Random House New Releases - African-American Interest

The Black Book by Toni Morrison

2009-11-10T00:30:00-05:00

The Black Book 35th Anniversary Edition
Edited by Middleton A. Harris, Ernest Smith, Morris Levitt and Roger Furman
Foreword by Toni Morrison

Hardcover, 224 pages | Random House | Social Science - African-American Studies; History - United States; Art - History - American | $35.00 | 978-1-4000-6848-7 (1-4000-6848-7)

Seventeenth-century sketches of Africa as it appeared to marauding European traders. Nineteenth-century slave auction notices. Twentieth-century sheet music for work songs and freedom chants. Photographs of war heroes, regal in uniform. Antebellum reward posters for capturing runaway slaves. An 1856 article titled “A Visit to the Slave Mother Who Killed Her Child.”

In 1974, Middleton A. Harris and Toni Morrison led a team of gifted, passionate collectors in compiling these images and nearly 500 others into one sensational narrative of the black experience in America: The Black Book.

Now in a deluxe 35th anniversary hardcover edition, The Black Book remains a breathtaking testament to the legendary wisdom, strength, and perseverance of black men and women intent on freedom. Prominent collectors Morris Levitt, Roger Furman, and Ernest Smith, as well as Middleton Harris and Toni Morrison (then a Random House editor, now a two-time Pulitzer Prize—winning Nobel laureate) spent months studying, laughing at, and crying over these materials–from transcripts of fugitive slaves’ trials and proclamations by Frederick Douglass and other celebrated abolitionists to chilling images of cross burnings and lynchings, patents registered by black inventors throughout the early twentieth century to vibrant posters from “Black Hollywood” films from the 1930s and 1940s.

A labor of love and a vital link to the richness and diversity of African American history and culture, The Black Book honors the past, reminding us where our nation has been, and gives flight to our hopes for what is yet to come. Beautifully and faithfully presented, and featuring a new Foreword and original poem by Toni Morrison, The Black Book remains a timeless landmark work.

Millionaire Wives Club by Tu-Shonda L. Whitaker

2009-11-10T00:30:00-05:00

Millionaire Wives Club A Novel
Written by Tu-Shonda L. Whitaker

Trade Paperback, 320 pages | One World/Ballantine | Fiction | $15.00 | 978-0-345-48667-7 (0-345-48667-6)

In Tu-Shonda L. Whitaker’s steamiest novel yet, we meet the four deliciously dramatic, designer-clad divas from prime time’s new hit reality show, The Millionaire Wives Club.

Evan: Married to a pro-football star who isn’t in love with her anymore, Evan is digging her freshly manicured nails in ever deeper as she fights to keep the husband who loves someone else.

Milan: Half Dominican, half black, and beautifully exotic-looking, Milan is watching her has-been husband’s fortune fade fast–while her romantic attachment to Evan’s husband is heating up.

Jaise: Divorced from a former boxing star who’s now married to a white woman, Jaise is trying to raise her sixteen-year-old son on her own. Will her huge alimony checks keep her from falling in love?

Chaunci: Editor of the hottest black women’s magazine, Chaunci is now engaged to the high-powered man who helped finance her magazine when she was just a struggling single mom. But when a onetime passionate flame reignites, Chaunci may not be able to resist its charms.

When these starlets’ private lives run as wild as their emotions, their relationships with one another inevitably turn into high-profile catfights. Through it all, the cameras never stop rolling on TV’s guiltiest pleasure, where power–and diamonds–are always a girl’s best friend.

Saving Savannah by Jacqueline Jones

2009-11-03T00:30:00-05:00

Saving Savannah The City and the Civil War
Written by Jacqueline Jones

Trade Paperback, 544 pages | Vintage | History - United States - Civil War Period (1850-1877) | $17.00 | 978-1-4000-7816-5 (1-4000-7816-4)

In this masterful portrait of life in Savannah before, during, and after the Civil War, prize-winning historian Jacqueline Jones transports readers to the balmy, raucous streets of that fabled Southern port city. Here is a subtle and rich social history that weaves together stories of the everyday lives of blacks and whites, rich and poor, men and women from all walks of life confronting the transformations that would alter their city forever. Deeply researched and vividly written, Saving Savannah is an invaluable contribution to our understanding of the Civil War years.

