African-American Heritage Booklist, 2005

This is a list of fiction and non-fiction books for and by African Americans for the general reader. These books are available for free loan, in recorded and/or braille formats, to all registered readers in the Library of Congress National Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped program. RC = Recorded Cassette; BR= Braille Book.

History

Rituals of Blood: Consequences of Slavery in Two American Centuries
Orlando Patterson
RC 58630
National Book Award-winner Orlando Patterson examines adverse consequences of slavery and discriminatory laws on African Americans in society. 1999.

A Shining Thread of Hope: The History of Black Women in America
Darlene Clark Hine
RC 50032
A chronology of diverse African-American women's lives across the United States from colonial times to the late-twentieth-century. 1998.

The Sweet Hell Inside: A Family History
Edward Ball
RC 56781
Continues the study of Ball's ancestors, the Harlestons of South Carolina, which he began in Slaves in the Family (RC 46018). 2001.

Race, Civil Rights, and Politics

A Country of Strangers: Blacks and Whites in America
David K. Shipler
BR 12475
Pulitzer Prize-winning author Shipler examines attitudes toward race relations in America. Explores how blacks and whites view each other, and how perceptions are shaped from birth. 1997.

Freedom's Daughters: The Unsung Heroines of the Civil Rights Movement from 1830 To 1970
Lynne Olson
RC 52736
Highlights women's contributions to the struggle for civil rights in the United States, beginning with the antislavery movements of the South, through the Civil Rights era, to contemporary feminist issues.  2001.

A Life is More than a Moment: The Desegregation of Little Rock's Central High
I. Wilmer Counts
RC 51973
Essays and interviews recount the 1957 Little Rock Central High School desegregation crisis when nine enrolling black students faced resistance from white citizens. 1999

Our Kind of People: Inside America's Black Upper Class
Lawrence Otis Graham
RC 50402
Describes the long history, the development, and traditions of an elite class of wealthy African- American professionals, which traces its roots to the 1870s. 1999.

Some of Us Did Not Die: New and Selected Essays of June Jordan
June Jordan
RC 56810
Forty essays and verse from the late poet, activist, and professor of African-American studies. The title piece is a reaction to the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.  2002.

Spirituality

Mighty Like a River: The Black Church and Social Reform
Andrew Billingsley
RC 50405
Account of the socially and politically active role of churches in the black community. Asserts that churches have been a major force in advancing equality and justice for African Americans. 1999.

Risks of Faith: The Emergence of a Black Theology of Liberation, 1968-1988
James H. Cone
BR 13181
Author evaluates the black liberation struggle over thirty years in the context of Christ's teachings. Argues that the African-American church provides a foundation for political and social activism. 1999.

This Far by Faith: Stories from the African-American Religious Experience
Juan Williams
RC 57544
This companion to the PBS television series chronicles African-American religious history, both Christian and non-Christian, from slavery to the twentieth-century.  2003.

Education

Between Church and State: Religion and Public Education in a Multicultural America
James W. Fraser
BR 14451
Examines the often thorny relationship between religious institutions and public schools since the
seventeenth-century.  1999.

Brown V. Board of Education: A Civil Rights Milestone and Its Troubled Legacy
James T. Patterson
RC 53365
Examines the 1954 U.S. Supreme Court ruling that overturned state-sponsored racial segregation in America's public schools.  2001.

How to Make Black America Better: Leading African Americans Speak Out
Tavis Smiley
RC 53011
Talk-show host and national radio commentator presents essays from twenty-eight black celebrities, addressing issues such as family, education, health, and economics. 2001.

Radical Equations: Math Literacy and Civil Rights
Robert P. Moses and Charles E. Cobb, Jr.
BR 13801
Activist and MacArthur Award-winning educator Moses and journalist Cobb offer their vision of school reform based on the Algebra Project, a math-literacy program that has proven effective in disadvantaged communities. 2001.

Traditions

All About Love: New Visions
Bell Hooks
RC 53589
Writing from her own experience, the outspoken feminist critic and educator reexamines the meaning of interpersonal relations and offers insight into society's flawed visions of love. 2000.

