The Washing of the Spears: The Rise and Fall of the Zulu Nation by Donald R. Morris

In 1879, armed only with their spears, their rawhide shields, and their incredible courage, the Zulus challenged the might of Victorian England and, initially, inflicted on the British the worst defeat a modern army has ever suffered at the hands of men without guns. This definitive account of the rise of the Zulu nation under the great ruler Shaka and its fall under Cetshwayo has been acclaimed for its scholarship, its monumental range, and its spellbinding readability. The story is studded with tales of drama and heroism: the Battle of Isandhlwana, where the Zulu army wiped out the major British column; and Rorke's Drift, where a handful of British troops beat off thousands of Zulu warriors and won eleven Victoria Crosses.

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Civil Rights and African Americans edited by Albert P. Blaustein & Robert L. Zangrando

This volume brings together for the first time all the important primary documents in the history of civil rights in the United States. Beginning in 1619, it contains original texts on slavery, abolition, the Civil War, Reconstruction, desegregation, the NAACP, and the black power movement. A thought-provoking preface provides an overview of the developments in civil rights law and public policy to the present day.

Many of the documents included were previously scattered in hard-to-find sources, not readily available to instructors and students. Civil Rights and African Americans is the first collection of all the seminal texts of the civil rights struggle, an invaluable scholarly reference and riveting reading for anyone interested in the history of racial conflict in the United States.

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Audacity: How Barack Obama Defied His Critics and Created a Legacy That Will Prevail by Jonathan Chait

An unassailable case that, in the eyes of history, Barack Obama will be viewed as one of America’s best and most accomplished presidents.

Over the course of eight years, Barack Obama amassed an array of historic achievements. His administration saved the American economy from collapse, expanded health insurance to tens of millions who previously could not afford it, negotiated an unprecedented nuclear deal with Iran, helped craft a groundbreaking international climate accord, reined in Wall Street, launched a fundamental overhaul of our education system, and formulated a new vision of racial progress. He has done all of this despite a left that frequently disdained him as a sellout, and a hysterical right that did everything possible to destroy his agenda, even in instances when they actually agreed with what he was doing before Obama was the one doing it.

Now, as the page turns to possibly the most dangerous Commander in Chief in our history, Jonathan Chait, one of America’s most incisive and meticulous political commentators, digs deep into Obama’s record on major policy fronts—the economy, the environment, domestic reform, health care, race, and foreign policy—to demonstrate why history will judge our forty-fourth president as among our greatest. Chait explains why so many observers, from cynical journalists to disheartened Democrats, missed the enormous evidence of progress amidst the smoke screen of extremist propaganda and the confinement of short-term perspective. He also reveals why Obama’s accomplishments will last despite the reactionary effort by Donald Trump and the Republicans to extinguish them. And in its resounding defense of Obama’s tenure, Audacity both makes clear his victories, and what we need to fight for next.

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A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier by Ishmael Beah

The devastating story of war through the eyes of a child soldier. Beah tells how, at the age of twelve, he fled attacking rebels and wandered a land rendered unrecognizable by violence. By thirteen, he’d been picked up by the government army, and became a soldier.

My new friends have begun to suspect I haven’t told them the full story of my life.
“Why did you leave Sierra Leone?”
“Because there is a war.”
“You mean, you saw people running around with guns and shooting each other?”
“Yes, all the time.”
“Cool.”
I smile a little.
“You should tell us about it sometime.”
“Yes, sometime.”

This is how wars are fought now: by children, hopped-up on drugs and wielding AK-47s. Children have become soldiers of choice. In the more than fifty conflicts going on worldwide, it is estimated that there are some 300,000 child soldiers. Ishmael Beah used to be one of them.

What is war like through the eyes of a child soldier? How does one become a killer? How does one stop? Child soldiers have been profiled by journalists, and novelists have struggled to imagine their lives. But until now, there has not been a first-person account from someone who came through this hell and survived.

In A Long Way Gone, Beah, now twenty-five years old, tells a riveting story: how at the age of twelve, he fled attacking rebels and wandered a land rendered unrecognizable by violence. By thirteen, he’d been picked up by the government army, and Beah, at heart a gentle boy, found that he was capable of truly terrible acts.

This is a rare and mesmerizing account, told with real literary force and heartbreaking honesty.

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Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry by Mildred D. Taylor

Set in Mississippi at the height of the Depression, this is the story of one family's struggle to maintain their integrity, pride, and independence in the face of racism and social injustice. And it is also Cassie's story—Cassie Logan, an independent girl who discovers over the course of an important year why having land of their own is so crucial to the Logan family, even as she learns to draw strength from her own sense of dignity and self-respect.