The Breakthrough by Gwen Ifill

2009-10-27T00:30:00-05:00

The Breakthrough Politics and Race in the Age of Obama
Written by Gwen Ifill

Trade Paperback, 320 pages | Anchor | Current Affairs - Political; History - United States - 20th Century; History - United States - 21St Century | $15.00 | 978-0-7679-2890-8 (0-7679-2890-3)

In The Breakthrough, veteran journalist Gwen Ifill surveys the American political landscape, shedding new light on the impact of Barack Obama’s stunning presidential victory and introducing the emerging young African American politicians forging a bold new path to political power.

Ifill argues that the Black political structure formed during the Civil Rights movement is giving way to a generation of men and women who are the direct beneficiaries of the struggles of the 1960s. She offers incisive, detailed profiles of such prominent leaders as Newark Mayor Cory Booker, Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick, and U.S. Congressman Artur Davis of Alabama (all interviewed for this book), and also covers numerous up-and-coming figures from across the nation. Drawing on exclusive interviews with power brokers such as President Obama, former Secretary of State Colin Powell, Vernon Jordan, the Reverend Jesse Jackson, his son Congressman Jesse Jackson Jr., and many others, as well as her own razor-sharp observations and analysis of such issues as generational conflict, the race/ gender clash, and the "black enough" conundrum, Ifill shows why this is a pivotal moment in American history.

The Breakthrough is a remarkable look at contemporary politics and an essential foundation for understanding the future of American democracy in the age of Obama.

Only in New York by Thomas Mellins

2009-10-27T00:30:00-05:00

Only in New York Photographs from Look Magazine
Written by Donald Albrecht and Thomas Mellins

Hardcover, 208 pages | The Monacelli Press | Photography - Photojournalism; Photography | $50.00 | 978-1-58093-248-6 (1-58093-248-7)

In the aftermath of World War II, New York emerged as a world-class city and the de facto national financial capital, becoming a magnet for moguls and strivers. At the same time the city remained a collection of small towns made up of people going about their daily rounds. No other publication captured this twin identity as successfully as Look magazine.

In the pre-television era, the editors of Look recognized the great demand for photographs of all kinds—politicians, titans of industry, and unsung heroes, glamorous events and intimate moments, society matrons and showgirls, violent crime and courtroom drama—that provided entertainment and diversion to voyeuristic subscribers to the magazine. Reaching a peak circulation of nearly 8 million in the late 1960s, Look was a national publication with a focus on the fascination and allure of New York.

The magazine's New York images—more than 200,000 in all—were donated to the Museum of the City of New York. Only in New York draws from that astonishing archive to present the tapestry that was New York in the 1940s and 1950s.

I Am the New Black by Anthony Bozza

2009-10-20T00:30:00-05:00

I Am the New Black
Written by Tracy Morgan and Anthony Bozza

Hardcover, 224 pages | Spiegel & Grau | Biography & Autobiography - Entertainment & Performing Arts | $25.00 | 978-0-385-52777-4 (0-385-52777-2)

The outrageously funny, heartbreaking, and surprising story of Tracy Morgan's rise from ghetto wiseass to superstar comedian.

Who is Tracy Morgan? The wildly unpredictable funnyman who rocketed to fame on Saturday Night Live? The Emmy-nominated actor behind the sly and ingenious character Tracy Jordan on the award-winning hit sitcom 30 Rock, whose turbulent personal life often mirrors that of his fictional alter ego? Is he Chico Divine, the life of the party–any party, anytime, anywhere–getting ladies pregnant everywhere he goes? Or is he a soulful, tender family man who emerged from a hardscrabble ghetto upbringing and, against all odds, achieved superstardom, raised a solid family, prevailed over a collection of lethal bad habits, and is still ascending new heights and coming into his own? The answer is: Tracy Morgan is all that. And a bag of potato chips with a 50¢ soda.

