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The following article by excerpted from larger work originally
published;
Los Angeles Times, 3/03/1991, Part E, Page 1,
"Elder Statesmen An Era Is Passing for Five Authors Known for Reclaiming
the Role of Blacks in History," by Yemi Toure
John Henrik Clarke was born in Union Springs, Alabama on New Years Day, 1915. His family came from a long line of sharecroppers.
Clarke noticed that although many bible stories "unfolded in Africa...I saw no African people in the printed and illustrated Sunday school lessons," he wrote in 1985. "I began to suspect at this early age that someone had distorted the image of my people. My long search for the true history of African people the world over began."
That search took him to libraries, museums, attics, archives and collections in Asia, the Caribbean, Europe, Latin America and Africa.
What he found was that the history of black people is worldwide; that "the first light of human consciousness and the world's first civilizations were in Africa"; that the so called Dark Ages were dark only for Europe and that some African nations at the time were larger than any in Europe; that as Africa sends its children to Europe to study because that is where the best universities are, early Greece once sent its children to Africa to study because that was where the best universities were; and that slavery, although devastating was neither the beginning nor the end of Black people's impact on the world.Clarke gathered his findings into books on such figures as the early 20th century mass movement leader Marcus Garvey, into articles with titles like "Africa in the Conquest of Spain" and "Harlem as mecca and New Jerusalem," and many books including American Heritage's two volume "History of Africa."
While he was teaching at Hunter College in New York and at Cornell University in the 1980's, Clarke's lesson plans became well known for their thoroughness. They are so filled with references and details that the Schomburg Library in Harlem asked for copies. Clarke plans to provide them, he said, "so that 50 years from now, when people have a hard time locating my grave, they won't have a hard time locating my lessons."
In 1985, the year of his retirement, the newest branch of the Cornell University Library- a 60 seat, 9,000 volume facility- was named the "John Henrik Clarke Africana Library."
Dr. John Henrik
Clarke's "A
Great and Mighty Walk," an excellent historical film narrated
by actor Wesley Snipes. View it here.
John
Henrik Clarke: A Great and Mighty Walk (DVD):
Release Year: 1996
Cast: Wesley Snipes
Director: Saint Clair Bourne
Categories: Historical Film
Running Time: 95 minutes
Grand Jury Prize/Best Documentary, UrbanWorld Film Festival
This video chronicles the life and times of the noted African-American historian, scholar and Pan-African activist John Henrik Clarke (1915-1998). Both a biography of Clarke himself and an overview of 5,000 years of African history, the film offers a provocative look at the past through the eyes of a leading proponent of an Afrocentric view of history. From ancient Egypt and Africa’s other great empires, Clarke moves through Mediterranean borrowings, the Atlantic slave trade, European colonization, the development of the Pan-African movement, and present-day African-American history.
“...compelling…this look at an important though little-known African-American leader deserves to be seen. Recommended for large black history collections.” - Video Librarian
“Clarke’s insights are challenging, thoughtful, and excellent starting points for class discussion. The work, like its subject, is organized, scholarly, and substantial." - School Library Journal
"...a veritable tour de force, plotting history from Africa’s ethnographic presence, dating back to the early Egyptian dynasties to the Million Man March...The film is equal parts Baptist sermon and history." - New York Amsterdam News
ISBN: 1886433186
|
 The
Middle Passage : White Ships/ Black CargoClick to order via Amazon Tom Feelings, Adapted by John Henrik Clarke ISBN: 0803718047 The Middle Passage is the name given to one of the most tragic ordeals in history: the cruel and terrifying journey of enslaved Africans across the Atlantic Ocean. In this seminal work, master artist Tom Feelings tells the complete story of this horrific diaspora in sixty-four extraordinary narrative paintings. Achingly real, they draw us into the lives of the millions of African men, women, and children who were savagely torn from their beautiful homelands, crowded into disease-ridden "death ships," and transported under nightmarish conditions to the so-called New World. An introduction by noted historian Dr. John Henrik Clarke traces the roots of the Atlantic slave trade and gives a vivid summary of its four centuries of brutality. The Middle Passage reaches us on a visceral level. No one can experience it and remain unmoved. But while we absorb the horror of these images, we also can find some hope in them. They are a tribute to the survival of the human spirit, and the humanity won by the survivors of the Middle Passage belongs to us all. |
