African American issues

Writer Philippe Wamba ("Phil-EEP WAM-bah"). He is the son of an African father and a African-American mother. His new book looks at the affinity between African-Americans and Africans, the things that divide them, and they myths they each hold about the other. It's called "Kinship: A Family's Journey in Africa and America" (Dutton). Wamba has lived in both countries. His father, Prof. Ernest Wamba dia Wamba, is currently leader of the rebel faction in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

John Callahan has edited the manuscript, "Juneteenth," of a never before published book by Ralph Ellison who died in 1994. Ellison's first and only book released in 1952, "Invisible Man," won the National Book Award. Callahan was named Ellison's literary executor and is editor of "The Collected Essays of Ralph Ellison." Callahan is a professor of humanities at Lewis and Clark College in Portland, Oregon.

Actor Roger Guenveur Smith stars in the one-man stage show "A Huey P. Newton Story." Drawing from Newton's own writings and interviews, Smith performs in character as Huey Newton, the co-founder of The Black Panther Party. Roger Guenveur Smith has appeared in a number of Spike Lee films including: "Do The Right Thing," "Malcolm X," "He Got Game," and "School Daze." His other film credits include: "Tales from the Hood," "Poetic Justice," "King of New York," and "Panther."

This Monday, 2/8/99, PBS will air the documentary "The Black Press: Soldiers Without Swords." This is the first documentary to provide an in-depth examination of the history of African-American newspapers. We'll hear from the film's producer, Stanley Nelson and from Vernon Jarrett, a black journalist featured in the project.

Historian and author Deborah Gray White has compiled a new history of black women and their struggle against racism and male chauvinism. It's called "Too Heavy a Load: Black Women in Defense of Themselves 1894-1994" (W.W. Norton) White is a professor of history at Rutgers University and the co-director of the Rutgers Center for Historical Analysis.

David Remnick is the author of the new book "King of the World" (Random House) about heavyweight champion Muhammad Ali. Remnick was appointed editor of the New Yorker Magazine this year, and is the Pulitzer Prize winning author of "Lenin's Tomb."

Novelist Richard Price talks about his latest book "Freedomland". (Broadway Books) It's a story that examines race relations in a fictional urban New Jersey town. Inspired by the real life Susan Smith incident in which she alleged a black man carjacked her and took her two children. Price's story follows a similar theme and how the events affect the community. Price's earlier novel "Clockers" about life in the inner city world of drug dealing was nominated for a National Book Critics Circle Award.

Frontline correspondent and Harvard University professor Henry Louis Gates, Jr. Gates hosts a Frontline segment called "Two Nations of Black America" which airs Tuesday night on PBS. Today, America has the largest black middle class in its history, yet half of all black children are born into poverty. (Interview by Barbara Bogaev)

Historian Taylor Branch. He won the Pulitzer Prize for the first book of his planned trilogy of the Civil Rights movement: "Parting the Waters: America In the King Years 1954-63" (now in paper, Simon & Schuster) His new book "Pillars of Fire: America In the King Years 1963-65" (Simon & Schuster) begins where the other book ended, and covers what he considers the peak years in the movement. At the center of the book are Martin Luther King, Malcolm X, Robert Kennedy, LBJ, and J. Edgar Hoover.

Author, and advocate for children, Geoffrey Canada. He is President of the Rheedlen Centers for Children and Families in New York City. He's written a new book about the crisis among young boys, and the need to redefine their sense of manhood. He writes that "Our belief about maleness, the mythology that surrounds being male, has led many boys to ruin. The image of male as strong is mixed with the image of male as violent." Canada's new book is "Reaching Up for Manhood: Transforming the Lives of Boys in America" (Beacon Press).