The Transatlantic Slave Trade Overcoming the 500-year Legacy

by Chavis, Benjamin; Brown, Stacy; D, Chuck

• ISBN13: 9781590795699
• ISBN10: 1590795695
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2024-10-08
• Publisher: SelectBooks

Summary

“Dr. Chavis shows us that the fight against the legacy of the transatlantic slave trade is not just about seeking justice for past wrongs but about dismantling the present systems of oppression that have evolved from it.” – From the Foreword by CHUCK D

The Transatlantic Slave Trade: Overcoming the 500-Year Legacy is a profound exploration of one of humanity’s darkest chapters. Co-authored by National Newspapers Publishers Association (NNPA) Senior National Correspondent Stacy M. Brown and renowned historian Dr. Benjamin Chavis, this book delves into the enduring impacts and legacies of the transatlantic slave trade from 1500 to 2024.

The transatlantic slave trade is a brutal scar on the face of humanity, a monstrous crime that tore millions of Africans from their homeland, dehumanized them, and built the so-called American dream on their blood, sweat, and tears. This isn’t just history—it’s the very foundation of the systemic racism that still plagues America today. To understand the real roots of the struggle, one must return to where it all began. And that’s precisely what this book does—unflinchingly and unapologetically.

Author Biography

Benjamin Franklin Chavis Jr. is an activist, author, journalist, and the current president and CEO of the National Newspaper Publishers Association. In 1993, the national board of directors of the NAACP elected Benjamin F. Chavis, Jr as the executive director and CEO of America's oldest civil rights organization. In his youth, Chavis was a youth coordinator and SCLC assistant to Martin Luther King Jr. At the age of 23, he rose to in 1971 as the leader of the Wilmington Ten in North Carolina, civil rights activists who were unjustly convicted of committing arson.

Stacy M. Brown is a senior writer for The Washington Informer and the senior national correspondent for the Black Press of America. Stacy has more than 25 years of journalism experience and has authored two major biographies, including "Blind Faith: The Miraculous Journey of Lula Hardaway, Stevie Wonder's Mother." 

Chuck D is considered one of the most influential lyricists in contemporary music. Both as a solo artist and as the leader of the ground-breaking hip hop group Public Enemy (which was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2013), he helped pave the way for political, social, and culturally conscious hip hop. Public Enemy's albums remain among the most critically acclaimed works in the genre, including It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back and Fear of a Black Planet.
A visionary in digital entertainment, Chuck D helped lead the filesharing movement, launched one of the first online entertainment websites, Rapstation.com, and digital-only record labels, the SpitSlam Record Label Group and Public Enemy were the second act to ever release an album in MP3 format. He is on the road three weeks out of each month touring with Public Enemy and his supergroup Prophets of Rage or speaking at tech and music conferences and colleges, and splits his days off between Long Island, Atlanta, and Southern California.

Table of Contents

Foreword by Chuck D Preface ONE UN Observes International Remembrance of Slave Trade TWO The Catholic Church Played a Major Role in Slavery THREE A Five-Hundred-Year-Old Shared History FOUR The Economic Engine of the New Nation FIVE Are We Still Slaves? SIX The “ Roots” of Slavery and Its Lasting Effects SEVEN From Enslavement to Mass Incarceration EIGHT From Slavery to Civil Rights and Environmental Racism NINE The Transatlantic Slave Trade: 500 Years Later the Diaspora Still Suffers TEN The Transatlantic Slave Trade— Africans Urged to “ Come Home” ELEVEN A Slave’ s African Medical Science Saves Lives of Bostonians During the 1771 Smallpox Epidemic TWELVE Environmental Racism, Another Legacy of the Transatlantic Slave Trade THIRTEEN The Misleading Myths of Black-on-Black Crime FOURTEEN The Deepening Wealth Gap: Decades of Policy Failures Leave Formerly Enslaved People Behind FIFTEEN Redlining, Gentrification, and the Stealing of Communities SIXTEEN The News Media Perpetuates Racism CONCLUSION Overcoming the 500-Year Legacy from 1500– 2024 APPENDIX A UN Resolution on International Decade for People of African Descent APPENDIX B UN Resolution on the Transatlantic Slave Trade APPENDIX C UN Declaration on Human Rights APPENDIX D UN Report on Reparatory Justice for People of African Descent EPILOGUE African Union Ambassador Dr. Arikana Chihombori-Quao’ s Address to the NNPA at its Midwinter Training Conference in Florida, January 2019 About the National Newspaper Publishers Association (NNPA) About the Black Press of America Index About Dr. Benjamin F. Chavis, Jr. About Stacy M. Brown