Honky

Written by Dalton Conley

Format: Trade Paperback, 224 pages
Publisher: Vintage
On Sale: September 18, 2001
Price: $14.95
ISBN: 978-0-375-72775-7 (0-375-72775-2)

As recalled in Honky, Dalton Conley’s childhood has all of the classic elements of growing up in America. But the fact that he was one of the few white boys in a mostly black and Puerto Rican neighborhood on Manhattan’s Lower East Side makes Dalton’s childhood unique.

At the age of three... Read more >

The All-American Skin Game, or Decoy of Race
The Long and the Short of It, 1990-1994
Written by Stanley Crouch

Format: Trade Paperback, 288 pages
Publisher: Vintage
On Sale: January 14, 1997
Price: $14.00
ISBN: 978-0-679-77660-4 (0-679-77660-5)

In this brilliant collection of speeches, essays, and reviews, Crouch brings his vigorous, combative intellect to bear on everything from gangsta rap and the tribalism of minority politics to feminism and African-American literature. Whether he is comparing the U.S. Constitution to an extended blues improvisation, analyzing the implications of The Bell... Read more >

Always in Pursuit
Fresh American Perspectives
Written by Stanley Crouch

Format: Trade Paperback, 368 pages
Publisher: Vintage
On Sale: March 16, 1999
Price: $18.95
ISBN: 978-0-375-70168-9 (0-375-70168-0)

Here is a brilliant new collection of essays on the sublime and the ridiculous in contemporary American culture and society, by one of the most important and compelling social commentators at work today.

"Fearless and engaging, a virtuoso at bringing the drive of natural speech into social criticism, Stanley Crouch transcends our... Read more >

Fight the Power
Rap, Race, and Reality
Written by Chuck D, Yusuf Jah and Spike Lee

Format: Trade Paperback, 288 pages
Publisher: Delta
On Sale: September 8, 1998
Price: $19.00
ISBN: 978-0-385-31873-0 (0-385-31873-1)

Fight the Power examines a multitude of complex social, racial and artistic issues.

Frontman for the politically-minded, and commercially successful, rap group Public Enemy, rapper Chuck D discusses the role of heroes and role models in the black community, Hollywood's negative images of blacks, the effect of gangsta rap, its images... Read more >

The Black Body

Edited by Meri Nana-Ama Danquah

Format: Trade Paperback, 304 pages
Publisher: Seven Stories Press
On Sale: October 6, 2009
Price: $18.95
ISBN: 978-1-58322-889-0 (1-58322-889-6)

What does it mean to have, or to love, a black body? Taking on the challenge of interpreting the black body’s dramatic role in American culture are thirty black, white, and biracial contributors–award-winning actors, artists, writers, and comedians–including voices as varied as President Obama’s inaugural poet Elizabeth Alexander, actor and bestselling... Read more >

Blues Legacies and Black Feminism
Gertrude "Ma" Rainey, Bessie Smith, and Billie Holiday
Written by Angela Y. Davis

Format: Trade Paperback, 464 pages
Publisher: Vintage
On Sale: January 26, 1999
Price: $17.00
ISBN: 978-0-679-77126-5 (0-679-77126-3)

Angela Davis gives us a new, radically transforming interpretation of the lives and music of three of the greatest singers of the 20th century. She uses the biographies, careers, and performances of recorded songs by Bessie Smith, "Ma" Rainey, and Billie Holiday--the African-American women who dominated American popular music between 1910... Read more >

Women, Culture & Politics

Written by Angela Y. Davis

Format: Trade Paperback, 256 pages
Publisher: Vintage
On Sale: February 19, 1990
Price: $15.95
ISBN: 978-0-679-72487-2 (0-679-72487-7)

This collection of Davis's speeches and writings addresses the political and social changes of the past decade as they are concerned with the struggle for racial, sexual, and economic equality.

"The work of the political activist inevitably involves a certain tension between the requirement that positions be taken on current issues... Read more >

Women, Race, & Class

Written by Angela Y. Davis

Format: Trade Paperback, 288 pages
Publisher: Vintage
On Sale: February 12, 1983
Price: $15.95
ISBN: 978-0-394-71351-9 (0-394-71351-6)

A powerful, documented study of the women's movement in the United States. Recounts time from abolitionist days to the present that demonstrates how the movement has always been hampered by the racist and classicist biases of its leaders.

