African-American Stories of Triumph Over Adversity: Joy Cometh in the Morning

(Hardback)

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Description

African-American Stories of Triumph Over Adversity is about ordinary people, born into poverty, violence and abuse, who have forged a path through the dense forest of life. Along the way, they learned to build upon their experiences to create a better way of life for themselves. Their voices are at once personal and political for they speak about the impact of the experience of family, school and community on their emerging self, as well as the psycho-social turmoil created living in a society where the color of one's skin defines one's place in the social order. These are stories of triumph of the human spirit. They are stories of faith, hope, love, strong-will and determination. As one storyteller found, if a person can take the worst thing that could happen to them in life and see that as an event and not their entire life, success will always be on the horizon.

Reviews

"Following the footsteps of African American writers like Dorothy West, Richard Wright, and Alice Walker, Geraldine Coleman has continued to tell the story of how African American men and women's lives are shaped. She has combined elements of oral history and social science to give us a modern narrative about African Americans who were seen as invisible to society. Yet their inner faith made it possible for them to "triumph over adversity."-LaVerne Gyant, Ed.D. Assistant Director for Black Studies Northern Illinois University
"In addition to being a treasure of sociological and educational research, [this book] is a treasury of the human spirit! This work provides a blueprint which members of our society can look to for approaches in raising themselves up above obstructive circumstances....African-American Stories of Triumph Over Adversity is a book for humanity!"-Steven Whitehurst Author, Words From An Unchained Mind
"This collection of oral histories, in someway, may give insight to 'what is the difference that makes the difference' in life's failures and successes. These thought provoking stories will cause the reader to ponder the fact that all caterpillars do not become butterflies, but all butterflies must progress through the stage of a caterpillar, and so it is with life and its inherent adversities."- Eulaletta Johnson-Pickett, Ed.D. Director, Student Support Services, South Suburban College

Author Bio

GERALDINE COLEMAN is Associate Principal of Hillcrest High School, as well as a college adult education instructor, in Illinois. and her ten siblings were reared by hardworking and devoted parents who instilled in their children a strong sense of self-worth.