History

Histories of gay and lesbian urban life typically focus on major metropolitan areas like San Francisco and New York, opportunity-filled destinations for LGBTQ migrants from across the country. Yet there are many other queer communities in economically...

The powerful life story and photography of an esteemed Black photojournalist Cecil Williams is one of the few Southern Black photojournalists of the civil rights movement. Born and raised in Orangeburg, South Carolina, Williams worked at the center of...

In grocery store aisles and kitchens across the country, smiling images of "Aunt Jemima" and other historical and fictional black cooks can be found on various food products and in advertising. Although these images are sanitized and romanticized in...

"This untidy, honest, fascinating account compels the reader to reflect on profound questions of loyalty and race . . . All of us want to see our parents as heroes. It is to Ms. Seletsky's great credit that she explores the depths of her father's story...

A beautiful commemorative edition of Dr. Martin Luther King's speech "Our God Is Marching On," part of Dr. King's archives published exclusively by HarperCollins.At the end of the march from Selma to Montgomery on March 25, 1965, Dr. Martin Luther King...

A major literary event: a never-before-published work from the author of the American classic Their Eyes Were Watching God that brilliantly illuminates the horror and injustices of slavery as it tells the true story of one of the last known survivors of...

Black Americans have arguably arrived at the height of their cultural prominence. In politics, entertainment, academics, and nearly every sphere of influence, "black issues" dominate the discussion. Yet many black Americans are suffering worse than ever...

The Punitive Turn explores the historical, political, economic, and sociocultural roots of mass incarceration, as well as its collateral costs and consequences. Giving significant attention to the exacting toll that incarceration takes on inmates, their...

Apart from a handful of exotic--and almost completely unreliable--tales surrounding his life, Richard Potter is almost unknown today. Two hundred years ago, however, he was the most popular entertainer in America--the first showman, in fact, to win truly...

Cary Clack has captured the hearts and minds of Texans since the mid-1990s, gaining a national reputation as an incisive and sensitive journalist and developing a significant following as a columnist. Originally from San Antonio, he worked with the...

In collaboration with the Smithsonian's National Museum of African American History and Culture, this stylish, illustrated set of twelve note cards celebrates the life and work of Mae Reeves, one of Philadelphia's first Black female business owners. Mae...

Would there have been a Frederick Douglass if it were not for Betsy Bailey, the grandmother who raised him? Would Harriet Jacobs have written her renowned autobiography, Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, if her grandmother, a free black woman named...