African Americans on Martha's Vineyard

African Americans on Martha's Vineyard
Author: Tom Dresser
Publisher: American Heritage
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2010
Genre: History
ISBN: 9781596290693

African Americans of Martha's Vineyard have an epic history. From the days when slaves toiled away in the fresh New England air, through abolition and Reconstruction and continuing into recent years, African Americans have fought arduously to preserve a vibrant culture here. Discover how the Vineyard became a sanctuary for slaves during the Civil War and how many blacks first came to the island as indentured servants. Read tales of the Shearer Cottage, a popular vacation destination for prominent blacks from Harry T. Burleigh to Scott Joplin, and how Martin Luther King Jr. vacationed here as well. Venture through the Vineyard with local tour guide Thomas Dresser and learn about people such as Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates and President Barack Obama, who return to the Vineyard for respite from a demanding world.

Finding Martha's Vineyard

Finding Martha's Vineyard
Author: Jill Nelson
Publisher: Doubleday Books
Total Pages: 282
Release: 2005
Genre: History
ISBN: 9780385505666

A portrait of the thriving African-American community on the island of Martha's Vineyard describes the various groups who settled in Oak Bluffs, including vacationing families, local domestics, and multi-generational professionals.

Driving While Black: African American Travel and the Road to Civil Rights

Driving While Black: African American Travel and the Road to Civil Rights
Author: Gretchen Sorin
Publisher: Liveright Publishing
Total Pages: 332
Release: 2020-02-11
Genre: History
ISBN: 1631495704

Bloomberg • Best Nonfiction Books of 2020: "[A] tour de force." The basis of a major PBS documentary by Ric Burns, this “excellent history” (The New Yorker) reveals how the automobile fundamentally changed African American life. Driving While Black demonstrates that the car—the ultimate symbol of independence and possibility—has always held particular importance for African Americans, allowing black families to evade the dangers presented by an entrenched racist society and to enjoy, in some measure, the freedom of the open road. Melding new archival research with her family’s story, Gretchen Sorin recovers a lost history, demonstrating how, when combined with black travel guides—including the famous Green Book—the automobile encouraged a new way of resisting oppression.

Lighting the Trail

Lighting the Trail
Author: Elaine Weintraub
Publisher:
Total Pages: 123
Release: 2005-01-01
Genre: African American Heritage Trail of Martha's Vineyard (Mass.)
ISBN: 9780978621407

A look at Martha's Vineyard, where generations of African-Americans have lived, worked and played, year-round or for a summer.

Women of Martha's Vineyard

Women of Martha's Vineyard
Author: Thomas Dresser
Publisher: Arcadia Publishing
Total Pages: 196
Release: 2016-05-18
Genre: History
ISBN: 1614239304

Generations of women have traveled to Martha's Vineyard to find solace in its calming waves and varied shoreline. Many prominent and capable women set down roots, contributing to the fabric of the community on the island. Learn of the brilliant poet Nancy Luce, who lived in isolation with her chickens. Emily Post, whose name is synonymous with good manners, sought respite from her personal struggles on the Vineyard. Famed horticulturalist Polly Hill left a perennial legacy for islanders with her tranquil arboretum. In the twentieth century, novelist Dorothy West captured the beauty of Martha's Vineyard with her work. Historian Thomas Dresser provides a series of biographical sketches of these extraordinary women who were bound by their love of the island.

Hidden History of Martha's Vineyard

Hidden History of Martha's Vineyard
Author: Thomas Dresser
Publisher: Arcadia Publishing
Total Pages: 144
Release: 2017-04-17
Genre: History
ISBN: 143966028X

Celebrated local historian Thomas Dresser unearths the little-known stories that laid the foundations for the community of Martha's Vineyard. Behind the mansions and presidential vacations of Martha's Vineyard hide the lost stories and forgotten events of small-town America. What was the island's role in the Underground Railroad? Why do chickens festoon Nancy Luce's grave? And how did the people of the Vineyard react in 1923 when the rum running ship John Dwight sank with the island's supply of liquor aboard? Delve deep below the surface of history to discover the origin and meaning of local place names and the significance of beloved landmarks.

The Negro Motorist Green Book

The Negro Motorist Green Book
Author: Victor H. Green
Publisher: Colchis Books
Total Pages: 222
Release:
Genre: History
ISBN:

The Negro Motorist Green Book was a groundbreaking guide that provided African American travelers with crucial information on safe places to stay, eat, and visit during the era of segregation in the United States. This essential resource, originally published from 1936 to 1966, offered a lifeline to black motorists navigating a deeply divided nation, helping them avoid the dangers and indignities of racism on the road. More than just a travel guide, The Negro Motorist Green Book stands as a powerful symbol of resilience and resistance in the face of oppression, offering a poignant glimpse into the challenges and triumphs of the African American experience in the 20th century.

The Wampanoag Tribe of Martha's Vineyard

The Wampanoag Tribe of Martha's Vineyard
Author: Tom Dresser
Publisher: American Heritage
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2011
Genre: History
ISBN: 9781609491864

The Wampanoag Tribe of Gay Head/Aquinnah are an indigenous people on Martha's Vineyard. From their legendary giant leader Moshup, Wampanoags can trace their ancestry back more than ten thousand years. The tribe weathered colonization by missionaries in the 1600s, then endured two centuries of domination, only to have their land taken in 1870. However, over the past 140 years, the Wampanoag Tribe, which still lives in its ancestral home of Aquinnah, has shown endurance and fortitude as it continues to practice traditional crafts and its tribal heritage. Thomas Dresser captures the spirit of the tribe, tracing its survival through to recognition by the federal government in 1987, nearly twenty-five years ago. Brief interviews with elders and current tribal members offer insight into the tribe's remarkable history.