General African American Studies

In Bright Boulevards, Bold Dreams, Donald Bogle tells-for the first time-the story of a place both mythic and real: Black Hollywood. Spanning sixty years, this deliciously entertaining history uncovers the audacious manner in which many blacks made a...

An impassioned defense of the freedom of speech, from Stéphane Charbonnier, a journalist murdered for his convictions. On January 7, 2015, two gunmen stormed the offices of the French satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo. They took the lives of twelve men...

Patrice Evans is The Assimilated Negro, a hyperobservant, savagely pop-savvy instigator bent on pranking the crap out of our modern racial discourse. Since the debut of his popular "Ghetto Pass" column for Gawker.com, Evans has been the rare voice...

On June 7, 1998, James Byrd Jr., a forty-nine-year-old black man, was walking home from a party when three white men in a pickup truck offered him a ride. They drove Byrd out to a lonely country road, tied him to a logging chain, and dragged him three...

Co-edited and introduced by Toni Morrison, winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature, Birth of a Nation'hood elucidates as never before the grim miasma of the O.J. Simpson case, which has elicited gargantuan fascination. As they pertain to the scandal, the...

There have been claims that meaninglessness has become epidemic in the contemporary world. One perceived consequence of this is that people increasingly turn against both society and the political establishment with little concern for the content (or...

Discourse around Muslims and Islam all too often lapses into a false dichotomy of Orientalist and fundamentalist tropes. A popular reimagining of Islam is urgently needed. Yet it is a perhaps unexpected political philosophical tradition that has the most...

An enlightening and deliciously witty collection of essays on Blackness, faith, pop culture, and the challenges--and rewards--of finding one's way in the world, from a BuzzFeed editor and podcast host. "A memoir that is immense in its desire to give . . ...

Black Panther and Cuban exile Assata Shakur has inspired generations of radical protest, including the contemporary movement for Black lives. Drawing its title from one of America's foremost revolutionaries, this collection of thought-provoking essays by...

After a speech at UMass Amherst on February 28, 1984, James Baldwin was asked by a student: You said that the liberal façade and being a liberal is not enough. Well, what is? What is necessary? Baldwin responded, Commitment. That is what is...

An edgy and insightful look at Barack Obama, Keanu Reeves, and the mixed-race experience in our divided world. At once personally revealing and politically astute, author Will Harris reflects on the lives of two very different supermen: Barack Obama and...

A call to action--inspiring citizens to stand up and fight for social justice in our nation. In the last few years we have seen a wave of activism wash across our nation and inspire unprecedented protest and civic engagement. People came together in...

A Plague on Your Houses is a scorching indictment of the decision to close fire companies in New York in the 1970s and a frightening study of the way misguided and malevolent social policy can spark a chain reaction of enormous and unforeseen urban...

Spirituals, songs of abiding faith passed down by African Americans through the centuries, offer a remarkable view of resilience, courage, and love. Formed in the crucible of fire, these songs express the suffering and horror of slavery as well as the...