Born to enslaved parents, Anthony Overton became one of the leading African American entrepreneurs of the twentieth century. Overton's Chicago-based empire ranged from personal care products and media properties to insurance and finance. Yet, despite success and acclaim as the first business figure to win the NAACP's Spingarn Medal, Overton remains an enigma.Robert E. Weems Jr. restores Overton to his rightful place in American business history. Dispelling stubborn myths, he traces...

From Jean Baptiste Point DuSable to Oprah Winfrey, black entrepreneurship has helped define Chicago. Robert E. Weems Jr. and Jason P. Chambers curate a collection of essays that place the city as the center of the black business world in the United States. Ranging from titans like Anthony Overton and Jesse Binga to McDonald’s operators to black organized crime, the scholars shed light on the long-overlooked history of African American work and entrepreneurship since the Great Migration. To...

This study seeks to critically examine the field and function of social stratification, with emphasis on Africana phenomena. Phrased another way, this edited volume attempts to study and focus on who gets what and why, with regard to resources and structural application of support. The John Henrik Clarke query is who made this arrangement of leadership in America. Moreover, serving as a reference, this study will assist researchers in contextualizing and thematically examining the structur...

In response to the events following September 11, a number of leading cultural studies and interpretive qualitative researchers write from their own experiences and hearts. Their essays-by noted scholars Kellner, Fine, McLaren, Richardson, Denzin, Giroux and others-are collected in this volume, and were written in crisis within days and weeks of September 11. The immediacy of their writing is refreshing, and reflects the varied emotional and critical responses that bring meaning to this ca...