The first edition of Joel Augustus Rogers s now legendary 100 Amazing Facts About the Negro
with Complete Proof published in 1934 was billed as A Negro Believe It or Not. Rogers s
little book was priceless because he was delivering enlightenment and pride steeped in
historical research to a people too long starved on the lie that they were worth nothing. For
African Americans of the Jim Crow era Rogers s was their first black history teacher. But
Rogers was not always shy about embellishing the facts and minimizing ambiguity neither was he
above shock journalism now and then. With élan and erudition and with winning enthusiasm Henry
Louis Gates Jr. gives us a corrective yet loving homage to Roger s work. Relying on the latest
scholarship Gates leads us on a romp through African diasporic and African-American history
in question-and-answer format. Among the one hundred questions: Who were Africa s first
ambassadors to Europe? Who was the first black president in North America? Did Lincoln really
free the slaves? Who was history s wealthiest person? What percentage of white Americans have
recent African ancestry? Why did free black people living in the South before the end of the
Civil War stay there? Who was the first black head of state in modern Western history? Where
was the first Underground Railroad? Who was the first black American woman to be a self-made
millionaire? Which black man made many of our favorite household products better? Here is a
surprising inspiring sometimes boldly mischievous all the while highly instructive and
entertaining compendium of historical curiosities intended to illuminate the sheer complexity
and diversity of being Negro in the world. (With full-color illustrations throughout.)