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Street God: The Explosive True Story of a Former Drug Boss on the Run from the Hood--and the Courageous Mission That Drove Him Back by Dimas Salaberrios and Angela Elwell Hunt

His street name was Daylight. But he was a nightmare. On the streets of New York, darkness and violence reigned. Dimas "Daylight" Salaberrios popped his first pill when he was eleven years old, and just days later, he was selling drugs to his schoolmates. By fifteen, he was facing time at the notorious Rikers Island Prison. It was never safe to turn your back, and Dimas saw only one chance to survive: to become a street god. He would be the richest, most powerful ruler in the hood . . . or die trying.But in one terrifying moment, with a gun pointed at his head, Dimas had to decide: How far would he go? Was he finished taking reckless chances to rule as a god of the streets? Would he dare to entrust his life to the real God--an even riskier path? Because that God would send Dimas back down the darkest streets he'd ever known on a rescue mission after those still in danger."Street God" is the true story of one man's against-all-odds journey from the streets to the altar and back again. A modern-day "The Cross and the Switchblade" for a new generation, it reveals that we're never too far gone for God to change us--and shows how a single spark can illuminate even the darkest existence.

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You Know Better by Tina McElroy Ensa

It is the spring weekend of the Peach Blossom Festival in the tiny middle Georgia town of Mulberry, but things are far from sweet for the Pines women. LaShawndra, an eighteen-year-old hoochie-mama who wants nothing more out of life than to dance in a music video, has messed up...again. But this time she isn't sticking around to hear about it.

Not that her mother seems to care; after all, Sandra is busy working on her real estate career and on the local minister. It's LaShawndra's grandmother, Lily, a former schoolteacher, principal, school board administrator, and highly respected cornerstone of the Mulberry community, who is scouring the streets at midnight looking for her granddaughter.

Over the course of one weekend these three disparate women, guided by a trio of unexpected spirits, will learn to face the pain in their lives and discover that with reconciliation comes the healing they all desperately seek. In this magical, deeply resonant novel, Tina McElroy Ansa goes straight to the heart of women's relationships to reveal the soul that bonds us all.

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The Amistad Slave Revolt and American Abolition by Karen Zeinert

This work of nonfiction tells the whole story of the 1839 Amistad rebellion, from the capture of the leader Cinque in Africa to the Middle Passage to Cuba, the revolt of the 52 Africans and their capture, their long legal battle, and the final return home of the 38 men and children left alive two years later.The Amistad affair shook the nation with its fierce fight for freedom by black people enslaved, and the support they were given by abolitionist forces in the North. Behind the scenes were legal manueverings and political ramifications: presidential aspirations in an election year; the South's slave-based economy; and international affairs. The ordeal of the Africans, however, penetrated the American consciousness of the race question as never before. It brought before the public this defining issue: Can one person be the property of another?

Karen Zeinert looks carefully at the complexities of the Amistad story and puts it firmly in the context of its times. A former teacher, Zeinert has written many books on history, several of them for Linnet.

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The Sisters' Guide to In-Depth Bible Study by Victoria L. Johnson

Do you want to study the Bible on your own but find yourself overwhelmed by complicated, cumbersome study methods? Are you a group leader looking for exciting resources to bring new life to your teaching? Is your time in the Word dry and lifeless, or do you find Scripture hard to understand? Victoria Johnson--a busy speaker, teacher, author and mother--has discovered an easy-to-follow method that has made Bible study come alive for her and for many others she has taught. In this book she reveals seven practical principles for study that can transform your life. Related with passion, warmth, wisdom and humor, Johnson's step-by-step instructions can help both individuals and groups discover the power of Bible study for themselves. Originally published as Bible Study for Busy Women, this revised edition also includes a twelve-week study guide for small groups and study helps for leaders.

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Maya Angelou: Journey of the Heart by Jayne Pettit

Poet, writer, activist, entertainer, professor: Maya Angelou is all of these. Her remarkable story includes a childhood trauma, a leading role in an opera, her activism in the civil rights movement, and her devotion to poetry, writing, and teaching to promote the cause of all African-Americans. Based in part on Maya's autobiography, this is the inspiring story of an extraordinary woman.

"Pettit makes [Angelou's] stirring story accessible...while retaining a strong sense of Angelou's personal voice. --Booklist

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Langston Hughes: Poet by Jack Rummel

Critically acclaimed biographies of history's most notable African Americans- Straightforward and objective writing- Lavishly illustrated with photographs and memorabilia- Essential for multicultural studies.

