African-American History Month
February, 2011

Staff at the Library chose books that cover the African-American struggle from slavery to present day.

ADULTS: NONFICTION -- FICTION -- YOUNG ADULT

CHILDREN: FICTION -- PICTURE BOOKS -- NON-FICTION --

MEDIA -- DIGITAL RESOURCES

Click HERE for a printable PDF of this list.

 ADULT NONFICTION

The 100 best African American poems
Edited by Nikki Giovanni (Black Life 811.08 On)
Award-winning poet and writer Nikki Giovanni takes on the near impossible task of selecting the 100 best African American works of poetry from classic and contemporary poets. 

African American politics
By Kendra A. King (Black Life 324 Ki)
An introduction to the political successes, failures, and persistent challenges of African American political participation in the United States. 

African American theater: A cultural companion
By Glenda Dickerson (Black Life 792 Di)
An exploration of cultural milestones such as Reconstruction, the Harlem Renaissance, and the Black Freedom Movement, which have nurtured and inspired Black Theater. 

Ain’t too proud to beg: The troubled lives and enduring soul of the Temptations
By Mark Ribowsky (Black Life 780.92 Ri)
Based on in-depth research and interviews with founding Temptations member Otis Williams and many others, Ain’t Too Proud to Beg tells the complete story of the popular Motown band.

Authentic southern cooking: Four generations of black culinary tradition
By LaMont Burns (Black Life 641.5 Bu)
With wit, warmth, and a generous helping of Southern hospitality, this renowned chef explores the roots of Southern cuisine and the unique heritage of four generations of black cooks.  

Becoming American: The African American journey
by Howard Dodson (Black Life 973.0496 Do)
This book features two side-by-side chronological timelines that uniquely contrast the major events and personalities in both African-American and Global/African Diasporan history, spanning from 4 million BCE to Barack Obama’s momentous presidential campaign.  

Before the Mayflower: A history of Black America
by Lerone Bennett, Jr. (Black Life 973.0496 Be)
The black experience in America, starting from its origins in western Africa up to the present day, is examined in this seminal study from a prominent African American figure. The entire historical timeline of African Americans is addressed, from the Colonial period through the civil rights upheavals of the 1960s and 1970s.

Big book of soul: The ultimate guide to the African American spirit
By Stephanie Rose Bird (Black Life 305.896 Bi)
An in-depth examination of the source of soul and how it is expressed today in spiritual practices, music, arts, and even recipes.  

Black comix: African American independent comics, art and culture
By Damien Duffy (Black Life 741.5 Du)
Black Comix brings together an unprecedented collection of largely unheard of, and undeniably masterful, comics art while also framing the work of these men and women in a broader historical and cultural context.  

By any greens necessary: A revolutionary guide for black women who want to eat great, get healthy, lose weight, and look phat
By Tracye Lynn McQuirter (Black Life 613 McQ)
The author, a nutritionist, shows African American women, who suffer from heart disease, stroke, and diabetes more frequently than women of other races, how to stay healthy and happy by eating plenty of fresh fruits and vegetables, whole grains, and legumes.  

Children of fire: A history of Africans Americans
by Thomas C. Holt (Black Life 973.0496 Ho)
Renowned historian Thomas C. Holt tells how African Americans fashioned a culture and identity amid the turmoil of four centuries of American history.  

Crave radiance: New and selected poems 1990-2010
By Elizabeth Alexander (Black Life 811 Alexander)
A retrospective collection by one of America’s most exciting and important poets, best known for her poem “Praise Song for the Day”, which was delivered at President Obama’s inauguration.  

Curveball: The remarkable story of Toni Stone
By Martha Ackmann (Black Life 796.35 Stone, T Ac)
Curveball tells the inspiring story of baseball’s first “female Jackie Robinson” , a woman whose ambition, courage, and raw talent propelled her from ragtag teams barnstorming across the Dakotas to playing in front of large crowds at Yankee Stadium.  

Diabetes in black America: Public health and critical solutions to a national crisis.
Edited by Leonard Jack, Jr. ( 362.196 Di)
In this comprehensive book, top experts in the field of diabetes address prevention, intervention, and treatment of diabetes within the African-American community.

The dream: Martin Luther King, Jr. and the speech that inspired a nation
by Drew W. Hansen (Black Life 323 Ha)
A riveting account of the origins and legacy of Dr. King’s famous “I Have a Dream” speech.

