African American Studies

African Americans struggle with identity because of 400 plus years of slavery, Jim Crow, the dark specter of ghettoes, and the New Jim Crow, i.e., prison. In a 1967 speech, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., referred to this as the struggle for somebodiness...

In the midst of loss and death and suffering, our charge is to figure out what freedom really means--and how we take steps to get there. "In the United States, being poor and Black makes you more likely to get sick. Being poor, Black, and sick makes you...

Winner of the PEN Oakland-Josephine Miles AwardWinner of the MAAH Stone Book AwardA Rolling Stone Best Music Book of the YearA Pitchfork Best Music Book of the Year   "Brooks traces all kinds of lines, finding unexpected points of connection.....

Mahogany L. Browne's evocative book-length poem explores the impacts of the prison system on both the incarcerated and the loved ones left behind.I Remember Death by Its Proximity to What I Love is an expansive poetic meditation on who we think is bound...

Black Man Where Are You is a collection on the history of black oppression and how to reverse the cycle . This book not only acknowledges the sacrifices of our ancestors, but how to apply the knowledge we have learned for a more prosperous future.

Nellie Y. McKay (1930-2006) was a pivotal figure in contemporary American letters. The author of several books, McKay is best known for coediting the canon-making Norton Anthology of African American Literaturewith Henry Louis Gates Jr., which helped...

One of our preeminent historians of race and democracy argues that the period since 2008 has marked nothing less than America's Third ReconstructionIn The Third Reconstruction, distinguished historian Peniel E. Joseph offers a powerful and personal new...

Singing is very popular among the Dinka. With ox songs, although the practice may now be dying, every man is traditionally supposed Singing is very popular among the Dinka. With ox songs, although the practice may now be dying, every man is traditionally...

Springfield became the capital of Illinois due in large part to Abraham Lincoln--lawyer, politician, and president. Lincoln lived in Springfield from 1837 to 1861, and during the decade after his departure, the African American population in the city...

When you have nothing to lose, you can risk everything. There was no reason to bet on Bruce Johnson, given where he started out. Poor, Black, and raised by a single mother who had a secret. He was the child she hid in plain view from the rest of her...

From a leading prison abolitionist, a moving memoir about coming of age in Brooklyn and surviving incarceration--and a call to break free from all the cages that confine us. Marlon Peterson grew up in 1980s Crown Heights, raised by Trinidadian immigrants...

A searing memoir of American racism from a Somalian-American who survived hardships in his birth country only to experience firsthand the dehumanization of Blacks in his adopted land, the United States.No one told me about America. Born in Somalia and...