Biography

The Civil Rights movement brought author Alice Walker and lawyer Mel Leventhal together, and in 1969 their daughter, Rebecca, was born. Some saw this unusual copper-colored girl as an outrage or an oddity; others viewed her as a symbol of harmony, a...

From the moment where one's race is realized to the first heart break because of something more than unrequited feelings, Black Was Not a Label explores what life is like within the "veil," a concept coined by W.E.B. DuBois, and the "double...

Winner of the 2021 Wolfson History Prize"Black Spartacus is a tour de force: by far the most complete, authoritative and persuasive biography of Toussaint that we are likely to have for a long time . . . An extraordinarily gripping read." --David A...

Black Radical reclaims William Monroe Trotter (1872-1934) as a seminal figure whose prophetic yet ultimately tragic--and all too often forgotten--life offers a link from Frederick Douglass to Black Lives Matter. Kerri K. Greenidge renders the drama of...

An unflinching look at nineteenth- and twentieth-century African American leaders and their visionary legacies. In an accessible, conversational format, Cornel West, with distinguished scholar Christa Buschendorf, provides a fresh perspective on six...

Black Power, Black Lawyer is a memoir that stitches suspense, calamity, humor and wit into a tapestry of history, politics, law, culture and romance. Both serious and scandalous, Nkechi Taifa's audacious quest for justice is a gripping commentary on...

Surviving a stroke and coma, Curtis Cannon suffered a traumatic brain injury and slipped into depression. He noticed he had a great deal of time on his hands. He has been compelled to make an attempt to familiarize as many black people as possible. He...

An unheralded military hero, Charles Young (1864-1922) was the third black graduate of West Point, the first African American national park superintendent, the first black U.S. military attaché, the first African American officer to command a Regular...

*A Book Riot Most Anticipated Nonfiction Book of 2021* The creators of the popular website Black Nerd Problems bring their witty and unflinching insight to this engaging collection of pop culture essays on everything from Mario Kart and The Wire to...

This title is a hard-nosed critique of black men living in America. Its an analytical observation of black mens revolving incarceration rate and obsessive fixation with wearing saggy pants, exposing their underwear. The book will take you on a journey...

A NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER - ONE OF TIME MAGAZINE'S TOP TEN NONFICTION BOOKS OF THE YEAR A LIBRARY JOURNAL BEST BOOK SELECTION - A BOOKLIST EDITORS' CHOICE BOOK SELECTIONOne doctor's passionate and profound memoir of his experience grappling with race,...

A largely untold story of an extraordinary historical figure, this biography sheds light on the life of William Sheppard, a 19th-century African American who, for more than 20 years, defied segregation and operated a missionary run by black Americans in...