Books

Our book collection is a combination of authors from every walk of life. They are scholars, activist, graduates, everyday people who have something to share with the world. The intent of our book collection is to understand more about the black experience in the world, and anyone who has a learning perspective is welcome to our book club.

Duke professor’s latest book marks how HBCUs helped form American democracy

By LaShawn Hudson Duke University professor Deondra Rose understands the importance of protecting, investing and celebrating the legacy of historically black colleges and universities. It’s something that she wants readers of her latest book to understand as well. In the book titled “The Power of Black Excellence: HBCUs and the Fight for American Democracy,” the history and political science scholar, who serves as an associate professor at Duke’s Sanford School of Public Policy, writes about the distinctive role HBCUs have played in shaping American democracy since 1837. On Tuesday’s edition of “Closer Look,” Rose highlighted some key points of research in her

A Scholar of HBCUs Shines a Harsh Light on the Institutions

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By Sara Weissman Joseph L. Jones has spent his entire educational career at historically Black colleges and universities: He earned his bachelor’s degree at Philander Smith College (now University), completed his Ph.D. at Clark-Atlanta University and spent a little over a year as president of Arkansas Baptist College. He now serves as an associate professor of political science at Clark-Atlanta and executive director of its W. E. B. Du Bois Southern Center for Studies in Public Policy. But in his forthcoming book, scheduled for publication next month, Jones doesn’t hold back from a sometimes scathing critique of the institutions he

Percival Everett, Author of ‘James,’ Wins National Book Award for Fiction

By Alexander Alter Percival Everett won the National Book Award for fiction on Wednesday for his novel “James,” a propulsive and slyly funny retelling of Mark Twain’s “Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” from the perspective of Huck’s companion, an enslaved man named James. In accepting the award, Everett said that seeing people coming together to celebrate books gave him a sense of optimism during what was, for him, a challenging moment. “Two weeks ago, I was feeling pretty low, and to tell you the truth, I still feel pretty low,” he said, in an oblique reference to the results of the

Censorship reports show a mixed picture on U.S. book challenges

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By Matt Lavietes Two reports released Monday provide a mixed but compelling outlook on the wave of book removals and challenges as the annual Banned Books Week begins for schools, stores and libraries nationwide. The American Library Association found a substantial drop in 2024 so far in complaints about books stocked in public, school and academic libraries, and in the number of books receiving objections. Meanwhile, PEN America is documenting an explosion in books being removed from school shelves in 2023-24, tripling to more than 10,000 over the previous year. More than 8,000 were pulled just in Florida and Iowa, where laws restricting the content of books

Books that touched on race were among the most challenged as inappropriate for libraries in 2020

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By Shirin Ali Books that talked about racism and racial justice — or told the stories of people of color or the LGBTQ community — were among the most challenged as inappropriate for students in 2020, according to a survey by the American Library Association. As the nation attempted a reckoning in 2020 over the issue of race in the wake of the killing of George Floyd, parents took issue with books that dealt with some of the same issues. For the first time in the survey’s history, six of the 10 most-challenged books — out of 273 books that

How a freed slave triumphed over a White lynch mob in the Jim Crow South

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By Faith Karimi, CNN On the night of January 21, 1897, a mob of White men armed with pistols and shotguns surrounded the home of freed slave George Dinning in southern Kentucky. They falsely accused him of stealing livestock from a neighboring farm and unleashed a hail of bullets into his house, wounding him in the arm and forehead. Terrified for his wife and children, Dinning fired back, killing one of his assailants. In a remarkable story filled with dramatic twists and unusual alliances, Dinning eventually became perhaps the first Black man in the country to win damages against a

Racine is home to one of a handful of Black-owned bookstores in Wisconsin

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By RACHEL KUBIK RACINE, Wisconsin (The Journal Times) — While bookstores around the country are closing as more people are reading online and on devices such as Kindles and Nooks, Wisconsin still has a number of them. In Black History Month 2021, there continue to be only a few Black-owned bookstores in Wisconsin. Racine is lucky enough to have one. Mahogany Gallery, located at 1422 Washington Ave. in Uptown, is an art exhibition area, cultural center and creative space. It’s also a shop selling nearly everything in the room; products include locally made art, apparel, body products, mugs and books.

National Civil Rights Museum virtually hosts new book Four Hundred Souls

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Editors and panelists of the highly anticipated, African American history anthology convene The National Civil Rights Museum brings award-winning authors Dr. Ibram X. Kendi and Dr. Keisha N. Blain, editors of the anticipated anthology Four Hundred Souls: A Community History of African America, 1619-2019 to its Book and Author Series on Friday, February 5.  Set to release on February 2, the book is a collection of 90 voices telling one of history’s great epic stories. Four Hundred Souls fundamentally dismantles the idea that Africans in America are a monolith by sharing a wide range of experiences that have always existed

Just as I am, by Cicely Tyson

Just as I am, by Cicely Tyson (January) A reigning queen of Hollywood, Tyson  radiated grace and dignity onscreen for more than half a century. The actress was the first African American to appear on a TV drama in the 1960s and later survived a turbulent marriage to jazz great Miles Davis. Now, at 96, she was ready to tell her story. “‘Just As I Am‘ is my truth … plain and unvarnished,” she writes. “And here in my ninth decade, I am a woman who, at long last, has something meaningful to say.”

Liner Notes for the Revolution

“A gloriously polyphonic book. Moving through the tumult of the twentieth century and the millennium, Brooks scores, archives, and curates the history of Black women musicians and their radical modernities. What did they do to be so Black, brilliant, and blue? Listen. And read on.” —Margo Jefferson, author of Negroland Daphne A. Brooks explores more than a century of music archives to exam- ine the critics, collectors, and listeners who have determined perceptions of Black women on stage and in the recording studio. How is it possible, she asks, that iconic artists such as Aretha Franklin and Beyoncé exist simulta-

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