River of blood : American slavery from the people who lived it : interviews & photographs of formerly enslaved African Americans
by Richard Cahan

An updated edition of the Slave Narratives, collected in the 1930s by the federal government’s Works Progress Administration, incorporates hundreds of photographs that were omitted from the original interviews documenting the slave experience before and during the American Civil War.

Capitol men : the epic story of Reconstruction through the lives of the first Black congressmen
by Philip Dray

A compelling history of the Reconstruction era is viewed from the perspective of America's first black members of Congress and their key role in promoting such reforms as public education for all children, equal rights, and protection from Klan violence in the wake of the Civil War, profiling such figures as Robert Smalls, Robert Brown Elliott, and P. B. S. Pinchback.

The second founding : how the Civil War and Reconstruction remade the constitution
by Eric Foner

The Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Fiery Trial presents a timely history of the constitutional changes that built or compromised equality within America’s foundation, documenting alarming parallels between the Jim Crow era and the present day. 

Of blood and sweat : Black lives and the making of White power and wealth
by Clyde W. Ford

Going back in time to expose the roots of the struggle for racial equity and justice, from pre-colonial Africa through post-Civil War America, this researched and documented book offers valuable insight into our understanding of black history and the story of America.

Stony the road : Reconstruction, white supremacy, and the rise of Jim Crow
by Henry Louis Gates

The NAACP Image Award-winning creator of The African Americans: Many Rivers to Cross chronicles America's post-Civil War struggle for racial equality and the violent counterrevolution that resubjugated black Americans throughout the 20th century.

Allow me to retort : a black guy's guide to the Constitution
by Elie Mystal

Mystal brings his trademark humor, snark, and legal expertise to topics as crucial to our politics as gerrymandering and voter suppression, and explains why legal concepts such as the right to privacy and substantive due process are constantly under attack from the very worst judges conservatives can pack onto the courts.

You don't need to be a legal scholar to grasp how stop-and-frisk is an unconstitutional policy of racial discrimination. You just need to read Mystal's book to understand that the Fourteenth Amendment once made the white supremacist policies adopted by the modern Republican Party illegal—and it can do so again if we let it.

On Juneteenth
by Annette Gordon-Reed

In this intricately woven tapestry of American history, dramatic family chronicle, and searing episodes of memoir, the descendant of enslaved people brought to Texas in the 1850s, recounts the origins of Juneteenth and explores the legacies of the holiday that remain with us.

Reconstruction : voices from America's first great struggle for racial equality
by Brooks D. Simpson

An anthology provides a first-person experience of what it was like to live through the Reconstruction and includes letters, diary entries, interviews and newspaper articles from ordinary people as well as well-known figures like Frederick Douglass, Mark Twain and Elizabeth Cady Stanton.

Watermelon & red birds : a cookbook for Juneteenth and Black celebrations
by Nicole A. Taylor

In this collection of recipes and essays that both celebrate and investigate Juneteenth, a critically acclaimed food writer presents 75 delicious dishes that are simple, victory-garden-driven and approachable.