Janet Cheatham Bell

Janet Cheatham Bell is an independent scholar, writer, speaker, and consultant. In 1984 she left her position as senior editor at Ginn & Company to have a life on her own terms.

After settling in Chicago, Bell pursued her dream of creating and publishing books. Since then she has published twelve books including two self-published titles that were later licensed to Warner Books. She established Sabayt Publications in 1985 and published Famous Black Quotations and Some Not So Famous and Famous Black Quotations on Women, Love and other topics, in 1986 and 1992 respectively. Warner Books combined them into one volume which they published in 1995 under the title Famous Black Quotations. Warner also published Bell’s Victory of the Spirit: Meditations on Black Quotations in 1996. She also wrote the copy for the National Council of Negro Women's best selling Black Family Reunion Cookbook published in 1991. Bell's other titles include The Soul of Success: Inspiring Quotations for Entrepreneurs published by John Wiley & Sons in 1997. Stretch Your Wings: Famous Black Quotations for Teens, published by Little, Brown and Company in 1999.

Her four small gift books Famous Black Quotations on Mothers, …on Sisters, …on Love, and … on Birthdays were published by Andrews Mc Meel in 2002 and 2003. Bell's brief history, Till Victory Is Won: Famous Black Quotations From the NAACP was published in 2002 by Simon & Schuster’s Washington Square Press.

Her most recent title is The Time and Place That Gave Me Life published in 2007 by Indiana University Press. She is currently at work on the sequel to this popular title.

She speaks to large audiences and small groups, and encourages others to live their dreams as well. She is proud that her son, W. Kamau Bell, a comedian, followed her example to pursue his dream of performing and directing.

EXCERPT from Chapter 3 "Daring to Hope" in The Time and Place That Gave Me Life

In 1939 when my parents decided to buy a house, they faced a formidable challenge. A survey that year reported that, “limited housing opportunities was one of the most significant problems [Negroes had in Indianapolis]. Regardless of their neighborhood or economic status, [Negroes] looking for housing faced overcrowding, dilapidation, health hazards and over pricing.” The Klan’s grip on Indiana politics had loosened somewhat, and the ordinance passed by the Indianapolis City Council in 1926 to guarantee that neighborhoods would be segregated by race had been struck down in court. However, real estate agents maintained racial boundaries by not showing houses in white areas to Negroes. Most Negroes “lived on the east side, or in the Bottoms west of downtown. In 1945 the Bottoms were called the worst Negro slum in America.” Negroes with higher incomes had better housing north of the Bottoms.

Given these circumstances, it is astounding that my parents found a house meeting their requirements that they could afford. Mama and Daddy meant to have a decent home, but the affluent Negro section was beyond their means. They also preferred to remain on the south side, close to family members, their neighbors of the last twelve years, and Daddy’s job. The house they bought was just two blocks from where they were living. Knowing the way my father operated, he probably found the house, then talked the white realtor into selling it to him. The home they purchased was in a neighborhood made up of modest, single-story, mostly Victorian-era frame houses occupied by their working-class owners. It cost thirteen hundred dollars and had a thirteen-dollar-a-month mortgage. The house was on a pleasant street where most of the homes and yards were well kept. There was only one other Negro family on the block, and very few Negroes living anywhere on Indianapolis’ south side. That was fine with Mama. She often said, “I don’t know why, but our people act a whole lot better when there are some white folks around.” I hated hearing her say that and, when I was older, tried to convince her otherwise, but she never relented.