In August 1955, the mutilated body of Emmett Till--a fourteen-year-old black Chicago youth--was pulled from Mississippi's Tallahatchie River. Abducted, severely beaten, and finally thrown into the river with a weight fastened around his neck with barbed wire, Till, an eighth-grader, was killed for allegedly whistling at a white woman. The nation was horrified by Till's death. When the all-white, all-male jury hastily acquitted the two white defendants, the outcry reached a frenzied pitch--spurring a fury that would prove critical in the mobilization of black resistance to white racism in the D... View More...
From celebrities to everyday people of varying ages, professions, and backgrounds, this inspirational portrait of African American love offers deep and personal insight into the life-enhancing bond of marriage. This celebration of Black love spotlights couples whose passion and devotion have inspired those around them and offers examples of how sweet, satisfying, challenging, and enduring committed love can be. View More...
A moving, illustrated account of the first African American baseball player in the major leagues. In April 1947, Jackie Robinson joined the Brooklyn Dodgers, and forever changed the history of sports. But it took more than talent for Jackie to reach the major leagues--his courage and determination helped him overcome unjust policies and racist backlash. From his early life in Georgia through his 1955 World Series victory and beyond, this account of Robinson's life is an inspiring look at how one person can effect real change in the world. Written in simple, narrative style and beautifully ill... View More...
Conceived during Thomas Jefferson's junket in Paris, Thomas Woodson was Jefferson's first child by Sally Hemings. He was banished from Monticello at the age of 12, after a journalist exposed Jefferson's relationship with his young slave. A President in the Family traces Thomas Woodson's subsequent journey from Virginia to Ohio where Thomas and wife Jemima, a former slave, would raise a productive and ambitious family.Their eldest son Lewis, author of the famous Augustine letters, would carry on the family tradition of education, leadership, and public service. A founder of Wilberforce Universi... View More...
As the world prepared for the Exposition Universalle de 1900 in Paris, W. E. B. Du Bois was approached to help represent African American life. He came with a cache of stunning photographs to illustrate the progress of Negroes in America -- thereby offering a photographic counterpoint to the prolific stereotyping of blacks that left viewers awestruck.With insights from Pulitzer Prize winner David Levering Lewis and Mac-Arthur Fellow photo historian Deborah Willis, A Small Nation of People presents more than one hundred and fifty of these important photographs together for the first time since ... View More...
The culmination of a unique achievement in modern American literature: the six volumes of autobiography that began more than thirty years ago with the appearance of I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings. A Song Flung Up to Heaven opens as Maya Angelou returns from Africa to the United States to work with Malcolm X. But first she has to journey to California to be reunited with her mother and brother. No sooner does she arrive there than she learns that Malcolm X has been assassinated. Devastated, she tries to put her life back together, working on the stage in local theaters and even conducting a ... View More...
The culmination of a unique achievement in modern American literature: the six volumes of autobiography that began more than thirty years ago with the appearance of I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings. A Song Flung Up to Heaven opens as Maya Angelou returns from Africa to the United States to work with Malcolm X. But first she has to journey to California to be reunited with her mother and brother. No sooner does she arrive there than she learns that Malcolm X has been assassinated. Devastated, she tries to put her life back together, working on the stage in local theaters and even conducting a ... View More...
The culmination of a unique achievement in modern American literature: the six volumes of autobiography that began more than thirty years ago with the appearance of I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings. A Song Flung Up to Heaven opens as Maya Angelou returns from Africa to the United States to work with Malcolm X. But first she has to journey to California to be reunited with her mother and brother. No sooner does she arrive there than she learns that Malcolm X has been assassinated. Devastated, she tries to put her life back together, working on the stage in local theaters and even conducting a ... View More...
In 1962 the poet, musician, and performer Maya Angelou claimed another piece of her identity by moving to Ghana, joining a community of Revolutionist Returnees inspired by the promise of pan-Africanism. All God's Children Need Walking Shoes is her lyrical and acutely perceptive exploration of what it means to be an African American on the mother continent, where color no longer matters but where American-ness keeps asserting itself in ways both puzzling and heartbreaking. As it builds on the personal narrative of I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings and Gather Together in My Name, this book confirm... View More...
In 1962 the poet, musician, and performer Maya Angelou claimed another piece of her identity by moving to Ghana, joining a community of Revolutionist Returnees inspired by the promise of pan-Africanism. All God's Children Need Walking Shoes is her lyrical and acutely perceptive exploration of what it means to be an African American on the mother continent, where color no longer matters but where American-ness keeps asserting itself in ways both puzzling and heartbreaking. As it builds on the personal narrative of I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings and Gather Together in My Name, this book confirm... View More...
HE HAS TAKEN HIS GAME -- AND THE GAME -- TO A NEW LEVEL He grew up in Virginia with nothing but his talent and his heart. But he had "The Plan: " his never-say-die dream to become an NBA superstar. So he began his journey down a road full of obstacles. But the world underestimated Allen Iverson.... Fear No One From his first days playing college hoops...to his turbulent early years in the pros...to his leading the Philadelphia 76ers to the 2001 NBA Finals and being named league MVP, here is the "real" story of controversial superstar Allen Iverson. Acclaimed sports journalist John Smallwood --... View More...
Through howling snowstorms and over treacherous sheets of ice, Matthew Henson and Robert Peary raced against other explorers and death itself to be the first to reach the North Pole. After six expeditions and eighteen years, they finally planted the American flag at the top of the world on April 6, 1909. Because he was a black man, Henson had to start out as Peary's servant. But with his intelligence, bravery, and resourcefulness, Matthew Henson soon became Peary's chief assistant.
When it was first published in 1983, Baseball's Great Experiment received glowing praise from virtually all quarters. The Chicago Sun-Times called it "a thumpingly good baseball book," and Red Barber wrote in The New Republic that it was "by far the most comprehensive single book on the subject." "Eminently readable," added Jonathan Yardley in The Washington Post Book World, "not only is this a book that is long overdue, but it turns out to be a book that was well worth the wait." Baseball's Great Experiment tells the story of one of the most explosive and far-reaching episodes in American spo... View More...
A complex, poignant exploration of racial attitudes in America, as illumined by the case of Edmund Perry. Perry, a seventeen-year-old black honors student from Harlem, was fatally shot by a young white plainclothes policeman in 1985 in an alleged mugging attempt. Perry had recently graduated from Philips Exeter Academy and was to attend Stanford University that fall. The shooting and the subsequent case, in which Edmund's elder brother Jonah, an undergraduate at Cornell University, was accused, tried, and found not guilty, drew national headlines and was the subject of heated debate among blac... View More...
This analysis of four Black religious leaders--Martin Luther King Jr., Malcolm X, Joseph H. Jackson, and Adam Clayton Powell Jr.--reviews their differences and determines whether grounds for coalitional activity still exists. These leaders all clearly agreed that racism should be opposed but they vigorously disagreed on the forms the opposition should take.
Hardship, sacrifice, determination, and ultimate triumph are the elements that make up "Blind Faith," the frank and compelling biography of Lula Hardaway, mother of superstar musician and singer Stevie Wonder. Written with her full cooperation and participation, this is the first ever authorized look into the life of the woman who gave birth to and nurtured one of America's greatest musicians/songwriters -- and the struggles that preceded his rise to fame and fortune.To say that Lula Hardaway did not have an easy life is an understatement. It was a constant struggle for self-esteem and emotion... View More...
A testament to the invincibility of the human spirit, this is a collection of short essays on nature, politics, culture, race and religion. The author examines the truest dimensions of existence. View More...
