Beneath the Laughter Book

I had only gotten started on this book when I had to return it. James Haskins is a recent discovery that i should have discovered long ago! An Alabama native transplanted to Harlem, he has published over 150 works of nonfiction on mostly "black" and social justice topics, mostly for children and young adults. The author line should read "By Bricktop as told to James Haskins."

Bricktop is one of many African-Americans who found her personal liberation in Europe while Jim Crow still reigned in the U.S. She was famous as a singer and nightclub owner. When Martin Luther King was in Europe to receive his Nobel Peace Peace Prize, he went out of his way to meet Bricktop, who surprised him by cooking black-eyed peas in his honor.

Bricktop contains themes and subject matter that make it more appropriate for an adult audience, but most Haskins books target the youth-through-young-adult audience. As one of his colleagues said, Haskins "created a canon that is a resource for anyone studying black history." Anyone of any age can enjoy and learn from the work of James Haskins. He may be Alabama's most prolific author. Jane DeNeefe