2025 Black History Month: A Reading List: Home

This is a work that looks deeply at the true power of HBCUs"-- Provided by publisher."Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) play a pivotal role in promoting social and economic mobility for African Americans and in mentoring the next generation of Black leaders. In HBCU, Marybeth Gasman and Levon T. Esters explore the remarkable impact and contributions of these significant institutions. Through inspiring personal stories and extensive research, Gasman and Esters showcase how HBCUs have mentored generations of leaders and scholars, fostering a collaborative culture of success and empowerment. These schools shape and propel Black students into leadership and intellectual roles where they have a major impact on medicine, literature, law, higher education, art, sports, and business. HBCUs also have a profound impact on local communities and economic development that extends far beyond the classroom. This book sheds light on the unique cultures and identities nurtured within HBCUs while emphasizing the importance of philanthropic support and alumni engagement in maintaining these important institutions. Despite their positive contributions to society, HBCUs face specific challenges like securing adequate funding and support, small endowments, and accreditation. Gasman and Esters sound a compelling call to action and outline practical steps for sustaining HBCUs' invaluable legacy.

A profound new rendering of the struggle by African-Americans for equality after the Civil War and the violent counterrevolution that resubjugated them as seen through the prism of the war of images and ideas that have left an enduring stain on the American mind. The abolition of slavery in the aftermath of the Civil War is a familiar story, as is the civil rights revolution that transformed the nation after World War II. But the century in between remains a mystery: if emancipation came in Lincoln's America, why was it necessary to march in Martin Luther King, Jr.'s America? In this new book, Henry Louis Gates, Jr., one of our leading chroniclers of the African-American experience, seeks to answer that question in a history that moves from the Reconstruction Era to the 'nadir' of the African-American experience under Jim Crow, through to World War I and the Harlem Renaissance. Through his close reading of the visual culture of this tragic era, Gates reveals the many faces of Jim Crow and how, together, they reinforced a stark color line between white and black Americans. Bringing a lifetime of wisdom to bear as a scholar, filmmaker, and public intellectual, Gates uncovers the roots of structural racism in our own time, while showing how African Americans after slavery combatted it by articulating a vision of a "New Negro" to force the nation to recognize their humanity and unique contributions to America as it hurtled toward the modern age. The book will be accompanied by a new PBS documentary series on the same topic, with full promotional support from PBS.

Based on the Du Bois Lectures delivered at Harvard in 2011, We Are the Leaders We Have Been Looking For argues for the importance of self-cultivation in pursuit of justice as a critical feature of Black politics, what Eddie S. Glaude Jr. calls Black democratic perfectionism. Building on the political scientist Adolph Reed's work on 'Black custodial politics' Glaude critiques our impulse to outsource political needs to a professional class of politicians that purportedly represent us. Instead, he affirms the capacities of ordinary people to cultivate a better self and a better world by locating the prophetic and the heroic not in the pulpit but in the pew.

A timely investigation of why diversity alone is insufficient in higher education and how universities can use reparative actions to become anti-racist institutions. As institutions increasingly reckon with histories entangled with slavery and Indigenous dispossession, diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) efforts occupy a central role in the strategy and resources of higher education. Yet reparation is rarely offered as a viable strategy for institutional transformation. In Reparative Universities, Ariana González Stokas undertakes a critical and decolonial analysis of DEI work, linking contemporary practices of diversity to longer colonial histories. González Stokas argues that diversity is an insufficient concept for efforts concerned with anti-oppression, anti-racism, equity, and decolonization. Given its historical ties to colonialism, can higher education foster reconciliation and healing?Reparation is offered as a pathway toward untangling higher education from its colonial roots. González Stokas develops the term "epistemic reparation" to describe a mode of social-historical accountability that can already be seen at work in historical examples, as well as current events in the United States, South Africa, and Canada. Recent legal decisions by Georgetown University and the Princeton Theological seminary to enact economic recompense for buying and selling human beings are evidence of attempts to redress higher education's violent histories and the colonial structures they reproduce every day on college campuses. Engaging with a broad range of theorists from decolonial philosophy to organizational psychology, González Stokas offers a pathway-guided by reparative activities-for institutional workers frustrated by what often feels, as Sara Ahmed describes, "banging one's head against a brick wall." Reparative Universities offers insight into why DEI efforts have been disconnected from past injustices and why unsettling diversity and engaging meaningful repair are critical for the future of higher education.

