Cultural Literature

In 1950, before Montgomery, Alabama, knew Martin Luther King Jr., before Rosa Parks refused to surrender her seat to a white passenger, before the city's famous bus boycott, a Negro man named Hilliard Brooks was shot and killed by a white police officer...

In 1990, Tommy Davidson burst onto the scene in the Emmy Award-winning show In Living Color, a pioneering sketch comedy show, featuring a multi-racial cast of actors and dancers who spoke to an underrepresented new generation created by Hip Hop...

A searingly honest memoir of one young woman's journey toward self-acceptanceas she comes to see her body as a symbol of rebellion and hope and chooses tolive her life unapologetically.

True power in this world comes from economic independence, but too many people have too much month left at the end of their money. John Hope Bryant, founder and CEO of Operation HOPE, illuminates the path toward liberation that is hiding in plain sight...

One of Essence's "10 Books We're Dying To Toss Into Our Summer Totes" - One of The Philadelphia Inquirer's "Big Summer Books for 2019"From sneakers to leather jackets, a bold, witty, and deeply personal dive into Black America's closet In this...

Making headlines when it was launched in 2015, Omise'eke Tinsley's undergraduate course "Beyoncé Feminism, Rihanna Womanism" has inspired students from all walks of life. In Beyoncé in Formation, Tinsley now takes her rich observations...

In "No Man Can A-Hinder Me," Dr. Robinson chronicles a 93-year search for the answer to White-On-Black hostility. Not only does he expose the hypocrisy of documents like the Constitution and the Emancipation Proclamation, he offers solutions that can...

"People always say I'm going to look back on these days and laugh -- why put it off?" When Angela Nissel found herself struggling financially while in college, instead of sulking, she decided to entertain herself by creating an online journal that...

In 1957, Melba Beals was one of the nine African American students chosen to integrate Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas. But her story of overcoming didn't start--or end--there. While her white schoolmates were planning their senior prom,...

WINNER OF THE 2017 J. ANTHONY LUKAS PRIZE On an average day in America, seven children and teens will be shot dead. In Another Day in the Death of America, award-winning journalist Gary Younge tells the stories of the lives lost during one such...

In the 1960s and '70s, a diverse range of storefronts--including head shops, African American bookstores, feminist businesses, and organic grocers--brought the work of the New Left, Black Power, feminism, environmentalism, and other social movements into...

"I m not a businessman I m a business, man." Jay Z  As much as Martha Stewart or Oprah and perhaps more than any musician Jay Z has turned himself into a lifestyle. You can wake up to the local radio station playing his newest hit, spritz yourself...