Almost fifty years ago Melville Herskovits set out to debunk the myth that black Americans have no cultural past. Originally published in 1941, his unprecedented study of black history and culture recovered a rich African heritage in religious and...

A powerful critique of the racial myths that shape our worldDrawing on a rich tapestry of historical analysis, literary criticism, and cultural theory, Hazel V. Carby interrogates our racial fictions, which have been constructed, maintained, and...

'.....Through an exhaustive investigation of black songs, folk tales, proverbs, aphorisms, verbal games and the long narrative oral poems known as 'toasts, ' Levine argues that the value system of Afro-Americans can only be understood through an analysis...

Both theoretical and pragmatic, this refreshingly savvy book charts a course for the Black Lives Matter generation. In the United States, both struggles against oppression and the gains made by various movements for equality have often been led by Black...

Black death and Black grief are among the most important forces in contemporary American politics. As Shatema Threadcraft argues in The Labors of Resurrection, "spectacular" death--experienced publicly and violently--has given rise to global political...

“Master of language” (The New York Times) John Edgar Wideman uses his unique generational position to explore what he calls the “slaveroad,” offering “a fresh perspective of slavery’s impact and a confirmation of Wideman’s exalted status in American...

The nineteenth century in the United States witnessed the end of slavery and the expansion of another form of confinement: the asylum. How did enslaved and free Black people encounter psychiatric institutions? How were notions of mental disability used...

The instant bestseller from Djamila Ribeiro that sparked a major Black feminist movement in Brazil "Part theory, part manifesto, part history. . . . [Where We Stand] has the makings of a truly modern feminist classic."--Literary Hub In a society...

A record of the personal struggles and determination of a Black tenant farmer born in Alabama in 1885

A powerful new voice, telling the American story through three generations of Black mothers."The Waterbearers is one of the most beautiful and truthful books I’ve ever read." —Imani Perry, National Book Award-winning author of South to America“An epic...

"Jazz June: A Self-Portrait in Essays traces a life, not by recounting its major events but by going deep into its representative moments: the moments of wonder, hope, fear, uncertainty, humor, love, and epiphany that make up a human experience. Along...

Explores forgotten solidarity with African liberation struggles through the life of Black Chicagoan Prexy Nesbitt.   For many civil rights activists, the Vietnam War brought the dangers of US imperialism and the global nature of antiracist struggle into...

In the tradition of The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, this New York Times bestseller is a page-turning account of one of the nation's last segregated asylums..."a book that left me breathless" (Clint Smith). For centuries, Black patients have been...

A landmark reinterpretation of the civil rights movement that challenges reductive heroic narratives of the 1950s and 1960s and invigorates new debates and possibilities for the future of the struggle for liberation.We are all familiar with the romantic...

A longtime educator explores how the study of Black history challenges our understanding of race, nation, and the stories we tell about who we are. Black history is under attack from powerful forces that seek to excise it from classrooms, libraries, and...

A fascinating, first-person account of a historic era in the struggle for black empowerment in America.Long an iconic figure for radicals, Huey Newton is now being discovered by those interested in the history of America's social movements. Was he a...

"as visually arresting as it is informative."—The Boston Globe"Du Bois's bold colors and geometric shapes were decades ahead of modernist graphic design in America.”—Fast Company's Co.DesignThe first complete publication of W.E.B. Du Bois's colorful...

"Eye-opening."---The New York Times (Barbara Ehrenreich)"Butler offers a broader set of proposals [that are] eminently sensible.---The New York Review of Books"A can't-put-it-down call to action from a progressive former prosecutor...smart and very...

In 1968, civil rights activist Fannie Lou Hamer called for Americans to "wake up" if they wanted to "make democracy a reality." Today, as Black communities continue to face challenges built on centuries of discrimination, her plea is increasingly urgent...

Even before they were recognized as citizens of the United States, Black women understood that the fights for civil and human rights were inseparable. Over the course of two hundred years, they were at the forefront of national and international...