African American literature has changed in startling ways since the end of the Black Arts Era. The last five decades have generated new paradigms of racial formation and novel patterns of cultural production, circulation, and reception. This volume takes up the challenge of mapping the varied and changing field of contemporary African American writing. Balancing the demands of historical and political context with attention to aesthetic innovation, it considers the history, practice, and future directions of the field. Examining various historical forces shaping the creation of innovative genres, the turn to the afterlife of slavery, the pull toward protest, and the impact of new and expanded geographies and methods, this Companion provides an invaluable point of reference for readers seeking rigorous and cutting-edge analyses of contemporary African American literature.

In Coming Home, Brittney finally shares the harrowing details of her sudden arrest days before Russia invaded Ukraine; her bewilderment and isolation while navigating a foreign legal system amid her trial and sentencing; her emotional and physical anguish as the first American woman ever to endure a Russian penal colony while the #WeAreBG movement rallied for her release; the chilling prisoner swap with Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout; and her remarkable rise from hostage to global spokesperson on behalf of America's forgotten. In haunting and vivid detail, Brittney takes listeners inside the horrors of a geopolitical nightmare spanning ten months. And yet Coming Home is more than Brittney's journey from captivity to freedom. In an account as gripping as it is poignant, she shares how her deep love for Cherelle, her college sweetheart and wife of six years, anchored her during their greatest storm; how her family's support pulled her back from the brink; and how hundreds of letters from friends and neighbors lent her resolve to keep fighting. Coming Home is both a story of survival and a testament to love--the bonds that brought Brittney home to her family, and at last, to herself.

This book examines the unique contribution of HBCUs, arguing that through their distinct public education, engagement, and activism, they have been at the forefront of leading global transformations. The book also argues that HBCUs can do more by paying more attention to the issue of enrollment, leadership, finances, and graduation standards.

The autobiographical memoir of the first woman, African American, and South Asian American to become attorney general of the State of California, and the second black woman ever elected to the United States Senate. Harris discusses the impact that her family and community had on her life, and how she came to discover her own sense of self and purpose."The daughter of immigrants and civil rights activists, Vice President Kamala Harris was raised in an Oakland, California, community that cared deeply about social justice. As she rose to prominence as one of the political leaders of our time, her experiences would become her guiding light as she grappled with an array of complex issues and learned to bring a voice to the voiceless. In The Truths We Hold, she reckons with the big challenges we face together. Drawing on the hard-won wisdom and insight from her own career and the work of those who have most inspired her, she communicates a vision of shared struggle, shared purpose, and shared values as we confront the great work of our day.

An empowering, unabashedly bold memoir by the Atlantic journalist and former ESPN SportsCenter co-anchor about overcoming a legacy of pain and forging a new path, no matter how uphill life's battles might be"-- Provided by publisher.Hill's world came crashing down when she called President Trump a "white supremacist". The White House wanted her fired from ESPN, and she was deluged with death threats. But throughout her childhood she had constantly adjusted to the harsh realities of life, and through hard work and a constant willingness to learn she earned respect and support for her fearless opinions and unshakable confidence. Here Hill shares he story of her work, the women of her family, and her complicated relationship with God- no matter how uphill life's battle might be.

Though not blind to Abraham Lincoln's imperfections, Black Americans long ago laid a heartfelt claim to his legacy. At the same time, they have consciously reshaped the sixteenth president's image for their own social and political ends. Fred Lee Hord and Matthew D. Norman's anthology explores the complex nature of views on Lincoln through the writings and thought of Frederick Douglass, Ida B. Wells-Barnett, Mary McLeod Bethune, Thurgood Marshall, Malcolm X, Gwendolyn Brooks, Barbara Jeanne Fields, Barack Obama, and dozens of others. The selections move from speeches to letters to book excerpts, mapping the changing contours of the bond--emotional and intellectual--between Lincoln and Black Americans over the span of one hundred and fifty years. A comprehensive and valuable reader, Knowing Him by Heart examines Lincoln's still-evolving place in Black American thought.

How do young Black men navigate the transition to adulthood in an era of labor market precarity, an increasing emphasis on personal independence, and gendered racism? In Brotherhood University, Brandon A. Jackson utilizes longitudinal qualitative data to examine the role of emotions and social support among a group of young Black men as they navigate a 'structural double bind' as college students and into early adulthood. While prevailing stereotypes portray young Black men as emotionally aloof, Jackson finds that the men invested in an emotion culture characterized by vulnerability, loyalty, and trust, which created a system of mutual social support, or brotherhood, among the group as they navigated college, prepared for the labor market, and experienced romantic relationships. Ten years later, as they managed the early stages of their careers and considered marriage and child-rearing, the men continued to depend on the emotional vulnerability and close relationships they forged in their college years.

