100 Amazing Facts About the Negro with Complete Proof

J. A. Rogers

Wesleyan University Press, Jul 25, 2012 - Social Science - 462 pages

White supremacy-busting facts that ran in the black publication the Pittsburgh Courier, written by the renowned African American author and journalist.

First published in 1934 and revised in 1962, this book gathers journalist and historian Joel Augustus Rogers’ columns from the syndicated newspaper feature titled Your History. Patterned after the look of Ripley’s popular Believe It or Not the multiple vignettes in each episode recount short items from Rogers’s research. The feature began in the Pittsburgh Courier in November 1934 and ran through the 1960s.

“I have been intrigued by this book, and by its author, since I first encountered it as a student in an undergraduate survey course in African-American history at Yale . . . Sometimes, [Rogers] was astonishingly accurate; at other times, he seems to have been tripping a bit, shall we say.” —Henry Louis Gates, Jr., The Root

“Rogers made great contribution to publishing and distributing little know African history facts through books and pamphlets such as 100 Amazing Facts About the Negro with Complete Proof and The Five Negro Presidents . . . The common thread in Roger’s research was his unending aim to counter white supremacist propaganda that prevailed in segregated communities across the United States against people of African descent.” —Black History Heroes

What people are saying

User Review -

Going through this book, I get a quick summary of facts about various topics (slavery, rulers, medicine, artists, etc.). All of the information is in the front of the book and the explanations are toward the back and explain where he got the info from. I would definitely give this to a young King or Queen so that they can know more about the amazing things our ancestors have done and what we are capable of. Easy read.  

About the author

JOEL AUGUSTUS ROGERS (September 6, 1880–March 26, 1966) was a Jamaican-American author, journalist, and historian who contributed to the history of Africa and the African diaspora, especially the history of African Americans in the United States. His research spanned the academic fields of history, sociology and anthropology. He challenged prevailing ideas about race, demonstrated the connections between civilizations, and traced African achievements. He was one of the greatest popularizers of African history in the twentieth century. Rogers addresses issues such as the lack of scientific support for the idea of race, the lack of black history being told from a black person’s perspective, and the fact of intermarriage and unions among peoples throughout history.

A respected historian and gifted lecturer, Rogers was a close personal friend of the Harlem-based intellectual and activist Hubert Harrison. In the 1920s, Rogers worked as a journalist on the Pittsburgh Courier and the Chicago Enterprise, and he served as the first black foreign correspondent from the United States.

Bibliographic information

• Title: 100 Amazing Facts About the Negro with Complete Proof; EBSCO ebook academic collection
• Author: J. A. Rogers
• Edition: illustrated
• Publisher: Wesleyan University Press, 2012
• ISBN: 0819575496, 9780819575494
• Length: 462 pages
• Subjects: History / African American & Black; History / World; Social Science / Black Studies (Global); Social Science / Ethnic Studies / American / African American & Black Studies