My Books and Articles
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BOOKS
Nina Mae McKinney: At the Dawn of Black Hollywood Stardom
(BearManor Media, 2024)
Nina Mae McKinney (1912–1967) became Hollywood’s first Black star when she made her remarkable debut in MGM’s “Hallelujah” in 1929. The multitalented actor, singer, and dancer was also one of the first Black actors whom white and Black movie audiences considered beautiful. Sadly, Nina Mae was denied an opportunity to tell her story, and her legacy has been underappreciated. Her story is about dream-chasing, tragedy, the will to survive, the will to live and work on her own terms, and redemption. As summarized in its “Introduction” and on the backside of its beautiful cover, Nina Mae McKinney: At the Dawn of Black Hollywood Stardom by Dabian T. Witherspoon attempts to reveal Nina Mae’s story as thoroughly as possible, shedding light on the daunting obstacles of Nina Mae’s career and personal life while seeking to establish her rightful place in history.
Nina Mae McKinney: At the Dawn of Black Hollywood Stardom is more than a biography. It began as Dabian’s Ph.D. dissertation and is the most thoroughly researched work on Nina Mae McKinney. This is demonstrated by its “Table of Contents” and its extensive “Works Cited” section (more than 400 sources), including genealogical research and primary sources not previously used in other works. This book covers Nina Mae’s life more fully than any other work, and it provides documentation to correct the misinformation and disparaging information about Nina Mae that has been repeated orally or found in earlier print and online publications. It also tries to fill in the gaps by raising questions and analyzing related topics and similar historical figures to make sense of the world Nina Mae lived in (and to explain why things were the way they were). Intended for academic and general audiences, this important book is somewhat chronological but also thematic; it briefly repeats ideas that overlap multiple themes, and its chapters can be read in any order.
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ARTICLES
Academic
“Bastards of the Party.” Film & History: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Film and Television Studies 43.1 (Spring 2013): 74-7. Film Review. This is a review of Cle Sloan’s documentary, which discusses the origins of Los Angeles gangs and how social, economic, and political factors led to and shaped their existence.
“Process Pedagogy v. Current Traditional Rhetoric Pedagogy: Writing Deficiencies and Attitudes Toward Learning in Freshman Composition Courses.” Post-Colonial Composition Pedagogy: Using the Cultures of Marginalized Students to Teach Writing. Ed. Monique Akassi. Ann Arbor, MI: Robbie Dean Press, 2011. 163-171.
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