For hundreds of years, the American public education system has neglected to fully examine, discuss, and acknowledge the vast and rich history of people of African descent who have played a pivotal role in the transformation of the United States. The establishment of Black studies departments and programs represented a major victory for higher education and a vindication of Black scholars such as W. E. B. Du Bois and Nathan Huggins. This emerging field of study sought to address omissions from numerous disciplines and correct the myriad distortions, stereotypes, and myths about persons of African descent. In An Introduction to Black Studies, Eric R. Jackson demonstrates the continuing need for Black studies, also known as African American studies, in university curricula. Jackson connects the growth and impact of Black studies to the broader context of social justice movements, emphasizing the historical and contemporary demand for the discipline. This book features seventeen chapters that focus on the primary eight disciplines of Black studies: history, sociology, psychology, religion, feminism, education, political science, and the arts. Each chapter includes a biographical vignette of an important figure in African American history, such as Frederick Douglass, Louis Armstrong, and Madam C. J. Walker, as well as student learning objectives that provide a starting point for educators. This valuable work speaks to the strength and rigor of scholarship on Blacks and African Americans, its importance to the formal educational process, and its relevance to the United States and the world.

In Force and Freedom, Kellie Carter Jackson provides the first historical analysis exclusively focused on the tactical use of violence among antebellum black activists. Through rousing public speeches, the bourgeoning black press, and the formation of militia groups, black abolitionist leaders mobilized their communities, compelled national action, and drew international attention. Drawing on the precedent and pathos of the American and Haitian Revolutions, African American abolitionists used violence as a political language and a means of provoking social change. Through tactical violence, argues Carter Jackson, black abolitionist leaders accomplished what white nonviolent abolitionists could not: creating the conditions that necessitated the Civil War. Force and Freedom takes readers beyond the honorable politics of moral suasion and the romanticism of the Underground Railroad and into an exploration of the agonizing decisions, strategies, and actions of the black abolitionists who, though lacking an official political voice, were nevertheless responsible for instigating monumental social and political change.

Ketanji Brown Jackson, the first Black woman ever appointed to the Supreme Court of the United States, chronicles her life story and her extraordinary path to becoming a jurist on America's highest court, in her inspiring, intimate memoir. In this unflinching account, Justice Jackson invites readers into her life and world, tracing her family's ascent from segregation to her confirmation as a Supreme Court Justice, within the span of one generation. Named 'Ketanji Onyika,' meaning 'Lovely One,' based on a suggestion from her aunt, a Peace Corps worker stationed in West Africa, Justice Jackson learned from her educator parents to take pride in her heritage. She describes her resolve as a young girl to honor this legacy and realize her dreams: from hearing stories of her grandparents and parents breaking barriers in the segregated South, to honing her voice in high school as an oratory champion and student body president, to graduating magna cum laude from Harvard, where she performed in musical theater and improv and participated in pivotal student organizations. Here, Justice Jackson pulls back the curtain, marrying the public record of her life with what is less known. She reveals what it takes to advance in the legal profession when most people in power don't look like you, and to reconcile a demanding career with the joys and sacrifices of marriage and motherhood. Through trials and triumphs, Justice Jackson's journey will resonate with dreamers everywhere, especially those who nourish outsized ambitions and refuse to be turned aside. This moving, openhearted tale will spread hope for a more just world, for generations to come.

Desire to Serve is the autobiography of Congresswoman Eddie Bernice Johnson (1934-2023), a thirty-year member of the United States House of Representatives, in her words as told to Cheryl Brown Wattley. It chronicles Johnson growing up in segregated Waco, Texas; attending St. Mary's nursing school in South Bend, Indiana; working at the Veterans Administration Hospital in Dallas, Texas, as a chief psychiatric nurse; serving in the Texas House; being appointed as the regional director for Health, Education and Welfare; being elected as a Texas state senator; and serving thirty years as a congressional representative from North Texas. For each of these positions, she was either the first African American or first African American woman to hold the position. Johnson's narrative of the duties and responsibilities of elected officials gives an insider's view of the way government works-or doesn't work. Highlights of Johnson's political career include her support of NAFTA and the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act; the failure of the Health Security Act; her support of the Patient Recovery and Affordable Care Act, as well as the CHIPS-Science Act; her service as the chairwoman of the Committee on Science, Space, and Technology; and her membership in the Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure.

