Negro American Series. Book One [-Four]

Oklahoma City: Harlow Publishing Corporation, 1938. Very good.. Four volumes. 251; 135; 184; 217pp. Profusely illustrated with photographic and silhouette illustrations. Original pictorial cloth of various colors. Minor wear and soiling to covers, a couple of volumes with mild fraying to spines. Occasional light foxing to text. One volume ex-library, with stamps to endpapers, inked call number to spine tail, and pocket on rear endpaper. Overall, a nice set. A complete set of four titles published as part of the "Negro American Series" of textbooks intended for African-American primary school students in the American South. The books were written by a white teacher, Emma E. Akin, who was working at an African-American school in Dunbar, Oklahoma when she noticed a lack of textbooks focusing on Black history and achievements. The four titles are Negro Boys and Girls (designated as "Book One" on the spine); Gifts ("Book Two" on the spine); A Booker T. Washington School ("Book Three" on the spine); and Ideals and Adventures ("Book Four" on the spine).

The books contain biographies of prominent African Americans, as well as many short stories that follow the daily lives of Black students, in which they participate in daily lessons and learn about their heritage, along with reading and counting lessons, poetry, advice on how to make new friends, vocabulary lists, study questions for students, and more. An example of a couple of study questions, which follow a biography of Dr. Alphonso Mitchell, is stated as follows: "How many colored doctors do you know?" and "Why are there so few Negro dentists?" The text is enhanced with photographs taken in the Dunbar School in an effort to provide Black students with imagery with which they could identify. The acknowledgements section of the books gives thanks to fellow teachers, as well as parents and students at the Dunbar School for their contributions to the textbooks. Among those thanked by Akin is Mary McLeod Bethune (who is also profiled in the book) as well as other prominent African-American educators who contributed information and photographs or pictures. The dedication page in each volume reads simply: "This book is dedicated to America's Negro Boys and Girls."

According to a seminal work on the societal impact of children's literature, Defining Print Culture for Youth, the Cultural Work of Children's Literature: "The Negro American Series cut against the prevailing stereotypes in textual theme and content as it did in its illustrations. Each volume includes information on the accomplishments of at least one notable African American, from Paul Laurence Dunbar to Roland Hayes to Phillis Wheatley, to lesser-known figures as well. Farm children and children who live in town are treated with equal respect. Families are described as loving and concerned. Class differences are never mentioned.... Neither children nor adults are depicted as menials or buffoons.... Race progress and uplift are constant themes."

A rare opportunity to obtain the full four-volume set of these scarce publications intended to educate and uplift African American schoolchildren in the Jim Crow South.