You tend to associate McDonald's with burgers, fries and shakes, not history books, but the company is a good corporate neighbor interested in community projects and in promoting African-American heritage and history," James Newton, Black American Studies Program, said.

Last year, when McDonald's decided to publish two new booklets for its patrons entitled, Little Known Black History Facts, the company turned to Newton to ensure that the information was documented and verified by reliable historical sources.

The project began on the Tom Joyner Morning Show, a syndicated radio program that featured Harvard University professor Henry Louis Gates as a guest.

According to Joyner, Gates is a "walking encyclopedia of African-American history" and, with his assistance, Joyner began a daily "Little Known Black History Fact" as part of his show. McDonald's came on board as its sponsor and also decided to publish the booklets.

Gates wrote the booklets, which were illustrated by artist John Solomon Sandridge. Recommended by UD trustee Lozelle De Luz, PhD '85, who is a co-owner of local McDonald's franchises, Newton was invited to assist with the project by verifying and documenting the information.

The booklets each feature 16 African Americans or cultural institutions contributing to America's history, such as artist Romare Bearden, surgeon Benjamin Carson, author Richard Wright, the Harlem Renaissance and Cheney State University.

As the introduction states, "From business and government, the arts and entertainment, to science and education, America has benefited from its African-American sons and daughters...pioneers who displayed great courage and perseverance in the face of discouraging odds."

Susie King Taylor, for example, was an escaped slave who was the first black army nurse. She served African-American troops during the Civil War without pay, later working with Clara Barton. Having learned to read and write as a child in a secret slave school, she opened a school for African-American children after the war and also wrote the story of her Civil War experiences in My Life in Camp.

Newton's role was to check and verify the information about each entry and to cite sources to support the biographical or institutional sketches. If the information did not jibe, was unavailable or hearsay, it did not appear, Newton said.

"I spent the winter holidays in libraries," Newton said. "The Morris Library has a solid collection of resources in African-American history, and the staff was very helpful. I also visited the libraries at Temple and Howard universities"

"The project was right up my alley," he pointed out. The author of Curriculum Evaluation on Student Knowledge of Afro-Amrican Life and History, based on his doctoral dissertation at Illinois State University, Newton had developed an accompanying quiz of 200 items that students should know, so he was familiar with African-American history.

As coeditor of a book, entitled, The Other Slaves: Mechanics, Artisans and Craftsmen, he is knowledgeable about such persons as former slave and clockmaker Peter Hill, who is featured in a booklet and whose finely crafted clocks are at the Smithsonian Institution and at Westtown School in Westtown, Pa.

An offshoot of the project is the Little Known Black History Facts Education Kit, which is being distributed by McDonald's in partnership with Coca-Cola to 18,000 public senior high schools in the U.S.

It encourages teachers to incorporate the facts into their history curricula, and the booklets are accompanied by a teacher's guide, quizzes, presentation assignments and trivia questions, developed by Scholastic Marketing Partners, which provides supplementary educational materials for schools.

The booklets are available at cost at participating McDonald's and have sold out at many locations, Newton said, adding that he enjoyed working on the project that reached so many people and informed them of the accomplishments and contributions of African Americans.

– Sue Moncure