THE UNSUNG HEART OF BLACK AMERICA. A Middle-Class Charch at Midcentury. Inscribed

Columbia: University of Missouri Press, 1992. First edition. Hardcover. A fine copy bound in red cloth over boards in a fine dust jacket. A long inscription by the author dated July 5m 1992 and signed by her. Two sheets of publicity material also laid in. Another sheet is laid in, (appears to be a preface) with a yellow sticky note from the author dated 1/8/92 "Dear Janet, Here is the material I promised to send to you. With love, Dona." Janet is listed in the acknowledgments as "Janet Livingstone". Yet another folded card, dated July 24, 1992, also to Janet laid in: "Dear Janet, Your note that came in on Wednesday added to all of the other expressions of love that you have given to us. Thank you for this love, and for your support. We are so sorry that you couldn't share in our great celebration . We owe you a lot of gratitude for the success of the book party, and we count you among our most cherished friends. (signed) With love, Frank & Dona." Finally laid in is a card with photograph of the author, announcing her passing and details of her memorial service at the Oakland Center for Spiritual Living in Oakland, CA on February 21, 2009. "Most people are familiar with such African-Americans as Sojourner Truth, Booker T. Washington, or Martin Luther King, Jr., at one end of the spectrum, and with sharecroppers, lynch victims, or underprivileged families at the other. Somewhere between the two is the unsung middle class that quietlly makes a difference in the quality of life for individual communities and for all black Americans. In this book, Dona Irvin gives voice to this uncelebrated multitude with biographical glimpses into the lives of forty members of the Downs Memorial United Methodist Church in the post-World War II San Francisco Bay area. The forty people profiled here show a strongly developed sense of mission and a willingness to implement change. The group includes the first black mayor of a California city, the head of a Social Services Department in a Calfifornia county, an Alameda County Superior Court judge, and a woman who was superintendent of public schools in Oakland and Chicago. Illustrated from photographs. 241pp.