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African-American Pioneers in Anthropology. Ira E. Harrison and Faye V. Harrison, eds. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1999. 296 pp.
Faye V. Harrison and Ira E. Harrison (no relation) have compiled an invaluable volume that documents the courage, strength, and fortitude of the first African American scholars to explore the discursive terrain of anthropology-a terrain perhaps even more hostile to them than the Oregon territory was to the pioneers of the far West. African-American Pioneers in Anthropology is a stellar collection of 13 intellectual biographies documenting some of the most prominent black anthropologists this century. The book "aims to make more visible, to situate, and to consolidate the considerable interest in anthropology's black `ancestors and elders'"(p. 6).
Some of the individuals featured are names that most anthropologists would recognize like Zora Neale Hurston, St. Clair Drake, and Elliot Skinner. Eugene E. King, W. Montague Cobb, or Katherine Dunham on the other hand may not be known as key figures in the history of American anthropology, but the reader quickly learns that these anthropologists emerged as key figures in American history. King played a critical role in desegregating public schools, Cobb was a leader in desegregating hospitals, and Dunham was literally center-stage in the effort to desegregate performance halls and public accommodations.
Although the intellectual biographies featured in this volume are quite diverse with regard to time period, area...