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Dear Master: Letters of a Slave Family edited by Randall M. Miller

"Dear Master" is a rare firsthand look at the values, self-perception, and private life of the black American slave. The fullest known record left by an American slave family, this collection of more than two hundred letters--including seven discovered since the book's original appearance--reveals the relationship of two generations of the Skipwith family with the Virginia planter John Hartwell Cocke.The letters, dating from 1834 to 1865, fall into two groups. The first were written by Peyton Skipwith and his children from Liberia, where they settled after being freed in 1833 by Cocke, a devout Christian and enlightened slaveholder. The letters, which tell of harsh frontier life, reveal the American values the Skipwiths took with them to Africa, and express their faith in Liberia's future and pride in their accomplishments.

The second group of letters, written by George Skipwith and his daughter Lucy, originate from Cocke's Alabama plantation, an experimental work community to which Cocke sent his most talented, responsible slaves to prepare them for the moral and educational challenges of emancipation. George, a "privileged bondsman," was a slave driver. His letters about the management of the plantation include reports on the slaves' conduct and any disciplinary actions he took. Readers can sense George's pride in his work and also his ambivalence toward his role as leader in the slave hierarchy.

Lucy, Cocke's chief domestic slave, was the plantation nurse and teacher. Her letters, filled with details about spiritual, familial, and health matters, also display her skill at exploiting her master's trust and her uncommon boldness, for she spoke against whites to her master when she felt they hampered his slaves' education.

"Dear Master" affirms that these slaves and former slaves were not simply victims; they were actors in a complex human drama. The letters imply trust and affection between master and slave, but there were other motives as well for the letter-writing. The Liberian Skipwiths needed American-made supplies; moreover, the whole family may have viewed their relationship with Cocke as a chance to help free other slaves. In his new preface, Miller reevaluates his book in light of changes in the historiography of American slavery over the past decade.

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Laughing in the Dark: From Colored Girl to Woman of Color--A Journey From Prison to Power by Patrice Gaines

An award-winning Washington Post reporter explores the twisted path she traveled to find her place as a confident black female in a world that values whiteness and maleness. Here is a rich and insightful story of a life lived on the edge by a woman formerly preoccupied with pleasing everyone but herself.

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The House at Sugar Beach by Helene Cooper

Journalist Helene Cooper examines the violent past of her home country Liberia and the effects of its 1980 military coup in this deeply personal memoir and finalist for the 2008 National Book Critics Circle Award.

Helene Cooper is “Congo,” a descendant of two Liberian dynasties—traced back to the first ship of freemen that set sail from New York in 1820 to found Monrovia. Helene grew up at Sugar Beach, a twenty-two-room mansion by the sea. Her childhood was filled with servants, flashy cars, a villa in Spain, and a farmhouse up-country. It was also an African childhood, filled with knock foot games and hot pepper soup, heartmen and neegee. When Helene was eight, the Coopers took in a foster child—a common custom among the Liberian elite. Eunice, a Bassa girl, suddenly became known as “Mrs. Cooper’s daughter.”

For years the Cooper daughters—Helene, her sister Marlene, and Eunice—blissfully enjoyed the trappings of wealth and advantage. But Liberia was like an unwatched pot of water left boiling on the stove. And on April 12, 1980, a group of soldiers staged a coup d'état, assassinating President William Tolbert and executing his cabinet. The Coopers and the entire Congo class were now the hunted, being imprisoned, shot, tortured, and raped. After a brutal daylight attack by a ragtag crew of soldiers, Helene, Marlene, and their mother fled Sugar Beach, and then Liberia, for America. They left Eunice behind.

A world away, Helene tried to assimilate as an American teenager. At the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill she found her passion in journalism, eventually becoming a reporter for the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times. She reported from every part of the globe—except Africa—as Liberia descended into war-torn, third-world hell.

In 2003, a near-death experience in Iraq convinced Helene that Liberia—and Eunice—could wait no longer. At once a deeply personal memoir and an examination of a violent and stratified country, The House at Sugar Beach tells of tragedy, forgiveness, and transcendence with unflinching honesty and a survivor's gentle humor. And at its heart, it is a story of Helene Cooper’s long voyage home.

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Rites of Passage Volume Two: An Urban Teenager's Guide to Bridging the Dangerous Divide Between Hope and Despair by Dr. John Kline

"The superb Urban Rites of Passage program developed by Dr. John Kline, is an essential ingredient of the curriculum for every-adolescent."

-Dr. John Telford, Executive Director Community Affairs, Detroit Schools

Songs From an Afro/Phone by Eugene B. Redmond

Native Son by Richard Wright

Widely acclaimed as one of the finest books ever written on race and class division in America, this powerful novel reflects the forces of poverty, injustice, and hopelessness that continue to shape our society. Right from the start, Bigger Thomas had been headed for jail. It could have been for assault or petty larceny: by chance, it was for murder and rape. Native Son tells the story of this young black man caught in a downward spiral after he kills a young white woman in a brief moment of panic. Set in Chicago in the 1930s, Wright's powerful novel is an unsparing reflection of the poverty and feelings of hopelessness experienced by people in inner cities across the country.

