In honor of Black History Month, here are some recent nonfiction titles covering a variety of topics related to Black history.
Black in blues : how a color tells the story of my people
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A National Book Award winner examines the connection of the color blue to Black history, weaving together themes of hope, melancholy and personal experience to examine race in ways that transcend politics and ideology.
A National Book Award winner examines the connection of the color blue to Black history, weaving together themes of hope, melancholy and personal experience to examine race in ways that transcend politics and ideology.
The Black utopians : searching for paradise and the Promised Land in America
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A lyrical meditation on how Black Americans have envisioned utopia—and sought to transform their lives.
A lyrical meditation on how Black Americans have envisioned utopia—and sought to transform their lives.
Blk art : the audacious legacy of Black artists and models in Western art
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A fun and fact-filled introduction to the dismissed Black art masters and models who shook up the world. Quietly held within museum and private collections around the world are hundreds of faces of Black men and women, many of their stories unknown. Then, after hundreds of years of Black faces cast as only the subject of the white gaze, a small group of trailblazing Black American painters and sculptors reached national and international fame, setting the stage for the flourishing of Black art in the 1920s and beyond. Captivating and informative, BLK ART is an essential work that elevates a globally dismissed legacy to its proper place.
A fun and fact-filled introduction to the dismissed Black art masters and models who shook up the world. Quietly held within museum and private collections around the world are hundreds of faces of Black men and women, many of their stories unknown. Then, after hundreds of years of Black faces cast as only the subject of the white gaze, a small group of trailblazing Black American painters and sculptors reached national and international fame, setting the stage for the flourishing of Black art in the 1920s and beyond. Captivating and informative, BLK ART is an essential work that elevates a globally dismissed legacy to its proper place.
Before Elvis : The African American Musicians Who Made the King
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This exploration of the Black musicians who shaped Elvis Presley's music focuses on four overlooked artists while examining their influence, legacies and the systemic injustices that kept them in poverty as others profited from their work.
This exploration of the Black musicians who shaped Elvis Presley's music focuses on four overlooked artists while examining their influence, legacies and the systemic injustices that kept them in poverty as others profited from their work.
Don't let them bury my story : the oldest living survivor of the Tulsa Race Massacre in her own words
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Viola Ford Fletcher's memoir Don't Let Them Bury My Story vividly recounts the lasting impact of the Tulsa Massacre on her life. As the oldest survivor and last living witness of the tragic events that unfolded in 1921, she shares her testimony with poignant clarity. From the terror of her childhood as a seven-year-old fleeing the burning streets of Greenwood to her current role as a 109-year-old family matriarch seeking justice for the affected families, Mother Fletcher takes us on a journey through a lifetime of pain and perseverance. Her inspiring story is a powerful reminder that some wounds never fully heal, and we must never forget the lessons of our history.
Viola Ford Fletcher's memoir Don't Let Them Bury My Story vividly recounts the lasting impact of the Tulsa Massacre on her life. As the oldest survivor and last living witness of the tragic events that unfolded in 1921, she shares her testimony with poignant clarity. From the terror of her childhood as a seven-year-old fleeing the burning streets of Greenwood to her current role as a 109-year-old family matriarch seeking justice for the affected families, Mother Fletcher takes us on a journey through a lifetime of pain and perseverance. Her inspiring story is a powerful reminder that some wounds never fully heal, and we must never forget the lessons of our history.
Flamboyants : the queer Harlem renaissance I wish I'd known
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Profiling the Black and Queer icons from the Harlem Renaissance, an Emmy nominated, award-winning Black nonbinary author and activist interweaves personal stories to bring these flamboyant writers, artists and activists to life, detailing their contributions to American thought and culture that have profoundly impacted our world.
Profiling the Black and Queer icons from the Harlem Renaissance, an Emmy nominated, award-winning Black nonbinary author and activist interweaves personal stories to bring these flamboyant writers, artists and activists to life, detailing their contributions to American thought and culture that have profoundly impacted our world.
Last seen : the enduring search by formerly enslaved people to find their lost families
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Drawing from an archive of nearly five thousand letters and advertisements, the riveting, dramatic story of formerly enslaved people who spent years searching for family members stolen away during slavery.
Drawing from an archive of nearly five thousand letters and advertisements, the riveting, dramatic story of formerly enslaved people who spent years searching for family members stolen away during slavery.
Madness : race and insanity in a Jim Crow asylum
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Tracing the legacy of slavery to the treatment of Black people's bodies and minds in our current healthcare system, a Peabody and Emmy award-winning journalist tells the 93-year-old history of Crownsville Hospital, one of the nation's last segregated asylums.
Tracing the legacy of slavery to the treatment of Black people's bodies and minds in our current healthcare system, a Peabody and Emmy award-winning journalist tells the 93-year-old history of Crownsville Hospital, one of the nation's last segregated asylums.
Miss Major speaks : conversations with a Black trans revolutionary
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Miss Major Griffin-Gracy is a veteran of the infamous Stonewall Riots, a former sex worker, and a transgender elder and activist who has survived Bellevue psychiatric hospital, Attica Prison, the HIV/AIDS crisis and a world that white supremacy has built. Miss Major Speaks is both document of her brilliant life--told with intimacy, warmth and an undeniable levity--and a roadmap for the challenges Black, brown, queer, and trans youth will face on the path to liberation today.
