Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (born Ferdinand Lewis 'Lew' Alcindor on April 16, 1947) is considered by many fans and sportswriters to be the greatest basketball player of all time. The 7-foot-2 Hall of Fame center, famous for his indefensible skyhook, also dominated the NBA for 20 years. He not only captured the NBA's MVP six times, was a 19-time All-Star, and set the NBA all-time records in nine categories ' he also remains the NBA's All-Time Leading Scorer, a record that may never be broken.
Kareem has in-depth knowledge of many subjects ranging from sports to history to jazz to film. He grew up under the two biggest media spotlights in the world (NY & LA) during the Civil Rights era ' as quite literally the most visible black man in the country. This has given Kareem a unique perspective on America's political and social landscape, which makes him a dynamic and always thought-provoking speaker.
What
Color Is My World?: The Lost History of African-American Inventors
Click to
order via
Amazon
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (Author), Raymond Obstfeld, Ben Boos & A.G. Ford (Illustrators)
Reading level: Ages 8 and up
Hardcover: 44 pages
Publisher: Candlewick (January 3, 2012)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0763645648
ISBN-13: 978-0763645649
Product Dimensions: 9.6 x 0.6 x 10.1 inches
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, basketball legend and the NBA's alltime leading scorer, champions a lineup of little-known African-American inventors in this lively, kid-friendly book.
Did you know that James West’s technology is in the microphone of your cell
phone? Or that Fred Jones invented the refrigerated truck that makes
supermarkets possible? That Dr. Percy Julian synthesized cortisone from soy,
easing pain for countless people? These are just some of the black inventors
and innovators scoring big points in this dynamic look at several unsung
heroes who shared a desire to improve people’s lives. Offering profiles with
fast facts on flaps and framed by a funny contemporary story featuring
feisty twins, this book pays tribute to the minds behind the gamma electric
cell and the Super Soaker, improvements to traffic lights, openheart
surgery, and more — inventors whose ingenuity and perseverance against great
odds made our world safer, better, and brighter.
Quote on what motivated Kareem to make the book. “I was motivated by the
fact that the history books I had when I was in grade school, especially if
African-Americans were mentioned, it was only in relation to aspects of
slavery and the civil rights movement. There’s so much more to the story.
It’ s my attempt to fill in some of the blanks.” —Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
A
Season on the Reservation: My Sojourn With the White Mountain
Apaches
Click to
order via
Amazon
Hardcover: 209 pages
Publisher: William Morrow & Co (February 2000)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0688170773
ISBN-13: 978-0688170776
Product Dimensions: 9.5 x 6.3 x 0.9 inches
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar has always been fascinated by
history-nineteenth-century American history in particular. Tired
of L.A., restless and looking for new adventure, challenge, and
discovery, he decides to go live among the Apaches he's read
about. 
He encounters a complex reality. The kids on the Alchesay
Falcons team don't easily embrace what he's trying to teach them
on the court. Gradually they begin to learn from him as he
begins to learn from them. He teaches them to push out of their
comfort zone and try new things, both in sports and in life.
They give him something he didn't quite expect: a way to
reconnect with his passion for basketball.
This is a story about the qualities we have in common and the
things that still divide us in terms of race, culture, and
history. Along the way, we get to know the kids, the coaches,
the town of Whiteriver and Alchesay High, the tribe-but most of
all, we get closer to Kareem, a man well into middle age who
wants to pass along his knowledge and experience in basketball
and life. Kareem gives something back, and in so doing receives
more than he ever imagined.
On
the Shoulders of Giants: My Journey Through the Harlem
Renaissance
Click to order via
Amazon
Hardcover: 288 pages
Publisher: Simon & Schuster; 1st edition (January 30, 2007)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1416534881
ISBN-13: 978-1416534884
Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.3 x 1.2 inches
From 1920 to 1940, the Harlem Renaissance produced a bright beacon of light that paved the way for African-Americans all over the country. The unapologetic writings of W. E. B. Du Bois and Marcus Garvey, the fervent fiction and poetry of Zora Neale Hurston and Langston Hughes, the groundbreaking art of Aaron Douglas and William H. Johnson, and the triumphant music of Duke Ellington and Louis Armstrong gave voice and expression to the thoughts and emotions that Jim Crow segregation laws had long sought to stifle.
In On the Shoulders of Giants, indomitable basketball star
and bestselling author and historian Kareem Abdul-Jabbar invites
the reader on an extraordinarily personal journey back to his
birthplace, through one of the greatest political, cultural,
literary, and artistic movements in our history, revealing the
tremendous impact the Harlem Renaissance had on both American
culture and his own life. Beginning with the rise of the Harlem
Rens as pioneers of professional basketball, Kareem traces the
many streams of historical influence that converged to create
the man he is today -- the NBA's all-time leading scorer and a
veritable African-American icon.
Travel deep into the soul of the Renaissance -- to the night clubs, restaurants, basketball games, and fabulous parties that have made footprints in Harlem's history. Meet the athletes, jazz musicians, comedians, actors, politicians, entrepreneurs, and writers who not only inspired Kareem's rise to greatness but an entire nation's.
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar was born in the midst of a cultural reawakening, carried on the shoulders of athletes trying to prove there was a lot more at stake than a ball game, men and women who made music that could break your heart, and writers and intellectuals who gave voice to not just the ideals of a movement but the raw emotions. Kareem tells what it took to get these revolutionaries to Harlem and how they changed the world. A world that is still riding on the shoulders of giants.
Black
Profiles in Courage: A Legacy of African-American Achievement
Click to order via
Amazon
Paperback: 304 pages
Publisher: Harper Paperbacks; Perennial ed edition (July 3,
2000)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0380813416
ISBN-13: 978-0380813414
Product Dimensions: 8 x 5.4 x 0.8 inches
In this ideal introduction to black history, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar examines the lives of heroic African Americans and offers their stories as inspiring examples for young people, who too rarely encounter positive black role models in history books or in the media.
Profiled here are Peter Salem, the volunteer soldier who turned the tide at Bunker Hill; Joseph Cinque, leader of a daring revolt on the slave ship Amistad; Frederick Douglass, self-taught writer-orator and escaped slave who forced President Lincoln to issue the Emancipation Proclamation years ahead of schedule; Harriet Tubman, who led at least three hundred slaves to freedom; Lewis Latimer, whose scientific work was integral to the achievements of Bell and Edison; and many more.
Shining a bright light on the touchstones of character, these exemplary stories reemphasize the integral role of African Americans in weaving the fabric of our nation and form an empowering legacy from which Americans of all ages can draw inspiration, wisdom, and pride.
Related Links
The Official Website of Kareem Abdul Jabbar
http://kareemabduljabbar.com
