[Review of] Stanley Nelson (Producer and Director). The Black Press: Soldiers Without Swords

One of the most important institutions established in African American communities has been the Black Press. It is also an institution that has not received much of the attention it deserves. The Black Press today still consists of approximately 100 newspapers carrying on the tradition of the first Black newspaper, Freedom\u27s Journal (1827). After recently compiling a bibliography on Blacks in the U.S. West, it became obvious that whenever and wherever a Black community became established, Black newspapers immediately emerged. For example, Colorado had over one hundred, California more than twice that number, and Iowa over forty. States such as Wyoming or North Dakota that had no Black newspapers received some coverage from out-of-state Black papers. Further, some out-of-state Black newspapers also received distribution in those states with few or no Black newspapers, providing much-needed information and resources

[Review of] Philip Durham and Everett L. Jones. The Negro Cowboy

Except for books such as The Negro Cowboys, the African American West remains an enigma to most Americans. Popular media continue to perpetuate the stereotype of a white West, in spite of the fact that some of the earliest explorers accompanying the European invasion were of African descent. Beginning in 1501 with the Spanish conquest of Mexico, Africans were there. They were with Balboa when he discovered the Pacific, with Cortes in Mexico, with Cabeza de Vaca, Coronado, and others. Estevanico (Little Stephen) first explored New Mexico and Arizona

[Review of] S. Allen Counter. North Pole Legacy: Black, White, and Eskimo

According to the Guiness [Guinness] Book of Records, Eskimos Egingwah, Ootah, Ooqueahand Seegloo, along with African American Matthew Henson, became the first humans to stand on the North Pole. The date of their famous journey to where no one has gone before was April 6, 1909. However, they were denied the status of co-discoverer with Robert E. Perry, who came along about forty-five minutes later. Perry\u27s reward to Henson for reaching the Pole before him was to ignore Henson from that time. The names of the Eskimos were also dropped from history

[Review of] Jacqueline Jones Royster, ed. Southern Horrors and Other Writings: The Anti-Lynching Campaign of Ida B. Wells, 1892-1900

Ida B. Wells (Barnett) was the first writer to document the lynchings of African Americans. Born in 1862, at age sixteen she had to raise her four brothers and sisters after the 1878 deaths of her parents. Still, she managed to attend Rust College and Fisk University. While teaching school in Memphis, Wells first began writing articles for a church newspaper and then contributed to other Baptist newspapers. She used the pen name of Iola, and the popularity of her articles led to her becoming co-owner of the Memphis Free Speech and Headlight in 1889. It was the lynching of three of her friends that caused her to question the lies surrounding lynchings of African Americans -- that African American males were punished for raping white women. On March 9, 1892, she published the editorial Eight Men Lynched in the Free Speech that would force her to leave Memphis

[Review of] Jane M. Gaines, Fire and Desire: Mixed-Race Movies in the Silent Era

Jane M.Gaines has written an important book on the topic of race movies and race relations in early American cinema. Using eclectic analyses that range from W.E.B. DuBois\u27 insights on double consciousness, to queer theory, Gaines is able to critically examine issues of mixed race people and race mixing in silent films. She wonderfully reworks some theories until they yield beneficial interpretations. For example, Gaines argues against the blanket use of psychoanalysis as a tool to comprehend African American Experience, including cinema, because, she says, Historically psychoanalysis had no cognizance of black people nor was any attempt made to understand them (75). According to her film theory has been exclusively psychoanalytic in recent years to the exclusion of almost any other alternative methodologies

A Big World in Small Grain: A Review of Natural Milk Kefir Starters

Milk kefir is a traditional fermented milk product whose consumption is becoming increasingly popular. The natural starter for kefir production is kefir grain, which consists of various bacterial and yeast species. At the industrial scale, however, kefir grains are rarely used due to their slow growth, complex application, bad reproducibility and high costs. Instead, mixtures of defined lactic acid bacteria and sometimes yeasts are applied, which alter sensory and functional properties compared to natural grain-based milk kefir. In order to be able to mimic natural starter cultures for authentic kefir production, it is a prerequisite to gain deep knowledge about the nature of kefir grains, its microbial composition, morphologic structure, composition of strains on grains and the impact of environmental parameters on kefir grain characteristics. In addition, it is very important to deeply investigate the numerous multi-dimensional interactions among different species, which play important roles on the formation and the functionality of grains

Designing peace: bricks and mortar of reconciliation

Architecture has long served the powerful and prosperous. But it is in a unique position to help reconstruct post-conflict societies by building stability and uniting divided cities

Electrooptical Determination of Polarizability for On-Line Viability and Vitality Quantification of Lactobacillus plantarum Cultures

The rapid assessment of cell viability is crucial for process optimization, e.g., during media selection, determination of optimal environmental growth conditions and for quality control. In the present study, the cells' electric anisotropy of polarizability (AP) as well as the mean cell length in Lactobacillus plantarum batch and fed-batch fermentations were monitored with electrooptical measurements coupled to fully automated sample preparation. It was examined, whether this measurement can be related to the cells' metabolic activity, and thus represents a suitable process analytical technology. It is demonstrated that the AP is an early indicator to distinguish between suitable and unsuitable growth conditions in case of a poor energy regeneration or cell membrane defects in L. plantarum batch and fed-batch cultivations. It was shown that the applied method allowed the monitoring of physiological and morphological changes of cells in various growth phases in response to a low pH-value, substrate concentration changes, temperature alterations, exposure to air and nutrient limitation. An optimal range for growth in batch mode was achieved, if the AP remained above 25·10−28 F·m2 and the mean cell length at ~2.5 μm. It was further investigated, in which way the AP develops after freeze-drying of samples, which were taken in different cultivation phases. It was found that the AP increased most rapidly in resuspended samples from the retardation and late stationary phases, while samples from the early stationary phase recovered slowly. Electrooptical measurements provide valuable information about the physiologic and morphologic state of L. plantarum cells, e.g., when applied as starter cultures or as probiotic compounds.DFG, 325093850, Open Access Publizieren 2017 - 2018 / Technische Universität BerlinEC/H2020/643056/EU/Rapid Bioprocess Development/Biorapi