Our Stories: Black Families in Early Dallas enlarges upon two publications by the late Dr. Mamie McKnight's organization, Black Dallas Remembered: First African American Families of Dallas (1987) and African American Families and Settlements of Dallas (1990). Our Stories is the history of Black citizens of Dallas going about their lives in freedom, as described by the late Eva Partee McMillan: "The ex-slaves purchased land, built homes, raised their children, erected their educational and religious facilities, educated their children, and profited from their labor." Our Stories brings together memoirs from many of Dallas's earliest Black families, as handed down over the generations to their twentieth-century descendants. The period covered begins in the 1850s and goes through the 1930s. Included are detailed descriptions of more than thirty early Dallas communities formed by free African Americans, along with the histories of fifty-seven early Black families, and brief biographies of many of the early leaders of these Black communities. The stories reveal hardships endured and struggles overcome, but the storytellers focus on the triumphs over adversity and the successes achieved against the odds. The histories include the founding of churches, schools, newspapers, hospitals, grocery stores, businesses, and other institutions established to nourish and enrich the lives of the earliest Black families in Dallas.

The New York Times bestselling author of The Kennedy Women chronicles the powerful and spellbinding true story of a brutal race-based killing in 1981 and subsequent trials that undid one of the most pernicious organizations in American history--the Ku Klux Klan. On a Friday night in March 1981 Henry Hays and James Knowles scoured the streets of Mobile in their car, hunting for a black man. The young men were members of Klavern 900 of the United Klans of America. They were seeking to retaliate after a largely black jury could not reach a verdict in a trial involving a black man accused of the murder of a white man. The two Klansmen found nineteen-year-old Michael Donald walking home alone. Hays and Knowles abducted him, beat him, cut his throat, and left his body hanging from a tree branch in a racially mixed residential neighborhood. Arrested, charged, and convicted, Hays was sentenced to death--the first time in more than half a century that the state of Alabama sentenced a white man to death for killing a black man. On behalf of Michael's grieving mother, Morris Dees, the legendary civil rights lawyer and cofounder of the Southern Poverty Law Center, filed a civil suit against the members of the local Klan unit involved and the UKA, the largest Klan organization. Charging them with conspiracy, Dees put the Klan on trial, resulting in a verdict that would level a deadly blow to its organization. Based on numerous interviews and extensive archival research, The Lynching brings to life two dramatic trials, during which the Alabama Klan's motives and philosophy were exposed for the evil they represent. In addition to telling a gripping and consequential story, Laurence Leamer chronicles the KKK and its activities in the second half the twentieth century, and illuminates its lingering effect on race relations in America today. The Lynching includes sixteen pages of black-and-white photographs.

On January 1, 1863, Abraham Lincoln announced the Emancipation Proclamation, an event that soon became a bold statement of presidential power, a dramatic shift in the rationale for fighting the Civil War, and a promise of future freedom for four million enslaved Americans. But the document marked only a beginning; freedom's future was anything but certain. Thereafter, the significance of both the Proclamation and of emancipation assumed new and diverse meanings, as African Americans explored freedom and the nation attempted to rebuild itself.

In this book, Marina Magloire draws on the collected archives of distinguished 20th century Black woman artists and writers such as Lucille Clifton, Katherine Dunham, Audre Lorde, Toni Cade Bambara, Lorraine Hansberry, Nina Simone, and Zora Neale Hurston to trace a new history of Black feminist thought in relation to Afro-diaspora religion. She offers an alternative genealogy of Black feminism beginning in the 1930s with the path breaking ethnographic work of Katherine Dunham and Zora Neale Hurston in Haiti and ending with the present-day popularity of Afro-diasporic spiritual practices among Black women.

A relentlessly optimistic memoir by one of the most influential Black business leaders in America today, offering hope and practical guidance for navigating life's most difficult challenges, inspired by the author's cancer journal that went viral "Focus. Pray. Act. Serve. And we'll get through this together." Cynthia "Cynt" Marshall has spent her life beating the odds. Growing up in the public housing projects of Richmond, California, Cynt never wondered why her mother didn't sit down to dinner every night, realizing only later that she sometimes sacrificed her own meal so her six children could eat. Cynt's father, meanwhile, had a terrifying temper and physically abused his wife and children for years. But Cynt didn't let her background deter her. Instead, she focused on her education, propelling herself through college and into her first job in corporate America. As a rising professional, Cynt overcame overt and subtle racism to become one of the first Black, female officers at AT&T by age forty, while surviving multiple miscarriages and family tragedies. As her husband helped her see a new way of creating a family, she started to see that her plan was not always God's plan. Cynt was president of AT&T North Carolina when, at fifty-one, she was diagnosed with Stage 3 colon cancer, just one lymph node from Stage 4. Overnight, her life changed from managing corporate strategy to managing an aggressive chemotherapy schedule, her best hope for survival. Instead of giving up, Cynt got on her knees. Her lifelong spiritual foundation and faith in the power of prayer carried her forward as she shared her journey online through heartfelt posts that chronicled the challenges and unexpected blessings of cancer, transforming her diagnosis from a death sentence into a chance to serve people around the world. With positivity and deep faith, Cynt Marshall reminds us that we are each uniquely equipped for the challenges life presents us. In sharing her deeply inspiring story, she helps ensure that we will not just survive but thrive through trials, celebrate challenges, and laugh at what life brings us.

