Profiles of Black Success: Thirteen Creative Geniuses Who Changed the World

This is another in a series of "Profiles of...." volumes in each of which Landrum focuses on exceptional men and women who have achieved great success after having overcome all manner of barriers, obstacles, and adversities. In this book, he provides a rigorous and eloquent discussion of "thirteen creative geniuses who changed the world." Twelve of the thirteen could serve as positive role models for all youth regardless of their "color." During the seven years since this book was first published, Michael Jackson's personal behavior in recent years has (in my opinion) disqualified himself from their distinguished company but no one can deny his "creative genius" nor the nature and extent of his success as an entertainer. Regrettably, he seems to have "killed" his career. Others may challenge the inclusion of Paul Robeson but I do not. They are urged to read Chapter 17 in which Landrum brilliantly discusses Robeson's life and career. He was a Phi Beta Kappa scholar and All American football player at Rutgers University (later inducted into the NCAA Football Hall of Fame), attorney, internationally renowned actor and singer, and a social (not political) activist whose initiatives and eloquence helped to achieve human rights for Afro-Americans, notably the Supreme Court decision in 1954 which declared school segregation unconstitutional. He overcame so many adversities himself while leveraging his celebrity to make it so much easier for others to overcome theirs. The most famous subjects in this book are Bill Cosby, Jackson, Michael Jordan, Colin Powell, and Oprah Winfrey but I was most interested in what Landrum reveals about John Johnson, Reginald Lewis, and Thurgood Marshall who continue to be neglected and underappreciated in terms of their importance, not only to the United States but to other countries throughout the world and for reasons which Landrum notes in the separate chapters devoted to them. A sufficient number of copies of this book should be readily available in every school and public library. Of greater importance, Profiles of Black Success should be a primary source in every U.S. history course. Those who share my high regard for this book are urged to check out Landrum's Profiles of Genius, Profiles of Power & Success, Profiles of Female Genius, and Entrepreneurial Genius as well as Howard Gardner's Leading Minds: An Anatomy Of Leadership and Creating Minds: An Anatomy of Creativity Seen Through the Lives of Freud, Einstein, Picasso, Stravinsky, Eliot, Graham, and Gandhi.

Despite a few errors on the personalities( e.g. Michael Jordan did not play for the NCSU Wolfpack), the book provides a somewhat interesting analysis into the traits and experiences which made the following subjects achievers in their own right. Even though the author is prone to bouts of exaggeration in describing the qualities which made these people successful in their fields, I would still recommend the book to youngsters, who in this day and age, need to understand what are the foundations for attaining whatever they wish to achieve.