When he was just a boy living in the Tompkins Projects in Bed-Stuy, Brooklyn, being funny was about survival. With the right snap, Tracy could shut down the playground bullies who picked on him and his physically disabled older brother. And with a wild enough prank, he could exact revenge on whoever stole his Pumas at the community pool. Later, being funny was about escape–from the untouchable sadness of his father's death, from the desperation of the drug dealer's trade, from the life-and-death battles waged on the streets of the South Bronx in the age of crack. But these days being funny is about living his dream–a dream born in the comedy clubs of Harlem and realized on shows like Martin and Saturday Night Live, where he was a cast member for seven years, and in movies like The Longest Yard and Half-Baked.

With brutal honesty and his trademark take-no-prisoners humor, Tracy tells the story of his rise to fame, with all its highs and its many lows–from the very public battles with alcohol and diabetes that threatened both his career and his life to the private and poignant end of his twenty-year marriage. In his singularly warped and brilliant way he muses on family, love, sex, race, politics, ambition, and what it takes to bring the funny.

Hilarious, inspiring, searing, and touching, I Am the New Black is a fascinating peek inside the minds of one of the most compelling and defining comedians of our time.

Backstage by Nikki Turner

2009-09-29T00:30:00-05:00

Backstage
Written by Nikki Turner

Trade Paperback, 272 pages | One World/Ballantine | Fiction | $14.00 | 978-0-345-50429-6 (0-345-50429-1)

The undisputed Queen of Hip-Hop Fiction presents five knockout tales set in the fast-paced, high-stakes rap game–written by a hot lineup of authors with unmistakable swag and a gift for dropping sexy, thrilling stories.

From a big-time hustler who can’t give up the streets–even when it might cost him his rap career–to a fearless female emcee who goes both ways in the bedroom, these characters steam up the pages as they set out to make their mark, outsmart all the haters and hustlers looking to derail them, and rise to the top of the charts.

Backstage is a VIP pass to the glamorous, gritty music industry, a world Nikki Turner knows intimately–as she introduces writers you’ll want to read again and again.

Resilience by Dan Wetzel

2009-09-29T00:30:00-05:00

Resilience
Written by Alonzo Mourning and Dan Wetzel

Trade Paperback, 272 pages | ESPN | Sports & Recreation - Basketball; Religion - Christian Life - Inspirational; Biography & Autobiography - Sports | $15.00 | 978-0-345-50750-1 (0-345-50750-9)

In 2000, Alonzo Mourning was on top of the world: He had a fat new NBA contract, an Olympic gold medal, and a second beautiful child–plus the fame and wealth he had earned playing the game he loved. But in September of that year he was diagnosed with a rare and fatal kidney disease. Over the next couple of years, as his health faltered, he retired, unretired, and retired again–and sought to make sense of what remained of his life. Finally in 2003, after a frantic search for a donor match, Mourning had a new kidney and a new outlook. He vowed to make this second chance count by dedicating his life to others.

By sharing his experiences of the chasms and peaks of illness and recovery, Mourning delivers a message of faith and fire, trust and triumph. Resilience is a story of both meaningful everyday lessons and the things, great and small, that truly matter in life.

Wildflowers by Lyah Beth LeFlore

2009-09-08T00:30:00-05:00

Wildflowers A Novel
Written by Lyah Beth LeFlore

Trade Paperback, 384 pages | Broadway | Fiction | $13.99 | 978-0-7679-2119-0 (0-7679-2119-4)

Twenty-three dollars and eleven cents–that’s all that thirty-five-year-old Chloe Davis Michaels has to her name after she is driven from her home and career as a jet-setting Hollywood publicist, desperate to protect her unborn child from her crazed newlywed husband. She thought she had it all. Now Chloe seeks refuge in her Midwestern hometown to “get prayed up” by the women in her family.
Chloe’s impromptu homecoming takes us into the world of eight African-American women who make up the Davis clan–three mothers and five daughters, including Chloe, who soon discovers that the secrets she’s been keeping about her own life don’t compare to the secrets the other women in her family have been hiding.
As the bonds of family are tested, the women call upon their strong faith and spiritual teachings of deceased family matriarchs, MaMaw and Muh, in order to weather the storm.
With rippling boldness and crackling prose, Wildflowers is a beautifully written novel that explores the richness and complexity of the love between mothers and daughters.