 Master
Teacher - John Henrik Clarke: The Early YearsClick to order via Amazon by: Barbara Eleanor Adams Product Details: |
 My
Life in Search of AfricaClick to order via Amazon ISBN: 0883781786 |
 Africans
at the Crossroad: Notes on an African World RevolutionClick to order via Amazon
ISBN: 0865432708 Essays focusing on the African and African American freedom struggle in the African world, as well as detailed discussion of the uncompleted revolutions of five monumental African leaders. |
 Malcolm
X: The Man and His TimesClick to order via Amazon John Henrik Clarke (Editor) ISBN: 0865432007 |
 Black
American Short Stories: A Century of the
Best: One Hundred Years of the BestClick to order via Amazon John Henrik Clarke (editor) ISBN: 0374523541 The success of John Henrik Clarke's American Negro Short Stories, first published in 1966, affirmed the vitality and importance of black fiction. Now this expanded edition of that best-selling book, with a new title, offers the reader thirty-one stories included in the original--from Charles W. Chesnutt and Paul Laurence Dunbar in the late nineteenth century to the rich and productive work of the Harlem Renaissance: writers like Zora Neale Hurston, Langston Hughes, and Richard Wright; the World War II accomplishments of Chester Himes, Frank Yerby, and many others; and the later fiction of James Baldwin, Paule Marshall, and LeRoi Jones (Imamu Amiri Baraka). Seven additional contributions round out a century of great stories with the work of Maya Angelou, Toni Cade Bambara, Eugenia Collier, Jennifer Jordan, James Allan McPherson, Rosemarie Robotham, and Alice Walker. Dr. Clarke has included a new introduction to this 1993 edition, and a short biography of each contributor. |
ISBN:
0933121776 |
 World's Great Men of Color, Vol. 1Click to order via Amazon
ISBN: 0684815818 by J.A. Rogers, John Henrik Clarke (Editor) An eye-opening account of the great black personalities of world history. In this first volume: outstanding blacks of Asia and Africa, and historical figures before Christ -- including Akhenaton, Aesop, Hannibal, Cleopatra, Zenobia, Askia the Great, the Mahdi, Samuel Adjai Crowther, and many more. World's Great Men of Color is a comprehensive account of the great Black personalities in world history. J. A. Rogers was one of the first Black scholars to devote most of his life to researching the lives of hundreds of men and women of color. This first volume is a convenient reference; equipped with a comprehensive introduction, it treats all aspects of recorded Black history. J. A. Rogers's book is vital reading for everyone who wants a fuller and broader understanding of the great personalities who have shaped our world. The companion volume covers the great Blacks of Europe, South and Central America, the West Indies, and the United States, including Marcus Garvey, Robert Browning, Dom Pedro, Alexandre Dumas, Joachim Murat, Aleksander Sergeevich Pushkin, Alessandro de' Medici, St. Benedict the Moor, and many others. |
 World's Great Men of Color, Volume IIClick to order via Amazon by J.A. Rogers, John Henrik Clarke (Editor)
ISBN: 0684815826
|
 Introduction to African Civilizations
Click to order via Amazon John G. Jackson, Runoko Rashidi, John Henrik Clarke (Introduction) ISBN: 0806521899 "This is not just another book on African history. It is, in my opinion, one of the best books that has so far been written on the subject." —from the Introduction by John Henrik Clarke "The picture we get today of Africa in past ages from the history taught in our schools is that Africans were savages and that, although Europeans invaded their lands and made slaves of them, they were in a way conferring a great favor on them, since they brought to them the blessings of Christian civilization," writes John G. Jackson. With brilliantly objective scholarship, Jackson obliterates that picture and presents one infinitely more rich, colorful, and varied. This book challenges all the standard approaches to African history, from the dawn of prehistory to the resurgent Africa of today. It will challenge the parochial historian, devastate the theoretical pretensions of white supremacists, and expand intellectual horizons. It is a fascinating book to be read and reread by the layman and the scholar for pleasure and knowledge. |
Christopher Columbus and the Afrikan Holocaust: Slavery and the Rise of
European Capitalism
African People in World
History (Black Classic Press Contemporary Lecture)
Related Links
Virtual Museum
http://www.nbufront.org/html/MastersMuseums/JHClarke/JHCvmuseum.html
THE HARLEM WRITERS' GUILD
http://www.harlemwritersguild.com/
The Harlem Writers Guild is a community of writers of African descent whose
mission is to preserve the experience of black people in the written word.
The Guild was founded as a writers workshop in the "Village" of Harlem in New
York City in 1950. The founding members included: Dr. John Henrik Clarke,
Rosa Guy, John Oliver Killens,
Walter Christmas.
Tel. number 212 946-1534
e-mail hwg1950@aol.com
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