James Haskins

19 September 1941 – 6 July 2005

100 works on record

Biography

James Haskins was born in Demopolis, Alabama. He graduated from high school in Boston, Massachusetts. In 1960 he received a B.A. degree from Georgetown University, in 1962 he received a B.S. degree from Alabama State University, and in 1963 he received a M.A. degree from the University of New Mexico. After graduation, he moved to New York and worked as a stock trader on Wall Street. He taught music and special education classes in Harlem, and eventually left stock trading to become a full-time teacher. His first book, Diary of a Harlem Schoolteacher, was published in 1969. He was a professor of English at the University of Florida, Gainesville, and lived in New York City. Over the course of his career, he wrote well over 100 books, mostly for children and young adults, focusing on the biographies of leading African Americans and key aspects of African-American culture, social history, and contemporary life. He died in 2005 of complications from emphysema.

Works

The rise of Jim Crow

2008

Count your way through Egypt

2007

Count your way through Zimbabwe

2007

Count your way through Kenya

2007

Africa

2007

African American religious leaders

2007

Count your way through Afghanistan

2007

Count your way through Iran

2007

John Lewis in the lead

2006

African heroes

2005

Black stars of colonial and revolutionary times

2002

Following freedom's star

2002

Conjure times

2001

Out of the darkness

2000

Jesse Jackson

2000

Distinguished African American political and governmental leaders

1999

Moaning bones

1998

Black, blue & gray

1998

African beginnings

1998

Louis Farrakhan and the Nation of Islam

1996

The first Black governor, Pin[c]kney Benton Stewart Pinchback

1996

From Afar to Zulu

1995

Black eagles

1995

The day Fort Sumter was fired on

1995

The Scottsboro Boys

1994

Adam Clayton Powell

1993

The March on Washington

1993

Hippocrene U.S.A. guide to historic Black South

1993

I am somebody!

1992

I have a dream

1992

One more river to cross

1992

Thurgood Marshall

1992

The Methodists

1992

Colin Powell

1992

Scatman

1991

Sports great Magic Johnson

1989

Count your way through Canada

1989

India under Indira and Rajiv Gandhi

1989

Bill Cosby

1988

Shirley Temple Black

1988

Corazon Aquino

1988

Winnie Mandela

1988

Mabel Mercer

1987

The Statue of Liberty, America's proud lady

1986

Break dancing

1985

About Michael Jackson

1985

Diana Ross

1985

Leaders of the Middle East

1985

Nat King Cole

1984

Lena

1984

Space challenger

1984

The Guardian Angels

1983

Lena Horne

1983

The child abuse help book

1982

"Magic," a biography of Earvin Johnson

1982

Katherine Dunham

1982

Werewolves

1981

The new Americans

1980

I'm gonna make you love me

1980

Andrew Young, man with a mission

1979

Gambling--who really wins?

1979

The quiet revolution

1979

George McGinnis

1978

Who are the handicapped?

1978

He will lift up his head

1978

Voodoo & hoodoo

1978

The Stevie Wonder scrapbook

1978

Real estate careers

1978

Bob McAdoo, superstar

1978

The life and death of Martin Luther King, Jr

1977

The long struggle

1976

A new kind of joy

1976

Pelé

1976

The story of Stevie Wonder

1976

Teen-age alcoholism

1976

Always movin' on

1976

The consumer movement

1975

The picture life of Malcolm X

1975

Doctor J

1975

The Creoles of color of New Orleans

1975

Fighting Shirley Chisholm

1975

Jobs in business and office

1974

Babe Ruth and Hank Aaron

1974

Ralph Bunche; a most reluctant hero

1974

Street gangs: yesterday and today

1974

Witchcraft, mysticism, and magic in the Black world

1974

Snow sculpture and ice carving

1974

Black manifesto for education

1973

The psychology of Black language

1973

Pinckney Benton Stewart Pinchback

1973

Jokes from Black folks

1973

Religions

1973

From Lew Alcindor to Kareem Abdul Jabbar

1972

Profiles in Black power

1972

The war and the protest: Viet Nam

1971

Resistance

1970

Diary of a Harlem schoolteacher

1969

Black dance in America

Nat King Cole

Katherine Dunham