In the Falling Snow by Caryl Phillips

2009-09-01T00:30:00-05:00

In the Falling Snow
Written by Caryl Phillips

Hardcover, 320 pages | Knopf | Fiction - Literary | $25.95 | 978-0-307-27256-0 (0-307-27256-7)

From one of our most admired fiction writers: the searing story of breakdown and recovery in the life of one man and of a society moving from one idea of itself to another.

Keith—born in England in the early 1960s to immigrant West Indian parents but primarily raised by his white stepmother—is a social worker heading a Race Equality unit in London whose life has come undone. He is separated from his wife of twenty years (whose family “let her go” when she married a black man), kept at arm’s length by his seventeen-year-old son, estranged from his father, and accused of harassment by a co-worker. And beneath it all, he has a desperate feeling that his work—even in fact his life—is no longer relevant.

Moving deftly between past and present, the narrative uncovers the particulars of class, background, temperament, and desire that have brought Keith to this moment, and reveals how, often unwittingly, his wife, his son, and, ultimately, his father help him grasp the breadth of the changes that have occurred around him—and what these changes will require of him.

At once intimate and expansive, deeply moving in its portrayal of the vagaries of familial love and bold in its scrutiny of the personal and societal politics of race, this is Caryl Phillips’s most powerful novel yet.

A Mighty Long Way by Bill Clinton

2009-08-25T00:30:00-05:00

A Mighty Long Way My Journey to Justice at Little Rock Central High School
Written by Carlotta Walls Lanier and Lisa Frazier Page
Foreword by Bill Clinton

Hardcover, 304 pages | One World/Ballantine | Biography & Autobiography - People of Color; History - United States; Political Science - Civil Rights | $26.00 | 978-0-345-51100-3 (0-345-51100-X)

When fourteen-year-old Carlotta Walls walked up the stairs of Little Rock Central High School on September 25, 1957, she and eight other black students only wanted to make it to class. But the journey of the “Little Rock Nine,” as they came to be known, would lead the nation on an even longer and much more turbulent path, one that would challenge prevailing attitudes, break down barriers, and forever change the landscape of America.

Descended from a line of proud black landowners and businessmen, Carlotta was raised to believe that education was the key to success. She embraced learning and excelled in her studies at the black schools she attended throughout the 1950s. With Brown v. Board of Education erasing the color divide in classrooms across the country, the teenager volunteered to be among the first black students–of whom she was the youngest–to integrate nearby Central High School, considered one of the nation’s best academic institutions.

But for Carlotta and her eight comrades, simply getting through the door was the first of many trials. Angry mobs of white students and their parents hurled taunts, insults, and threats. Arkansas’s governor used the National Guard to bar the black students from entering the school. Finally, President Dwight D. Eisenhower was forced to send in the 101st Airborne to establish order and escort the Nine into the building. That was just the start of a heartbreaking three-year journey for Carlotta, who would see her home bombed, a crime for which her own father was a suspect and for which a friend of Carlotta’s was ultimately jailed–albeit wrongly, in Carlotta’s eyes. But she persevered to the victorious end: her graduation from Central.

Breaking her silence at last and sharing her story for the first time, Carlotta Walls has written an inspiring, thoroughly engrossing memoir that is not only a testament to the power of one to make a difference but also of the sacrifices made by families and communities that found themselves a part of history.