"A historical study of how the three themes of the title became entangled in... Read more >

Living and Dying in Brick City
An E.R. Doctor Returns Home
Written by Sampson Davis and Lisa Frazier Page

Format: Hardcover, 256 pages
Publisher: Spiegel & Grau
On Sale: February 12, 2013
Price: $25.00
ISBN: 978-1-4000-6994-1 (1-4000-6994-7)

A riveting personal exploration of the healthcare crisis facing inner-city communities, written by an emergency room physician who grew up in the very neighborhood he is now serving

Sampson Davis is best known as one of three friends from inner-city Newark who made a pact in high school to become doctors. Their... Read more >

Gather at the Table
The Healing Journey of a Daughter of Slavery and a Son of the Slave Trade
Written by Thomas Norman DeWolf and Sharon Morgan

Format: Hardcover, 240 pages
Publisher: Beacon Press
On Sale: October 9, 2012
Price: $25.95
ISBN: 978-0-8070-1441-7 (0-8070-1441-9)

Two people–a black woman and a white man–confront the legacy of slavery and racism head-on

Thomas DeWolf–a descendent of slaveholders–and Sharon Morgan–a descendent of slaves–come together to openly discuss how the legacy of slavery and racism has impacted their lives. Together, they disclose the various difficulties and rewards they experience... Read more >

The End of Blackness
Returning the Souls of Black Folk to Their Rightful Owners
Written by Debra J. Dickerson

Format: Trade Paperback, 320 pages
Publisher: Anchor
On Sale: January 4, 2005
Price: $16.95
ISBN: 978-0-375-71319-4 (0-375-71319-0)

“This book will prove and promote the idea that the concept of ‘blackness,’ as it has come to be understood, is rapidly losing its ability to describe, let alone predict or manipulate, the political and social behavior of African Americans.” Such is the explosive enterprise of what is sure to be... Read more >

Visions of a Better World
Howard Thurman's Pilgrimage to India and the Origins of African American Nonviolence
Written by Quinton Dixie and Peter Eisenstadt

Format: Hardcover, 272 pages
Publisher: Beacon Press
On Sale: August 30, 2011
Price: $34.95
ISBN: 978-0-8070-0045-8 (0-8070-0045-0)

The first biographical exploration of one of the most important African American religious thinkers of the twentieth century--Howard Thurman--and of the pivotal trip he took to India that ultimately shaped the course of the civil rights movement.

In 1935, Howard Thurman took a trip to India that would forever change him. He... Read more >

The Miracles of Mentoring
How to Encourage and Lead Future Generations
Written by Thomas Dortch and Carla Fine

Format: Trade Paperback, 224 pages
Publisher: Broadway
On Sale: May 15, 2001
Price: $15.00
ISBN: 978-0-7679-0574-9 (0-7679-0574-1)

This important new book, based on the mentoring program created by The 100 Black Men of America, provides readers with advice about how mentoring a child can lead to many positive changes in a young person’s life. With more than 10,000 members in eighty-two chapters in the U.S., the Virgin Islands... Read more >

My Bondage and My Freedom

Written by Frederick Douglass
Introduction by John Stauffer

Format: Trade Paperback, 384 pages
Publisher: Modern Library
On Sale: October 14, 2003
Price: $12.95
ISBN: 978-0-8129-7031-9 (0-8129-7031-4)

“My Bondage and My Freedom,” writes John Stauffer in his Foreword, “[is] a deep meditation on the meaning of slavery, race, and freedom, and on the power of faith and literacy, as well as a portrait of an individual and a nation a few years before the Civil War.” As his... Read more >

The Souls of Black Folk

Written by W. E. B. Du Bois

Format: Hardcover, 272 pages
Publisher: Everyman's Library
On Sale: October 26, 1993
Price: $17.00
ISBN: 978-0-679-42802-2 (0-679-42802-X)

Introduction by Arnold Rampersad

W.E.B. Du Bois was the foremost black intellectual of his time. The Souls of Black Folk is Du Bois's collection of fourteen beautifully written essays, which record the cruelties of racism, celebrate the strength and pride of black America, and explore the "double-consciousness" of African-American life. By turns... Read more >

The Souls of Black Folk

Written by W.E.B. Du Bois

Format: Paperback, 240 pages
Publisher: Bantam Classics
On Sale: June 1, 1989
Price: $5.95
ISBN: 978-0-553-21336-2 (0-553-21336-9)

Introduction by Henry Louis Gates, Jr.

"The problem of the twentieth century is the problem of the color line." Thus speaks W.E.B. Du Bois in The Souls Of Black Folk, one of the most prophetic and influental works in American literature. In this eloquent collection of essays, first published in 1903... Read more >

The Quest of the Silver Fleece
A Novel
Written by W.E.B. Dubois

Format: Trade Paperback, 400 pages
Publisher: Broadway
On Sale: September 14, 2004
Price: $14.00
ISBN: 978-0-7679-1845-9 (0-7679-1845-2)

INTRODUCTION BY ARNOLD RAMPERSAD, cognizant dean for humanities at Stanford University.