Miss Major Griffin-Gracy is a veteran of the infamous Stonewall Riots, a former sex worker, and a transgender elder and activist who has survived Bellevue psychiatric hospital, Attica Prison, the HIV/AIDS crisis and a world that white supremacy has built. Miss Major Speaks is both document of her brilliant life--told with intimacy, warmth and an undeniable levity--and a roadmap for the challenges Black, brown, queer, and trans youth will face on the path to liberation today.
New prize for these eyes : the rise of America's second civil rights movement
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In this highly anticipated follow-up to Eyes on the Prize, bestselling author Juan Williams turns his attention to the rise of a new 21st-century civil rights movement. More than a century of civil rights activism reached a mountaintop with the arrival of a Black man in the Oval Office. But hopes for a unified, post-racial America were deflated when Barack Obama's presidency met with furious opposition. A white, right-wing backlash was brewing, and a volcanic new movement-a second civil rights movement-began to erupt. An essential read for activists, historians, and anyone passionate about America's future, New Prize for These Eyes is more than a recounting of history. It is a forward-looking call to action, urging Americans to get in touch with the progress made and hurdles yet to be overcome.
In this highly anticipated follow-up to Eyes on the Prize, bestselling author Juan Williams turns his attention to the rise of a new 21st-century civil rights movement. More than a century of civil rights activism reached a mountaintop with the arrival of a Black man in the Oval Office. But hopes for a unified, post-racial America were deflated when Barack Obama's presidency met with furious opposition. A white, right-wing backlash was brewing, and a volcanic new movement-a second civil rights movement-began to erupt. An essential read for activists, historians, and anyone passionate about America's future, New Prize for These Eyes is more than a recounting of history. It is a forward-looking call to action, urging Americans to get in touch with the progress made and hurdles yet to be overcome.
Resist : how a century of young Black activists shaped America
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The story of young Black activists at the helm of fighting injustice over the last century, from the 1920s to the Trayvon generation, and how they transformed America and left an indelible mark on history. Growing up as a Nigerian immigrant in the South Bronx, award-winning journalist Rita Omokha contended with her blackness. In 2020, when George Floyd died at the hands of a white police officer, her exploration further developed as she traveled to thirty states attempting to mine contemporary race relations in the U.S. During her trip, she encountered audacious young people like 17-year-old Darnella Frazier, who filmed Floyd's murder, entering a seismic tragedy into the public and historical records, which in turn set off a wave of unprecedented protests across the country. Darnella's quick thinking and courage in that moment is part of a more significant legacy: that of the young Black people--often only teenagers--who have been at the forefront of America's Civil Rights movement for the last hundred years.
The story of young Black activists at the helm of fighting injustice over the last century, from the 1920s to the Trayvon generation, and how they transformed America and left an indelible mark on history. Growing up as a Nigerian immigrant in the South Bronx, award-winning journalist Rita Omokha contended with her blackness. In 2020, when George Floyd died at the hands of a white police officer, her exploration further developed as she traveled to thirty states attempting to mine contemporary race relations in the U.S. During her trip, she encountered audacious young people like 17-year-old Darnella Frazier, who filmed Floyd's murder, entering a seismic tragedy into the public and historical records, which in turn set off a wave of unprecedented protests across the country. Darnella's quick thinking and courage in that moment is part of a more significant legacy: that of the young Black people--often only teenagers--who have been at the forefront of America's Civil Rights movement for the last hundred years.
Survival is a promise : the eternal life of Audre Lorde
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The first researcher to explore the full depths of the life, work and enduring impact of the iconic writer shows how her ecological images are not simply metaphors but rather literal guides to how to be of earth on earth, and how to live the ethics that a Black feminist lesbian warrior poetics demands.
The first researcher to explore the full depths of the life, work and enduring impact of the iconic writer shows how her ecological images are not simply metaphors but rather literal guides to how to be of earth on earth, and how to live the ethics that a Black feminist lesbian warrior poetics demands.
The swans of Harlem : five Black ballerinas, a legacy of sisterhood, and their reclamation of a groundbreaking history
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A full accounting of five incredibly talented Black ballerinas from the Dance Theater of Harlem illuminates their hard-fought, historic and overlooked contributions to the world of classical dance at a time when racism shut out Black dancers from major companies.
A full accounting of five incredibly talented Black ballerinas from the Dance Theater of Harlem illuminates their hard-fought, historic and overlooked contributions to the world of classical dance at a time when racism shut out Black dancers from major companies.
The unseen truth : when race changed sight in America :
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Sarah Lewis deciphers the hugely popular nineteenth-century images that failed to dislodge Americans' faith in the mythical white homeland of the Caucasus. Actual Caucasians little resemble race science's ideals of whiteness, so Americans learned to manipulate their visual regime-and visual media-to suppress evidence of race's incoherence.
Sarah Lewis deciphers the hugely popular nineteenth-century images that failed to dislodge Americans' faith in the mythical white homeland of the Caucasus. Actual Caucasians little resemble race science's ideals of whiteness, so Americans learned to manipulate their visual regime-and visual media-to suppress evidence of race's incoherence.
We refuse : a forceful history of Black resistance
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Offering an unflinching examination of the breadth of Black responses to white oppression, particularly those pioneered by Black women, a noted historian presents a fundamental corrective to the historical record, a love letter to Black resilience and a path toward liberation.
Offering an unflinching examination of the breadth of Black responses to white oppression, particularly those pioneered by Black women, a noted historian presents a fundamental corrective to the historical record, a love letter to Black resilience and a path toward liberation.