Catalog Search Results
Author
Language
English
Description
"'We were eight years in power' was the lament of Reconstruction-era black politicians as the American experiment in multiracial democracy ended with the return of white supremacist rule in the South. In this sweeping collection of new and selected essays, Ta-Nehisi Coates explores the tragic echoes of that history in our own time: the unprecedented election of a black president followed by a vicious backlash that fueled the election of the man Coates...
Author
Language
English
Description
"A young woman descended from Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings driven from her neighborhood by a white militia. A university professor studying racism by conducting a secret social experiment on his own son. A single mother desperate to buy her first home even as the world hurtles toward catastrophe. Each fighting to survive in America. Tough-minded, vulnerable, and brave, Jocelyn Nicole Johnson's precisely imagined debut explores burdened inheritances...
Author
Language
English
Description
"An eye-opening odyssey through the South's past, present, and future that is a moving and gripping tribute to America's forgotten rural working-class black folks. The small town of Denmark was once a thriving hub of South Carolina's idyllic Low Country. Yet today, this majority African-American town with a population of 3,500 is emblematic of the "Forgotten South" -- small communities of color stretching from Appalachia to the Sunbelt. For CNN political...
Author
Language
English
Description
From one of the fiercest, most eloquent critics writing today, Morgan Jerkins' highly-anticipated collection of linked essays interweaves her incisive commentary on pop culture, feminism, black history, misogyny, and racism with her own experiences to confront the very real challenges of being a black woman today.
Author
Publisher
Hanover Square Press
Pub. Date
[2023]
Language
English
Description
Now, in his debut essay collection, Daniel Black gives voice to the experiences of those who often find themselves on the margins. Tackling topics ranging from police brutality to the AIDS crisis to the role of HBCUs to queer representation in the Black church, Black celebrates the resilience, fortitude and survival of Black people in a land where their body is always on display.
Author
Publisher
Mariner Books
Pub. Date
[2023]
Language
English
Appears on list
Description
Interweaving deep historical analysis with gripping firsthand reporting on both victims and perpetrators of violence, a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist charts the return of the American cycle of racial progress and white backlash and how the federal government has failed to intervene.
Author
Publisher
Graywolf Press
Pub. Date
[2020]
Language
English
Description
"At home and in government, contemporary America finds itself riven by a culture war in which aggression and defensiveness alike are on the rise. It is not alone. In such partisan conditions, how can humans best approach one another across our differences? Taking the study of whiteness and white supremacy as a guiding light, Claudia Rankine explores a series of real encounters with friends and strangers - each disrupting the false comfort of spaces...
Author
Publisher
Post Hill Press
Pub. Date
[2022]
Language
English
Description
Angela Harrelson, George Floyd's aunt and closest relative, tells the behind-the-scenes story of George's family--how he lived and why he died--and how the world can find a solution to racism through his death. This is the story of Angela's lifelong relationship with George Floyd--whom the family called Perry--and how, after being suddenly thrust into the spotlight, she went on a quest to make sure her nephew did not die in vain. It's a story of tragic...
Author
Pub. Date
2020.
Language
English
Formats
Description
"In the United States today, a young black man has a sixteen times greater chance of dying from violence than his white counterpart. Violence takes more years of life from black men than cancer, stroke, and diabetes combined. Even black women are more affected by violence than white men, despite its usual gender patterns. These disparities translate into starkly divergent experiences of life and death for whites and blacks in the United States. Yet...
Author
Publisher
Atlantic Monthly Press, an imprint of Grove Atlantic
Pub. Date
2021.
Language
English
Description
""Racism is an existential threat to America," Theodore R. Johnson declares at the start of his profound and exhilarating book. It is a refutation of the American Promise enshrined in our Constitution that all men and women are inherently equal. And yet racism continues to corrode our society. If we cannot overcome it, Johnson argues, while the United States will remain as a geopolitical entity, the promise that made America unique on Earth will have...
Author
Publisher
Three Room Press
Pub. Date
2021.
Language
English
Description
Through a series of extraordinary, incisive, often-humorous essays, Emmy Award-winning actress and writer Vanessa Baden Kelly examines what the idea of 'home' means to a Black millennial woman. What are the consequences of gentrification on the life of a young Black woman, and on her ability to raise a family? What does it mean to be part of a lineage, whether it be passed down through names or through the voices of generations of writers and thinkers?...
Author
Publisher
Crown
Pub. Date
2016.
Language
English
Description
"A powerful polemic on the state of black America that savages the idea of a post-racial society America's great promise of equality has always rung hollow in the ears of African Americans. But today the situation has grown even more dire. From the murders of black youth by the police, to the dismantling of the Voting Rights Act, to the disaster visited upon poor and middle-class black families by the Great Recession, it is clear that black America...
Publisher
Scribner
Pub. Date
2016.
Accelerated Reader
IL: UG - BL: 8.2 - AR Pts: 9
Language
English
Description
"National Book Award-winner Jesmyn Ward takes James Baldwin's 1963 examination of race in America, The Fire Next Time, as a jumping off point for this groundbreaking collection of essays and poems about race from the most important voices of her generation and our time. In light of recent tragedies and widespread protests across the nation, The Progressive magazine republished one of its most famous pieces: James Baldwin's 1962 "Letter to My Nephew,"...
Author
Publisher
Atria Paperback
Pub. Date
2018.
Language
English
Description
"Written in the tradition of works by Joan Didion, bell hooks, Toni Morrison, and Eve Ensler, a provocative and soul-searching 'autobiography of America'--the past, the present, and the future Kevin Powell wants for us all, through the lens and lives of three major figures: his mother, Barack Obama, and Donald Trump. Ten short years ago, Barack Obama became president of the United States, and changed the course of history. Ten short years ago, our...
Author
Publisher
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company
Pub. Date
2020.
Language
English
Description
"From NPR correspondent and New York Times bestselling author, Kwame Alexander, comes a powerful and provocative collection of poems that cut to the heart of the entrenched racism and oppression in America and eloquently explores ongoing events. A book in the tradition of James Baldwin's "A Report from Occupied Territory," Light for the World to See is a rap session on race. A lyrical response to the struggles of Black lives in our world . . . to...
Author
Publisher
Doubleday
Pub. Date
c2010
Language
English
Description
Explains how years of desegregation and affirmative action have led to the revelation of four distinct African American groups who reflect unique political views and circumstances, in a report that also illuminates crucial modern debates on race and class.
Author
Publisher
Prometheus Books
Pub. Date
[2023]
Language
English
Description
"In this honest and welcoming book, diversity and inclusion expert, professor, and award-winning speaker Dr. Omekongo Dibinga argues that we must embark on a massive undertaking to re-educate ourselves on the stereotypes that have proven harmful, and too often deadly, to the Black community"--
Author
Publisher
Basic Books
Pub. Date
2022.
Language
English
Formats
Description
"Peniel Joseph offers a powerful new interpretation of recent American history. The summer of 2020, he argues, marked the climax of nothing less than a Third Reconstruction: a new period of intense struggle to secure citizenship and dignity for Black Americans, just as momentous as the movements that sought to transform America after the US Civil War and during the civil rights era. America's first and second Reconstructions failed to achieve their...
Author
Publisher
PublicAffairs
Pub. Date
2021.
Language
English
Description
"As the upheaval of 2020 has made clear, America has utterly failed to atone for its original sin of racism. As America turns blacker and browner, the combination of fearful whites, angry and newly empowered blacks, and an inexcusable absence of leadership from Washington has created ideal conditions for conflict. There is a way out of our burning race crisis -- but in order to prepare for the future, we first need to learn the lessons of the new...
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