{"id":333,"date":"2018-04-29T17:50:47","date_gmt":"2018-04-29T21:50:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/tellingapeoplesstory\/?p=333"},"modified":"2018-05-10T18:24:52","modified_gmt":"2018-05-10T22:24:52","slug":"11-modern-cultural-identity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/tellingapeoplesstory\/2018\/04\/11-modern-cultural-identity\/","title":{"rendered":"11. Modern Cultural Identity"},"content":{"rendered":"

Stimulated by the freedom of conveying culturally-authentic\u00a0messages, African-American authors and\u00a0illustrators set out to create an experience for African-\u00a0American youth. Children readily identified themselves with\u00a0stories placed in African-American communities, featuring\u00a0African-American characters with familiar dialects and\u00a0idioms. There was a sense of liberation from the previous\u00a0repressive Whitewashing of history. Instead of criticizing\u00a0the wrongdoings of the past, African-American authors\u00a0and illustrators work to rectify previous inaccuracies by\u00a0providing authentic portrayals. This was combined with\u00a0validating narratives that taught African-American children\u00a0the importance of retaining their \u201cBlackness.\u201d<\/p>\n

By the late 1960s, several African-American children\u2019s book\u00a0authors and illustrators gained recognition for their work in\u00a0presenting African-American cultural and historical identity\u00a0These books centered on biographies, family and home life,\u00a0community and African heritage. A need arose for children\u00a0to overcome external prejudices in support of positive\u00a0personal and collective identities. Many books presented\u00a0current realities post Civil Rights era, and expressed pride\u00a0in African-American heritage. Still, the road to wider\u00a0acceptance in mainstream publishing and readership was a\u00a0challenging path to traverse. Many publishers ignored this\u00a0genre, claiming that books about African Americans, by\u00a0African Americans, would not sell. By 1988, Just Us Books\u00a0became one of the first major, independent publishing\u00a0companies to support the growth of African-American\u00a0children\u2019s books. Today, Lee & Low Books is the largest\u00a0publisher of books by multicultural authors and illustrators.<\/p>\n

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 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Stimulated by the freedom of conveying culturally-authentic\u00a0messages, African-American authors and\u00a0illustrators set out to create an experience for African-\u00a0American youth. Children readily identified themselves with\u00a0stories placed […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":2408,"featured_media":408,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_bbp_topic_count":0,"_bbp_reply_count":0,"_bbp_total_topic_count":0,"_bbp_total_reply_count":0,"_bbp_voice_count":0,"_bbp_anonymous_reply_count":0,"_bbp_topic_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_reply_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_forum_subforum_count":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[14,15,13],"class_list":["post-333","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-online-exhibition","tag-cultural","tag-identity","tag-modern"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/tellingapeoplesstory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/333","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/tellingapeoplesstory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/tellingapeoplesstory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/tellingapeoplesstory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2408"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/tellingapeoplesstory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=333"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/tellingapeoplesstory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/333\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/tellingapeoplesstory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/408"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/tellingapeoplesstory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=333"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/tellingapeoplesstory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=333"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/tellingapeoplesstory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=333"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}