Ora Williams, Professor Emerita, Department of English, California State University, early on recognized the need for a reference source that would consolidate and organize the many contributions of black women to American and world culture. The 2003 publication of American Black Women in the Arts and Social Sciences makes this longstanding, invaluable resource now available in paperback.
As with the hardcover, revised and enlarged third edition, this version is an update to the two previous editions. The body of the survey has four distinct parts: “Reference works”; “Comprehensive listings”; “West Coast black women in the arts and social sciences”; “Other resource lists.” Unique to this bibliography of works are bio‐bibliographic profiles on Dorothy Porter (librarian, bibliophile, archivist, Africanist, mentor, scholar, writer, historian, and Curator Emerita of the Moorland‐Spingarn Research Center at Howard University) and Eva Jessye (humanitarian, teacher, performer, composer, and internationally known choral director). Other features include a chronology of significant dates in the history of American black women from 1619‐1992, an index of personal names, and listings of black journals, newspapers, periodicals, publishers, along with research and resource centres. Although not comprehensive or fully annotated, the value of this bibliographic survey lies in its illustration of the “long cultural history” of black women and provides “access to less familiar black women in the arts and social sciences and their works” (p. xiv).
American Black Women in the Arts and Social Sciences is highly recommended for school, public, and academic libraries that support black and women’s history/studies.
