled with African-American
art that for almost 200 years has defied notions of what
we are capable of achieving despite the crushing oppression
of racism and discrimination. I, TOO, SING AMERICA rings
out with the stories of Henry Ossawa Tanner, an Impressionist
who left the racism of America to paint in France; of Edward
Bannister, who won and was almost denied his medal at the
1876 Centennial Exhibition in Philadelphia when the judges
saw the color of his skin; or Horace Pippin, his right hand
crippled in World War I, who nonetheless painted art prized
by museums and collectors all over this land. Stories and
fine art reproductions of the giants are blended with art
from modern masters like the late Romare Bearden, Claude
Clark, Sr., Elizabeth Catlett, Richard Mayhew, and many
others.
More than 60 fine art and photography reproductions grace
the pages of I, TOO, SING AMERICA, together with over 300
pictures and 1,500 entries. And whether you use this book
to record the births, anniversaries, and milestones in your
family's history, as a diary, appointment book, or for your
coffee table, I, TOO, SING AMERICA proves that black history
is a 365-day-per-year affair, a celebration we can all share
with pride.
—Paula L. Woods and Felix H. Liddell |
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