The Emergence of African American Literacy Traditions Family and Community Efforts in the Nineteenth Century

Subjects:

• Literature » American Literature
• Multicultural Studies » Black Studies
• Education » Multicultural Education

Reviews:

• [T]races the development of literacy in the African American community during the nineteenth century. Particular attention is paid to the role of the family and community in the establishment of literacy traditions and their transmission to successive generations.
  —Reference & Research Book News August 2005

• Endorsement From Nancy Padak,
  Distinguished Professor, Education
  Kent State University: Belt-Beyan's book, which explores family and community literacy among African Americans in 19th century United States, provides an interesting glimpse into the foundations of African American literacy traditions. She argues, and rightly so, that such traditions are best understood within contexts of what people did; why; and who they were as literate individuals, family members, members of their own communities, and members of wider American communities. She shows that African American literacy traditions emerged not only as individual developments, but also as group developments that were fully integrated in family and community ways of life.... This work will be important to researchers and graduate students interested in qualitative studies of families and communities from historical, cultural, and social distances.

Table of Contents:

• Foreword by Ronald Lewis
• Acknowledgments
• Theoretical and Conceptual Frameworks
• Families
• Invisible and Visible Schools
• Community Literacy
• Conclusions
• References
• Index