Macbeth in Harlem is a journey into the past that makes the present even more relevant than it would seem to be at first glance, simply because it throws up the past as proof that we have not gone very far in eradicating past inequities as we would like to think we have. It discusses the ways in which race has made black theater crawl, clown and debase itself. And in spite of that the black persona, the black mask has not only met the challenge and triumphed over it, it has also, through its enviable gifts, enriched American theater beyond ways that would not have been possible without it. Indeed, the book is a challenge to commercial theater in particular, which is where the money is, to own up to its refusal to make black theater that is not race neutral a part of what it offers to the theater going public.

The untold saga of John Randolph's 383 slaves, freed in his much-contested will of 1821, finally comes to light. Few legal cases in American history are as riveting as the controversy surrounding the will of Virginia Senator John Randolph (1773-1833), which-almost inexplicably-freed all 383 of his slaves in one of the largest and most publicized manumissions in American history. So famous is the case that Ta-Nehisi Coates has used it to condemn Randolph's cousin, Thomas Jefferson, for failing to free his own slaves. With this groundbreaking investigation, historian Gregory May now reveals a more surprising story, showing how madness and scandal shaped John Randolph's wildly shifting attitudes toward his slaves-and how endemic prejudice in the North ultimately deprived the freedmen of the land Randolph had promised them. Sweeping from the legal spectacle of the contested will through the freedmen's dramatic flight and horrific reception in Ohio, A Madman's Will is an extraordinary saga about the alluring promise of freedom and its tragic limitations.

An unforgettable memoir by an award-winning poet about being kidnapped from his Black father and raised by his white supremacist grandparents. When Shane McCrae was three years old, his grandparents kidnapped him and took him to suburban Texas. His mom was white and his dad was Black, and to hide his Blackness from him, his maternal grandparents stole him from his father. In the years that followed, they manipulated and controlled him, refusing to acknowledge his heritage--all the while believing they were doing what was best for him. For their own safety and to ensure the kidnapping remained a success, Shane's grandparents had to make sure that he never knew the full story, so he was raised to participate in his own disappearance. But despite elaborate fabrications and unreliable memories, Shane begins to reconstruct his own story and to forge his own identity. Gradually, the truth unveils itself, and with the truth, comes a path to reuniting with his father and finding his own place in the world.

In this enlightening personal account, one man tells the story of his groundbreaking project to sleep overnight in former slave dwellings that still stand across the country--revealing the fascinating history behind these sites and shedding light on larger issues of race in America. Joseph McGill Jr., a historic preservationist and Civil War reenactor, founded the Slave Dwelling Project in 2010 based on an idea that was sparked and first developed in 1999. Since founding the project, McGill has been touring the country, spending the night in former slave dwellings--throughout the South, but also the North and the West, where people are often surprised to learn that such structures exist. Events and gatherings are arranged around these overnight stays, and it provides a unique way to understand the often otherwise obscured and distorted history of slavery. The project has inspired difficult conversations about race in communities from South Carolina to Alabama to Texas to Minnesota to New York, and all over the United States. Sleeping with the Ancestors focuses on all of the key sites McGill has visited in his ongoing project and digs deeper into the actual history of each location, using McGill's own experience and conversations with the community to enhance those original stories. Altogether, McGill and coauthor Herb Frazier give listeners an important unexpected immersion into the history of slavery, and especially the obscured and ignored aspects of that history.

In 1850s South Carolina, just before nine-year-old Ashley was sold, her mother, Rose, gave her a sack filled with just a few things as a token of her love. Decades later, Ashley's granddaughter, Ruth, embroidered this history on the bag - including Rose's message that "It be filled with my Love always." In this book, a historian carefully follows faint archival traces back to Charleston to find Rose in the kitchen where she may have packed the sack for Ashley. From Rose's last resourceful gift to her daughter, the author then follows the paths their lives - and the lives of so many like them - took to develop a unique, innovative history of the lived experience of slavery in the United States. As she follows Ashley's journey, the writer metaphorically "unpacks" the sack, deepening its emotional resonance and revealing the meanings and significance of everything it contained--Publisher's description.Historian Tiya Miles carefully traces these women's faint presence in archival records, and, where archives fall short, she turns to objects, art, and the environment to write a singular history of the experience of slavery, and the uncertain freedom afterward, in the United States. All That She Carried is a poignant story of resilience and love passed down against steep odds. It honors the creativity and resourcefulness of people who preserved family ties when official systems refused to do so, and it serves as a visionary illustration of how to reconstruct and recount their stories today.

