General African American Studies

For over fifty years, Rev. Jesse L. Jackson, Sr., a Baptist minister, activist, and organizer, has worked for civil rights, peace, and the promise of true democracy. From his years in the Civil Rights movement, his work as founder of the Rainbow/PUSH...

Since it was first published in 1991, few books have come close to capturing the depth and breadth of Alexander Wilson�s innovative ecocultural compendium The Culture of Nature. His work was one of the first of its kind to investigate the ideology...

This provocative account of our immigration system's long, racist history reveals how it has become the brutal machine that upends the lives of millions of immigrants today.Each year in the United States, hundreds of thousands of people are arrested,...

The harrowing true story of Robbie Tolan, a young black man who was shot in the chest by a white police officer . . . in his own driveway.NO JUSTICE is the harrowing story of Robbie Tolan, who early on one New Year's Eve morning, found himself being...

The Fall of a Great American City is the story of what is happening today in New York City and in many other cities across America. It is about how the crisis of affluence is now driving out everything we love most about cities: small shops, decent...

Learn about key moments in New York City's development, starting with the history of the J.M. Kaplan Fund and its role in shaping the city from World War II to the present.The J.M. Kaplan Fund was established in 1945 by Jacob M. Kaplan, and would go on...

Finalist for the National Book Award in Poetry Brutal Imagination is the work of a poet at the peak of his considerable powers, confronting a crucial subject: the black man in America. "A hymn to all the sons this country has stolen from her...

Booker Taliaferro Washington (April 5, 1856 - November 14, 1915) was an American educator, author, orator, and adviser to several presidents of the United States. Between 1890 and 1915, Washington was the dominant leader in the African American community...

Where have all the grownups gone? In answering that question with the same freewheeling erudition and intuitive brilliance that made Iron John a national bestseller, poet, storyteller and translator Robert Bly tells us that we live in a "sibling society,...

Since its first publication 25 years ago Black Religion and Black Radicalism has established itself as the classic treatment of African American religious history. Wilmore shows to what extent the history of African Americans can be told in terms of...

Status is ubiquitous in modern life, yet our understanding of its role as a driver of inequality is limited. In Status, sociologist and social psychologist Cecilia Ridgeway examines how this ancient and universal form of inequality influences today's...

Gotham meets The Island at the Center of the World in this dazzling history of a single block in Manhattan from the Age of Exploration to the present. This is the story of New York City, told through the prism of one block, bordered by Twenty-third...

By 1963, the African American community's demand for equality could not be ignored. Following the 1954 Supreme Court decision to desegregate schools, those who were oppressed took their place at lunch counters for sit-in demonstrations, participated in...

Ida Bell Wells-Barnett (July 16, 1862 - March 25, 1931) was an American investigative journalist, educator, and early leader in the civil rights movement. She was one of the founders of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People...