Africa

The legacy of the slave family haunts the status of black Americans in modern U.S. society. Stereotypes that first entered the popular imagination in the form of plantation lore have continued to distort the African American social identity. In What...

Born a sharecropper in rural Alabama in 1930, Theodore A. (Ted) Mack, Sr., fought in the Korean War and then played football at Ohio State while earning a college degree. Brewing and selling beer, he believed, would be just another peak to attain. After...

The personal account of one man's groundbreaking project to sleep overnight in the countless oft-overlooked former slave dwellings that still stand across the country, the fascinating history behind those sites, and how he has used the experiences to...

A multigenerational saga of a family and a community in Tulsa's Greenwood district, or "Black Wall Street," that in one century survived the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre, urban renewal, and gentrification When Ed Goodwin moved with his parents to Greenwood,...

A family reunion gives way to an unforgettable genealogical quest as relatives reconnect across lines of color, culture, and time, putting the past into urgent conversation with the present. In 1791, Thomas Jefferson hired a Black man to help survey...

A breakdown of the economic and social injustices facing Black people and other marginalized citizens, inspired by political activist Kimberly Jones's viral video "How Can We Win" "So if I played four hundred rounds of Monopoly with you and I had to play...

It's one of the last overlooked parts of American military history: the significant role African Americans played in the wars of America. Their story is more than just the 54th Massachusetts in the Civil War, more than just a tank battalion in World War...

Journalist and author Mark Whitaker explores the momentous year that redefined the civil rights movement as a new sense of Black identity expressed in the slogan "Black Power" challenged the nonviolent philosophy of Martin Luther King, Jr. and John Lewis...

If the 1619 Project illuminated the ways in which life in the United States has been shaped by the existence of slavery, this "historical, literary masterpiece" (Kiese Laymon, author of Heavy) focuses on emancipation and how its afterlife further...

The triumphant story of how an all-Black Broadway cast and crew changed musical theatre--and the world--forever. This musical introduced Black excellence to the Great White Way. Broadway was forever changed and we, who stand on the shoulders of our...

A tremendously impressive book.--Washington PostHer motto and title of her autobiography--Unbought and Unbossed--illustrates her outspoken advocacy for women and minorities during her seven terms in the U.S. House of Representatives.--National Women's...

A new history of Black Liberation, told through the intertwined story of two grassroots organizers  ​ The Black Power movement, often associated with its iconic spokesmen, derived much of its energy from the work of people whose...

The "enlightening" (The Guardian) true story of the last ship to carry enslaved people to America, the remarkable town its survivors' founded after emancipation, and the complicated legacy their descendants carry with them to this day--by the journalist...

The remarkable true story of Ellen and William Craft, who escaped slavery through daring, determination, and disguise, with Ellen passing as a wealthy, disabled White man and William posing as "his" slave. In 1848, a year of international democratic...

Winner of the Bancroft PrizeWinner of the David J. Langum PrizeWinner of the OAH Liberty Legacy Foundation AwardA New York Times Book Review Editors' Choice "This extraordinary book is a powerful addition to the history of travel segregation...Mia Bay...

The last surviving witness to the lynching of Emmett Till tells his story, with moving recollections of Emmett as a boy, critical insights into the recent investigation, and powerful lessons for racial reckoning, both then and now. In 1955, Emmett Till...