Joan PotterReseñas

Yay! You know I consider myself really well versed in Black history… but I definitely learned a few new things from reading this book. I had never heard of the first Black owned car company. I had never heard of the first Black owned furniture company. I really, really loved reading this book. So much that I bought a few copies for my child and other friends. Really great book for kids and adults.

An interesting though not quite original book, but not many reference books are. Great to have on the coffee table to grab and look up a random figures from Black America history.

I was frustrated with this book. It included a lot of _great_ people but it was hard to find them! It was organized more like a book that you would browse through rather than look someone up in. Like someone else said, if they were organized alphabetically (or even chronologically) it would have made it a much easier _reference_ book. It's also a pretty easy read that would probably be good for students (middle or high school?) to use...a good addition to a classroom library.

I have frankly been surprised by how interesting I have found this book. I expected it to be a rather dry compilation of facts. Instead, each "first" is a mini-biography, most often only 2-4 paragraphs. And, because these are the stories of African Americans, those mini-biographies are almost always stories of overcoming significant, often dreadful difficulties. Likewise, fairly often, the mini-biographies have disappointingly sad endings when the prevailing prejudice once again overwhelms the individual's accomplishment as an African American first. Thus, I have found story after story interesting and enlightening. The book, therefore, is much more than a compilation of facts about individuals. As a whole, it conveys a breadth of the African American experience from the earliest history of our nation to the present and in all fields of endeavor. I recommend this book to anyone.

A great collection, especially for teens, to learn about the Heroes of Black America. A great book for a home reference library and thoughtful interpretation of the impact of each era on the individual.

This is such a wonderful reference book for any home library. Being that February is African American History month, this book was wonderful to read through and discover the intelligence, of African Americans and the contributions they have made to our society. I was very happy to see an inclusion of President Obama and the First Lady.

Joan Potter did a wonderful job of capturing the different areas and in detail gave historical events from birth forward.

What an appropriate book to delve into in honor of Black History Month!

This is a comprehensive account of the many accomplishments of African Americans who were firsts in their field despite having to overcome poverty and racism. The book is divided into categories of Business, Education, Music, Sports, Literature, Law and Government and others.

The first thing that struck me about this book is that I did not like the way the headings were formatted. Each accomplishment reads for example: Who was the First African American to Publish a Novel, or Who was the First African American to win the Congressional Medal of Honor? This format does not make it easy for the reader to quickly obtain the information that one is looking for. I would have liked to have seen in the Literature section for example, were sub headings that read Poetry, Novels, Pulitzer Prizes, etc. I don't think it's necessary to repeatedly phrase "who was the first to?" in a book that is titled African American Firsts".

I immediately realized however that despite my pickiness with the book's layout, there were many things that I did not know or had been mistaken about through the years. Overall I think that this book is an excellent reference tool to inform the reader of the many accomplishments in African American history. This is a book that I will keep as a wonderful historical and reference guide.

Let me ask you:

Who was the country's first African American Millionaire?
When did the first school for African American children open in New York city?
What was the first musical produced on Broadway with an all-African American cast?
Who published the first African American magazine?

There's over 425 pages of questions like these, with answers, illustrations and bibliography, contained in this excellent volume.
Fully revised and updated, Joan Potter's book should be in the collection of students, historians and genealogists.
Family Historians can create some fascinating timelines to support and supplement their research.

Overall, this is an interesting reference book of one-page biographies of african-americans who were either the first person or the first african-american to accomplish, discover, or achieve something. The biographies are well written, full of detail--not trivial despite their shortness, but concise. This book would be a great reference to get a name in a field of achievement and enough detail to be satisfied or to launch an in depth study into other sources.

Their are two major aspects of this book that are lacking that would have made this book more useful. The first item lacking is a table of contents that would be useful. The table of contents should only lists the major headings (e.g. Business, Film), but it should have been one level deeper with actually listing the accomplishment and the person's name. This second level of the contents would have made it easy to find an accomplishment or a person.

The second missing element in this book is meaningful titles for each accomplishment and person. The headings are annoyingly posed as questions like "Who Was the First African American to Win an Academy Award?" You can not scan this book quickly--because of the shallow table of contents and because of these verbose, indirect headings--to find a person or an accomplishment. The accomplishment is hidden in the wordiness of the question. The book is about first african americans so don't repeat it in every heading. The heading should have been: Academy Award: ______ ______ (see I lost my place in the book and could not find it again from the table of contents!).

Oddly the book did not really list a technology section, although it did have science and medicine as a combined category.

I would have given this book a higher rating if it were easy to find an accomplishment and the person (yes, there is an index but it is not as helpful as a meaningful table of contents and meaningful, concise headings). I think the author/editor/publisher really missed the strength of a book that really has well written content.

A well-documented and well-researched guide to African American achievements and African American pioneers. Organized topically (Business, Entertainment, Law & Government, etc.) and then chronologically within each chapter, the book poses questions of the reader in an engaging way: "Who was the First African American Member of the FCC?" or "What was the First Rap Music Hit?" The index is slightly messy and with a few mistakes, but the title is a worthwhile reference guide and trivia compendium.

As a reference book, I dislike the organization. I suppose I would have preferred an alphabetical organization of names rather than topical and chronological within that. Nonetheless, this is a usable reference book. I thought it would be for younger readers, but the text is pretty challenging and the black and white photographs are not the colorful capturing images of a picture book.