Cultural Literature

Francis Davis is one of this nation's savviest and most admired music and cultural critics. In this collection of essays he observes the modern jazz and pop that have reached middle age at the same moment as many of their listeners, including the author...

The year 1964 produced a watershed in American race relations. In one of the civil rights movement's most dramatic initiatives, thousands of Northern white college students were recruited to come south that summer in an effort to "break" Mississippi and...

2011 ARSC Award for Excellence in Historical Recorded Sound Research for Best History By the time of his death in 1982, Sam "Lightnin'" Hopkins was likely the most recorded blues artist in history. This brilliant biography illuminates the many...

From NPR correspondent and New York Times bestselling author, Kwame Alexander, comes a powerful and provocative collection of poems that cut to the heart of the entrenched racism and oppression in America and eloquently explores ongoing events. A book in...

Parents, young people, community organizers, and educators describe how they are fighting systemic racism in schools by building a new intersectional educational justice movement. Illuminating the struggles and triumphs of the emerging educational...

In 1993, shortly after his inauguration, new President Bill Clinton nominated his old friend and classmate Lani Guinier to the prestigious and crucial post of Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights. That nomination sparked an immediate firestorm of...

Foreword by Elaine WelterothIn this stunning essay collection inspired by the popular podcast Life, I Swear, prominent Black women reflect on self-love and healing, sharing stories of the trials and tribulations they've faced and what has helped them...

"Heartbreaking and uplifting... a searing book about race and prejudice in America... brims with insights that only someone who has lived on both sides of the racial divide could gain."--Cleveland Plain Dealer "A triumph of storytelling as well as a...

Life on the Back Side of the Sport of Kings is the third of three intriguing books written by James Wright that probe into the heart of America's apartheid consciousness. It is about broken promises and old cliques America has made and still purports to...

These intensely personal testimonies illuminate the complexities of black women's lives, offering unique reflections about self, family, intimacy, work, politics, life transitions, violation, and recovery.

Star actor of stage, film, and television, civil rights activist, screenwriter, and director, Ossie Davis was among the most beloved and respected men in Hollywood and American society as a whole, whose brilliant oratory style was among his most...