Eddie Robinson: He was the Martin Luther King of football
By Denny Dressman (Black Life 796.33 Robinson, E Dr)
Eddie Robinson, the head coach at Grambling State University from 1941–1997 who began his coaching career under the South's rigid Jim Crow system of racial segregation, achieved success as both a football coach and a role model for African Americans.  

Examining Tuskegee : The infamous syphilis study and its legacy
by Susan Reverby (Black Life 174.2 Re)
This book is a comprehensive analysis of the notorious study of untreated syphilis, which took place in and around Tuskegee, Alabama, from the 1930s through the 1970s.

Expressions of freedom: Anthology of African-American spirituals
Arranged by Rene Boyer-Alexander (Musical Scores 783.9 Ex)
This collection of spirituals, arranged by Rene Boyer-Alexander for voices and Orff instruments, is much more than a mere song collection. It is a chronicle of expression that will enrich and uplift both children and adults in classrooms, choirs, community gatherings and churches.

Family affair: What it means to be African American today
Edited by Gil L. Robertson (Black Life 305.8 Fa)
A thoughtful collection of short essays by celebrities and prominent political figures that address a wide range of issues currently facing African Americans.  

Freedom in my heart: Voices from the United States National Slavery Museum
Edited by Cynthia Jacobs Carter (Black Life 306.3 Fr)
Unlike any other book on the market today, this richly illustrated companion volume uses the remarkable artifacts, images, and documents of the United States National Slavery Museum to trace the entire history of slavery in North America, from the societies of ancient Africa to the repercussions still faced by Americans today—and to celebrate the perseverance and ultimate triumph of a people.  

The Making of African America: The four great migrations
by Ira Berlin (Black Life 973.0496 Be)
Berlin offers a fresh reading of American history through the prism of the great migrations that made and remade African and African American life.    

The Mis-education of the negro
 by Carter Godwin Woodson (Black Life 371.97 Wo)
Dr. Woodson's thesis is that African-Americans of his day were being culturally indoctrinated, rather than taught, in American schools. This conditioning, he claims, causes African-Americans to become dependent and to seek out inferior places in the greater society of which they are a part. He challenges his readers to become autodidacts and to "do for themselves", regardless of what they were taught.  

Preaching with sacred fire: An anthology of African American sermons, 1750 to the present
Edited by Martha Simmons and Frank A. Thomas (Black Life 252 Pr)
Contains one hundred sermons that display the victorious, although sometimes painful, historical and spiritual pilgrimage of black people in America. 

Railroads in the African American experience: A photographic journey
By Theodore Kornweibel (Black Life 331.6 Ko)
This captivating book takes readers on an illustrated tour of the black railroad experience from slavery to Amtrak. The author examines the significant contributions of African Americans to the building, maintenance, operation, and profitability of the American railway system.  

Say it plain: A century of great African American speeches
Edited by Catherine Ellis and Stephen Drury Smith (Black Life 815.08 Sa)
This unique anthology collects the transcribed speeches of the twentieth century's leading African American cultural, literary, and political figures, many of them never before available in printed form.  

Screens fade to black: Contemporary African American cinema
by David J. Leonard (Black Life 791.43 Le)
Looking at such recent films as Love and Basketball, Antwone Fisher, Training Day, and the two Barbershop films, this book examines the issues of representation and opportunity in contemporary cinema.

To serve the living: Funeral directors and the African American way of death
By Suzanne E. Smith (Black Life 393 Sm)
A history of African American funeral rites and the role of African American funeral directors in the struggle for freedom and civil rights.  

To tell the truth freely: The life of Ida B. Wells
By Mia Bay (Black Life 323 Wells-Barnett, I Ba)
Traces the life and legacy of the 19th century civil rights and suffrage activist and pioneer.

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ADULT FICTION 

Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman
by Ernest Gaines (Black Life Fiction Gaines)
This novel, supposedly the memoirs of a 110-year-old ex-slave, is a stirring tribute to survival and courage.

Beloved
by Toni Morrison (Black Life Fiction Morrison)
A novel that brings the unimaginable experience of slavery into the literature of our time and into our comprehension.

Black water rising
By Attica Locke (Black Life Fiction Locke)
An engrossing and complex debut novel about Jay Porter, a black lawyer in Huston struggling to become upwardly mobile while weighed down by his past as a civil rights worker.  