General Works and Anthologies

Dark Matter: A Century of Speculative Fiction from fhe African Diaspora
Sheree R. Thomas
RC 52151
This anthology of African-American science fiction, fantasy, and essays spans more than one hundred years and entails a wide range of styles and subjects. Some violence and some strong language. 2000.

The Harlem Reader: A Celebration of New York's Most Famous Neighborhood, from the Renaissance Years to the Twenty-First Century
Herb Boyd, editor
RC 57319
Anthology of essays, articles, short stories, and poetry reflects the diversity and creativity of this unique urban community. 2003.

A Renaissance In Harlem: Lost Voices of an American Community
Lionel C. Bascom
RC 56684
Essays culled from the WPA Writer's Project collection in the Library of Congress detail the views and experiences of Harlem's ordinary African-American citizens during the 1930s. 1999.

Step into a World: A Global Anthology of the New Black Literature
Kevin Powell
RC 53331
Collection of literary pieces by more than one hundred contemporary black writers born between 1957 and 1977, from nine countries. Some descriptions of sex and some strong language. 2000.

Poetry

Blessing the Boats: New and Selected Poems, 1988-2000
Lucille Clifton
RC 52339
A collection of poetry about the human condition personalized through the voice of an African-American woman. Some strong language. National Book Award. 2000.

Haiku: This Other World
Richard Wright
RC 50234
Collection of Richard Wright's short poems composed in the late 1950s. 1998.

On the Bus with Rosa Parks: Poems
Rita Dove
BR 12555
Over forty new poems by the former Poet Laureate, celebrating personal freedoms. 1999.

The Vintage Book of African-American Poetry
Michael S. Harper and Anthony Walton, editors
BR 12769
Anthology covering more than two centuries of African-American poetry. Includes well-known poets as well as lesser-known ones. A profile introduces each writer. 2000.

Biographies and Memoirs

American Patriots: The Story of Blacks in the Military from the Revolution to Desert Storm
Gail Buckley
RC 53330
Chronicles two centuries of African-American military experience. Drawing on interviews and other sources, Buckley contends that the pressures of necessity opened military service to blacks. 2001.

Before His Time: The Untold Story of Harry T. Moore, America's First Civil Rights Martyr
Ben Green
RC 50596
Traces the life of Harry T. Moore as a Florida schoolteacher, NAACP coordinator, Progressive Voter's League executive secretary, and educator of African Americans. Violence. 1999.

Black Livingstone: A True Tale of Adventure in the Nineteenth-Century Congo
Pagan Kennedy
RC 55830
Life of William Henry Sheppard, Virginia-born African-American missionary to the Congo, who helped expose Belgian atrocities during his two adventure-filled decades in Africa. 2002.

Come Out The Wilderness: The Memoir of a Black Woman Artist
Estella Conwill Majozo
RC 50789
Poet, artist, and associate professor of English at Hunter College in New York relates her childhood years in segregated Louisville, Catholic upbringing, failed marriages, and supportive family. 1998.

Defending the Spirit: A Black Life in America
Randall Robinson
BR 12379
Autobiography of a political activist who grew up in the segregated south, attended Harvard law school, and helped eliminate apartheid in South Africa. 1998.

The Farrakhan Factor: African-American Writers on Leadership, Nationhood, and Minister Louis Farrakhan
Amy Alexander, editor
RC 53903
Essays by African-American writers who variously laud and denounce Nation of Islam minister Louis Farrakhan. 1998.

Kinship: A Family's Journey in Africa and America
Philippe E. Wamba
RC 50833
A Harvard graduate and journalist, born to an American mother and a Congolese father, examines his roots and explores the centuries of shared history of African Americans and Africans. 1999.

Life is So Good
George Dawson
RC 51912
A 101-year-old laborer who learned to read at age 98 chronicles his life in the South and provides a personal retrospective on the African-American past. 2000.

Love Across Color Lines: Ottilie Assing and Frederick Douglass
Maria Diedrich
BR 14461
Harvard University research fellow examines the nineteenth-century relationship between Frederick Douglass and his female friend and translator, Ottilie Assing. 1999.

