Cultural Literature

The sorry story of how the House of Representatives became unrepresentative is clearly laid out in a new book, Ratf**cked: The True Story Behind the Secret Plan to Steal America’s Democracy. Despite the wise-guy title, David Daley, editor in...

Durham and Orange Counties have vibrant and active African American communities. Throughout the region's unjust past, generations have shown extraordinary strength and resolve. Floyd McKissick became the first African American student at the University...

Forsyth County, Georgia, at the turn of the twentieth century was home to a large African American community that included ministers and teachers, farmers and field hands, tradesmen, servants, and children. Many black residents were poor sharecroppers,...

In January of 1950, Mary Church Terrell, an 86-year-old charter member of the NAACP, headed into Thompson's Restaurant, just a few blocks from the White House, and requested to be served. She and her companions were informed by the manager that they...

The first book to bring to life the influential friendship between Malcolm X and Muhammad Ali In 1962, boxing writers and fans considered Cassius Clay an obnoxious self-promoter, and few believed that he would become the heavyweight champion of the world...

The companion book to Henry Louis Gates, Jr.'s PBS series, And Still I Rise--a timeline and chronicle of the past fifty years of black history in the U.S. in more than 350 photos.Beginning with the assassination of Malcolm X in February 1965, And Still I...

Kitwana, author of the best-selling The Hip-Hop Generation, sits down with leadership of the five major national hip-hop organizations, a larger part of the force that is driving the innovative marriage between hip-hop and civic engagement—The...

This is the first comprehensive selection from the correspondence of the iconic and beloved Langston Hughes. It offers a life in letters that showcases his many struggles as well as his memorable achievements. Arranged by decade and linked by expert...

Reggie Love is a unique witness to history, whose introduction to Washington was working in Junior Senator Barack Obama's mailroom. As "body man" to Obama during his first presidential campaign, Love's job was to stay one step behind the candidate, but...

Picture a ballerina in a tutu and toe shoes. What does she look like?" As the only African American soloist dancing with the prestigious American Ballet Theatre, Misty Copeland has made history. But when she first placed her hands on the barre at an...

Dr. Yvonne Thornton, author of the heartwarming memoir The Ditchdigger's Daughters (which has been translated into 19 languages and adapted as an award-winning movie), knows what it's like to overcome steep odds. Born into a family with great ambition...

Andrea Stuart was born and raised in the Caribbean. She studied English at the University of East Anglia and French at the Sorbonne. Her book "The Rose of Martinique: A Life of Napoleon's Josephine" was published in the United States in 2004, has been...