A change had to come
By Gwynne Forster (Black Life Fiction Forster)
A compelling and inspirational story about Leticia, a young journalist, and her journey of self discovery

Go tell it on the mountain
by James Baldwin (Black Life Fiction Baldwin)
A teenager’s conversion to religion and the history of an African American family.

The Help
By Kathryn Stockett (Fiction Stockett)
In a time when the civil rights movement is in full force, three women, Minny, Aibileen, and Skeeter , start a movement that puts them all at risk. They show the town that, whether black or white, women can unite.

Juneteenth
by Ralph Ellison (Black Life Fiction Ellison)
A jazz novel, a sermon, a song of praise to the richness of the African American experience, a showcase for a writer of unsurpassed lyrical gifts, and an autobiographical reckoning with Ellison’s own life journey.

Known world
by Edward P. Jones (Black Life Fiction Jones)
A riveting novel that looks at blacks who owned black slaves in the pre-Civil War South. Henry, a former slave, eventually buys human property himself and treats them with violent disdain. Known World is a remarkable study of character and human integrity.

Life is short but wide
By J. California Cooper (Black Life Fiction Cooper)
92 year old Hattie B. Brown acts as tour guide and historian to Wideland, Oklahoma, where Val Strong, a Native American cattle driver, and Irene, the African American woman he loves, lives.  

Mama dearest
By E. Lynn Harris (Black Life Fiction Harris)
Diva supreme Yancey Harrington Braxton returns! She is working her way back to Broadway and beyond as well as stirring up drama in and out of the spotlight.

Native son
by Richard Wright (Black Life Fiction Wright)
The story of a 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, this novel is just as powerful today as when it was written.

Sag Harbor
By Colson Whitehead (Black Life Colson)
In this coming of age tale, Benji Cooper, one of the only black students at his elite Manhattan private school , leaves the city to spend the summer at Long Island’s Sag Harbor, the summer home to many African American urban professionals.

Tempted by trouble
By Eric Jerome Dickey (Black Life Fiction Dickey)
When Detroit auto industry employee Dmytryk’s promising future is derailed by the recession, he and his wife make a morally ambiguous and ultimately violent deal with a crime boss.

Their eyes were watching God
by Zora Neale Hurston (Black Life Fiction Hurston)
Fair and long-legged, independent and articulate, Janie Crawford sets out to be her own person , no mean feat for a black woman in the 1930s. Janie’s quest for identity takes her through three marriages and into a journey back to her roots.  

To kill a mockingbird
by Harper Lee (Black Life Fiction Lee)
Lawyer Atticus Finch defends a black man charged with the rape of a white woman. Through the eyes of Atticus’s children, Harper Lee explores, with rich humor and unfaltering honesty, the irrationality of adult attitudes toward race and class in the Deep South of the 1930s.

The ways of white folks
by Langston Hughes (Black Life Fiction Hughes)
In these acrid and poignant stories, Hughes depicts black people colliding, sometimes humorously, more often tragically, with whites in the 1920s and 1930s.

Wench
By Dolen Perkins-Valdez (Black Life Fiction Perkins)
Lizzie, Reenie, Mawu, and Sweet, four slave women, are regulars at Tawawa House, a summer retreat where they vacation with their owners. When a fire on the resort sets off a series of tragedies, the women learn that triumph and dehumanization are inseparable and that love exists even in the most inhumane and brutal of circumstances.

Uncle Tom’s cabin
by Harriet Beecher Stowe (Black Life Fiction Stowe)
Charts the paths of a martyr who transcends all earthly ties, and locates the issues of race and the role of women in American nineteenth century.

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YOUNG ADULT 

Drama High series

By L. Divine (Young Adult Fiction Divine)

Jayd and her bold, honest, and laugh-out-loud funny assessment of life, along with her quirky cast of friends, classmates, loves, her magical family and eccentric neighbors make for an irresistible, can't-put-it-down read.

• The Fight
• Jayd’s legacy
• Second change
• Frenemies
• Lady J
• Courtin’ J
• Cold as ice
• Hustlin’

Hotlanta series

By Denene Millner (Young Adult Fiction Millner)

The Duke twins, Sydney and Lauren, live the life: They attend the fanciest school in Atlanta, they live in Buckhead, the most exclusive neighborhood, and they only date the hottest guys. And their secrets? Are the darkest of all.

