African Americans' reactions to death and loss can be traced to their African roots, their centuries of slavery, their commitment to Christianity, and their post-slavery treatment in American society. Among those exploring death and dying in twentieth-century African America is author Karla F. C. Holloway. In his book Passed On: African American Mourning Stories: a Memorial Collection, Holloway extensively studied the myths, rituals, economics, and politics of African American mourning and burial practices and found that ways of dying make just as much a part of black history. as ways of living. Holloway delved into the history of African American death through a series of interviews, archival research, and analysis of literature, film, cinema, theater, and music. Through it, Holloway showed how African Americans' vulnerability to premature death is inextricably linked to how black culture represents and is represented. In addressing grief and loss, African American researchers have focused primarily on the “death care” industry: Black funeral directors and undertakers, the history of the profession, and its practices. Holloway has taken a stronger and more active approach by researching all aspects of the burial business: emergency room doctors, hospital chaplains, hospice administrators, embalming chemical salesmen, coffin manufacturers, funeral directors and bereaved relatives . It uses narrative, photographs, and images to evoke a painful history of lynchings, white rage and riots, medical malpractice and abandonment, executions, and neighborhood violence. His research uncovered how people once sold specialized coffins to African Americans, photos of formal infant burials and deathbed stories, and revealed a glimpse... middle of paper... d in rural communities and whites lived in cities. Early African-American undertakers faced the challenge of traveling long distances, over rough dirt country roads in horse-drawn carriages, to care for the white dead in the family home. The dead were placed on a “cooling table” in the family home in order to slow the deterioration of the body. The undertaker had to provide ice for the cooling board. In the 1920s, blacks began moving to major industrial cities to get good manufacturing jobs. Many were invited to attend mortuary school and start businesses to help bury the growing urban African-American community. Death is an important transition in African American life because of its traditions and history. It is a celebration of a life that went to be with Jesus. African-American history also heightens the sense of loss.