Martin Luther King, Jr.
Marshall Frady
BR 14184
Author profiles King who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1964. Portrays the events that fixed King in the public's attention. Also reflects on the minister's private spiritual conflicts. 2002.

The Messenger: The Rise and Fall of Elijah Muhammad
Karl Evanzz
RC 51366
Recalls Muhammad's Georgia childhood; his move to Detroit, where he was anointed "messenger of God"; and his rise to power as the Nation of Islam's co-founder. 1999.

Pearl's Secret: A Black Man's Search for His White Family
Neil Henry
RC 53363
Memoir by an African-American professor who, by tracing familiar oral history, eventually locates and contacts his Caucasian great-great-grandfather's family. Some strong language. 2001.

Ralph Bunche: Model Negro or American Other?
Charles P. Henry
RC 51678
Analyzes the life and career of Ralph Bunche, the first black Nobel Laureate and a world-renowned statesman. 1999.

Ron Brown: An Uncommon Life
Steven A. Holmes
RC 52552
Traces Brown's youth in Harlem, his years in Middlebury College, and his positions as chief lobbyist of the National Urban League and Secretary of Commerce, to his untimely death. 2000.

  Rosa Parks
Douglas Brinkley
BR 13342
Distinguished historian portrays the woman who became a symbol of freedom by her refusal to give up her Alabama bus seat to a white man in 1955. 2000.

  Unchained Memories: Readings from the Slave Narratives
BR 14919, RC 56617
Accounts of former slaves based on interviews conducted in the late 1930s by the U.S. government's Works Progress Administration for the Slave Narrative Collection of the Federal Writers' Project. Violence and strong language. 2002.

Vernon Can Read!: A Memoir
Vernon E. Jordan, Jr.
RC 53586
The title drawn from an experience Jordan had as a college student with a white employer in 1950s Georgia. Some strong language. Bestseller. 2001.

W.E.B. Du Bois: The Fight for Equality and the American Century, 1919-1963
David Levering Lewis
BR 13327, RC 51944
Lewis narrates the story of Du Bois's life between 1919 and 1963. Sequel to
W.E.B. Du Bois: Biography of a Race, 1868-1919 (RC 40267, BR 9885). 2000.

  What Color is a Conservative?: My Life and My Politics
J.C. Watts, Jr.
RC 55970
For years the only African-American Republican in Congress, the author describes his childhood and football career and his conservative political and personal beliefs. Some strong language. 2002.

    Wounds Of Passion: A Writing Life
Bell Hooks
BR 11998
In this sequel to Bone Black: Memories of Girlhood (BR 10958), noted African-American feminist Bell Hooks recalls her early life. Strong language and descriptions of sex. 1997.

Music

Blues All Around Me: The Autobiography of B.B. King
B.B. King
RC 56350
Grammy Award-winning bluesman reminisces about his youth and family life, his career, and his relationships with other performers. Some descriptions of sex and some strong language. 1996.

Blues Legacies and Black Feminism: Gertrude "Ma" Rainey, Bessie Smith, and Billie Holiday
Angela Y. Davis
BR 11800, RC 53325
A feminist interpretation of the lives and lyrics of three African-American blues musicians of the 1930s. Also includes the complete lyrics of some of Ma Rainey's and Bessie Smith's songs. 1998.
 

Art, Film, Radio, Television, And Theater

The Measure of a Man: A Spiritual Autobiography
Sidney Poitier
RC 50313
Recalls his idyllic childhood in the Bahamas, his move to Florida at age fifteen, his early struggles to establish an acting career, and his later successes. Some strong language. Bestseller. 2000.
 

Fiction

All of Me: A Voluptuous Tale
Venise Berry
RC 53370
Successful African-American television reporter Serpentine Williamson, depressed about being overweight, is hospitalized after a suicide attempt. ALA Black Caucus Award. 2000.

  Beyond the Limbo Silence
Elizabeth Nunez
RC 50043
Sara is one of three young women from the West Indies integrating a white college in Wisconsin in 1963. 1998.

The Black Rose
Tananarive Due
RC 51665
Sarah Breedlove, orphaned at age seven, strives to overcome her poverty-stricken childhood in 1860s and 1870s Louisiana. Based on research by Alex Haley. 2000.