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To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee

The unforgettable novel of a childhood in a sleepy Southern town and the crisis of conscience that rocked it, To Kill A Mockingbird became both an instant bestseller and a critical success when it was first published in 1960. It went on to win the Pulitzer Prize in 1961 and was later made into an Academy Award-winning film, also a classic.

Compassionate, dramatic, and deeply moving, To Kill A Mockingbird takes readers to the roots of human behavior - to innocence and experience, kindness and cruelty, love and hatred, humor and pathos. Now with over 18 million copies in print and translated into forty languages, this regional story by a young Alabama woman claims universal appeal. Harper Lee always considered her book to be a simple love story. Today it is regarded as a masterpiece of American literature.

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Go Set A Watchman by Harper Lee

The long-awaited, much-discussed sequel that might have been a prequel—and that makes tolerably good company for its classic predecessor.

It’s not To Kill a Mockingbird, and it too often reads like a first draft, but Lee’s story nonetheless has weight and gravity. Scout—that is, Miss Jean Louise Finch—has been living in New York for years. As the story opens, she’s on the way back to Maycomb, Alabama, wearing “gray slacks, a black sleeveless blouse, white socks, and loafers,” an outfit calculated to offend her prim and proper aunt. The time is pre-Kennedy; in an early sighting, Atticus Finch, square-jawed crusader for justice, is glaring at a book about Alger Hiss. But is Atticus really on the side of justice? As Scout wanders from porch to porch and parlor to parlor on both the black and white sides of the tracks, she hears stories that complicate her—and our—understanding of her father. To modern eyes, Atticus harbors racist sentiments: “Jean Louise,” he says in one exchange, “Have you ever considered that you can’t have a set of backward people living among people advanced in one kind of civilization and have a social Arcadia?” Though Scout is shocked by Atticus’ pronouncements that African-Americans are not yet prepared to enjoy full civil rights, her father is far less a Strom Thurmond–school segregationist than an old-school conservative of evolving views, “a healthy old man with a constitutional mistrust of paternalism and government in large doses,” as her uncle puts it. Perhaps the real revelation is that Scout is sometimes unpleasant and often unpleasantly confrontational, as a young person among oldsters can be. Lee, who is plainly on the side of equality, writes of class, religion, and race, but most affectingly of the clash of generations and traditions, with an Atticus tolerant and approving of Scout’s reformist ways: “I certainly hoped a daughter of mine’d hold her ground for what she thinks is right—stand up to me first of all.”

It’s not To Kill a Mockingbird, yes, but it’s very much worth reading.

from Kirkus Review

Enderby's Dark Lady by Anthony Burgess

Enderby the Poet--corpulent, flatulent, malicious--arrived, full of bile and Joycean brio, in Enderby (1968). He took a look at New York circa 1973 in The Clockwork Testament (1975), promptly dying of a heart attack. And now, "to placate kind readers. . . who objected to my casually killing my hero," Enderby is resurrected circa 1976--in a brief, heavyhanded, disappointing episode. This time the prim poet is in Terrebasse, Indiana (that's the level of the wordplay here), hired to write the libretto for a musical about Will Shakespeare. His collaborators, of course, are a cartoonishly crude lot--they want show-biz, not Enderby's intricately rhymed Elizabethan-style verses. The show's backer is ostentatious local matron Mrs. Schoenbaum (more than a whiff of anti-Semitism here), whose favorite spiritualist claims to be in touch with Shakespeare's understandably riled-up ghost. But the co-star, in the Dark Lady role, is gorgeously black pop-diva April Elgar--and Enderby, smitten with lust, is soon tailoring the show to her non-Elizabethan talents. April, who switches back and forth between crude New Yorkese and a "slave whine" (both imperfectly rendered), is actually nice and educated; she invites Enderby to her Carolina home for Christmas (where he must pose as a clergyman, preaching an incoherent sermon to a Baptist congregation); she is not unresponsive to Enderby's infatuation. Still, Enderby--for "aesthetic" reasons--declines to convert his lust into reality, confining himself to masturbation. ("He had to cart the engorged shlong three times into the bathroom. . . .") And, in the ill-staged slapstick finale, the poet is forced to take over the role of Shakespeare on the opening night of the show. . . now titled Actor on His Ass. Burgess bulks out this thin novella with two labored Shakespeare fantasies--one at the beginning (WS drafts the 46th Psalm for the King James Bible), the other at the end (WS and time-travelers). He includes many examples of Enderby's hard-working libretto. But the central comic situation never comes to satiric life (mystery-writer Simon Brett would have gotten more laughs from it); the love-story is limp; and the two strengths of the previous novels--the Enderby character, the rococo narration--only flair sporadically in this twiddling spin-off.

