Cultural Literature

Hanged by the Nigerian government on November 10, 1995, Ken Saro-Wiwa became a martyr for the Ogoni people and human rights activists, and a symbol of modern Africans' struggle against military dictatorship, corporate power, and environmental...

Author and world renowned actor Omar Epps chronicles his journey from humble beginnings in Brooklyn, New York, to the bright lights of Hollywood. Having grown up without his biological father, then becoming a father himself, Epps shares his story of pain...

One of Book Riot's "29 Amazing New Books Coming in 2018" A groundbreaking collection based on oral histories that brilliantly plumb the leadership of African American women in the twentieth-century fight for civil rights--many nearly lost to...

The long-awaited New York Times bestselling memoir of seven-time Grammy-nominated artist Charlie Wilson, the iconic R&B and Funk singer-songwriter-producer and former lead singer of The Gap Band--interwoven with his recollections of collaborating with...

New York Times Bestseller From Roxane Gay comes this collection of essays spanning politics, criticism, and feminism from one of the most-watched young cultural observers of her generation--now available in a limited Olive Edition. "Pink is my...

In a shattering work that shifts between a woman's private anguish over the loss of her beloved baby cousin and a scholar's fierce critique of the American prison system, Danielle Allen seeks answers to what, for many years, felt unanswerable...

Where have all the disciples gone? There is a missing force in Christianity today. It's a critical one, and its absence has led to weak believers, disintegrating families, ineffective churches, and a decaying culture. Without it, we lack what we need to...

The Oscar-nominated Precious star and Empire actress delivers a much-awaited memoir--wise, complex, smart, funny--a version of the American experience different from anything we've read Gabourey Sidibe--"Gabby" to her legion of...

Allowing legislators to pick the voters that make up their districts is a fundamental conflict of interest and central concern for the popular sovereignty of American elections. In The Realities of Redistricting, Jonathan Winburn examines the extent of...

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...