James Haskins, who wrote more than 100 books about key moments in African American history and the black politicians, social reformers, artists and athletes who rose to prominence along the way, has died. He was 63.
Haskins, who aimed most of his books at young readers, died June 6 at his home in New York City of complications from emphysema, according to Irma McClaurin, a friend and colleague.
He began his career as a teacher in the New York City public school system and wrote some of his first books to help fill a gap he had discovered years earlier.
Haskins obituary -- A news obituary on author James Haskins in Sunday's California section said he died on June 6. He died on July 6.
"I remember being a child and not having many books about black people to read," Haskins recalled in an autobiographical essay.
He made it his mission to reconstruct African American history book by book, covering subjects that ranged from slavery to the black power movement and beyond.
"Jim Haskins created a canon of literature, particularly for children, that is a resource for anyone studying black history," said McClaurin, associate professor of anthropology at the University of Florida, where Haskins was on the faculty nearly 30 years. "He wanted to document the triumphs and tribulations of African Americans in books that are readable and accessible for the young, but not only for them."
An amateur trumpeter, Haskins wrote a number of books about black music and musicians. His "Black Music in America" (1987) begins with slave songs and spirituals and moves through the years to blues and jazz. The subjects of his many biographies of popular singers and songwriters include Mabel Mercer, Stevie Wonder and Diana Ross. He also wrote a book on rap music and another on break dancing.
Haskins covered the events that led African Americans from slavery to desegregation by presenting each phase on its own. "Get on Board, The Story of the Underground Railroad" (1993) explains how slaves escaped from the Southern states to freedom in the North.
"The March on Washington" (1993) details the massive public demonstration 30 years earlier that enunciated the goals of the civil rights movement. The protest was famous in part for the "I Have a Dream" speech that the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. delivered on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial.
Haskins' biographies fill out the social history.
He wrote "I Am Rosa Parks" with Parks, who had refused to give up her seat to a white passenger on a city bus in Montgomery, Ala., in 1955. Historians mark the incident as the start of the movement to integrate public services.
