Uncovering Race
A Black Journalist's Story of Reporting and Reinvention
Written by Amy Alexander

Format: Hardcover, 240 pages
Publisher: Beacon Press
On Sale: October 11, 2011
Price: $28.95
ISBN: 978-0-8070-6100-8 (0-8070-6100-X)

From an award-winning black journalist, a tough-minded look at the treatment of ethnic minorities both in newsrooms and in the reporting that comes out of them, within the changing media landscape.

Amy Alexander fell in love with journalism as a child in San Francisco during the tumultuous late 1960s. After landing her... Read more >

Notes of a Native Son

Written by James Baldwin
Illustrated by Edward P. Jones

Format: Trade Paperback, 192 pages
Publisher: Beacon Press
On Sale: July 9, 1984
Price: $14.00
ISBN: 978-0-8070-6431-3 (0-8070-6431-9)

Originally published in 1955, James Baldwin’s first nonfiction book has become a much-studied classic. These searing essays on life in Harlem, the protest novel, movies, and Americans abroad remain as powerful today as when they were written.

“He named for me the things you feel but couldn’t utter. . . ... Read more >

Notes of a Native Son

Written by James Baldwin
Foreword by Edward P. Jones

Format: Trade Paperback, 192 pages
Publisher: Beacon Press
On Sale: November 20, 2012
Price: $15.00
ISBN: 978-0-8070-0623-8 (0-8070-0623-8)

Since its original publication in 1955, this first nonfiction collection of essays by James Baldwin remains an American classic. His impassioned essays on life in Harlem, the protest novel, movies, and African Americans abroad are as powerful today as when they were first written. This new edition, published for the 25th... Read more >

Legacy
Treasures of Black History
Edited by Thomas C. Battle and Donna Wells
Contribution by Moorland Spingarn Research Center

Format: Hardcover, 224 pages
Publisher: National Geographic
On Sale: October 31, 2006
Price: $35.00
ISBN: 978-1-4262-0006-9 (1-4262-0006-4)

From its Introduction by the revered and distinguished John Hope Franklin to the bibliography and extensive index that complete it, Legacy represents a major new contribution to African-American history. The Black experience and its impact on our nation's culture and character come alive in twelve chapters that sweep from ancient Africa... Read more >

Remember Me to Harlem
The Letters of Langston Hughes and Carl Van Vechten
Written by Langston Hughes and Carl Van Vechten
Edited by Emily Bernard

Format: Trade Paperback, 400 pages
Publisher: Vintage
On Sale: February 5, 2002
Price: $15.00
ISBN: 978-0-375-72707-8 (0-375-72707-8)

The Harlem Renaissance comes to vivid life in the spirited, 40-year-long correspondence between the black novelist and poet Langston Hughes and the music and dance critic Carl Van Vechten, a flamboyant white critic, writer and photographer.

Hughes was twenty-two and Van Vechten forty-four when they began a friendship that would last... Read more >

The Ties That Bind
A Memoir of Race, Memory, and Redemption
Written by Bertice Berry

Format: Hardcover, 224 pages
Publisher: Broadway
On Sale: February 3, 2009
Price: $23.95
ISBN: 978-0-7679-2414-6 (0-7679-2414-2)

When novelist Bertice Berry set out to write a history of her family, she initially believed she’d uncover a story of slavery and black pain, but the deeper she dug, the more surprises she found. There was heartache, yes, but also something unexpected: hope. Peeling away the layers, Berry came to... Read more >

My Face Is Black Is True
Callie House and the Struggle for Ex-Slave Reparations
Written by Mary Frances Berry

Format: Trade Paperback, 336 pages
Publisher: Vintage
On Sale: October 10, 2006
Price: $15.95
ISBN: 978-0-307-27705-3 (0-307-27705-4)

“My face is black is true but its not my fault but I love my name and my honest in dealing with my fellow man.”
~Callie House (1899)

In her groundbreaking new book, My Face Is Black Is True, historian Mary Frances Berry resurrects the forgotten life of Callie House (1861–1928), ex-slave, widowed... Read more >

Power in Words
The Stories behind Barack Obama's Speeches, from the State House to the White House
Written by Mary Frances Berry and Josh Gottheimer
Foreword by Theodore C. Sorensen

Format: Trade Paperback, 304 pages
Publisher: Beacon Press
On Sale: September 6, 2011
Price: $18.00
ISBN: 978-0-8070-0169-1 (0-8070-0169-4)

Selected as a 2011 University Press Book for Public and Secondary School Libraries
•Rated O - Outstanding

The seminal speeches that helped catapult Barack Obama to the White House.

