In this lyrical, unsentimental, and compelling memoir, the son of a black African father and a white American mother searches for a workable meaning to his life as a black American. It begins in New York, where Barack Obama learns that his fatherb7sa figure he knows more as a myth than as a manb7shas been killed in a car accident. This sudden death inspires an emotional odysseyb7sfirst to a small town in Kansas, from which he retraces the migration...

Recounts actor Sidney Poitier's public and private life as he broke racial barriers to launch a pioneering acting career playing characters who said something positive, useful, and lasting about the human condition. Includes photographs.

“A searing and emotionally gripping account of a young black girl growing up to become a strong black woman during the most difficult time of racial segregation.”—Professor Charles Ogletree, Harvard Law School
 
“Provides important context for an important moment in America’s history.”—Associated Press

When fourteen-year-old Carlotta Walls walked up the stairs of Little...

A chronicle of voter suppression exposes America's insidious history of policies that have blocked African American voting participation, placing particular focus on the Supreme Court's 2013 Shelby ruling.

This work argues that the War on Drugs and policies that deny convicted felons equal access to employment, housing, education, and public benefits create a permanent under caste based largely on race.As the United States celebrates the nation's "triumph over race" with the election of Barack Obama, the majority of young black men in major American cities are locked behind bars or have been labeled felons for life. Although Jim Crow laws have been...

In this book the author details what brought her mother to send her away and unearths the well of emotions she experienced long afterward as a result. For the first time, she reveals the triumphs and struggles of being the daughter of Vivian Baxter, an indomitable spirit whose petite size belied her larger-than-life presence, a presence absent during much of the author's early life. When her marriage began to crumble, Vivian famously sent three-year-old...

"After the success of the Nashville sit-in campaign, John Lewis is more committed than ever to changing the world through nonviolence -- but as he and his fellow Freedom Riders board a bus into the vicious heart of the deep south, they will be tested like never before."--page 3 of cover.

Just Mercy is at once an unforgettable account of an idealistic, gifted young lawyers coming of age, a moving window into the lives of those he has defended, and an inspiring argument for compassion in the pursuit of true justice.

In a life filled with meaning and accomplishment, Michelle Obama has emerged as one of the most iconic and compelling women of our era. As First Lady of the United States of America, she helped create the most welcoming and inclusive White House in history. With unerring honesty and lively wit, she describes her triumphs and her disappointments, both public and private. A deeply personal reckoning of a woman of soul and substance who has steadily...

"The raw and gripping memoir of a Black physician who confronts his past mistakes and relationships as he learns to find his own path forward At first glance, Anthony Chin-Quee looks like a traditional success story: a smart, ambitious kid who grew up to become a board-certified otolaryngologist--an ear, nose, and throat surgeon. Yet the truth is more complicated. As a self-described "not white, mostly Black, and questionably Asian man," Chin-Quee...