Distinguished African Americans in Aviation and Space Science:
Every year Black History Month brings the onslaught of requests for biographies of civil rights leaders. Library shelves are quickly depleted, and customers are disappointed when all the material on Martin Luther King Jr., Rosa Parks, and Harriet Tubman is gone. The accomplishments of these figures are indeed significant, but what a shame that so many other lesser-known African Americans who faced similar obstacles with courage and determination go unknown.In this title, the third in the Distinguished African Americans Series, the biographies of 80 men and 20 women are recorded. The lives cover 80 years of the twentieth century. There is Eugene Bullard, born in 1895, who flew for the French in World War I, and astronaut Robert Curbeam, born in 1962. The women, too, span the century, from Bessie Coleman, the first black woman to earn a pilot's license, to Apprille Ericsson-Jackson, a NASA aerospace engineer born in 1963.The stories of their lives have been culled from articles, interviews and research. These sources lend a lively "in-the-moment" tone to the narrative and bring the accomplishments of the biographees into sharp focus.Each entry gives basic biographical information in the form of a brief summary paragraph highlighting the significance of the person's accomplishments. The essay-length biography discusses childhood, education, and career. A list of sources follows each entry, and a bibliography is included at the end of the book. Some entries are accompanied by photographs. The Internet offers numerous links to African American aviation pioneer sites, and it is hoped that these will be included when the book is updated.Public and school libraries should not hesitate to add this title to their collections and to suggest to young customers that as important as the civil rights figures are, there are other African Americans who have made history.RBBCopyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved