A leading scholar "takes back" African-American history from the textbook writers and Afrocentric mythmakers-and shows how the stories we tell about our past can help shape our future With a fresh look at the enduring legacy of such familiar figures as Malcolm X, Martin Luther King, Jr., Medgar Evers, and W. E. B. Du Bois, Manning Marable-one of the most important black scholars to emerge since the civil rights movement-brings the past alive for a new generation. Interweaving history with tales from his own teaching life-establishing the Audubon Ballroom in Manhattan, where Malcolm X was murdered, as an historical institute, or mobilizing students to vote as they learn about the Freedom Summer of 1964-Marable connects today's social issues with the tribulations and triumphs of yesterday. Marable's perspective on the significance of these great lives lays the groundwork for his inclusive vision of "living history"-one that challenges the antiquated notions of African-American history as something separate from American history. Here the story of the slave counts as much as that of the master. Living Black History will empower readers with an understanding of our collective past and the knowledge that each day we-average citizens-are "makers" of our own American history.