In Power in Words, distinguished historian and civil rights activist Mary Frances Berry and former presidential speechwriter Josh Gottheimer introduce Barack Obama’s most memorable speeches... Read more >

Power in Words
The Stories behind Barack Obama's Speeches, from the State House to the White House
Written by Mary Frances Berry and Josh Gottheimer
Foreword by Theodore C. Sorensen

Format: Hardcover, 304 pages
Publisher: Beacon Press
On Sale: October 12, 2010
Price: $24.95
ISBN: 978-0-8070-0104-2 (0-8070-0104-X)

Selected as a 2011 University Press Book for Public and Secondary School Libraries
•Rated O - Outstanding

Whatever his ratings, Obama remains personally popular, widely acknowledged for his soaring oratory. His words were one of the lasting legacies of his presidential campaign and are proving to be among his most effective governing weapons.
... Read more >

With Billie
A New Look at the Unforgettable Lady Day
Written by Julia Blackburn

Format: Trade Paperback, 368 pages
Publisher: Vintage
On Sale: April 11, 2006
Price: $14.95
ISBN: 978-0-375-70580-9 (0-375-70580-5)

From Julia Blackburn, an author whose ability to conjure lives from other times and places is so vivid that one suspects she sees ghosts, here is a portrait of a woman whose voice continues to haunt anyone who hears it.
Billie Holiday’s life is inseparable from an account of her troubles, her... Read more >

Slavery By Another Name
The Re-Enslavement of Black Americans from the Civil War to World War II
Written by Douglas A. Blackmon

Format: Trade Paperback, 496 pages
Publisher: Anchor
On Sale: January 13, 2009
Price: $17.00
ISBN: 978-0-385-72270-4 (0-385-72270-2)

In this groundbreaking historical expose, Douglas A. Blackmon brings to light one of the most shameful chapters in American history—an “Age of Neoslavery” that thrived from the aftermath of the Civil War through the dawn of World War II.

Using a vast record of original documents and personal narratives, Douglas A. Blackmon... Read more >

The Echo from Dealey Plaza
The true story of the first African American on the White House Secret Service detail and his quest for justice after the assassination of JFK
Written by Abraham Bolden

Format: Trade Paperback, 320 pages
Publisher: Broadway
On Sale: January 27, 2009
Price: $13.95
ISBN: 978-0-307-38202-3 (0-307-38202-8)

A true story of bravery and patriotism in the face of bitter hatred.

Abraham Bolden was a young African American Secret Service agent in Chicago when he was asked by John F. Kennedy himself to join the White House Secret Service detail. For Bolden, it was a dream come true–and an encouraging... Read more >

Black Thunder
Gabriel's Revolt: Virginia, 1800
Edited by Anna Bontemps

Format: Trade Paperback, 248 pages
Publisher: Beacon Press
On Sale: April 1, 1992
Price: $20.00
ISBN: 978-0-8070-6337-8 (0-8070-6337-1)

“Written in 1936 and based on an actual slave revolt, this critically acclaimed novel celebrates slave Gabriel Prossier’s struggle to end racial oppression.” — Publishers Weekly

“Gabriel Prosser’s 1800 slave revolt allowed Bontemps to warn of the rebellion that would come of poverty and racial oppression. This metaphor of revolution is at... Read more >

Autobiography of a People
Three Centuries of African American History Told by Those Who Lived It
Written by Herb Boyd

Format: Trade Paperback, 576 pages
Publisher: Anchor
On Sale: December 26, 2000
Price: $21.95
ISBN: 978-0-385-49279-9 (0-385-49279-0)

Celebrating the spirituality, courage, and intellectual achievements of African Americans, Autobiography of a People is the first anthology to effectively trace the history of the African American experience—from the Middle Passage to Emancipation, from the Civil War to Vietnam, from the Little Rock Nine to the Million Man March—by telling the... Read more >

Fraternity
In 1968, a visionary priest recruited 20 black men to the College of the Holy Cross and changed their lives and the course of history.
Written by Diane Brady

Format: Hardcover, 256 pages
Publisher: Spiegel & Grau
On Sale: January 3, 2012
Price: $25.00
ISBN: 978-0-385-52474-2 (0-385-52474-9)

The inspiring true story of a group of young men whose lives were changed by a visionary mentor

On April 4, 1968, the death of Martin Luther King, Jr., shocked the nation. Later that month, the Reverend John Brooks, a professor of theology at the College of the Holy Cross who shared... Read more >

American Patriots
The Story of Blacks in the Military from the Revolution to Desert Storm
Written by Gail Lumet Buckley
Foreword by David Halberstam

Format: Trade Paperback, 608 pages
Publisher: Random House Trade Paperbacks
On Sale: May 14, 2002
Price: $17.00
ISBN: 978-0-375-76009-9 (0-375-76009-1)

A dramatic and moving tribute to the military’s unsung heroes, American Patriots tells the story of the black servicemen and women who defended American ideals on the battlefield, even as they faced racism in the ranks and segregation on the home front. Through hundreds of original interviews with veterans of every... Read more >

Kindred

Written by Octavia Butler

Format: Trade Paperback, 264 pages
Publisher: Beacon Press
On Sale: February 1, 2004
Price: $15.00
ISBN: 978-0-8070-8369-7 (0-8070-8369-0)