from Kirkus Review

African Masterworks in the Detroit Institute of Arts

African Masterworks in the Detroit Institute of Arts showcases eighty-eight of the museum's finest works, representing the full range of major sub-Saharan sculptural traditions during the past three centuries: figures, masks, containers, carved stools, jewelry, and musical instruments. As noted in the introductory material, almost all African art has a functional base - each sculpture's primary justification is its effectiveness as a ritual or utilitarian object. Text accompanying each photograph describes not only the circumstances, when known, of the object's creation, but also the harmonious interplay of its aesthetic features and cultural and spiritual function. The catalogue also details the rituals surrounding the religious objects and the social importance of the secular works. Organized by region, from the western Sudan to southern Africa, the book includes essays on the history of each area, as well as maps and an extensive bibliography. Michael Kan, the curator of the collection, provides a history of the museum's African art acquisitions since 1900, and the introduction by Roy Sieber traces the evolution of Western appreciation for African art, describing also the value placed on the objects by the community from which they arose.

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Black and White by Paul Volponi

Marcus and Eddie are best friends who found the strength to break through the racial barrier. Marcus is black; Eddie is white. Stars of their school basketball team, they are true leaders who look past the stereotypes and come out on top. They are inseparable, watching each other's backs, both on and off the basketball court. But one night—and one wrong decision—will change their lives forever. Will their mistake cost them their friendship . . . and their future? 

An ALA Best Book for Young Adults

An ALA Quick Pick “Top Ten”

IRA Children’s Book Award (Young Adult)

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Rites of Passage: An Urban Teenager's Guide to Bridging the Dangerous Divide Between Hope and Despair by Dr. John Kline

"The superb Urban Rites of Passage program developed by Dr. John Kline, is an essential ingredient of the curriculum for every-adolescent."

-Dr. John Telford, Executive Director Community Affairs, Detroit Schools

Tired of Weeping: Mother Love, Child Death, and Poverty in Guinea-Bissau by Jónína Einarsdóttir

In this comprehensive and provocative study of maternal reactions to child death in Guinea-Bissau, West Africa, anthropologist Jónína Einarsdóttir challenges the assumption that mothers in high-poverty societies will neglect their children and fail to mourn their deaths as a survival strategy. Based on ethnographic fieldwork conducted from 1993 to 1998 among the matrilineal Papel, who reside in the Biombo region, this work includes theoretical discussion of reproductive practices, conceptions of children, childcare customs, interpretations of diseases and death, and infanticide. Einarsdóttir also brings compelling narratives of life experiences and reflections of Papel women.

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Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave

Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass is an 1845 memoir and treatise on abolition written by famous orator and former slave Frederick Douglass during his time in Lynn, Massachusetts. It is generally held to be the most famous of a number of narratives written by former slaves during the same period. In factual detail, the text describes the events of his life and is considered to be one of the most influential pieces of literature to fuel the abolitionist movement of the early 19th century in the United States. 

Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass encompasses eleven chapters that recount Douglass's life as a slave and his ambition to become a free man.

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Go Tell It On the Mountain by James Baldwin

"Mountain, " Baldwin said, "is the book I had to write if I was ever going to write anything else." Go Tell It On The Mountain, first published in 1953, is Baldwin's first major work, a novel that has established itself as an American classic. With lyrical precision, psychological directness, resonating symbolic power, and a rage that is at once unrelenting and compassionate, Baldwin chronicles a fourteen-year-old boy's discovery of the terms of his identity as the stepson of the minister of a storefront Pentecostal church in Harlem one Saturday in March of 1935. Baldwin's rendering of his protagonist's spiritual, sexual, and moral struggle of self-invention opened new possibilities in the American language and in the way Americans understand themselves.

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The Other Side of the River: A Story of Two Towns, A Death, And America's Dilemma by Alex Kotlowitz

Alex Kotlowitz's There Are No Children Here was more than a bestseller; it was a national event. His beautifully narrated, heartbreaking nonfiction account of two black boys struggling to grow up in a Chicago public housing complex spent eight weeks on The New York Times bestseller list, was a made-for-television movie starring and produced by Oprah Winfrey, won many distinguished awards, and sparked a continuing national debate on the lives of inner-city children.