• Hotlanta
• What goes around
• If you only knew  

Baby Girl Drama series

By Babygirl Daniels (Young Adult UNC/PBK Daniels)

A girl’s 16th birthday is supposed to be sweet, but For Summer Flynt, it was the day that changed her life forever.

• 16 on the block
• 16 ½ on the block
• Glitter
• Sister, sister

YOUNG ADULT NON- FICTION 

Africa to America: From the middle passage through the 1930’s
Edited by Jeffrey Wallenfeldt (Young Adult 973.0496 Af)
Chronicles the history of African Americans, including African cultures and kingdoms, literature and art, slavery, abolition, reconstruction, law, religion, education, and the Harlem Renaissance. 

Black American biographies: The journey of achievement
Edited by Jeffery Wallenfeldt (Young Adult 920 Bl)
This volume profiles many of those individuals, from Frederick Douglass to Oprah Winfrey to Barack Obama, whose efforts and ideas continue to enrich the foundations of the nation.  

The encyclopedia of African-American heritage
By Susan Altman (Young Adult 973.0496 Al)
In a clear, succinct style, Altman provides a wealth of information on individuals, peoples, places, events, movements, groups, legal cases, and terms.

Fight on! Mary Church Terrell’s battle for integration
by Dennis B. Fradin and Judith Bloom Fradin (Young Adult 323.4 Fr )
Profiles the first black Washington, DC Board of Education member who helped to fund the NAACP and organize the boycott that led to the 1953 Supreme Court decision to integrate area restaurants.

Letters to a young brother: MANifest your destiny
By Hill Harper (Young Adult 170.84 Ha)
Based on the author's motivational speaking at inner-city schools across the country, the letters deal with the tough issues that face young people today.  

Letters to a young sister: DeFINE your destiny
By Hill Harper (Young Adult 170.84 Ha)
Every young sister needs to know that it's okay to dream big and to define her own destiny. This is a book that will educate, uplift and inspire.

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 CHILDREN’S PICTURE BOOKS

Chicken-chasing queen of Lamar County
By Janice N. Harrington (Easy Harrington)
Laugh along as a young girl tries to catch her favorite chicken on the farm – and enjoy the lesson she learns in life.

Goin’ someplace special
by Patricia C. McKissack (EASY McKissack)
Tricia Ann is all set for a trip to someplace special – but before she can find her way there she must face the obstacles of a segregated city in the 1950s.

The hallelujah flight
By Phil Bildner (EASY Bildner)
This picture book is based on the story of James Banning, the first black aviator to complete a transcontinental flight, in 1932.

In the garden with Dr. Carver
By Susan Grigsby (EASY Grigsby)
Through curiosity and participation, children learn all about plants in the garden during their lessons from neighbor George Washington Carver.

Homemade love
by Bell Hooks (EASY Hooks)
A girl who is Girlpie to her mother and Honey Bun Chocolate Dewdrop to her daddy savors the love and warmth of her family.

The lion and the mouse
By Jerry Pinkney (EASY Pinkney)
This award-winning picture book is a retelling of the traditional Aesop fable done in pictures with no text by Pinkney, a prominent African American illustrator. New in 2010 is also his retelling of the classic “Three Little Kittens.”  

A sweet smell of roses
By Angela Johnson (EASY Johnson)
Follow a pair of young girls as they experience a peace march with Martin Luther King, Jr. first hand. The black and white illustrations, with a touch of red, are an integrate part of the story.

Pecan pie baby
By Jacqueline Woodson (EASY Woodson)
Young Gia learns that the bond with her mother will not disappear with the arrival of the new baby.

Pink and say
by Patricia Polacco (EASY Polacco)
A powerful picture book based on the true story of two young soldiers, one black and one white, facing emotional choices during the Civil War and creating a unique friendship that changed their lives.

CHILDREN’S FICTION  

Almost zero
By Nikki Grimes (Juvenile Reader, Level 4, Grimes)
Dyamonde demands a brand-new pair of sneakers but her mother sets out to teach her the lesson between “needing” and “wanting.” The third title in this beginner chapter book series.

Cheetah girls (Series)
by Deborah Gregory (Juvenile Fiction Gregory)
A popular series about four African-American girls with brains, courage, friends and style!

Elijah of Buxton
by Christopher Paul Curtis (Juvenile Fiction Curtis)
Every person has something “inside so strong it flies forever” and Elijah Freeman finds that strength within himself through the course of the book. Based in the Canadian woods surrounding the settlement of Buxton, Elijah finds his inner strength during the struggles of those closest to him.

