front cover of Chi Boy
Chi Boy
Native Sons and Chicago Reckonings
Keenan Norris
The Ohio State University Press, 2022
In Chi Boy, Keenan Norris melds memoir, cultural criticism, and literary biography to indelibly depict Chicago—from the Great Migration to the present day—as both a cradle of black intellect, art, and politics and a distillation of America’s deepest tragedies. With the life and work of Richard Wright as his throughline, Norris braids the story of his family and particularly of his father, Butch Norris, with those of other black men—Wright, Barack Obama, Ralph Ellison, Frank Marshall Davis—who have called Chicago home. Along the way he examines the rise of black street organizations and the murders of Yummy Sandifer and Hadiya Pendleton to examine the city’s status in the cultural imaginary as “Chi-Raq,” a war zone within the nation itself. In Norris’s telling, the specter of violence over black life is inescapable: in the South that Wright and Butch Norris escaped, in the North where it finds new forms, and worldwide where American militarism abroad echoes brutalities at home. Yet, in the family story at the center of this unforgettable book, Norris also presents an enduring vision of hope and love.
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Native Sons
Philadelphia Baseball Players
Rich Westcott
Temple University Press, 2003
Reggie Jackson (Wyncote). Roy Campanella (Philadelphia). Pat Kelly (also Philadelphia). From the most famous to the little known, 350 major league baseball players came from the Philadelphia area. Now, for the first time, celebrated baseball historian Rich Westcott brings these "native sons" home. In this short book, Westcott offers profiles of some of the most celebrated, talented, and often just hardest-working athletes to ever lift a bat and glove in major league baseball. He tells of the athletes like Mr. October, who were born here and went away, and others, like Kensington-born Jimmie Wilson, who became a star in his own hometown. Throughout Native Sons, Westcott recounts the startling careers of some incredible players, and recreates for readers the magical place they all called home. Rich Westcott's Philadelphia All-Star Team: •Reggie Jackson (Wyncote)
•Goose Goslin (Salem, NJ)
•Del Ennis (Philadelphia)
•Mickey Vernon (Marcus Hook)
•Eddie Stanky (Philadelphia)
•Jimmy Dykes (Philadelphia)
•Buck Weaver (Pottstown)
•Roy Campanella (Philadelphia)
•Bucky Walters (Philadelphia)
•Herb Pennock (Kennett Square)
•Ray Narleski (Camden, NJ)
•Eddie Miksis (Burlington, NJ)
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front cover of Native Sons
Native Sons
West African Veterans and France in the Twentieth Century
Gregory Mann
Duke University Press, 2006
For much of the twentieth century, France recruited colonial subjects from sub-Saharan Africa to serve in its military, sending West African soldiers to fight its battles in Europe, Southeast Asia, and North Africa. In this exemplary contribution to the “new imperial history,” Gregory Mann argues that this shared military experience between France and Africa was fundamental not only to their colonial relationship but also to the reconfiguration of that relationship in the postcolonial era. Mann explains that in the early twenty-first century, among Africans in France and Africa, and particularly in Mali—where Mann conducted his research—the belief that France has not adequately recognized and compensated the African veterans of its wars is widely held and frequently invoked. It continues to animate the political relationship between France and Africa, especially debates about African immigration to France.

Focusing on the period between World War I and 1968, Mann draws on archival research and extensive interviews with surviving Malian veterans of French wars to explore the experiences of the African soldiers. He describes the effects their long absences and infrequent homecomings had on these men and their communities, he considers the veterans’ status within contemporary Malian society, and he examines their efforts to claim recognition and pensions from France. Mann contends that Mali is as much a postslavery society as it is a postcolonial one, and that specific ideas about reciprocity, mutual obligation, and uneven exchange that had developed during the era of slavery remain influential today, informing Malians’ conviction that France owes them a “blood debt” for the military service of African soldiers in French wars.

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