This history explores innovations in African American autobiography since its inception, examining the literary and cultural history of Black self-representation amid life writing studies. By analyzing the different forms of autobiography, including pictorial and personal essays, editorials, oral histories, testimonials, diaries, personal and open letters, and even poetry performance media of autobiographies, this book extends the definition of African American autobiography, revealing how people of African descent have created and defined the Black self in diverse print cultures and literary genres since their arrival in the Americas. It illustrates ways African Americans use life writing and autobiography to address personal and collective Black experiences of identity, family, memory, fulfillment, racism and white supremacy. Individual chapters examine scrapbooks as a source of self-documentation, African American autobiography for children, readings of African American persona poems, mixed-race life writing after the Civil Rights Movement, and autobiographies by African American LGBTQ writers.

Atlanta is widely considered to be America's Black Mecca. It has a higher concentration of black millionaires, black-owned businesses, and HBCUs than any other city in the United States. African Americans are overrepresented in every strata of Atlanta's governance. In 2020, more black voters in the Atlanta area cast ballots than those in any other state's metro, evincing a political power that flipped a once deeply red state blue. However, 150 years ago, Atlanta was a contender to be the capital of the Confederacy and harbored some of the most virulent white nationalism our country has ever seen. In chronicling the ascent of this iconic hub of Black excellence, America's Black Capital offers a riveting account of the push and pull between Black progress and racist backlash that has always been at the core of America's past. Historian Jeffrey Ogbar shows how in Atlanta African Americans built a city in which they could flourish. In the decades after the Civil War, Confederate ideology continued to linger in Georgia's capital, as city landmarks were renamed in honor of the Lost Cause, former Confederates were elected to political office, and white supremacist violence surged in the city. In response to relentless waves of racist retrenchment, African Americans pushed back, creating an extraordinary locus of achievement in a center of neo-Confederate white nationalism. What drove them, America's Black Capital shows, is the belief that black uplift would be best advanced by the creation and support of black institutions, an ideology that pre-dated Black Power by almost a century. Spanning from the Civil War to the present, America's Black Capital is an inspiring story of Black achievement against all odds--one that reveals both the persistence of the Confederacy and the remarkable legacy of Black resistance in the United States.

This important book not only highlights the high rates of morbidity and mortality among young black women in the US, but also provides a lens through which the reasons behind such health disparities can be understood. The book outlines the main direct causes of illness and premature death among young black women, from physical illnesses such as heart disease, cancer and stroke, to psychological conditions such as depression. But throughout each chapter the reasons behind these issues are discussed, including exposure to racial discrimination, exposure to psychosocial stressors, poverty, lack of access to health care, unemployment, and lack of education. A concluding chapter asks what mechanisms can address the stark health inequalities faced by young black women in the US so that rates of morbidity and mortality can be reduced. A timely and insightful account of an enduring issue within American society, this book will interest researchers and students across public health, race and gender studies and the sociology of health, as well as policy makers.

At the Heart of It All? by Anne Overbeck examines the historical discourse surrounding the reproductive rights of African American women throughout the 20th century. It explores how systemic racism, social policies, and political ideologies shaped Black women's reproductive autonomy, highlighting intersections between race, gender, and class in the fight for bodily agency.

This edited volume brings together foundational and contemporary intergenerational, interdisciplinary voices to elucidate Black feminist epistemologies and praxis. Chapters highlight relevant research, methodologies, and theoretical or conceptual frameworks; share experiences as doctoral students, current faculty, and academic administrators; and offer lessons learned and strategies to influence systemic and institutional change for and with Black women.

