Biography

Dorothy Dandridge's life story is the stuff Hollywood dreams--and nightmares. Completed shortly before her tragic death in 19665, Everything and Nothing recounts her rags-to-riches-to-rags story form her personal point of view. Dandridge recalls her...

Roxane Orgill's vivid words and Leonard Jenkins's dramatic pictures combine to tell the story of a boy who grew up to be a giant of jazz--the legendary and beloved Louis Armstrong. As a poor boy in New Orleans, where music was everywhere--dancing out of...

Oscar Micheaux was the Jackie Robinson of film, the black D. W. Griffith--a bigger-than-life American folk hero whose important life story has been nearly forgotten today. The son of freed slaves, he roamed America as a Pullman porter before making his...

"Becoming Richard Pryor is a book that breaks new ground. . . . Saul details the amazing way that Richard found his way out of the life for which he seemed destined and into the world of the performing arts." --New York TimesRichard Pryor may have been...

At age ten, Peter Mutabazi ran away from home. For five years he survived on the streets of Kampala, Uganda, a city of 1.5 million, until one man saw potential in him. This man not only supported Peter through school but also altered Peter's outlook in...

From National Book Award winner Edward Ball comes The Sweet Hell Inside, the story of the fascinating Harleston family of South Carolina, the progeny of a Southern gentleman and his slave, who cast off their blemished roots and prospered despite racial...

James Blake's life was getting better every day. A rising tennis star and People magazine's Sexiest Male Athlete of 2002, he was leading a charmed life and loving every minute of it. But all that ended in May 2004, when Blake fractured his neck in an...

A classic work on the African-American experience is revised for the nineties with essays reflecting the concerns of black children from the last three decades and commentary from today's sports stars, politicians, and inner-city gang members.

The definitive biography of Michael Jackson, a "vivid...gripping...authoritative account of a world-changing force of nature" (Rolling Stone), celebrating the King of Pop's legendary contributions to music, dance, and popular culture. From the moment in...

The paperback edition of the inspirational story of the first black to hold a Republican leadership position--J.C. Watts, Jr.

A young African American millennial filmmaker's funny, sometimes painful, true-life coming-of-age story of trying to make it in New York City--a chronicle of poverty and wealth, creativity and commerce, struggle and insecurity, and the economic and...

A gritty and moving personal account of the struggle to provide humanitarian relief during Operation Restore Hope in war-torn Somalia. In 1993, Gareth Owen volunteered to go to Somalia with an Irish aid agency. Located in a remote desert outpost, he...

These are the firsthand accounts of sisters Helen and Barbara Shores growing up with their father, Arthur Shores, a prominent Civil Rights attorney, during the 60s in the Jim Crow south Birmingham district--a frequent target of the Ku Klux Klan. Between...

A captivating and inspiring guide to building an untouchable empire from mud to marble, no matter what obstacles stand in the wayRick Ross is a hip-hop icon and a towering figure in the business world, but his path to success was not always easy. Despite...

In a definitive and "excellent homage to a star who left this planet too soon" (Questlove), the life, career, tragic death, and evolution of Aaliyah into a music legend are explored--featuring in-depth research and exclusive interviews. By twenty-two...

"Ilyasah Shabazz has written a compelling and lyrical coming-of-age story as well as a candid and heart-warming tribute to her parents. Growing Up X is destined to become a classic."-SPIKE LEEFebruary 21, 1965: Malcolm X is assassinated in Harlem's...