Читать книгу Freedom Facts and Firsts - Jessie Carney Smith - Страница 9

Freedom Facts and Firsts is a product of the myriads of people who, in one way or another, were a part of the civil rights struggle throughout this nation’s existence. We acknowledge their work and worth and all that they achieved to make life easier for those who followed. Since these acknowledgments are meant to deal with the “here and now,” we take this moment to thank those who contributed to some aspect of this book.

First, we thank our contributors, beginning with Crystal deGregory, who helped us clarify some of the issues we faced as we deliberated over the list of entries and made agonizing decisions about who or what should be included and why. Cheryl Hamberg deserves special thanks for keeping a watchful eye for new sources that relate to our project and bringing them to our attention. Frederick “Rick” Smith deserves praise for scanning images for us. All of the contributors put aside other important matters to write multiple entries for this work. For those who came to our rescue again late in the project, when we thought our work was complete, and enabled us to fill the void in the sports chapter, we are grateful. Each of our contributors also called our attention to current developments related to our subjects, suggested people and events that should be added, and repeatedly helped us make important decisions about the book. We thank you again.

Works such as this are impossible to prepare without the assistance of libraries, particularly those with important civil rights materials in their collections. We acknowledge the support of many such libraries whose staff members responded to our requests for information or clarification on issues, who introduced us to local oral history interviews and historic civil rights sites, and who helped us fill in gaps in our research. Thank you Beth Howse, and the Special Collections Department at Fisk University’s library, for pulling photographs and references needed to write the entries, and to library staffer Jason Harrison for retrieving and copying materials for us.

Our families have been especially understanding—and hopefully appreciative—of our untiring dedication to the project often at the expense of familial matters. We appreciate your support and your willingness to wait patiently or impatiently for our attention until the last item was sent to press.

To Roger Jänecke of Visible Ink Press, thank you for offering us the opportunity to develop this project, for guiding us throughout the stages of its development, and for the constant words of encouragement that you like to offer. We can probably never show enough appreciation to the staff of Visible Ink, especially editor Kevin Hile, who survived the project despite the problems that we know it (or we) created. Additional thanks to proofreaders Ken Shepherd and Amy Keyzer, designer Mary Claire Krzewinski, indexer Larry Baker, and typesetter Marco Di Vita.

The Editors