Review of Visions of Freedom on the Great Plains: An Illustrated History of African Americans in Nebraska, by Bertha W. Calloway and Alonzo M. Smith.

Authors

Ernie Chambers, Senator, Nebraska State Legislature

Date of this Version

March 2000

Comments

Published in Great Plains Quarterly, Volume 20, Number 2, Spring 2000, pp. 168 - 169. © 2000 Center for Great Plains Studies, University of Nebraska – Lincoln.

Abstract

Historical or hysterical-that is the question. An 18 January 1999 Omaha World-Herald "Bookwords" column fingered Dr. Smith as "the principal writer" of Visions. In a 14 January 1999 review, The Reader of Omaha gushed: "an exciting new picture book ... filled with picture after crisp black-and-white picture ... a must for anyone even slightly interested in local history." Napoleon decried history as a fable agreed on. To deem this error-riddled book a "history" would be indeed a fable agreed on. This could have been a magnificent project-but what we have instead merits those saddest "words of tongue or pen ... : 'It might have been!'"