In The Other Side of the River, his eagerly awaited new book, Kotlowitz takes us to southern Michigan. Here, separated by the St. Joseph River, are two towns, St. Joseph and Benton Harbor. Geographically close, they are worlds apart, a living metaphor for America's racial divisions: St. Joseph is a prosperous lakeshore community and ninety-five percent white, while Benton Harbor is impoverished and ninety-two percent black. When the body of a black teenaged boy from Benton Harbor is found in the river, unhealed wounds and suspicions between the two towns' populations surface as well. The investigation into the young man's death becomes, inevitably, a screen on which each town projects their resentments and fears.

The Other Side of the River sensitively portrays the lives and hopes of the towns' citizens as they wrestle with this mystery--and reveals the attitudes and misperceptions that undermine race relations throughout America. In this gripping and ultimately profound book, Alex Kotlowitz proves why he is one of this country's foremost writers on the ever explosive issue of race.

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Who Was Michael Jackson? by Megan Stine

Born in Gary, Indiana, on August 29, 1958, Michael Jackson was definitely not a regular kid. A superstar with The Jackson 5 before he was eight years old, he became the King of Pop as a solo artist. Michael was a creative--yet deeply troubled--genius who always remained devoted to his art right up until his death is 2009 before a much anticipated tour. He had a pitch-perfect voice and footwork that his idol Fred Astaire admired. Who will ever forget the Moonwalk? Kids today who only know Jackson through video performances are nevertheless fascinated by him. Megan Stine provides a sensitive, fair-minded depiction of this unique music legend.

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Born To Rise: A Story of Children and Teachers Reaching Their Highest Potential by Deborah Kenny

Born to Rise is the inspiring account of Deborah Kenny’s pursuit of social justice for our nation’s most vulnerable children. Students enter Harlem Village Academies, the network of charter schools Kenny founded, several years behind grade level, but in just a few years they are transformed, ranking among the highest in the nation. How did they do it? For the first time, Kenny reveals the secret to creating a powerful workplace culture that attracts the most talented people and brings out their passion and highest performance—a culture that produces stunning student achievement results and teachers who regularly use words like “magical” to describe the workplace environment. It is a must-read for anyone who cares about children and the future of this country and for leaders who want to inspire fierce dedication in their employees.

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A Choice of Weapons by Gordon Parks

The noted author/photographer recounts his life and the bitter struggle he has faced, since he was sixteen-years-old, against poverty and racial prejudice.

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Chosen Vessels: Women of Color Keys to Change by Rebecca Florence Osaigbovo

"African American woman."

The phrase conjures up a variety of images: Sassy career women. Wise church women. Strong grandmothers. Welfare mothers.

But how about "chosen vessels"? Or "keys to change"? Perhaps we need some new images.

Women of color have historically been on the bottom of the economic and social ladder. But the paradox of the kingdom of God is that being on the bottom is a plus. God often chooses the rejected and despised to confound the wise and mighty (1 Corinthians 1:27-29). By examining our spiritual history and God-ordained destiny, Rebecca Florence Osaigbovo helps us turn the tide of evil in our own lives and the lives of our families, cities and nations.

We are chosen vessels.

Here is the help we need to find--and live--our significance in the eyes of God.

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Turning White by Lee Thomas

Lee Thomas, a TV newscaster in Detroit, tells his story of living with Vitiligo with honesty and openness.

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Just My Luck by Tajuana "TJ" Butler

Today is no ordinary day for thirty-eight-year-old Lanita Lightfoot. Today represents the culmination of years of struggle and sacrifice. Today she graduates from college. But first, Lanita’s husband treats her to a day of beauty at an upscale black salon in Los Angeles, during which she shares her story with the staff and the other customers–and what a story it is. . .

Talk about an entrance. Lanita was born in a little corner store in the thick of the Watts riots. Her untimely entry into the world saved the joint from being sacked by looters–and the shop owner showed his gratitude by giving Lanita’s mother, Aretha, a decade of rent-free residence. But when the reward dries up and Aretha takes to the bottle and a no-good loser boyfriend, Lanita’s life takes a sharp turn for the worse. Forced to live in a cramped, dingy apartment, Lanita longs for her real daddy to ride to the rescue. But when he finally shows up, she finds he isn’t quite the knight she’s dreamed of.

Still, Lanita is determined to make something of herself. A straight-A student throughout high school, she is accepted to Howard University in Washington, D.C., and marvels that she’s finally escaped the ghetto. As Lanita embarks on the journey of becoming a woman, she encounters icons including Michael Jackson and Todd Bridges, who help transform her perception of her own life. But one year short of graduation, she must return to Los Angeles to care for the ailing Aretha–an unpleasant reality that leads her to join in a sordid West Hollywood strip club and farther away from her dreams–until the fateful night her high school heart throb shows up at the club and shows her that the easy money she makes comes with a high price.

