General History

Rap-A-Lot Records, U.G.K. (Pimp C and Bun B), Paul Wall, Beyonce, Chamillionaire and Scarface are all names synonymous with contemporary hip-hop. And they have one thing in common: Houston. Long before the country came to know the chopped and screwed styl

Joining the ranks of Evicted, The Warmth of Other Sons, and classic works of literary non-fiction by Alex Kotlowitz and J. Anthony Lukas, High-Risers braids personal narratives, city politics, and national history to tell the timely and epic story of...

Hidden in Plain Sight: A History of the Newberry Mass Lynching of 1916 is a fast-paced narrative history of a 1916 mass lynching in North Florida, where six members of a tight-knit Black family were killed by a white mob of the "best men" in the district...

Hidden in Plain Sight: A History of the Newberry Mass Lynching of 1916 is a fast-paced narrative history of a 1916 mass lynching in North Florida, where six members of a tight-knit Black family were killed by a white mob of the "best men" in the district...

Although many bluesmen began leaving the Magnolia State in the early twentieth century to pursue fortune and fame up north, many others stayed home.These musicians remained rooted to the traditions of their land, which came to define a distinctive...

Boston is one of America's most historic cities, but it has quite a bit of unseen past.Riotous mobs celebrated their hatred of the pope in an annual celebration called Pope's Night during the colonial era. A centuries-long turf war pl

In Hidden Heroism, Robert Edgerton investigates the history of Afro-American participation in American wars, from the French and Indian War to the present. He argues that blacks in American society have long-suffered from a natural coward stereotype that...

Many of the unsung heroes of the Underground Railroad lived and worked in Washington, D.C.Men and women, black and white, operatives and freedom seekers - all demonstrated courage, resourcefulness and initiative. Leonard Grimes, a fre

Heritage of Power is the first book to establish the civil-rights legacy of Mary Ellen Pleasant, called "The Mother of Civil Rights in California." Did this daring woman of mystery really aid the abolitionist John Brown and study with New Orleans' most...

NATIONAL BESTSELLEREdgar Award NomineeOne of the Best Books of the Year: O, The Oprah Magazine, Time, The Washington Post, The Christian Science Monitor, St. Louis Post-Dispatch, San Francisco ChronicleWith a New AfterwordOn April 4, 1968, James Earl...

Winner of the Zócalo Public Square Book PrizeBenjamin L. Hooks Award Finalist "An insightful, powerful, and moving book."--Kevin Boyle, author of Arc of Justice "Sturkey's clear-eyed and meticulous book pulls off a delicate balancing act. While depicting...

Winner of the 2020 Zócalo Public Square Book Prize A rich, multigenerational saga of race and family in Hattiesburg, Mississippi, that tells the story of how Jim Crow was built, how it changed, and how the most powerful social movement in American...