Dana, a modern black woman, is celebrating her twenty-sixth birthday with her new husband when she is snatched abruptly from her home in California and transported to the antebellum South. Rufus, the white son of a plantation owner, is drowning, and Dana has been summoned to save him. Dana is drawn... Read more >

Fist Stick Knife Gun
A Personal History of Violence
Written by Geoffrey Canada

Format: Trade Paperback, 192 pages
Publisher: Beacon Press
On Sale: September 28, 2010
Price: $14.00
ISBN: 978-0-8070-4461-2 (0-8070-4461-X)

A new edition, including the story of the founding of the Harlem Children’s Zone

Long before the avalanche of praise for his work–from Oprah Winfrey, from President Bill Clinton, from both First Lady Michelle Obama and President Barack Obama–long before he became known as a hero to television and film viewers... Read more >

The Long Walk to Freedom
Runaway Slave Narratives
Edited by Devon W. Carbado and Donald Weise

Format: Hardcover, 288 pages
Publisher: Beacon Press
On Sale: August 21, 2012
Price: $28.95
ISBN: 978-0-8070-6912-7 (0-8070-6912-4)

In this groundbreaking compilation of first-person accounts of the runaway slave phenomenon, editors Devon W. Carbado and Donald Weise have recovered twelve narratives spanning eight decades–more than half of which have been long out of print. Told in the voices of the runaway slaves themselves, these narratives reveal the extraordinary and... Read more >

Ain't Nothing Like the Real Thing
The Apollo Theater and American Entertainment
Edited by Richard Carlin and Kinshasha Holman Conwill
Foreword by Smokey Robinson

Format: Hardcover, 264 pages
Publisher: Smithsonian Books
On Sale: April 27, 2010
Price: $35.00
ISBN: 978-1-58834-269-0 (1-58834-269-7)

*An Outstanding Academic Title of 2011 — Choice Magazine

Ain’t Nothing Like the Real Thing: How the Apollo Theater Shaped American Entertainment celebrates the seventy-five year history of the Apollo Theater, Harlem’s landmark performing arts space and the iconic showplace for the best in jazz, blues, dance, comedy, gospel, R & B... Read more >

Our Town
A Heartland Lynching, a Haunted Town, and the Hidden History of White America
Written by Cynthia Carr

Format: Trade Paperback, 512 pages
Publisher: Broadway
On Sale: March 27, 2007
Price: $14.95
ISBN: 978-0-307-34188-4 (0-307-34188-7)

The brutal lynching of two young black men in Marion, Indiana, on August 7, 1930, cast a shadow over the town that still lingers; but is only one event in the long and complicated history of race relations in Marion, a history much ignored and considered by many to be best... Read more >

Freedom In My Heart
Voices From The United States National Slavery Museum
Edited by Cynthia Jacobs Carter
Contribution by Bill Cosby
Epilogue by John Hope Franklin
Foreword by L. Douglas Wilder

Format: Hardcover, 256 pages
Publisher: National Geographic
On Sale: January 6, 2009
Price: $35.00
ISBN: 978-1-4262-0127-1 (1-4262-0127-3)

Unlike any other book on the market today, this richly illustrated companion volume uses the remarkable artifacts, images, and documents of the United States National Slavery Museum to trace the entire history of slavery in North America, from the societies of ancient Africa to the repercussions still faced by Americans today—and... Read more >

Living In, Living Out
African American Domestics in Washington, D.C., 1910-1940
Written by Elizabeth Clark-Lewis

Format: Trade Paperback, 256 pages
Publisher: Smithsonian Books
On Sale: July 6, 2010
Price: $29.95
ISBN: 978-1-58834-286-7 (1-58834-286-7)

This oral history portrays the lives of African American women who migrated from the rural South to work as domestic servants in Washington, DC in the early decades of the twentieth century. In Living In, Living Out, Elizabeth Clark-Lewis narrates the personal experiences of eighty-one women who worked for wealthy white... Read more >

The Plantation Mistress

Written by Catherine Clinton

Format: Trade Paperback, 352 pages
Publisher: Pantheon
On Sale: February 12, 1984
Price: $16.00
ISBN: 978-0-394-72253-5 (0-394-72253-1)

This pioneering study of the much-mythologized Southern belle offers the first serious look at the lives of white women and their harsh and restricted place in the slave society before the Civil War.  Drawing on the diaries, letters, and memoirs of hundreds of planter wives and daughters, Clinton sets before us in... Read more >

Another Kind of Public Education
Race, Schools, the Media, and Democratic Possibilities
Written by Patricia Hill Collins

Format: Trade Paperback, 256 pages
Publisher: Beacon Press
On Sale: April 1, 2010
Price: $21.00
ISBN: 978-0-8070-0025-0 (0-8070-0025-6)

One of America’s most distinguished scholars of race shows us how public education needs to be seen in the light of the influence of “color-blind racism as a system of power.” Drawing examples from schools, media, and the workplace, Collins gives us a book of social analysis that is also an... Read more >