The bestselling author of The Night Before Thirty, Tajuana “TJ” Butler delivers one of her most richly imagined, complex, and beloved characters yet–and delves into the void that many young women spend their lifetime trying to fill: the one left by a father’s absence.

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American Slavery 1619-1877 by Peter Kolchin

In terms of accessibility and comprehensive coverage, Kolchin's American Slavery is a singularly important achievement. It remains the best book to introduce a subject of profound and lasting importance, one that lies at the center of American history.

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Rosa Parks: Civil Rights Leader by Mary Hull

Each book focuses on the contribution made by the figure and his or her influence on later generations - In Their Own Words boxes feature quotes from the subject - Did you Know? boxes highlight short pieces of little-known information about the person - The final chapter in each book delves into the legacy of the leader's thoughts and deeds for the new generations of Black Americans.

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Dr. Gavin's Health Guide for African Americans by James R. Gavin III

Dr. James Gavin covers wellness and the tools to achieve it. He discusses health topics of particular concern to the African American population: obesity, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, heart disease, diabetes, and cancer. His intergenerational, family-centered approach to health is the prescription for breaking the alarming cycle of lifestyle-caused diseases, which are now striking children, too. Key features: Focus on prevention of disease Tool kits for better health.

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Collected Poems by Robert Hayden

Robert Hayden was a fellow of the American Academy of Poets, a poetry consultant to the Library of Congress, and a professor of English at the University of Michigan. He received numerous awards for his poetry in his lifetime, among them the Hopwood Awards, the Grand Prize for Poetry at the First World Festival of Negro Arts, and the Russell Loines Award for distinguished poetic achievement from the National Institute of Arts and Letters. Arnold Rampersad is Woodrow Wilson Professor of Literature at Princeton University.

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Selected Poems of Gwendolyn Brooks

Selected Poems is the classic volume by the distinguished and celebrated poet, Gwendolyn Brooks, winner of the 1950 Pulitzer Prize, and recipient of the National Book Foundation Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters. This compelling collection showcases Brooks’ technical mastery, her warm humanity, and her compassionate and illuminating response to a complex world.

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Selected Poems of Rita Dove

Here in one volume is a selection of the extraordinary poems of Rita Dove, who, as the nation's Poet Laureate from 1993 to 1995, brought poetry into the lives of millions of people.  Along with a new introduction and poem, Selected Poems comprises Dove's collections The Yellow House on the Corner, which includes a group of poems devoted to the themes of slavery and freedom; Museum, intimate ruminations on home and the world; and finally, Thomas and Beulah, winner of the Pulitzer Prize in 1987, a verse cycle loosely based on her grandparents' lives.  Precisely yet intensely felt, resonant with the voices of ordinary people, Rita Dove's Selected Poems is marked by lyric intensity and compassionate storytelling.

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The Blood Brothers by Geno Washington

The Blood Brothers is told in a fast-paced, wit-studded street style. It is a swaggering nonstop wham bam novel of blood, guts, lust, love, lost friendships, and betrayals.

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River, Cross My Heart by Breena Clarke

The acclaimed bestseller--a selection of Oprah's Book Club--that brings vividly to life the Georgetown neighborhood of Washington, DC, circa 1925, a community reeling from a young girl's tragic death.

Five-year-old Clara Bynum is dead, drowned in the Potomac River in the shadow of a seemingly haunted rock outcropping known locally as the Three Sisters. River, Cross My Heart, which marks the debut of a wonderfully gifted new storyteller, weighs the effect of Clara's absence on the people she has left behind: her parents, Alice and Willie Bynum, torn between the old world of their rural North Carolina home and the new world of the city, to which they have moved in search of a better life for themselves and their children; the friends and relatives of the Bynum family in the Georgetown neighborhood they now call home; and, most especially, Clara's sister, ten-year-old Johnnie Mae, who must come to terms with the powerful and confused emotions stirred by her sister's death as she struggles to decide what kind of woman she will become. This highly accomplished first novel resonates with ideas, impassioned lyricism, and poignant historical detail as it captures an essential part of the African-American experience in our century.

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Push by Sapphire

Precious Jones, an illiterate sixteen-year-old, has up until now been invisible: invisible to the father who rapes her and the mother who batters her and to the authorities who dismiss her as just one more of Harlem's casualties. But when Precious, pregnant with a second child by her father, meets a determined and highly radical teacher, we follow her on a journey of education and enlightenment as Precious learns not only how to write about her life, but how to make it her own for the first time.

