Cultural Literature

Beatrice Borders was not a Sojourner Truth, fighting for women's rights; nor was she an Elizabeth Blackwell, the first African American woman to graduate from medical school. She was simply Ms. Bea, a woman living in the small, rural town of Camilla,...

2020 Anisfield-Wolf Book Award WinnerFinalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award From an award-winning historian comes a dazzling history of the birth of cultural anthropology and the adventurous scientists who pioneered it--a sweeping chronicle...

A People Pick!"One of the year's must-reads." -ELLE"[A] provocative, heart-breaking, and frequently hilarious collection." -GLAMOUR"Essential, vital, and urgent." -HARPER'S BAZAARIn the vein of Roxane Gay's Bad Feminist and Issa Rae's The Misadventures...

A bold and impassioned meditation on injustice in our country that punctures the illusion of a postracial America and reveals it as a place where authoritarianism looms large. Whether the issues are protest, labor, patriotism, or class division, it is...

Although blacks living within America are still haunted by the same malevolent plights their ancestors sparred with and could not elude, Jermaine Jones refuses to agree they are all grounds for blacks, today, to simply surrender. Rather than opting for...

**Winner of the Pulitzer Prize in History** "Extraordinary...a great American biography" (The New Yorker) of the most important African-American of the nineteenth century: Frederick Douglass, the escaped slave who became the greatest orator of his day...

Just as The Color of Law provided a vital understanding of redlining and racial segregation, Marcia Chatelain's Franchise investigates the complex interrelationship between black communities and America's largest, most popular fast food chain. Taking us...

Out of colonial Natchitoches, in northwestern Louisiana, emerged a sophisticated and affluent community founded by a family of freed slaves. Their plantations eventually encompassed 18,000 fertile acres, which they tilled alongside hundreds of their own...

A memoir and a call to action, this intimate look at America's long-standing struggle to adequately educate vulnerable children offers valuable insights for effecting change in families, communities, and nationwide. At the root of every important...

Learn how to process your own grief--as well as family, community, and global grief--with this fierce and openhearted guide to healing in an unjust world. In unsettling and uncertain times, the individual and collective heartbreak that lives in our...

Exploring the Psychosocial and Psycho-spiritual Dynamics of Singleness Among African American Christian Women in Midlife examines the complexities and realities of singleness in individual, familial, and communal contexts. These realities that are...

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER - WINNER OF THE PULITZER PRIZE - NAMED ONE OF TIME'S TEN BEST NONFICTION BOOKS OF THE DECADE - One of the most acclaimed books of our time, this modern classic "has set a new standard for reporting on poverty" (Barbara...

Like the renowned classics Praying for Sheetrock and North Toward Home, Ever Is a Long Time captures the spirit and feel of a small Southern town divided by racism and violence in the midst of the Civil Rights era. Part personal journey, part social and...

The Encyclopedia of Black Comics, focuses on people of African descent who have published significant works in the United States or have worked across various aspects of the comics industry. The book focuses on creators in the field of comics: inkers,...

African-American stories were overlooked by mainstream media until John H. Johnson showed the world the value of black life. In his magazines EBONY and JET, the publisher and businessman presented never-before-told accounts and used captivating,...

Playing music should be as simple and natural as drawing a breath, yet most musicians are hindered by self-consciousness, apprehension, self-doubt, and stress. Before we can truly express our inner self, we must first learn to be at peace and overcome...