NEGRO BOYS AND GIRLS
Oklahoma City, OK: Harlow Publishing Corporation, 1938. 1st edition. Cloth. 1st edition, 1938. A Good copy. 8vo., 142 pp., with black & white photo reproductions bound in publishers decorated blue cloth. Overall slight fading to cloth at spine and edges. Tips, edges and top/base of spine rubbed. Boards bowed. Previous owners name inside front cover with pricing label inside rear cover. End pages tanned, text appears unmarked. Good. Item #37461
Written by a White teacher, Emma E. Akin, who was working at an African-American school in Dunbar, Oklahoma where she noticed a lack of textbooks focusing on Black history and achievements.
According to *Defining Print Culture for Youth, the Cultural Work of Children’s Literature, “The Negro American Series cut against the prevailing stereotypes in textual theme and content as it did in its illustrations. Each volume includes information on the accomplishments of at least one notable African American, from Paul Laurence Dunbar to Roland Hayes to Phillis Wheatley, to lesser-known figures as well. Farm children and children who live in town are treated with equal respect. Families are described as loving and concerned. Class differences are never mentioned…. Neither children nor adults are depicted as menials or buffoons…. Race progress and uplift are constant themes.”.
Price: $250.00