History

A fierce and inspirational guide to Black resistance, resilience, and healing, using the principles of Afro-Indigenous spiritual practices Understanding where you came from is crucial to understand where you are going. The Five Blessings of Ifá explores...

Rediscover Black-Owned Hotels, Motels, and Resorts--and the History Behind ThemThroughout America's history of slavery and segregation, Black travelers faced not just unwelcoming environments but the challenge of finding safe places to rest and recharge...

A deeply personal exploration of the generational impact of guns on the Black experience in America   A few years ago, Trymaine Lee, though fit and only 38, nearly died of a heart attack. When his then five-year-old daughter, Nola, asked her daddy...

An authoritative anthology tracing the history of one of the most important concepts Black people drew on to challenge the brutal, totalizing system of Jim Crow racism This book brings together a wealth of readings on the metaphor of the "New Negro,"...

The story of settlers in the American West, with its tales of cowboys, prospectors, and frontiersmen, is often overwhelmingly white. Black Wests brings to light the pivotal and largely overlooked contributions of Black Americans to the western narrative...

Written by Harriet Ann Jacobs, using the pen name "Linda Brent," Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl is an in-depth chronological account of Jacobs's life as a slave, and the decisions and choices she made to gain freedom for herself and her children...

Why don't our schools work? Eve L. Ewing tackles this question from a new angle: What if they're actually doing what they were built to do? She argues that instead of being the great equalizer, America's classrooms were designed to do the opposite: to...

A surprising and beautiful meditation on the color blue--and its fascinating role in Black history and culture--from National Book Award winner Imani Perry Throughout history, the concept of Blackness has been remarkably intertwined with another color:...

A New York Times Notable Book "Henry Louis Gates is a national treasure. Here, he returns with an intellectual and at times deeply personal meditation on the hard-fought evolution and the very meaning of African American identity, calling upon our...

"Breathtaking. [Rasmussen's] scholarly detective work reveals a fascinating narrative of slavery and resistance, but it also tells us something about history itself--about how fiction can become fact, and how 'history' is sometimes nothing more than...

Originally published in 1916, this innovative peanut recipe book by prominent Black scientist George Washington Carver is just as delicious today. How many ways can you possibly prepare the peanut? At least 105, according to George Washington Carver. In...

Alice Randall, award-winning professor, songwriter, and author with a "lively, engaging, and often wise" (The New York Times Book Review) voice, offers a lyrical, introspective, and unforgettable account of her past and her search for the first family of...