  Brown Girl in the Ring
Nalo Hopkinson
RC 52063
Toronto is abandoned after the riots and is now ruled by Rudy and his vicious gang. Violence and strong language. 1998.

  The Coldest Winter Ever
Sister Souljah
RC 57412
Gritty portrayal of the coming-of-age of Winter Santiaga, born to a fourteen-year-old mother and a drug-dealing father in Brooklyn's projects. Strong language and some explicit descriptions of sex. 1999.

  A Day Late and a Dollar Short
Terry McMillan
RC 51558
Driven apart by infidelity and addiction, the Price family resolves to reunite through love and forgiveness. Strong language. Bestseller. 2001.

Dead Above Ground
Jervey Tervalon
RC 50308
Mixed-blood teenager Lita Du Champ learns all of the family secrets when her married sister falls for a gangster and pimp. Some violence and some strong language. Bestseller. 2000.

Don't Erase Me: Stories
Carolyn Ferrell
BR 11598
Stories about young people of the urban underclass — mostly poor, black, or biracial and from broken or dysfunctional families. Strong language. 1997.

The Fisher King
Paule Marshall
BR 13749
West Indian musician Sonny-Rett and African-American Cherisse fall in love. Opposed by their families, the lovers flee to Paris where they start a family and Sonny becomes famous. ALA Black Caucus Award. 2000.

Gabriel's Story
David Anthony Durham
RC 54372
A fifteen-year-old African American comes of age on the 1870s frontier. Violence and strong language. 2001.

  The Healing
Gayl Jones
BR 12064
Harlan Jane Eagleton follows her thoughts from her present itinerant faith-healing practice to her former job as manager for a female rock singer. Some strong language. 1998.

If 6 Were 9
Jake Lamar
RC 55248
African American professor Clay Robinette comes to the aid of fellow teacher Reggie Brogus, who has found a white student dead in his office. Violence and strong language. 2001.

The Intuitionist
Colson Whitehead
BR 13053, RC 50558
In this allegorical mystery set in the 1940s, Lila Mae Watson, the city's first minority woman elevator inspector, works by psychic intuition. Some strong language. 1999.

  Love
Toni Morrison
RC 57353
Even after the death of seaside resort owner Bill Cosey, his women — widow Heed, granddaughter Christine, and mistress Celestial — continue their feuds. Strong language and some explicit descriptions of sex. Bestseller. 2003.

A Man Most Worthy
Marcus Major
RC 56640
John Sebastian is a successful African-American businessman who has everything — money, cars, a trophy girlfriend. Strong language and some explicit descriptions of sex. 2003.

Naming the New World
Calvin Baker
BR 11615
Vignettes highlighting the history of an African-American family, beginning with episodes in Africa and as slaves in America. Some descriptions of sex, some violence, and some strong language. 1997.

Resurrecting Mingus
Jenoyne Adams
RC 53013
A young attorney reflects upon her relationship with her family and her biracial heritage. Bestseller. 2001.

Soul Kiss
Shay Youngblood
BR 11440
In 1968, seven-year-old Mariah's beloved mother drops her off unannounced at the home of two great-aunts in Georgia and doesn't come back. Some explicit descriptions of sex. 1997.

This Bitter Earth
Bernice L. McFadden
RC 54563
In 1955, African American Sugar Lacey returns to Short Junction, Arkansas, to the home of the women who raised her. Sequel to Sugar (RC 53355). Strong language and some violence. 2002.

Those Bones Are Not My Child
Toni Cade Bambara
RC 50748
Based on the true story of the abduction and murder of more than forty children, mostly black males under fifteen, in Atlanta in the 1980s. Published four years after Bambara's death. 1999.

Where I'm Bound
Allen B. Ballard
RC 52694
Fictionalized account of an all-black regiment in the Civil War. Escaped slave Joe Duckett becomes a cavalry scout with the Union army. Some explicit descriptions of sex. 2000.

Windy City Dying
Eleanor Taylor Bland
RC 57253
After thirteen years, Adrian Quinn is out of prison and out for revenge, targeting the loved ones of those who convicted him. 2002.