When he was 17, Sam Kelly met Paul Robeson, who asked him, "What are you doing for the race"? That question became a challenge to the you Kelly and inspired him to devote his life to helping others.  Born in Greenwich, Connecticut, Sam Kelly in this autobiography describes his New England childhood, his rise from private to colonel in the U.S. Army, his years as the University of Washington's first black key administrator's in the 1970s, and his years as the leader of an alternative school in Portland, Oregon.  The Sam Kelly story intersects with major developments in 20th Century African American history from the rich culture of the Harlem Renaissance and the integration of the U.S. Army to the civil rights movement of the 1960s and the cultural debates of the first decade of the 20th Century.  As such it is his story but it is also the story of a changing people and evolving nation.

About the Author
Quintard Taylor is the Scott and Dorothy Bullitt Professor of American History at the University of Washington, Seattle. He has devoted more than three decades of research and teaching experience to African American history.  His published works include In Search of the Racial Frontier: African Americans in the American West, 1528-1990 and The Forging of a Black Community: Seattle's Central District from 1870 through the Civil Rights Era.  He is coeditor with Shirley Ann Wilson Moore of African American Women Confront the West, 1600-2000 and co-editor of Seeking El Dorado: African Americans in California, 1769-1997 with Lawrence B.  de Graaf and Kevin Mulroy. He is also the author of over forty articles. His work on African American Western History, African American, African, Afro-Brazilian, and comparative ethnic history has appeared in the Western Historical Quarterly, Pacific Historical Review, Oregon Historical Quarterly, The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, Journal of Negro History, Arizona and the West, Western Journal of Black Studies, Polish-American Studies, and the Journal of Ethnic Studies, among other journals.

Taylor is the website director of the award-winning portal www.BlackPast.org.  This 4,000 page website is the largest free and ungated reference center on African American history on the Internet.  BlackPast.org is dedicated to providing reference materials to the general public on African American history in the United States and on the history of people of African ancestry around the world.

Product Details
•    Hardcover: 243 pages
•    Publisher: University of Washington Press (October 1, 2010)
•    Language: English
•    ISBN: 978-0-295-990163-3