This interdisciplinary work threads psychoanalysis and other theoretical perspectives throughout close readings of twentieth and twenty-first century racial passing narratives. It concludes with a meditation on today's ineffectual language of race."How does psychoanalysis animate racial passing and how does racial passing inspire psychoanalysis? Despite long-held beliefs that the two have nothing in common, Donavan L. Ramon poses that psychoanalysis is relevant for understanding the reasons behind jumping the color line. Beginning with the premise that Sigmund Freud created psychoanalysis to contend with his own anxieties about race, Ramon explores canonical and non-canonical passing narratives using psychoanalytic perspectives. He closely reads narratives by Charles Chesnutt, James Weldon Johnson, Nella Larsen, Alice Dunbar-Nelson, Jessie Fauset, Anita Reynolds, Danzy Senna, Vera Caspary, Anatole Broyard, and Philip Roth to advance several provocative claims about the intersections of passing and psychoanalysis. Chief among them are the youthful trauma and psychological consequences of racial passing. For instance, while the death drive motivates fictional racial passers to hasten their own deaths, those who pass in real life often seek their own immortality through print despite hiding their Blackness. Throughout this analysis, Ramon underscores the nuances of racial passing in school as the place of trauma for Black subjects. Ramon's work is deeply interdisciplinary, threading psychoanalysis and other theoretical perspectives throughout persuasive close readings of twentieth and twenty-first century racial passing narratives. The monograph concludes with a meditation on today's ineffective language of race, which hinders racial progress. Scholars of race, African American Literature, American Literature, and psychoanalysis will find Ramon's book compelling.

It was at the age of three, sitting in the front seat of her father's car, that Alice Randall began to write her first country song: 'Daddy, don't go in that B-A-R.' To Randall, country music is a beating heart, shared communally with her family alive and gone, and the origin of a singular distinction she holds in American music history: the first Black woman to cowrite a #1 country hit, Trisha Yearwood's 'XXX's and OOO's.' Randall found inspiration and comfort in the sounds and history of the first family of Black country music: DeFord Bailey, Lil Hardin, Ray Charles, Charley Pride, and Herb Jeffries, who, together, made up a community of Black Americans rising through hard times to create simple beauty, true joy, and, sometimes, profound eccentricity. Now, in My Black Country, comes a celebration of country music as a genre with its original yet ever-evolving Black roots and flowers. Randall guides the reader with painstaking care as she revisits her own past marked by times of trial and triumph. Situating us in the present as country music goes through a fresh renaissance, with a new wave of Black artists enjoying success, My Black Country is both an earnest reclamation of the genre and a vibrant introduction for a new generation of listeners who appreciate the radical joy in realizing the power of Black influence on American culture.

In this essay collection, NPR's Ayesha Rascoe compiles testimonials from celebrities and other alumni about their experiences attending historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs). Contributors, including Oprah Winfrey, Stacey Abrams, and Branford Marsalis, share personal stories about choosing their HBCU, their initial days on campus, and how these institutions shaped their lives and careers. The collection offers insight into the unique atmosphere and rigorous training provided by HBCUs.

In this work, Joy-Ann Reid provides a compelling narrative of civil rights icons Medgar and Myrlie Evers, exploring their personal and activist lives. The book delves into their love story and their significant contributions to the civil rights movement, offering an intimate look at their inspiring partnership and enduring legacy.

In this memoir, television producer and writer Shonda Rhimes chronicles her transformative year of embracing opportunities that once terrified her. By committing to say "yes" to unexpected invitations and challenges, Rhimes discovers newfound confidence and joy, offering readers an intimate look into her journey toward self-empowerment.

In this memoir, Susan E. Rice, former U.S. National Security Advisor and Ambassador to the United Nations, provides an intimate look into her personal and professional life. She discusses her upbringing, the challenges she faced as a Black woman in high-stakes government roles, and the pivotal moments of her career in public service. The narrative offers insights into the complexities of U.S. foreign policy and the resilience required to navigate political landscapes.

In this historical account, Jaime Salazar delves into the events of the 1917 Houston Riot, also known as the Camp Logan Mutiny. The book examines the circumstances leading to the uprising of African American soldiers from the 24th Infantry Regiment, their subsequent trial, and the broader implications for race relations and military justice in the United States.

In this memoir, Leta McCollough Seletzky explores the life of her father, Marrell "Mac" McCollough, an undercover Memphis police officer who was present at the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. The book delves into his role as a Black man working within the white power structure, his involvement with the activist group known as the Invaders, and his subsequent career with the CIA. Seletzky's narrative provides a personal and historical perspective on complex issues of race, loyalty, and identity in America.

In this insightful work, Bakari Sellers examines the modern political landscape and policies affecting Black families and communities. He explores inequities in healthcare, education, early childhood development, and policing, drawing on interviews with thought leaders such as Rev. William Barber and civil rights attorney Ben Crump. Sellers also discusses the influence of conservative media and the forces behind figures like Tucker Carlson. The book offers practical solutions and serves as a timely meditation on how we can all contribute to a better future.

