Black History

Between the world and me book cover

Between the world and me

Ta-Nehisi Coates

eBOOK
Nonfiction, Literary Nonfiction, History, Memoir, Black Lives Matter, Black History

"For Ta-Nehisi Coates, history has always been personal. At every stage of his life, he's sought in his explorations of history answers to the mysteries that surrounded him -- most urgently, why he, and other black people he knew, seemed to live in fear. What were they afraid of? In Tremble for My Country, Coates takes readers along on his journey through America's history of race and its contemporary resonances through a series of awakenings -- moments when he discovered some new truth about our long, tangled history of race, whether through his myth-busting professors at Howard University, a trip to a Civil War battlefield with a rogue historian, a journey to Chicago's South Side to visit aging survivors of 20th century America's 'long war on black people,' or a visit with the mother of a beloved friend who was shot down by the police. In his trademark style -- a mix of lyrical personal narrative, reimagined history, essayistic argument, and reportage -- Coates provides readers a thrillingly illuminating new framework for understanding race: its history, our contemporary dilemma, and where we go from here"--

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The undefeated book cover

The undefeated

Kwame Alexander

eBOOK
Picture Books, Black Lives Matter, Black History

"The Newbery Award-winning author of The Crossover pens an ode to black American triumph and tribulation, with art from a two-time Caldecott Honoree"--

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This is the rope : a story from the Great Migration book cover

This is the rope : a story from the Great Migration

Jacqueline Woodson

jE Woodson
Picture Books, Black Lives Matter, Black History

A rope passed down through the generations frames an African American family's story as they journey north during the time of the Great Migration.

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Lift every voice and sing : a celebration of the African American national anthem book cover

Lift every voice and sing : a celebration of the African American national anthem

James Weldon Johnson

jE Johnson
Picture Books, Black Lives Matter, Black History

An illustrated version of the song written by civil rights leader and poet James Weldon Johnson in 1899 that has come to be considered the African American national anthem.

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Overground railroad book cover

Overground railroad

Lesa Cline-Ransome

jE Cline-Ransome
Picture Books, Black History, Black Lives Matter

"A girl named Ruth Anne tells the story of her family's train journey from North Carolina to New York City as part of the Great Migration"--

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The youngest marcher : the story of Audrey Faye Hendricks, a young civil rights activist book cover

The youngest marcher : the story of Audrey Faye Hendricks, a young civil rights activist

Cynthia Levinson

jE Levinson
Picture Books, Black History, Black Lives Matter

Presents the life of nine-year-old Audrey Faye Hendricks who became the youngest known child to be arrested for picketing against Birmingham segregation practices in 1963.

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The roots of rap : 16 bars on the 4 pillars of hip-hop book cover

The roots of rap : 16 bars on the 4 pillars of hip-hop

Carole Boston Weatherford

jE Weatherford
Picture Books, Black Lives Matter, Black History

Presents the history of hip-hop including how it evolved from folktales, spirituals, and poetry, to the showmanship of James Brown, to the culture of graffiti art and breakdancing that formed around the art form.

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Overground railroad : the Green Book and the roots of Black travel in America book cover

Overground railroad : the Green Book and the roots of Black travel in America

Candacy A. Taylor

973.00496 /Taylor
History, Nonfiction, Black History

The first book to explore the historical role and residual impact of the Green Book, a travel guide for black motorists. Published from 1936 to 1966, the Green Book was hailed as the "black travel guide to America." At that time, it was very dangerous and difficult for African-Americans to travel because black travelers couldn't eat, sleep, or buy gas at most white-owned businesses. The Green Book listed hotels, restaurants, gas stations, and other businesses that were safe for black travelers. It was a resourceful and innovative solution to a horrific problem. It took courage to be listed in the Green Book, and 'Overground Railroad' celebrates the stories of those who put their names in the book and stood up against segregation. It shows the history of the Green Book, how we arrived at our present historical moment, and how far we still have to go when it comes to race relations in America.

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The Battle of Negro Fort : the rise and fall of a fugitive slave community book cover

The Battle of Negro Fort : the rise and fall of a fugitive slave community

Matthew J. Clavin

973.00496 /Clavin
History, Nonfiction, Black History

"The dramatic story of the United States' destruction of a free and independent community of fugitive slaves in Spanish Florida. In the aftermath of the War of 1812, Major General Andrew Jackson ordered a joint United States army-navy expedition into Spanish Florida to destroy a free and independent community of fugitive slaves. The result was the Battle of Negro Fort, a brutal conflict among hundreds of American troops, Indian warriors, and black rebels that culminated in the death or re-enslavement of nearly all of the fort's inhabitants. By eliminating this refuge for fugitive slaves, the United States government closed an escape valve that African Americans had utilized for generations. At the same time, it intensified the subjugation of southern Native Americans, including the Creeks, Choctaws, and Seminoles. Still, the battle was significant for another reason as well. During its existence, Negro Fort was a powerful symbol of black freedom that subverted the racist foundations of an expanding American slave society. Its destruction reinforced the nation's growing commitment to slavery, while illuminating the extent to which ambivalence over the institution had disappeared since the nation's founding. Indeed, four decades after declaring that all men were created equal, the United States destroyed a fugitive slave community in a foreign territory for the first and only time in its history, which accelerated America's transformation into a white republic. The Battle of Negro Fort places the violent expansion of slavery where it belongs, at the center of the history of the early American republic."--Publisher's website.

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Stolen : five free boys kidnapped into slavery and their astonishing odyssey home book cover

Stolen : five free boys kidnapped into slavery and their astonishing odyssey home

Richard Bell

973.00496 /Bell
History, Nonfiction, Black History

Philadelphia, 1825. Five young, free black boys are lured onto a small ship with the promise of food and pay. They are instead met with blindfolds, ropes, and knives. Over four long months, their kidnappers drive them overland into the Cotton Kingdom to be sold as slaves. Determined to resist, the boys form a tight brotherhood as they struggle to free themselves and find their way home. Their ordeal shines a spotlight on the Reverse Underground Railroad, a black market network of human traffickers and slave traders who stole away thousands of legally free African Americans from their families in order to fuel slavery's rapid expansion in the decades before the Civil War. -- adapted from jacket

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