Mr. Chickee’s funny money
By Christopher Paul Curtis (Juvenile Fiction Curtis)
The Flint Future Detective Club is on the case of a mysterious quadrillion-dollar bill.

Shadows on society hill: An Addy mystery
By Evelyn Coleman(Juvenile Fiction Coleman)
Addy, our friend from the American Girls Series, must figure out the mystery on Society Hill before anything bad happens!

Storm warriors
by Elisa Carbone (Juvenile Fiction Carbone)
Despite his father’s objections, twelve-year-old Nathan moves to Pea Island, off the coast of North Carolina, and hopes to join the all-black crew of the nearby lifesaving station.

Time pieces
by Virginia Hamilton. (Juvenile Fiction Hamilton)
The late award-winning author writes this semi-autobiographical novel with compassion and mystery and tells the story of a young girl’s awakening to the fact that growing up means constant change.

Trouble don’t last
by Shelley Pearsall (Juvenile Fiction Pearsall)
Samuel, a slave in Kentucky, and Harrison, the slave who helped raise him, attempt a flight to freedom through the Underground Railroad.

 CHILDREN’S NON-FICTION

African American kitchen: Food for body and soul
By George Erdosh (Juvenile 641.5973 Er)
Discusses the origins and evolution of soul food as part of a shared heritage going back hundreds of years. Many recipes are included.

 African American quilting: The warmth of tradition
By Sule Greg C. Wilson (Juvenile 746.46 Wi)
This book describes quilting, textile work in Africa, and African quilting in America. Photos of quilts along with the historical contexts provide an engaging book for students. 

Ain't nothing but a man: My quest to find the real John Henry
by Scott Reynolds Nelson (Juvenile 973.0496 Ne)
Historian Scott Reynolds Nelson recounts how he came to discover the real John Henry, an African-American railroad worker who became a legend in the famous song. 

Before John was a jazz giant: A song of John Coltrane
by Carole Boston Weatherford (Juvenile Biography Coltrane, J We)
This lyrical picture-book biography of John Coltrane focuses on his childhood and how he interpreted sounds before he made his music. 

Crafts that celebrate black history
By Kathy Ross (Juvenile 745.594 Ro)
Written by a long-time nursery school teacher, this book presents fun and simple crafts to celebrate the lives of 19 important African Americans. Brief biographies accompany each craft. 

First family
By Deborah Hopkinson (Juvenile B Obama, B Ho)
This title is an in-depth look on what life is like in the White House for the entire Obama family. Readers get a feel for life in the “People’s House,” from going to school, to traveling, and of course, how the family pet, Bo, fits in.

History of the black church
By Norma Jean Lutz (Juvenile 277.3 Lu)
Traces African American church history from the Free African society to present day. 

In her hands: The story of sculptor Augusta Savage
by Alan Schroeder (Juvenile Biography Savage,A Sc)
This biography describes the African American sculptor Augusta Savage, who overcame many obstacles as a young woman to become a premier female sculptor of the Harlem Renaissance.  

Marching for freedom: Walk together, children, and don't you grow weary
by Elizabeth Partridge (Juvenile 323.11 Pa)
This book recounts the three months of protest that took place before Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s landmark march from Selma, Alabama, to Montgomery to promote equal rights and help African-Americans earn the right to vote. 

On my journey now: Looking at African-American history through the spirituals
By Nikki Giovanni (J /782.25 Gi)
Personal and passionate, Giovanni's short narrative talks about the sacred songs first sung by slaves, tracing how the people in bondage created the great spirituals to tell their stories, and what the songs still mean to us today. 

We troubled the waters: Poems
by Ntozake Shange (Juvenile 811 Shange)
Poetry and paintings in tribute to the many individuals who acted with courage for justice and change during the Civil
Rights Movement

MEDIA  

SOUND RECORDINGS

The concise King
By Martin Luther King, Jr. (SPOKEN CDs 323 King, M Ki)
Listeners will be inspired by Martin Luther King, Jr.’s most memorable speeches.  

The fire next time
by James Baldwin (SPOKEN CDs 814 Baldwin)
This eloquent manifesto is a powerful evocation of his early life in Harlem and a disturbing examination of the consequences of racial injustice to both the individual and the body politic.