The Quest of the Silver Fleece was the first novel to come from world-famous sociologist and civil-rights leader W.E.B. Du Bois. A controversial title of its time, the novel chronicles the complex interactions between Northern financing and Southern politics as it... Read more >

Children of the Dream
The Psychology of Black Success
Edited by Audrey Edwards

Format: Trade Paperback, 308 pages
Publisher: Anchor
On Sale: February 3, 1993
Price: $19.00
ISBN: 978-0-385-24269-1 (0-385-24269-7)

Read more >

Representations of Slavery
Race and Ideology in Southern Plantation Museums
Written by Jennifer L. Eichstedt and Stephen Small

Format: Trade Paperback, 312 pages
Publisher: Smithsonian Books
On Sale: September 17, 2002
Price: $21.95
ISBN: 978-1-58834-096-2 (1-58834-096-1)

How is slavery presented at the public and private plantation museums in the American South, almost 150 years after the Civil War? Jennifer L. Eichstedt and Stephen Small investigated this question in Virginia, Georgia, and Louisiana by touring more than one hundred plantation museums; twenty locations organized and run by African... Read more >

Going to the Territory

Written by Ralph Ellison

Format: Trade Paperback, 352 pages
Publisher: Vintage
On Sale: March 14, 1995
Price: $15.00
ISBN: 978-0-679-76001-6 (0-679-76001-6)

The seventeen essays collected in this volume prove that Ellison was not only one of America's most dazzling and innovative novelists, but perhaps also our most perceptive and iconoclastic commentator on matters of literature, culture, and race. In Going to the Territory, Ellison provides us with dramatically fresh readings of Faulkner... Read more >

Israel on the Appomattox
A Southern Experiment in Black Freedom from the 1790s Through the Civil War
Written by Melvin Patrick Ely

Format: Trade Paperback, 656 pages
Publisher: Vintage
On Sale: August 16, 2005
Price: $22.00
ISBN: 978-0-679-76872-2 (0-679-76872-6)

WINNER OF THE BANCROFT PRIZE
WINNER OF THE ALBERT J. BEVERIDGE AWARD
WINNER OF THE WESLEY-LOGAN PRIZE
FINALIST FOR THE FREDERICK DOUGLASS and JOHN HOPE FRANKLIN PRIZES

Thomas Jefferson denied that whites and liberated blacks could live together in harmony. His cousin, Richard Randolph, not only disagreed, but made it possible for ninety African... Read more >

The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano
or, Gustavus Vassa, the African
Written by Olaudah Equiano
Edited by Shelly Eversley
Introduction by Robert Reid-Pharr

Format: Trade Paperback, 336 pages
Publisher: Modern Library
On Sale: May 11, 2004
Price: $12.00
ISBN: 978-0-375-76115-7 (0-375-76115-2)

Edited and with Notes by Shelly Eversley
Introduction by Robert Reid-Pharr

“Equiano’s Narrative was so richly structured that it became the prototype of the nineteenth-century slave narrative.”
—Henry Louis Gates, Jr.

In this truly astonishing eighteenth-century memoir, Olaudah Equiano recounts his remarkable life story, which begins when he is kidnapped in Africa as a... Read more >

Nobody Turn Me Around
A People's History of the 1963 March on Washington
Written by Charles Euchner

Format: Trade Paperback, 248 pages
Publisher: Beacon Press
On Sale: July 12, 2011
Price: $17.00
ISBN: 978-0-8070-0155-4 (0-8070-0155-4)

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

On August 28, 1963, over a quarter-million people–two-thirds black and one-third white–held the greatest civil rights demonstration ever. In this major reinterpretation of the Great Day–the peak of the movement–Charles Euchner brings back the tension and... Read more >

The Obamas
The Untold Story of an African Family
Written by Peter Firstbrook

Format: Trade Paperback, 360 pages
Publisher: Broadway
On Sale: February 8, 2011
Price: $16.00
ISBN: 978-0-307-59141-8 (0-307-59141-7)

"Fascinating...adds many interesting details to what we know of the President’s heritage."
--David Remnick, TheNewYorker.com

On January 20, 2009, a few hundred men, women, and children gathered under trees in the twilight at K’obama, a village on the shores of Lake Victoria in western Kenya. Barack Obama’s rise to the American presidency had... Read more >

Planetwalker
22 Years of Walking. 17 Years of Silence.
Written by John Francis, Ph.D.

Format: Trade Paperback, 288 pages
Publisher: National Geographic
On Sale: April 21, 2009
Price: $16.95
ISBN: 978-1-4262-0405-0 (1-4262-0405-1)

2008 Freshman English Common Reading Selection for University of South Carolina Upstate

When the struggle to save oil-soaked birds and restore blackened beaches left him feeling frustrated and helpless, John Francis decided to take a more fundamental and personal stand—he stopped using all forms of motorized transportation. Soon after embarking on this... Read more >