The Ashgate Research Companion to Black Sociology provides the most up to date exploration and analysis of research focused on Blacks in America. Beginning with an examination of the project of Black Sociology, it offers studies of recent events, including the `Stand Your Ground’ killing of Trayvon Martin, the impact of Hurricane Katrina on emerging adults, and efforts to change voting requirements that overwhelmingly affect Blacks, whilst engaging with questions of sexuality and family life, incarceration, health, educational outcomes and racial wage disparities. Inspired by W.E.B. Du Bois’s charge of engaging in objective research that has a positive impact on society, and organised around the themes of Social Inequities, Blacks and Education, Blacks and Health and Future Directions, this timely volume brings together the latest interdisciplinary research to offer a broad overview of the issues currently faced by Blacks in United States. A timely, significant research guide that informs readers on the social, economic and physical condition of Blacks in America, and proposes directions for important future research. The Ashgate Research Companion will appeal to policy makers and scholars of Africana Studies, Sociology, Cultural Studies, Anthropology and Politics, with interests in questions of race and ethnicity, gender and sexuality, social inequalities, health and education.

Table of Contents:
Contents: Part I Black Sociology: Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow: Black sociology: continuing the agenda, Earl Wright II and Edward V. Wallace; Black sociology: the sociology of knowledge, racialized power relations of knowledge and humanistic liberation, Jennifer Padilla Wyse. Part II Black Youth, Emerging Adults and the Family: The death of Trayvon Martin and public space: why the racial contract still matters, Darwin Fishman; Is it easy living in the Big Easy?: examining the lives of African American emerging adults in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, Farrah Gafford Cambrice; The psychosocial impact of parental incarceration on children and their caregivers, Sheridan Quarless Kingsberry, Sachin Karnik, Natalie M. Fountain and Kelly Wetzel; `Sure there’s racism … but homophobia - that’s different’: experiences of black lesbians who are parenting in North-Central Florida at the intersection of race and sexuality, Clare Walsh. Part III Education and the Economy: Parental expectations, family structure and the black gender gap in educational and occupational attainment: an intersectional approach to the social psychological model of status attainment, Tomeka Davis and Taralyn Keese; Real effects of attitudes about the value of education and social structure on the black/white academic achievement gap, Ervin (Maliq) Matthew and Littisha Bates; African American women workers in the postindustrial period: the role of education in evaluating racial wage parity among women, Katrinell M. Davis; Race, class and nativity: a multilevel analysis of the forgotten working class, 1980-2009, Lori Latrice Martin, Hayward Derrick Horton and Teresa A. Booker. Part IV Health Wellness: What do we really know: revisiting the stress-health relationship for black females across the lifespan, Claire M. Norris, Krista D. Mincey, Brian L. Turner and Makeda Roberts; `We need a new normal’: sociocultural constructions of obesity and overweight among African American women, Angelique Harris, David Nelson, Kimberly Salas Harris, Barbara A. Horner-Ibler and Edith Burns; HIV: a social catastrophe, Marye Bernard and Malinda R. Conrad. Part V Health Disparity Solutions: Gaining equity in health care: building the pipeline of black nurse leaders, Yvonne Wesley; Increasing community engagement to meet the challenges of mental health disparities in African American communities, Edward V. Wallace; As seen on TV?: hip hop images and health consequences in the black community, Omotayo O. Banjo, Guy-Lucien S. Whembolua, Shewanee Howard-Baptiste, Nathaniel Frederick II and Jerod D. Lindsey. Part VI Agency and the Black Community: Music as identity: cultural meaning, social hybridity and musical sonority in indigenous Caribbean music, Meagan Sylvester; Give us the ballot! Gaining enfranchisement in Mobile, Alabama: 1944-50, Timothy Broughton and Komanduri S. Murty; The African American church as an enclave and ethnic resource: the role of the church in economic development, Marci Bounds Littlefield; Not televised but on display: exhibiting and remembering vestiges of the Black Freedom Movement, Derrick R. Brooms. Index.