Complete with compelling photographs of the time, A Mighty Long Way shines a light on this watershed moment in civil rights history and shows that determination, fortitude, and the ability to change the world are not exclusive to a few special people but are inherent within us all.

Tease by LaDawn Black

2009-08-25T00:30:00-05:00

Tease Steamy Short Stories
Written by LaDawn Black

Trade Paperback, 224 pages | One World/Ballantine | Fiction | $14.00 | 978-0-345-48665-3 (0-345-48665-X)

MANY CULTURES • ONE WORLD

In her highly anticipated fiction debut, LaDawn Black shares an irresistibly seductive collection of erotic tales that is sure to tease your imagination in the most unexpected and titillating ways.

High maintenance chick looking for her next benefactor. Wants the best and can give the best. Only men that are already what they aspire to be need to reply. TS6235

I love cheaters. Hitched women are my passion. Looking for a wife to play with. Fun and games with an erotic spin are my specialty. TS210

These are just a sampling of the “Hot Sheet” personal ads running in TEASE, a Baltimore newspaper. In this inhibition-free zone, anyone and everyone can let out their inner freak and find ravishing, willing partners.

From a divorcée who moves to a quaint seaside town and generates heat with a man half her age to two strangers who generate a lustful charge by letting passerbys watch them get it on in the park at night, every one of these steamy stories pushes boundaries, exposes taboos, and inspires pulse-pounding excitement–to both to those inhabiting them and those reading them.

With a provocative ad opening each delicious chapter, Tease dares to answer the question we’ve all asked while taking a voyeuristic ride through the personals: Who would do that? In these pages you might discover that the hottest fantasy belongs to you.

Baking Cakes in Kigali by Gaile Parkin

2009-08-18T00:30:00-05:00

Baking Cakes in Kigali A Novel
Written by Gaile Parkin

Hardcover, 320 pages | Delacorte Press | Fiction | $24.00 | 978-0-385-34343-5 (0-385-34343-4)

Once in a great while a debut novelist comes along who dazzles us with rare eloquence and humanity, who takes us to bold new places and into previously unimaginable lives. Gaile Parkin is just such a talent—and Baking Cakes in Kilgali is just such a novel. This gloriously written tale—set in modern-day Rwanda—introduces one of the most singular and engaging characters in recent fiction: Angel Tungaraza—mother, cake baker, keeper of secrets—a woman living on the edge of chaos, finding ways to transform lives, weave magic, and create hope amid the madness swirling all around her.

In Kigali, Angel runs a bustling business: baking cakes for all occasions—cakes filled with vibrant color, buttery richness, and, most of all, a sense of hope only Angel can deliver.…A CIA agent’s wife seeks the perfect holiday cake but walks away with something far sweeter…a former boy-soldier orders an engagement cake, then, between sips of tea, shares an enthralling story…weary human rights workers…lovesick limo drivers. Amid this cacophony of native tongues, love affairs, and confessions, Angel’s kitchen is an oasis where people tell their secrets, where hope abounds and help awaits.

In this unlikely place, in the heart of Rwanda, unexpected things are beginning to happen: A most unusual wedding is planned…a heartbreaking mystery—involving Angel’s own family—unravels…and extraordinary connections are being made among the men and women who have tasted Angel’s beautiful cakes…as a chain of events unfolds that will change Angel’s life—and the lives of those around her—in the most astonishing ways.

Big Machine by Victor LaValle

2009-08-11T00:30:00-05:00

Big Machine A Novel
Written by Victor LaValle

Hardcover, 384 pages | Spiegel & Grau | Fiction | $25.00 | 978-0-385-52798-9 (0-385-52798-5)

A fiendishly imaginative comic novel about doubt, faith, and the monsters we carry within us.

Ricky Rice was as good as invisible: a middling hustler, recovering dope fiend, and traumatized suicide cult survivor running out the string of his life as a porter at a bus depot in Utica, New York. Until one day a letter appears, summoning him to the frozen woods of Vermont. There, Ricky is inducted into a band of paranormal investigators comprised of former addicts and petty criminals, all of whom had at some point in their wasted lives heard The Voice: a mysterious murmur on the wind, a disembodied shout, or a whisper in an empty room that may or may not be from God.