This book is designed to educate vulnerable communities, emergency practitioners, and disaster researchers to increase the social and physical capacity of communities to mitigate and adapt to disaster impacts. The authors present the K.A.P.S. framework, which integrates knowledge, attitude, preparedness, and skills to enhance community resilience against disasters. The book includes templates, worksheets, survey questions, and guidance for implementing effective training programs, aiming to support marginalized communities in preparing for hazards such as hurricanes, floods, and tornadoes.

This posthumous collection features previously unpublished poems, essays, and plays from Ntozake Shange, offering insight into her development as a seminal Black feminist writer. The anthology includes early works from her college years, pieces that inspired her renowned choreopoem for colored girls who have considered suicide/when the rainbow is enuf, and later writings that continue to explore themes central to her oeuvre. Curated by National Book Award winner Imani Perry, with a foreword by Tarana Burke, the collection showcases Shange's distinctive voice and enduring impact on literature and culture.

In this work, Stewart examines the concept of "home" from the perspective of enslaved individuals in the American South. By analyzing plantation architecture, artifacts from slave dwellings, legal records, and plantation owners' documents, she reveals how enslaved people endeavored to create a sense of home despite the oppressive conditions imposed by white southerners. The book highlights homemaking as a vital aspect of the struggle for freedom and autonomy, challenging traditional narratives of plantation life.

In this work, Theoharis challenges the sanitized national narrative of the civil rights movement, revealing it as unpopular, disruptive, and courageously persevering. She argues that activists embraced an expansive vision of justice that a majority of Americans opposed and the federal government feared. The book urges a reevaluation of this history to acknowledge its complexity and the ongoing struggle for justice.

In this work, Truhe, a former Navy JAG officer, provides a detailed account of the racial tensions aboard the USS Kitty Hawk in October 1972. He chronicles the events leading up to the violent confrontation between Black and white sailors, the subsequent courts-martial, and the systemic racial injustices faced by the accused Black sailors. Drawing from trial transcripts, investigation reports, and personal experiences, Truhe sheds light on a significant yet often overlooked incident in U.S. naval history.

This work celebrates the achievements of notable alumni from Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) across various fields, including politics, STEM, sports, and pop culture. It features biographies and illustrated portraits of figures such as Booker T. Washington, Ida B. Wells-Barnett, Martin Luther King Jr., Oprah Winfrey, Kamala Harris, and Megan Thee Stallion, highlighting the profound impact of HBCUs on American society.

This collection features five of Walker's acclaimed plays: "Sassy Mamas," "Greenwood: An American Dream Destroyed," "Reunion in Bartersville," "Distant Voices," and "Camp Logan." The plays explore various aspects of the African American experience, blending humor, tragedy, and historical insight.

In this work, Warren documents how Black and Brown parents, students, and members of low-income communities organized to dismantle the school-to-prison pipeline in their local schools and built a movement that spread across the country. He examines organizing processes in various locations, showing how small groups combined local efforts with national resources to achieve policy changes aimed at reducing suspensions, expulsions, and the presence of police in schools. The book offers insights into building movements that operate simultaneously at local, state, and national levels, emphasizing the importance of grassroots organizing in achieving systemic change.

In this comprehensive work, Wiecek examines the historical role of the U.S. Supreme Court in shaping the legal status of African Americans. He analyzes key decisions from the early 19th century through 2015, highlighting how the Court's rulings have often upheld systemic racism and white supremacy. The book provides an interpretive guide to major cases affecting Black Americans' rights and freedoms, offering insights into the legal foundations of racial inequality in the United States.

In this work, Wilkins explores the intricate relationship between place, identity, and music within Houston's hip hop culture. Through interviews with local rap artists, producers, and managers, he examines how artists, audiences, music, and place interact to create a unique musical heritage. The book delves into various facets of the scene, including street-based musicians, underground rappers, and the city's hip hop-related car culture known as "slab." Wilkins presents a dynamic portrait of how artists embody and reproduce their social environments through performance.

This volume engages with the intersection of educational research and various theories of Blackness. Contributors narrate their experiences in conceptualizing Blackness through reading, writing, research, training, and practice. The chapters reflect a range of personal and political perspectives, disciplinary backgrounds, and career stages, encouraging theoretically reflexive and open conversations among scholars committed to addressing inequalities affecting Black youth. The stories presented serve as both narratives and theories, aiming to deepen understanding of Blackness in educational contexts.

This anthology, curated by the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, presents a collection of both well-known and overlooked documents from the era of transatlantic slavery to Reconstruction. It emphasizes the narratives of Black individuals as active agents in their own lives and liberation. The volume includes a foreword by Kevin Young and an introduction by Michelle D. Commander.