By Lee A. Daniels
In 1865, the North’s victory in the Civil War freed black Americans from slavery.

But it did not free them from cotton.

By Eisa Nefertari Ulen
It is entirely fitting that Jabari Asim’s debut fiction, A Taste of Honey, is published in this, the year after Change. Everything is different now that the President of the United States is a black man. Everything changes in Asim’s collection of connected short stories, too—not because a leader is on the rise, but because one is shot down.

By Eisa Nefertari Ulen
Anna In-Between, the seventh book from acclaimed author Elizabeth Nunez, is one of the finest novels published this year. Nunez has made each word choice with the economy of a poet. The result is elegant prose: substantive, meaningful, but never wordy or clunky, just beautifully satisfying and thought-provoking.

By Vernon E. Jordan, Jr.
The year 1989 was the pivot point in moving the world from one era to the next. It was a year of cascading changes that introduced the world’s nations and peoples to a new arrangement of global forces and relationships- the complex of issues and circumstances we are grappling with today.

By  Marion Kilson and Florence Ladd
Our new book, Is That Your Child?: Mothers Talk About Rearing Biracial Children, is based on interviews with black and white mothers of biracial children. The book opens with our interview with each other, charts the challenges and rewards of rearing biracial children, and profiles black and white mothers with distinctive biracial parenting experiences. It concludes with suggestions for positive parenting strategies, which are relevant to all varieties of biracial combinations.

“Your Spirit Walks Beside Us”
The Politics of Black Religion
Harvard University Press
By Barbara Dianne Savage
During the 2008 presidential campaign, the Black church was thrust into controversial discussions about race and politics.  Barbara Savage’s “Your Spirit Walks Beside Us” explores historical debates over Black religion and politics.  Even before the emergence of the civil rights movement with [...]

“What Blood Won’t Tell”
A History of Race on Trial in America
Harvard University Press
By Ariela J. Gross
Is race something we know when we see it? In 1857, Alexina Morrison, a slave in Louisiana, ran away from her master and surrendered herself to the parish jail for protection. Blue-eyed and blond, Morrison successfully convinced white society that [...]

“To Love the Wind and the Rain”
African Americans and Environmental History
University of Pittsburg Press
Edited by Dianne D. Glave and Mark Stoll
African- American perceptions of the environment have largely been ignored by scholars.  Dianne Glave and Mark Stoll have put together a book that begins to correct this vast oversight.  “To Love the Wind and the [...]