Black & African American

From acclaimed columnist and political commentator Michael Harriot comes a searingly smart and bitingly hilarious retelling of American history that corrects the record and showcases the perspectives and experiences of Black Americans....

A riveting collection of the hardships, hairbreadth escapes, and mortal struggles of enslaved people seeking freedom: These are the true stories of the Underground Railroad....

An intimate and revealing portrait of civil rights icon and longtime US congressman John Lewis, linking his life to the painful quest for justice in America from the 1950s to the present....

In this searing classic autobiography, originally published in 1965, Malcolm X, the Muslim leader, firebrand, and Black empowerment activist, tells the extraordinary story of his life and the growth of the Human Rights movement....

From 1915 to 1970, this exodus of almost six million people changed the face of America. Wilkerson compares this epic migration to the migrations of other peoples in history....

In 1850s South Carolina, an enslaved woman named Rose faced a crisis: the imminent sale of her daughter Ashley. Thinking quickly, she packed a cotton bag for her with a few items, and, soon after, the nine-year-old girl was separated from her mother and sold....

Her name was Henrietta Lacks, but scientists know her as HeLa. She was a poor Southern tobacco farmer who worked the same land as her slave ancestors, yet her cells - taken without her knowledge - became one of the most important tools in medicine....

A dramatic expansion of a groundbreaking work of journalism, The 1619 Project: A New Origin Story offers a profoundly revealing vision of the American past and present....

Debutante cotillions. Million-dollar homes. Summers in Martha's Vineyard. Membership in the Links, Jack & Jill, Deltas, Boule, and AKAs. This is the world of the black upper class and the focus of the first book written about the black elite by a member of this hard-to-penetrate group.

"My name is 'J' and I'm awkward--and Black. Someone once told me those were the two worst things anyone could be."....

A blueprint. A bible. What Sun Tzu’s Art of War was to ancient China, Pimp is to the streets. As real as you can get without jumping in, this is the story of Iceberg Slim’s life as he saw, felt, tasted, and smelled it.

James Baldwin galvanized the nation in the early days of the civil-rights movement with his eloquent manifesto....

The black experience in America - starting from its origins in western Africa up to 1961 - is examined in this seminal study from a prominent African American figure....

Already a major international bestseller, Zeinab Badawi’s sweeping and much-needed survey of African history traces the continent’s extraordinary legacy from prehistory to the present from the African perspective.

A surprising and beautiful meditation on the color blue—and its fascinating role in Black history and culture—from National Book Award winner Imani Perry

This pioneering work was the first full-length study of the role black Americans played in the crucial period after the Civil War, when the slaves had been freed and the attempt was made to reconstruct American society. Hailed at the time....

In the tradition of The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, a compelling 93-year history of Crownsville Hospital, one of the nation’s last segregated asylums, told by an award-winning journalist on her decade-long search for sanity in America’s mental healthcare system....

The Color of Water touches listeners of all colors as a vivid portrait of growing up, a haunting meditation on race and identity, and a lyrical valentine to a mother from her son....

In July 2004, Barack Obama electrified the Democratic National Convention with an address that spoke to Americans across the political spectrum....

The phenomenal true story of the Black female mathematicians at NASA whose calculations helped fuel some of America's greatest achievements in space....

An engaging look at Black life that offers insightful commentary on the intricate history of the African American people....

rst published in 1903, this collection of 15 essays dared to describe the racism that prevailed at that time in America—and to demand an end to it. The Souls of Black Folk is a classic in the literature of civil rights....

Beginning in his hometown of New Orleans, Clint Smith leads the listener on an unforgettable tour of monuments and landmarks—those that are honest about the past and those that are not—that offer an intergenerational story of how slavery has been central in shaping our nation's history.

Dear Black Girls is a necessary and meaningful exploration of what it means to be a Black woman in America today—and a rallying cry to lift up women and girls everywhere....

From New York Times best-selling author Elizabeth Dowling Taylor comes this riveting chronicle of a critical yet overlooked chapter in American history: the inspiring rise and calculated fall of the Black elite, from Emancipation through Reconstruction to the Jim Crow Era....

Slaves to Fashion is a cultural history of the black dandy, from his emergence in Enlightenment England to his contemporary incarnations in the cosmopolitan art world. Interpreting performances and representations of black dandyism in particular cultural settings and literary and visual texts, Monica L. Miller emphasizes the importance of sartorial style to black identity formation in the Atlantic diaspora.

Author and TV commentator Lawrence Otis Graham, one of the nation's most prominent spokesmen on race and class, spent six years interviewing the wealthiest black families in America, who made their first millions in the 1870s. Graham tells who's in and who's not in the group today with separate chapters on the elite in New York, Los Angeles, Washington, Chicago, Detroit, Memphis, Atlanta, Philadelphia, Nashville, and New Orleans.

