Biography

The "New York Times"-bestselling author and one of the nation's finest speakers reflects on critical points in his life and times through the lens of the speeches he gave--and the leaders and preachers who inspired him. Black Americans have always relied...

Michelle Obama has played an influential role in her husband's campaign, and is certain to do the same if he is elected president. This work examines her astonishing career--covering her undergraduate years at Princeton, her studies at Harvard Law...

"The journey white Southerners travel in this riveting memoir, from virulent racism to acceptance of blacks' civil rights, is as momentous as any in American history. Zellner moved a shorter distance — son of a progressive, integrationist minister from...

A celebrated fighter pilot details his ordeal in Vietnam--a war in which he did not believe during a time when black Americans found equality in the U.S. military long before they could experience democracy's promise back at home. Captain Brian H...

Powerful prose, poetry, and jazz riffs chronicle the first 21 years of the life of Haki R. Madhubuti, formerly Don L. Lee: poet, publisher, editor, and activist. He was raised by his mother Maxine, whose life is also recounted--including gritty details...

Born in 1856 in Thomasville, Georgia, Henry Ossian Flipper was nine at the end of the Civil War. His parents, part of a privileged upper class of slaves, were allowed to operate an independent business under the protection of their owner. This placed...

Marcia Ann Gillespie, Rosa Johnson Butler, and Richard A. LongBeloved poet, playwright, and humanitarian Maya Angelou is celebrated by her most intimate circle of friends, in this richly illustrated celebration of her life. With a Foreword by Oprah...

In The Heart of a Woman Maya Angelou leaves California with her son, Guy, to go to New York. There she enters the society and world of black artists and writers. Not since her childhood has she lived in an almost black environment, and she is surprised...

Arguably one of the most mainstream music styles today, rap was in fact born centuries ago in West Africa with historians or 'griots' who used to tell stories of the past over the beat of a drum. But it wasn't until the 1970s in New York that rapping as...