African American Studies

Publisher Comments
In this lyrical, unsentimental, and compelling memoir, the son of a black African father and a white American mother searches for a workable meaning to his life as a black American. It begins in New York, where Barack Obama learns that his father—a... (read more)

Publisher Comments
Williams co-founded the Crips in his L.A. neighborhood, but what began as protection became a notorious gang. A 1981 conviction sent him to death row, where he was executed in 2005. From his jail cell, he became a powerful anti-gang activist.... (read more)

Publisher Comments
Slaves in the Family is the winner of the 1998 National Book Award for nonfiction and hailed by The New Yorker as "a brilliant blend of archival research and oral history." First-time author and award-winning journalist Edward Ball confronts the legacy... (read more)

Publisher Comments
"Pathbreaking....and very moving" (Edmund S. Morgan) — the multigenerational story of Thomas Jefferson's hidden slave family. This epic work tells the story of the Hemingses, whose close blood ties to our third president had been systematically... (read more)

Publisher Comments
Chapter One Nonviolence and Racial Justice This article appeared in "Christian Century," the premier liberal Protestant Journal, shortly after almost 100 black clergymen came to the Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta in response to a call from the... (read more)

Publisher Comments
On August 28, 1963, Martin Luther King Jr. stood in front of the Lincoln Memorial looking out over thousands of troubled Americans who had gathered in the name of civil rights and uttered his now famous words, "I have a dream . . ." It was a speech that... (read more)

Publisher Comments
Written more than a century ago by Frederick Douglass, a former slave who went on to become a famous orator, U.S. minister, and a leader of his people, this masterpiece is one of the most eloquent indictments of slavery ever recorded. Douglass's shocking... (read more)

Publisher Comments
An autobiography of the Black Muslim leader Malcolm X.... (read more)

Publisher Comments
Leading African-American scholars use post-hurricane Louisiana as a window into 21st century Black America.... (read more)

Publisher Comments
For the student of cultural history, Mules and Men is a treasury of black America's folklore as collected by a famous storyteller and anthropologist who grew up hearing the songs and sermons, sayings and tall tales that have formed an oral history of the... (read more)

Publisher Comments
Cornel West is one of the most authentic, brilliant, prophetic, and healing voices in America today < BR> < BR> & mdash; Marian Wright Edelman< BR> < BR> < BR> < BR> < BR> < BR> Nine of America's most... (read more)

Publisher Comments
Ai Will Alexander Robert Allen Maya Angelou Amiri Baraka Paul Beatty David Bradley Gwendolyn Brooks Ed Bullins Barbara Christian Cheryl Clarke Lucille Clifton Wanda Coleman Edwidge Danticat Angela Davis Toi Derricotte Samuel R. Delany Rita Dove Frances... (read more)