Evoking the disorienting wonder of writers like Haruki Murakami and Kevin Brockmeier, but driven by Victor LaValle’s perfectly pitched comic sensibility Big Machine is a mind-rattling literary adventure about sex, race, and the eternal struggle between faith and doubt.

A Mercy by Toni Morrison

2009-08-11T00:30:00-05:00

A Mercy
Written by Toni Morrison

Trade Paperback, 224 pages | Vintage | Fiction | $15.00 | 978-0-307-27676-6 (0-307-27676-7)

National Bestseller

One of The New York Times 10 Best Books of the Year

In the 1680s the slave trade in the Americas is still in its infancy. Jacob Vaark is an Anglo-Dutch trader and adventurer, with a small holding in the harsh North. Despite his distaste for dealing in “flesh,” he takes a small slave girl in part payment for a bad debt from a plantation owner in Catholic Maryland. This is Florens, who can read and write and might be useful on his farm. Rejected by her mother, Florens looks for love, first from Lina, an older servant woman at her new master's house, and later from the handsome blacksmith, an African, never enslaved, who comes riding into their lives.

A Mercy reveals what lies beneath the surface of slavery. But at its heart, like Beloved, it is the ambivalent, disturbing story of a mother and a daughter-a mother who casts off her daughter in order to save her, and a daughter who may never exorcise that abandonment.

My Sister's Ex by Cydney Rax

2009-08-04T00:30:00-05:00

My Sister's Ex A Novel
Written by Cydney Rax

Trade Paperback, 304 pages | Three Rivers Press | Fiction | $14.00 | 978-0-307-45440-9 (0-307-45440-1)

Rachel Merrell goes into shock when her ex-boyfriend, Jeffery Williams, begins dating her half sister Marlene Draper. At first, Rachel swears Jeff is feigning interest in Marlene just to get back at her for breaking up with him. Rachel pretends Jeff’s interest in Marlene doesn't bother her, but when they unexpectedly hit it off and love begins to blossom, Rachel can't bear to watch the happy couple. Suddenly, Rachel wants Jeff back and she is determined to get him no matter what the cost—including Marlene's happiness.

But when her attempts to regain Jeff's affections fail, Rachel decides to join an online dating service, creating a profile under an assumed name, just to test the waters. Surprisingly, Rachel's profile matches someone who sounds like he'd be the perfect replacement for Jeff, but when she sees a picture of the man of her dreams, she's dumbfounded and pissed: it IS Jeff! Despite Rachel's jealousy over her sister's relationship, she has to tell Marlene the truth about the two-timing Casanova. Now the women will work together to devise a way to make him pay for what he's done...and discover a thing or two about sisterhood in the process.

Friends & Fauxs by Tracie Howard

2009-07-28T00:30:00-05:00

Friends & Fauxs A Novel
Written by Tracie Howard

Trade Paperback, 288 pages | Broadway | Fiction - Contemporary Women | $13.99 | 978-0-7679-2993-6 (0-7679-2993-4)

Tracie Howard is back with all of the Gucci, glitz, and glamour in this steamy follow-up to her smash hit Gold Diggers!
Gillian Tillman learned all about landing a wealthy man from her globe-trotting mother, Imelda, but this second-generation gold digger has a style all her own. With big dreams of becoming a huge star, she slept her way right into the million-dollar mansion of her now-husband, star-producer Brandon Russell. He not only launched Gillian’s film career, but landed her the starring and Oscar-nominated role in the hit film Gold Diggers. But all that glitters may not be gold. Gillian wrestles with the real possibility that Brandon may be a mob-connected money launderer, and worse yet, may have had a hand in the murder of her friend Paulette. When pictures of her naked surface on the Internet, both Gillian’s Oscar dreams and her marriage are threatened, even though she swears they aren’t of her. Meanwhile her best friends are struggling with issues of their own. Reese’s beloved son falls ill and she’s forced to decide between spilling a long-kept secret and saving his life, and Lauren’s hard-won happiness is threatened by a shocking betrayal.
Buckle your seatbelt as the lives of these larger-than-life characters intersect in a wild, page-turning romp.

