History - African American & Black

A riveting account of the civil rights boycott that changed history by the foremost author of history for young people. Now a classic, Freedman's book tells the dramatic stories of the heroes who stood up against segregation and Jim Crow laws in 1950s Alabama....

The Reconstruction era was born from the tumult and violence of the Civil War and delivered the most powerful changes the United States had seen since its founding. Black Americans in Washington, D.C., and its surrounding region were at the heart of these transformations,...

A stirring contribution to America's historical narrative."--Kirkus Reviews (starred review) From bestselling author Celeste Headlee, an urgent and eye-opening story of the women who risked everything to ensure a generation of Black Americans had the right to read. In the waning days of the...

WINNER OF THE PULITZER PRIZE IN HISTORY - An "important, deeply affecting--and regrettably relevant" (New York Times Book Review) chronicle of a sinister idea of freedom: white Americans' freedom to oppress others and their fight against the government that got in their way American freedom...

Racism and discrimination have choked economic opportunity for African Americans at nearly every turn. At several historic moments, the trajectory of racial inequality could have been altered dramatically. But neither Reconstruction nor the New Deal nor the civil rights struggle led to an economically...

The Promise Land community, a small village west of Nashville, Tennessee was founded after the Civil War by people who had been enslaved at the Cumberland Iron Furnace. These early settlers, who included United States Colored Troops veterans, were able to purchase land and...

"A restless collection of incredible breadth, whose ability to meld applied science, faith, history, racial myth, and personal archive gives us poems whose power is unmistakable. A game-changing book."--Rosalie Moffett, judge of the 2024 National Poetry SeriesRadiant with a tenderness that is only achieved...

More than any other scholar, Eric Foner has influenced our understanding of America's history. Now, making brilliant use of extraordinary evidence, the Pulitzer Prize-winning historian once again reconfigures the national saga of American slavery and freedom.A deeply entrenched institution, slavery lived on legally and...

"No one except perhaps Eugene O'Neill and Tennessee Williams has aimed so high and achieved so much in the American theater."--John Lahr, The New Yorker"A swelling battle hymn of transporting beauty. Theatergoers who have followed August Wilson's career will find in Gem a touchstone...

The first comprehensive biography of the "Father of the Blood Bank" and a champion of civil rights and equal health careGenius Unbroken is the first comprehensive biography to bring the extraordinary life of Dr. Charles Drew, the "Father of the Blood Bank," into focus....

This Jane Adams award winner is an in-depth examination of the Emmett Till murder case, a catalyst of the Civil Rights Movement. "Crowe pays powerful tribute to a boy whose untimely death spurred a national chain of events."--Publishers Weekly The kidnapping and violent murder...

For the first time, this groundbreaking songbook collaboration by music writer Kristina R. Gaddy and Grammy Award winner Rhiannon Giddens makes nineteen examples of early Black Atlantic music accessible and playable for today's musicians, music enthusiasts, and historians. Presenting music from 1687 through the...

Dive in to an exciting nonfiction graphic novel series about some of the greatest Black lives in history! "Sure to delight middle graders and encourage interest in STEM careers." (School Library Journal) This fun and accessible graphic novel for middle grade readers brings to...

Dive in to an exciting nonfiction graphic novel series about some of the greatest Black lives in history! "Sure to delight middle graders and encourage interest in STEM careers." (School Library Journal) This fun and accessible graphic novel for middle grade readers brings to...

The Gullah culture, though borne of isolation and slavery, thrived on the US East Coast sea islands from pre-Civil War times until today, and nowhere more prominently than on Hilton Head Island, SC. On this small barrier island descendants of the first generations of...

A New York Times bestseller and NPR Best Book of the Year, this is the first major Gullah Geechee cookbook. Emily Meggett, the matriarch of Edisto Island, shares her recipes and the history of an essential American community. Emily Meggett was a celebrated Gullah...

The definitive history of World War II from the African American perspective, by award-winning historian and civil rights expert Winner of the 2023 Anisfield-Wolf Book Award in Nonfiction A New York Times Notable Book of 2022 A 2022 Book of the Year from TIME,...

Shortly after a dismembered torso was discovered by a pond outside Philadelphia in 1887, investigators homed in on two suspects: Hannah Mary Tabbs, a married, working-class, black woman, and George Wilson, a former neighbor whom Tabbs implicated after her arrest. As details surrounding the...

Part of the critically acclaimed Little People, BIG DREAMS series, discover the incredible life of Harriet Tubman, the Underground Railroad conductor who "never lost a single passenger." Little Harriet was born into slavery on a plantation in Maryland. Though life was hard, Harriet persisted....

The extraordinary story of Harriet Tubman's life, leadership, spirituality, and relationship with nature, told through powerful poetry and collage.Harriet Tubman, Force of Nature celebrates the life of the hero of the Underground Railroad with the power of hip-hop-style rhythm and rhyme accompanied by luminous,...