In Bodies in Dissent Daphne A. Brooks argues that from the mid-nineteenth century to the early twentieth, black transatlantic activists, actors, singers, and other entertainers frequently transformed the alienating conditions of social and political...

In this vivid biography Geoffrey C. Ward brings back to life the most celebrated — and the most reviled — African American of his age.Jack Johnson battled his way out of obscurity and poverty in the Jim Crow South to win the title of heavyweight champion...

Michele Wallace burst into public consciousness with the 1979 publication of Black Macho and the Myth of the Superwoman, a pioneering critique of the misogyny of the Black Power movement and the effects of racism and sexism on black women. Since then,...

“Uncompromising and unconventional . . . Cornel West is an eloquent prophet with attitude.” — Newsweek“"A timely analysis about the current state of democratic systems in America." — The Boston GlobeIn Democracy Matters, Cornel West argues that if...

February 1, 2002 marks the 100th birthday of Langston Hughes. To commemorate the centennial of his birth, Arnold Rampersad has contributed new Afterwords to both volumes of his highly-praised biography of this most extraordinary and prolific American...

"Pays an impressive tribute to the new renaissance in African-American literature."--New York Times Book Review"The cultural and literary achievements of black American women are examined and celebrated in some 20 enjoyable, erudite essays by prominent...

The three essays in this volume present an introduction to history of the emancipation of the slaves during the Civil War. The first essay traces the destruction of slavery by discussing the shift from a war for the Union to a war against slavery. The...

"A major study...one that thorougly interweaves the philosophies and fads, the people and movements that combined to give a small segment of Afro America a brief place in the sun."—The New York Times Book Review.

Twenty-five years after its original publication, Slave Religion remains a classic in the study of African American history and religion. In a new chapter in this anniversary edition, author Albert J. Raboteau reflects upon the origins of the book, the...

Ira Berlin traces the history of African-American slavery in the United States from its beginnings in the seventeenth century to its fiery demise nearly three hundred years later.Most Americans, black and white, have a singular vision of slavery, one...

At once the most lucrative, popular, and culturally oppositional musical force in the United States, hip hop demands the kind of interpretation Imani Perry provides here: criticism engaged with this vibrant musical form on its own terms. A scholar and a...

A moving cultural biography of abolitionist martyr John Brown, by one of the most important African-American intellectuals of the twentieth century. In the history of slavery and its legacy, John Brown looms large as a hero whose deeds partly...

Wilson Moses bases this collection of essays on the thought of five major African-American intellectuals: Frederick Douglass, Alexander Crummell, Booker T. Washington, W.E.B. DuBois, and Marcus J. Garvey. Highlighting the intellectual struggles and...

Commonly portrayed in the media as holding women in strict subordination and deference to men, Islam is nonetheless attracting numerous converts among African American women. Are these women "reproducing their oppression," as it might seem? Or does their...

From the late feminist icon and New York Times bestselling author of All About Love, an in-depth look at one of the most critical issues facing Black Americans: a collective wounded self-esteem that has prevailed from slavery to the present day, with a...

The pioneering work in the study of the role of Black Americans during Reconstruction by the most influential Black intellectual of his time.This pioneering work was the first full-length study of the role black Americans played in the crucial period...

In his controversial essay on white jazz musician Burton Greene, Amiri Baraka asserted that jazz was exclusively an African American art form and explicitly fused the idea of a black aesthetic with radical political traditions of the African diaspora. In...

Describes the experiences of former slaves in Mississippi, Louisiana, and Tennessee during the Reconstruction years in an effort to understand the reasons for the mass migration of freedpeople to Kansas in 1879.

During the late 1960s and early 1970s, the Black Power movement provided the dominant ideological framework through which many young, poor, and middle-class blacks made sense of their lives and articulated a political vision for their futures. The legacy...

This groundbreaking book chronicles the history of sickle cell anemia in the United States, tracing its transformation from an "invisible" malady to a powerful, yet contested, cultural symbol of African American pain and suffering.Set in Memphis, home of...