Appetite by Erika J. Kendrick

2009-06-23T00:30:00-05:00

Appetite A Novel
Written by Erika J. Kendrick

Trade Paperback, 304 pages | One World/Ballantine | Fiction | $14.00 | 978-0-345-49498-6 (0-345-49498-9)

MANY CULTURES • ONE WORLD

With her exotic looks and killer body, Kennedy Lee is a rising star in the reality TV and soap opera worlds. Now she’s really hit the big time and landed a role on the hugely popular daytime drama America’s Next Sweetheart.

As this great news coincides with Kennedy’s birthday, her friends take her out for a wild night on the town. So wild, in fact, that the next morning Kennedy wakes up with a hard-bodied hunk in her bed, a vicious headache, and no recollection of how this gorgeous guy ended up beside her–naked. Not only that, but it’s her first day at the new gig, and Page Six has already chronicled her previous night’s exploits, calling her “America’s Next Lush.” Now Kennedy must endure dirty looks on the set, abuse from the soap’s bitchy diva, and the shocker that the guy who broke her five-year celibacy streak is none other than her co-star, Jesse James. As she battles catty actors, snarky production assistants, malicious gossip, and her growing appetite for food and sex, she struggles to fit in, find her true Prince Charming, and eat a slice of red velvet cake without any guilt.

Children of the Waters by Carleen Brice

2009-06-23T00:30:00-05:00

Children of the Waters A Novel
Written by Carleen Brice

Trade Paperback, 336 pages | One World/Ballantine | Fiction | $14.00 | 978-0-345-49907-3 (0-345-49907-7)

Still reeling from divorce and feeling estranged from her teenage son, Trish Taylor is in the midst of salvaging the remnants of her life when she uncovers a shocking secret: her sister is alive. For years Trish believed that her mother and infant sister had died in a car accident. But the truth is that her mother fatally overdosed and that Trish’s grandparents put the baby girl up for adoption because her father was black.

After years of drawing on the strength of her black ancestors, Billie Cousins is shocked to discover that she was adopted. Just as surprising, after finally overcoming a series of health struggles, she is pregnant–a dream come true for Billie but a nightmare for her sweetie, Nick, and for her mother, both determined to protect Billie from anything that may disrupt her well-being.

On the Laps of Gods by Robert Whitaker

2009-06-23T00:30:00-05:00

On the Laps of Gods The Red Summer of 1919 and the Struggle for Justice That Remade a Nation
Written by Robert Whitaker

Trade Paperback, 400 pages | Three Rivers Press | History | $16.00 | 978-0-307-33983-6 (0-307-33983-1)

They Shot Them Down Like Rabbits . . .

September 30, 1919. The United States teetered on the edge of a racial civil war. During the previous three months, racial fighting had erupted in twenty-five cities. And deep in the Arkansas Delta, black sharecroppers were meeting in a humble wooden church, forming a union and making plans to sue their white landowners. A car pulled up outside the church . . .

What happened next has long been shrouded in controversy.

In this heartbreaking but ultimately triumphant story of courage and will, journalist Robert Whitaker carefully documents–and exposes–one of the worst racial massacres in American history. On the Laps of Gods is the story of the 1919 Elaine massacre in Hoop Spur, Arkansas, during which white mobs and federal troops killed more than one hundred black men, women, and children; of the twelve black men subsequently condemned to die; of Scipio Africanus Jones, a former slave and tenacious black attorney; and of Moore v. Dempsey, the case Jones brought to the Supreme Court, which set the legal stage for the civil rights movement half a century later.

