Biography

Harry Belafonte is not just one of the greatest entertainers of our time; he has led one of the great American lives of the last century. Now, this extraordinary icon tells us the story of that life, giving us its full breadth, letting us share in the...

The forgotten story of a criminal trial that brought national attention to a young defendant named Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. as told by Fred D. Gray, Dr. King's lawyer and friend, along with New York Times bestselling authors Dan Abrams and David...

Dear White Woman, Please Come Home is Kimberlee Yolanda Williams' invitation to white women longing for authentic friendship with Black and brown women, the kind of friendship with no place for secrets, the kind of relationship where truth-telling is...

If you let a black girl loose in a library, you may not recognize the woman who emerges. --from Miss ChloeToni Morrison, born Chloe A Wofford, was a towering figure in the world of literature when she entered A.J. Verdelle's life. Their literary...

The inspiring true story of an enslaved woman who liberated an infamous slave jail and transformed it into one of the nation's first HBCUs In The Devil's Half Acre, New York Times bestselling author Kristen Green draws on years of...

Ernest Withers took some of the most legendary images of the 1950s and '60s: Martin Luther King, Jr., riding a newly integrated bus in Montgomery, Alabama; Emmett Till's uncle pointing an accusatory finger across the courtroom at his nephew's killer;...

He was a son of Africa who became father to a nation and, for billions of people around the world, a beacon of hope, courage, and perseverance in the face of opposition. Now, acclaimed poet Maya Angelou honors the life and remarkable soul of Nelson...

American pop music is arguably this country's greatest cultural contribution to the world, and its singular voice and virtuosity were created by a shining thread of Black women geniuses stretching back to the country's founding. This is their surprising,...

From National Book Award and Pulitzer Prize-winning author Alice Walker and edited by critic and writer Valerie Boyd, comes an unprecedented compilation of Walker's fifty years of journals drawing an intimate portrait of her development over five decades...

Henry Louis Gates, Jr. presents the only authoritative edition of all three autobiographies by the escaped slave who became a great American leader.   Here in this Library of America volume are collected Frederick Douglass's three autobiographical...

In the spirit of Piri Thomas's Down These Mean Streets and Maya Angelou's I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, writer and activist Kevin Powell's memoir--"illuminating...an education for us all" (USA TODAY)--vividly recounts the horrific poverty of his youth...

Packaged in handsome, affordable trade editions, Clydesdale Classics is a new series of essential literary works. It features literary phenomena with influence and themes so great that, after their publication, they changed literature forever. From the...

An exploration of the vegan diet with a focus on African diaspora communities. Green Soul Rising encourages readers to transition into a plant-based, animal-free diet. In her quest to uncover a higher sense of spirituality and being, Nathalie Etienne...

"An elegant meditation on the complexities of the American South--and thus of America--by an esteemed daughter of the South and one of the great intellectuals of our time. An inspiration." --Isabel Wilkerson, New York Times bestselling author of The...

A riveting biography of Walter F. White, a little-known Black civil rights leader who passed for white in order to investigate racist murders, help put the NAACP on the map, and change the racial identity of America forever Walter F. White led two...

Kidnapped and sold into slavery at the age of ten, Olaudah Equiano's memoir caused a sensation when it was first published in 1789. The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano is the true story of his life, from his ten years of service as a...