History

Founding Director Lonnie Bunch's deeply personal tale of the triumphs and challenges of bringing the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture to life. His story is by turns inspiring, funny, frustrating, quixotic, bittersweet,...

A NEW YORK TIMES TOP TEN BOOK OF THE YEAR - FINALIST FOR THE NATIONAL BOOK AWARD IN FICTION - A READ WITH JENNA BOOK CLUB PICK - NATIONAL BESTSELLER - Two top women gladiators fight for their freedom within a depraved private prison system not...

WINNER OF THE 2022 NATIONAL BOOK AWARD FOR NONFICTIONINSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER"An elegant meditation on the complexities of the American South--and thus of America--by an esteemed daughter of the South and one of the great intellectuals of our...

This gorgeous collection is  the companion to the classic anthology Daughters of Africa—a major international collection that brings together the work of more than 200 women writers of African descent, celebrating their artistry and...

Winner of the Pulitzer Prize"A must-read, cannot-put-down history." -- Thomas Friedman, New York TimesArguably the most important American lawyer of the twentieth century, Thurgood Marshall was on the verge of bringing the landmark suit Brown v. Board of...

Team up Usain Bolt with Simone Biles, match Mae Jemison with Katherine Johnson, join Jean-Michel Basquiat with Kara Walker. Collect illustrated cards of 44 of the most inspirational Black figures of all time and gather them into groups including space,...

A startling and eye-opening look into America's First Family, Never Caught is the powerful story about a daring woman of "extraordinary grit" (The Philadelphia Inquirer). When George Washington was elected president, he reluctantly left behind his...

The #1 New York Times bestseller The phenomenal true story of the black female mathematicians at NASA whose calculations helped fuel some of America's greatest achievements in space--a powerful, revelatory history essential to our understanding of race,...

#1 New York Times Bestseller"Medgar Evers deserves a place alongside Malcolm X and Dr. King in our historical memory. Evers, with Myrlie as his partner in activism and in life, was doing civil rights work in the single most hostile and dangerous...

In the years immediately after the Civil War, tens of thousands of former slaves deposited millions of dollars into the Freedman's Bank. African Americans envisioned this new bank as a launching pad for economic growth and self-determination. But only...

#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER - NEW YORK TIMES READERS PICK: 100 BEST BOOKS OF THE 21st CENTURY - OPRAH'S BOOK CLUB PICK - "An instant American classic and almost certainly the keynote nonfiction book of the American century thus far...

"An astonishing work, Picturing Black History offers a trove of both famous and unseen photos with brief, poignant accompanying essays to show not only the centrality of Black people to American history but also how African Americans used the...