Cultural Literature

**Winner of the Pulitzer Prize in History** "Extraordinary...a great American biography" (The New Yorker) of the most important African-American of the nineteenth century: Frederick Douglass, the escaped slave who became the greatest orator of his day...

Just as The Color of Law provided a vital understanding of redlining and racial segregation, Marcia Chatelain's Franchise investigates the complex interrelationship between black communities and America's largest, most popular fast food chain. Taking us...

Out of colonial Natchitoches, in northwestern Louisiana, emerged a sophisticated and affluent community founded by a family of freed slaves. Their plantations eventually encompassed 18,000 fertile acres, which they tilled alongside hundreds of their own...

A memoir and a call to action, this intimate look at America's long-standing struggle to adequately educate vulnerable children offers valuable insights for effecting change in families, communities, and nationwide. At the root of every important...

Learn how to process your own grief--as well as family, community, and global grief--with this fierce and openhearted guide to healing in an unjust world. In unsettling and uncertain times, the individual and collective heartbreak that lives in our...

Winner of the 2020 James Laughlin Award from the Academy of American Poets Layered, complex, and infinitely compelling, Chet'la Sebree's Field Study is a daring exploration of the self and our interactions with others--a meditation on desire, race, loss...

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER - WINNER OF THE PULITZER PRIZE - NAMED ONE OF TIME'S TEN BEST NONFICTION BOOKS OF THE DECADE - One of the most acclaimed books of our time, this modern classic "has set a new standard for reporting on poverty" (Barbara...

The history of Ethiopia could also be called the history of humanity. The question is not if this history is well documented, but why it is not thought widely in schools. The time necessary to study the tomes that refer to the Nubians as the forbearers...

The Encyclopedia of Black Comics, focuses on people of African descent who have published significant works in the United States or have worked across various aspects of the comics industry. The book focuses on creators in the field of comics: inkers,...

African-American stories were overlooked by mainstream media until John H. Johnson showed the world the value of black life. In his magazines EBONY and JET, the publisher and businessman presented never-before-told accounts and used captivating,...

Playing music should be as simple and natural as drawing a breath, yet most musicians are hindered by self-consciousness, apprehension, self-doubt, and stress. Before we can truly express our inner self, we must first learn to be at peace and overcome...

Dream A World Anew is the stunning gift book accompanying the opening of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture. It combines informative narratives from leading scholars, curators, and authors with objects from the...

Don't Label Me should be labeled as genius. It's an amazing book. - Chris Rock A unique conversation about diversity, bigotry, and our common humanity, by the New York Times bestselling author, Oprah "Chutzpah" award-winner, and founder of the Moral...

INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER San Francisco Chronicle's 10 Books to Pick * HelloGiggles' 10 Books to Pick Up for a Better 2021 * PopSugar's 23 Exciting New Books * Book Riot's 12 Essential Books About Black Identity and History "A clear, powerful, direct,...

A unique and timeless guide to American government and its electoral process--as relevant today as when it was first published in 1972--from the voice of black consciousness, cultural icon Dick Gregory, the incomparable satirist, human rights and...

The first novel by "master of mystery" (The New York Times) Walter Mosley, featuring Easy Rawlins, the most iconic African American detective in all of fiction. Named one of the "best 100 mystery novels of all time" by the Mystery Writers of America,...