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Breaking Barriers: A Memoir by Carl T. Rowan

From both the individual's point of view and that of the nation, this book is an account of racial struggles, from the Depression to today. In this memoir, the author tells how he rose from poverty-stricken origins in McMinnville, Tennessee, to life at the forefront of social change.

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The Audacity of Hope by Barack Obama

The Audacity of Hope is Barack Obama's call for a new kind of politics—a politics that builds upon those shared understandings that pull us together as Americans. Lucid in his vision of America's place in the world, refreshingly candid about his family life and his time in the Senate, Obama here sets out his political convictions and inspires us to trust in the dogged optimism that has long defined us and that is our best hope going forward.

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The Bubbling Cauldron: Race, Ethnicity, and the Urban Crisis edited by Michael Peter Smith & Joe R. Feagin

Nineteen sociology and political science scholars examine racial and ethnic struggles and tensions by helping the reader to begin to identify and define its characteristics. The essays include: the social construction of racial and ethnic difference, black ghettoization and social mobility...

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America Is Me: 170 Fresh Questions and Answers on Black American History by Kennell Jackson

Arranged in a dynamic question-and-answer format, this engaging reference addresses the most asked and least understood questions about Black history, ranging through such topics as African culture, slavery and the Black resistance, important Black inventors, the origins of jazz and rap music and more. Written with wit and candor, using the most up-to-date scholarship and research available, and featuring timelines and a bibliography for further reading, America Is Me explodes the myths and misconceptions to reveal the human side of the Black experience in America. It is a vitally important resource for the many individuals, parents and teachers who want to know more about Black history.

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Barack Obama: Our 44th President by Beatrice Gormley

President Barack Obama's early involvement with politics was inspired by his mother's interest in the controversial social issues of her times -- a passion that she passed on to her son. As the first African American editor of the Harvard Law Review, the first African American presidential nominee of a major political party, and eventually the first African American president of the United States, Barack Obama has consistently shattered barriers -- barriers that some people thought could never be overcome.

However, life has not always been easy for President Obama. Born to a Kenyan father and an American mother, Barack grew up in Hawaii and Indonesia, where he faced discrimination and struggles with his own racial identity. Despite these obstacles, Barack persevered and had a successful political career before his historic win in the 2008 presidential election, with his daughters and wife, Michelle, standing firmly by his side. His election has energized a nation, and President Obama will continue to lead the charge for change over the next four years.

This is the children's biography about the forty-fourth president of the United States. Containing up-to-the-minute information, including President Obama's November victory, this is essential reading for every young student of American history.

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A Knock at Midnight: Inspiration from the Great Sermons of Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr.

Warner Books, in conjunction with Intellectual Properties Management, Inc., presents an extraordinary collection of sermons by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.-many never before published-along with introductions an documentary of the world's leading ministers & theologians.

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How to Make Black America Better by Tavis Smiley

Issuing a powerful call for constructive social action, the popular radio and television commentator Tavis Smiley has assembled the voices of leading African American artists, intellectuals, and politicians from Chuck D to Cornel West to Maxine Waters. How to Make Black America Better takes a pragmatic, solutions-oriented approach that includes Smiley’s own ten challenges to the African American community.

Smiley and his contributors stress the family tie, the power of community networks, the promise of education, and the leverage of black economic and political strength in shaping a new vision of America. Encouraging African Americans to realize the potential of their own leadership and to work collectively from the bottom up, the selections offer new ideas for addressing vital issues facing black communities. Featuring original essays by some of our most important thinkers, How to Make Black America Better is an essential book for anyone concerned with the status of African Americans today.

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Under Sentence of Death: Lynching in the South edited by W. Fitzhugh Brundage

From the assembled work of fifteen leading scholars emerges a complex and provocative portrait of lynching in the American South. With subjects ranging in time from the late antebellum period to the early twentieth century, and in place from the border states to the Deep South, this collection of essays provides a rich comparative context in which to study the troubling history of lynching. Covering a broad spectrum of methodologies, these essays further expand the study of lynching by exploring such topics as same-race lynchings, black resistance to white violence, and the political motivations for lynching. In addressing both the history and the legacy of lynching, the book raises important questions about Southern history, race relations, and the nature of American violence. Though focused on events in the South, these essays speak to patterns of violence, injustice, and racism that have plagued the entire nation. The contributors are Bruce E. Baker, E. M. Beck, W. Fitzhugh Brundage, Joan E. Cashin, Paula Clark, Thomas G. Dyer, Terence Finnegan, Larry J. Griffin, Nancy MacLean, William S. McFeely, Joanne C. Sandberg, Patricia A. Schechter, Roberta Senechal de la Roche, Stewart E. Tolnay, and George C. Wright.

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