African American Studies

When Noire, a hip, Afro-wearing Ph.D. student, walks into Brown Betty Books, her righteousness kicks in to overdrive amid the self-identified talented tenth who wear their double degrees and five-hundred-dollar shoes like badges of honor. And then...

#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER - In Sapiens, he explored our past. In Homo Deus, he looked to our future. Now, one of the most innovative thinkers on the planet turns to the present to make sense of today's most pressing issues. "Fascinating . . . a...

The astonishing memoir of a free man who was sold into slavery in Louisiana where he was kept for 12 years--a powerful, riveting condemnation of slavery, and a story soon to be introduced to a new audience through a major filmTricked by two men offering...

In The Pursuit of Happiness Bianca C. Williams traces the experiences of African American women as they travel to Jamaica, where they address the perils and disappointments of American racism by looking for intimacy, happiness, and a connection...

From a leading journalist and activist comes a brave, beautifully wrought memoir. When Darnell Moore was fourteen, three boys from his neighborhood tried to set him on fire. They cornered him while he was walking home from school, harassed him because...

The first book to explore how African American writing and art engaged with visions of Ethiopia during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries As the only African nation, with the exception of Liberia, to remain independent during the...

In addition to being a poet, fiction writer, playwright, and essayist, Langston Hughes was also a globe-trotting cosmopolitan, travel writer, translator, avid international networker, and--perhaps above all--pan-Africanist. In Cultural...

Through eight humorous essays, Keturah Kendrick chronicles her journey to freedom. She shares the stories of other women who have freed themselves from the narrow definition of what makes a "proper woman." Spotlighting the cultural bullying that dictates...

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Womanist approaches to the study of religion and society have contributed much to our understanding of Black religious life, activism, and women's liberation. Deeper Shades of Purpleexplores the achievements of this movement over the past two...

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In "No Man Can A-Hinder Me," Dr. Robinson chronicles a 93-year search for the answer to White-On-Black hostility. Not only does he expose the hypocrisy of documents like the Constitution and the Emancipation Proclamation, he offers solutions that can...

Originally published as William Styrons's Nat Turner. These essays address the misrepresentation of Turner's life and activities by white writers. The contributers include Lerone Bennett Jr., John O. Killens, Alvin Poussaint, and John A. Williams.

In the manner of Calvino's "Invisible Cities," Wendy S. Walters's essays deftly explore the psyches of cities such as Chicago, Detroit, New York, Portsmouth, and Washington, D.C. In "Cleveland," she interviews an African-American playwright who draws...

In "Twisted: My Dreadlock Chronicles," professor and author Bert Ashe delivers a witty, fascinating, and unprecedented account of black male identity as seen through our culture's perceptions of hair. It is a deeply personal story that weaves together...

During the early 1800s, about two dozen men of African descent lived in Hawai i. The most noteworthy was Anthony D. Allen, a businessman who had traveled around the world before making Hawai i his home and starting a family there in 1810. The 25th Black...