Random House New Releases - African-American Interest

The Black Book by Toni Morrison

The Black Book 35th Anniversary EditionEdited by Middleton A. Harris, Ernest Smith, Morris Levitt and Roger Furman Foreword by Toni Morrison

Millionaire Wives Club by Tu-Shonda L. Whitaker

Millionaire Wives Club A NovelWritten by Tu-Shonda L. Whitaker

Saving Savannah by Jacqueline Jones

Saving Savannah The City and the Civil WarWritten by Jacqueline Jones

The Breakthrough by Gwen Ifill

The Breakthrough Politics and Race in the Age of ObamaWritten by Gwen Ifill

Only in New York by Thomas Mellins

Only in New York Photographs from Look MagazineWritten by Donald Albrecht and Thomas Mellins

I Am the New Black by Anthony Bozza

I Am the New Black Written by Tracy Morgan and Anthony Bozza

Backstage by Nikki Turner

Backstage Written by Nikki Turner

Resilience by Dan Wetzel

Resilience Written by Alonzo Mourning and Dan Wetzel

Wildflowers by Lyah Beth LeFlore

Wildflowers A NovelWritten by Lyah Beth LeFlore

In the Falling Snow by Caryl Phillips

In the Falling Snow Written by Caryl Phillips

A Mighty Long Way by Bill Clinton

A Mighty Long Way My Journey to Justice at Little Rock Central High SchoolWritten by Carlotta Walls Lanier and Lisa Frazier Page Foreword by Bill Clinton

Tease by LaDawn Black

Tease Steamy Short StoriesWritten by LaDawn Black

Baking Cakes in Kigali by Gaile Parkin

Baking Cakes in Kigali A NovelWritten by Gaile Parkin

Big Machine by Victor LaValle

Big Machine A NovelWritten by Victor LaValle

A Mercy by Toni Morrison

A Mercy Written by Toni Morrison

My Sister's Ex by Cydney Rax

My Sister's Ex A NovelWritten by Cydney Rax

Friends & Fauxs by Tracie Howard

Friends & Fauxs A NovelWritten by Tracie Howard

Appetite by Erika J. Kendrick

Appetite A NovelWritten by Erika J. Kendrick

Children of the Waters by Carleen Brice

Children of the Waters A NovelWritten by Carleen Brice

On the Laps of Gods by Robert Whitaker

On the Laps of Gods The Red Summer of 1919 and the Struggle for Justice That Remade a NationWritten by Robert Whitaker

The Black Book 35th Anniversary Edition
Edited by Middleton A. Harris, Ernest Smith, Morris Levitt and Roger Furman
Foreword by Toni Morrison

Millionaire Wives Club A Novel
Written by Tu-Shonda L. Whitaker

Saving Savannah The City and the Civil War
Written by Jacqueline Jones

The Breakthrough Politics and Race in the Age of Obama
Written by Gwen Ifill

Only in New York Photographs from Look Magazine
Written by Donald Albrecht and Thomas Mellins

I Am the New Black
Written by Tracy Morgan and Anthony Bozza

Backstage
Written by Nikki Turner

Resilience
Written by Alonzo Mourning and Dan Wetzel

Wildflowers A Novel
Written by Lyah Beth LeFlore

In the Falling Snow
Written by Caryl Phillips

A Mighty Long Way My Journey to Justice at Little Rock Central High School
Written by Carlotta Walls Lanier and Lisa Frazier Page
Foreword by Bill Clinton

Tease Steamy Short Stories
Written by LaDawn Black

Baking Cakes in Kigali A Novel
Written by Gaile Parkin

Big Machine A Novel
Written by Victor LaValle

A Mercy
Written by Toni Morrison

My Sister's Ex A Novel
Written by Cydney Rax

Friends & Fauxs A Novel
Written by Tracie Howard

Appetite A Novel
Written by Erika J. Kendrick

Children of the Waters A Novel
Written by Carleen Brice

On the Laps of Gods The Red Summer of 1919 and the Struggle for Justice That Remade a Nation
Written by Robert Whitaker