Cultural Literature

What would it take? That was the question that Geoffrey Canada found himself asking. What would it take to change the lives of poor children--not one by one, through heroic interventions and occasional miracles, but in big numbers, and in a way that...

This biography on reggae legend Bob Marley reflects the growing popularity and legacy that continues to grow more than 27 years after the singer's death from cancer at age 36. Steckles has been writing about the reggae music scene for many years, and he...

What makes a happy person, a happy life? Dawson, who learned how to read when he was 98, tells how as he describes his own remarkable odyssey across the span of the 20th century. In this remarkable book, 103-year-old George Dawson, a slave's grandson who...

Rubio, a former postal worker, brings to life the important but neglected story of African American postal workers and the critical role they played in the U.S. labor and black freedom movements. Having fought their way into postal positions and unions,...

\As the United States championed principles of freedom and equality during World War II, it denied fundamental rights to many non-white citizens. In the wake of President Franklin Roosevelt's Good Neighbor policy with Latin America, African American and...

Highlighting certain socioeconomic and cultural trends, this exploration discloses the new dynamics shaping contemporary lives of African Americans. Using information from conversations with mavericks within black communities--such as entrepreneurs,...

Synopsis: The nature of complex relations between Africans and African Americans is the focus of this study. The author looks at the factors which are responsible for this complex nature and which collectively constitute a major obstacle to the...

From the acclaimed bestselling author of Ghost Soldiers and Blood and Thunder, a taut, intense narrative about the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr., and the largest manhunt in American history. On April 23, 1967, Prisoner #416J, an inmate at the...

A NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER A remarkable story about the power of friendship. Chosen by Essence to be among the forty most influential African Americans, the three doctors grew up in the streets of Newark, facing city life's temptations, pitfalls, even...

These high-interest/low-readability biographies cover influential contemporary and historical figures. Each inspiring example of success and overcoming challenges includes background notes, vocabulary lists, answers, and a bibliography. Biographies...

Available 11-21-2009Between 1914 and 1951, Black Bottom's black community emerged out of the need for black migrants to find a place for themselves. Because of the stringent racism and discrimination in housing, blacks migrating from the South seeking...

From the iconic and charismatic star of "Russell Simmons' Def Poetry Jam" comes this brave and fiercely candid memoir about growing up in Jamaica by performer, activist, and writer Chin.

In the tradition of "Dreams of My Father" and "The Color of Water" comes a powerful, beautifully written memoir about coming of age as a black girl in an exclusive white suburb in integrated, post-civil rights-era California in the 1970s and 1980s...

He is one of the great voices in African-American history: Booker T. Washington rose from a boyhood in shackles in West Virginia-he was eight when the Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution freed all slaves in 1865-to the status of national hero. In...

This is an account of Africans and Americans of African descent before, during, and after slavery by one of the most important figures in the campaign for racial equality in the United States. Beginning with a description of the African heritage of black...

The defining work of the Black Arts Movement, "Black Fire" is at once a rich anthology and an extraordinary source document. Nearly 200 selections, including poetry, essays, short stories, and plays, from over 75 cultural critics, writers, and political...