The Conjuring of America tells the epic story of conjure women, who, through a mix of spiritual beliefs, herbal rituals, and therapeutic remedies gave rise to the rich tapestry of American culture we see today. Feminist philosopher, Lindsey Stewart, tells the stories of Negro Mammies of slavery; the Voodoo Queens and Blues Women of Reconstruction; and the Granny Midwives and textile weavers of the Jim Crow era. These women, in secrecy and subterfuge, courageously and devotedly continued their practices and worship for centuries and passed down their traditions.

Prioritize your peace of mind. Black women deal with devaluing challenges too often. Yet there can be a way to face them head-on while helping yourself heal and grow stronger. That is why I Came to Slay is a motivational book for black women you won't want to miss. Covering strategies on conquering boundaries, harmful labels, and more, you'll find many ways to take action and emerge victorious.

In Fear No Pharaoh, journalist and historian Richard Kreitner sets this question at the heart of the Civil War era. Using original sources, he tells the intertwined stories of six American Jews who helped to shape a tumultuous time, including Judah Benjamin, the brilliant, secretive lawyer who became Jefferson Davis's trusted confidante; Morris Raphall, a Swedish-born rabbi who defended slavery as biblically justified; and Raphall's rival rabbis—the celebrated Isaac Mayer Wise, who urged Jews to stay out of the slavery controversy, and David Einhorn.

The Chancellor’s Mansion was built by William Townsend McCoun, a public servant and abolitionist in New York City. The once-grand house on a hill in Oyster Bay, Long Island, had been abandoned for years. Many would have torn the property down and built something new on the land. But Jamie and Frantz Arty realized the house had more to give. The couple purchased the home, moved in, and began period-specific renovations at the height of the pandemic, along with their parents and three children—including newborn twins.

Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave is a powerful and harrowing autobiography that chronicles the early life of Frederick Douglass, who was born into slavery and rose to become one of the most influential voices in the fight for abolition. First published in 1845, the book offers a firsthand account of the brutality and inhumanity of slavery, detailing Douglass’s experiences on plantations, his struggle to learn to read and write, and his courageous escape to freedom.

This volume documents the prominent role the Bible played in the founding of America. From the Pilgrims to Winthrop to Whitefield, Edwards, Washington, Madison, and Jefferson, this new book by Dr. Eddie L. Hyatt documents where America's founding generation derived their values and ideals for bringing into existence the freest and most powerful nation in history. j

Some might say that Huey P. Newton was destined to bridge two worlds that rarely intersect. Here was a man who could quote Plato’s Republic as easily as he could navigate the dangerous streets of Oakland. His mind was as sharp as his street instincts were keen, and this unique combination allowed him to transform simmering frustration and deep-seated anger into something far more powerful—the Black Panther Party. This revolutionary movement would shake the very foundations of American society.

The first full and definitive narrative of one of the most shocking and largely unknown events of racial injustice in US history: the execution of nineteen Black soldiers in Texas.

Transparently and gloriously written, My Weight in Water is a definitively American work about what it costs one swimmer to enter the pool and why he does it anyway—imagining a future where all people have access to an activity that renders us weightless.

This book embarks on a journey into the heart of the American experience, exploring the enduring legacies of Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X within the complex social and political landscape of contemporary America. While their methods differed dramatically, their shared aspiration for a more just and equitable future for Black Americans remains undeniably powerful. We examine how the philosophies of these two iconic figures offer not only valuable historical insights but also actionable pathways for navigating present-day challenges.

Why Can't You Be White? uses evocative storytelling to take you on a trip through changing neighborhoods, lost love, and tiny successes discovered in a common love of baseball. It's a narrative of resilience, finding strength in unexpected places, and the unwavering power of the human spirit to overcome hardship.

Hebrews? Africans? Or Does It Matter? Revised Edition delves into the intricate intersection of history, culture, and spirituality specifically concerning the descendants of the formerly enslaved people in America but also throughout the diaspora. This people’s history can never be told truthfully without being labeled “controversial.” The listener will understand why this powerful history is also referred to as “The World’s Best Kept Secret.”

Discover the soulful journey of 1960s and 70s soul music in Soul Music: The Heartbeat of the 60s and 70s and Its Lasting Echoes. This captivating book explores the rise of soul, its cultural significance, and its profound influence on modern music genres like hip-hop, R&B, and pop. From Motown’s polished hits to Stax’s gritty grooves, dive into the stories of legendary artists like Aretha Franklin, Marvin Gaye, Stevie Wonder, and James Brown, whose anthems defined an era of civil rights and cultural revolution.