Sing, Unburied, Sing
"Jojo and his toddler sister, Kayla, live with their grandparents, Mam and Pop, on a farm on the Gulf Coast of Mississippi. Their mother, Leonie, is an inconsistent presence in their lives. She is an imperfect mother in constant conflict with herself and those around her. She wants to be a better mother but can't put her children above her own needs, especially her drug use. Simultaneously tormented and comforted by visions of her dead brother, which only come to her when she's high, Leonie is embattled in ways that reflect the brutal reality of her circumstances. When the childrens' father is released from prison, Leonie packs her kids and a friend into her car and drives north to the heart of Mississippi and Parchman Farm, the State Penitentiary." --Publisher
Their Eyes Were Watching God
"Zora Neale Hurston's beloved 1937 classic is an enduring Southern love story sparkling with wit, beauty, and heartfelt wisdom. Told in the captivating voice of a woman who refuses to live in sorrow, bitterness, fear, or foolish romantic dreams, it is the story of a fair-skinned, fiercely independent Janie Crawford, and her evolving selfhood through three marriages and a life marked by poverty, trials, and purpose. A true literary wonder, Hurston's masterwork remains as relevant and affecting today as when it was first published." --Publisher
The Autobiography of Malcolm X
In the searing pages of this classic autobiography, originally published in 1964, Malcolm X, the Muslim leader, firebrand, and anti-integrationist, tells the extraordinary story of his life and the growth of the Black Muslim movement. His fascinating perspective on the lies and limitations of the American Dream, and the inherent racism in a society that denies its nonwhite citizens the opportunity to dream, gives extraordinary insight into the most urgent issues of our own time. The Autobiography of Malcolm X stands as the definitive statement of a movement and a man whose work was never completed but whose message is timeless." --Publisher
Lovely One: A Memoir
"With this unflinching account, Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson invites readers into her life and world, tracing her family's ascent from segregation to her confirmation on America's highest court within the span of one generation. Named 'Ketanji Onyika,' meaning 'Lovely One,' based on a suggestion from her aunt, a Peace Corps worker stationed in West Africa, she learned from her educator parents to take pride in her heritage since birth. In this book, Justice Jackson pulls back the curtain, marrying the public record of her life with what is less known. She reveals what it takes to advance in the legal profession when most people in power don't look like you, and to reconcile a demanding career with the joys and sacrifices of marriage and motherhood." -- Publisher
The Love Songs of W. E. B. Du Bois
"The great scholar, W.E.B. Du Bois, once wrote about what he called "Double Consciousness," a sensitivity that every African American possesses in order to survive. Since childhood, Ailey Pearl Garfield has understood Du Bois's words all too well. Ailey is reared in the north in the City but spends summers in the small Georgia town of Chicasetta, where her mother's family has lived since their ancestors arrived from Africa in bondage. From an early age, Ailey fights a battle for belonging that's made all the more difficult by hovering trauma, as well as the whispers of women--her mother, Belle, her sister, Lydia, and a maternal line reaching back two centuries--that urge Ailey to succeed in their stead. To come to terms with her own identity, Ailey embarks on a journey through her family's past, uncovering the shocking tales of generations of ancestors--Indigenous, Black, and white--in the deep South. In doing so Ailey must learn to embrace her full heritage, a legacy of oppression and resistance, bondage and independence, cruelty and resilience that is the story--and the song--of America itself" --Publisher
From the Popular Reading Room
Fiction
The Love Songs of W. E. B. Du Bois by Call Number: PS3560.E365 L684 2021Publication Date: 2021-08-24
Nonfiction
The Color of Water: A Black Man's Tribute to his White Mother by Call Number: F128.9.B53 M328 2006Publication Date: 2006-02-07
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Call Number: RC265.6.L24 S55 2010Publication Date: 2010-02-02
One Day I Will Write about This Place by Call Number: PR9381.9.W25 Z46 2011Publication Date: 2011-07-19
Stride Towards Freedom: The Montgomery Story by Call Number: E185.89.T8 K5 1958Publication Date: 1958
This Is What America Looks Like: My Journey from Refugee to Congresswoman by Call Number: E901.1.O43 A3 2020Publication Date: 2020-05-26
Where Do We Go From Here: Chaos or Community? by Call Number: E185.615 .K5 1967Publication Date: 1967
Fantasy and Science Fiction
Poetry
Graphic Novels
Cookbooks
The Pepperpot Diaries: Stories from my Caribbean Table by Call Number: TX716.A1 O55 2023Publication Date: 2023-01-01
African American Law and Academia
Africans to Spanish America: Expanding the Diaspora by Call Number: F1419.B55 A39 2014Publication Date: 2014-01-08
The Alchemy of Race and Rights: Diary of a Law Professor by Call Number: KF4757 .W53 1991Publication Date: 1992-03-01
Birth of a Nation'hood: Gaze, Script, and Spectacle in the O.J. Simpson Case by Call Number: KF224.S485 B57 1997Publication Date: 1997-02-04
Birthright Citizens: A History of Race and Rights in Antebellum America by Call Number: KF4757 .J67 2018Publication Date: 2018-06-28
Lose Your Mother: A Journey Along the Atlantic Slave Route by Call Number: DT510.2 .H375 2007Publication Date: 2007-01-09
The Mark of Slavery: Disability, Race, and Gender in Antebellum America by Call Number: E443 .B245 2021Publication Date: 2021-04-13
The Morning Breaks: The Trial of Angela Davis by Call Number: F224.D3 A68 1999Publication Date: 1999-05-15
No Tea, No Shade: New Writings in Black Queer Studies by Call Number: E185.625 .N59 2016Publication Date: 2016-10-13
Radical Reparations: Healing the Soul of a Nation by Call Number: E185.89.R45 H86 2024Publication Date: 2024-02-06
Root and Branch: Charles Hamilton Houston, Thurgood Marshall, and the Struggle to End Segregation by Call Number: KF372 .J36 2010Publication Date: 2010-01-19
Silent Covenants: Brown v. Board of Education and the Unfulfilled Hopes for Racial Reform by Call Number: KF4155 .B38 2004Publication Date: 2004-04-19
Translating Blackness: Latinx Colonialities in Global Perspective by Call Number: F1419.B55 G37 2022Publication Date: 2022-09-23
Wayward Lives, Beautiful Experiments: Intimate Histories of Social Upheaval by Call Number: E185.86 .H379 2019Publication Date: 2019-02-19
