History

The award-winning art historian and founder of Vision & Justice uncovers a pivotal era in the story of race in the United States when Americans came to ignore the truth about the false foundations of the nation's racial regime. In a masterpiece of...

Originally written in 1980 by the Lorenzo J. Greene, Gary R. Kremer, and Antonio F. Holland and revised and updated in 1993 by Kremer and Holland, Missouri's Black Heritage, now in a greatly expanded third edition, remains the only book-length account of...

A passionate and illuminating account of soul, the hard-won wisdom shepherded by Black people throughout generationsHow did enslaved Africans turn America's infamous failure into the greatest moral occasion of modern Western life? In this book,...

A powerful, intergenerational memoir that traces one family's journey through war, exile, faith, and resilience, Roots of Grace is a story about the identity we inherit and what we choose to carry forward. Roots of Grace is a powerful, intergenerational...

In Racist by Design, award-winning historian Kelly Lytle Hern?ndez reveals how generations of lawmakers and law enforcers built the American immigration system to encourage white immigrants while targeting nonwhite migrants for exclusion, punishment, and...

Even before they were recognized as citizens of the United States, Black women understood that the fights for civil and human rights were inseparable. Over the course of two hundred years, they were at the forefront of national and international...

A groundbreaking analysis of Frederick Douglass as constitutional theorist, showing how his vision, which prefigured today's originalism, melded history and natural rights to address the evil of slavery. In his celebrated address "What to the Slave is...

From the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Franchise comes the little-known story of the pioneering Black women artists and activists who were seen, but barely heard, at the 1963 March on Washington. "Chatelain lets us see the complexities of these...

What to the Slave Is the Fourth of July? (1852) is a speech by Frederick Douglass. Having escaped from slavery in the South at a young age, Frederick Douglass became a prominent orator and autobiographer who spearheaded the American abolitionist movement...

12 Years A Slave: A True Story is the harrowing and powerful autobiography of Solomon Northup, a free Black man who was kidnapped and sold into slavery in the American South. First published in 1853, this firsthand account lays bare the inhumanity of...

During the Battle of Fort Wagner in 1863, Sgt. William Harvey Carney picked up the fallen flag from his lifeless comrade. He waved the flag for all of the 54th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry to see and led the way to the parapet to plant the colors...

In 1854, traveling was full of danger. Omnibus accidents were commonplace. Pedestrians were regularly attacked by the Five Points' gangs. Rival police forces watched and argued over who should help. Pickpockets, drunks and kidnappers were all part of the...