The future Of the American Negro
by Booker T. Washington (SPOKEN CDs 305.896 Wa)
This well done essay from Washington is a bit of a summation of Mr. Washington's many speeches and an accumulation of various articles he wrote through his life time.

A knock at midnight: Inspiration from the great sermons of Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr.
By Martin Luther King (SPOKEN CDs 252.06 Ki)
Original recordings of Martin Luther King, Jr.’s sermons, each of which is introduced by a prominent spiritual leader.

VIDEORECORDINGS 

Aida’s brothers and sisters: Black voices in opera
(DVD 782.1 Ai) 
The history and current situation of African-American opera singers in America are the topic of this film which includes rare and contemporary footage of some of the greatest performers of the century.

Black history: A retrospective
(DVD 973.0496 Bl )
This film features the life, culture, and accomplishments of some of the most influential African Americans in history from the United States.

Black is—Black ain’t: A personal journey through black identity
(DVD 973.0496 Bl)
A frank and honest look at black identity in America using storytelling and commentary from prominent black intellectuals, including Angela Davis, Bell Hooks, and Cornel West.  

Black wheels
(DVD 796.7 Bl)
Highlights the contributions and achievements of African-Americans in motor sports from the 1920s to the present.

 Electric purgatory: Fate of the black rocker
(DVD 781.66 El)
A documentary that examines the struggles of black rock musicians and the industry's ambivalence toward them by combining scintillating performance footage and provocative interview clips.  

For love of liberty: The story of America’s black patriots.
(DVD Fo 355)
Viewers will gain an unprecedented look at the experiences and accomplishments of African Americans in the military. 

Prom night in Mississippi
(DVD 323.11 Pr)
Follows history being made in Charleston, Mississippi in 2008, when actor Morgan Freeman offers to pay for the senior prom at the local high school on the condition it be racially integrated for the first time.  

DIGITAL  RESOURCES

Flint Public Library’s subscription to Overdrive Digital Media lets patrons download ebooks, audiobooks, and videos to their computers and various mobile devices, such as iPods, Barnes and Noble Nooks, and Sony E-readers. The following is a list of both children’s and adult books in all three formats.

OVERDRIVE AUDIOBOOKS

The Audacity of Hope
By Barack Obama. 
Barack Obama reflects on the American ideals that led him into politics.

 Elijah of Buxton
By Christopher Paul Curtis
In 1859, Elijah Freeman, the first free-born child in Buxton, Canada, uses his wits and skills to bring to justice the lying preacher who has stolen money that was to be used to buy the family’s freedom.  

I Am the new black
By Tracy Morgan
The surprising story of Tracy Morgan’s rise from ghetto wiseacre to superstar comedian.  

The  immortal life Of Henrietta Lacks
By Rebecca Skloot
Her name was Henrietta Lacks, but scientists know her as HeLa. She was a poor Southern tobacco farmer who worked the same land as her slave ancestors, yet her cells—taken without her knowledge—became one of the most important tools in medicine.  

Martin Luther King, Jr. : The essential box set
By Martin Luther King, Jr.
This definitive box set includes all the landmark speeches of the great orator and American leader Martin Luther King, Jr., including the inspirational "I Have a Dream" speech.

 OVERDRIVE E-BOOKS

Absolute trust in the goodness of the Earth
By Alice Walker
The forces of nature and the strength of the human spirit inspire Alice Walker’s first new collection of poetry since 1991.

 Getting to happy : Waiting to exhale series, book 2
By Terry McMillan
An exuberant return to the four unforgettable heroines of Waiting to Exhale, McMillan’s groundbreaking and bestselling novel that changed African American fiction forever.  

Hellhound on his trail: The stalking of Martin Luther King, Jr. and the international hunt for his assassin
By Hampton Sides
A taut, intense narrative about the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr., and the largest manhunt in American history.

 So you call yourself a man
By Carl Weber
New York Times best-selling author Carl Weber will keep readers on edge with this tale of three lifelong friends.

The Watsons go to Birmingham—1963
By Christopher Paul Curtis
The ordinary interactions and everyday routines of the Watsons, an African American family living in Flint, Michigan, are drastically changed after they go to visit Grandma in Alabama in the summer of 1963.  

OVERDRIVE VIDEOS

Africans in America

This four part Peabody Award-winning documentary explores the complex blight on America's history known as slavery.

• Africans in America – Part 1: The Terrible Transformation (1450-1750)
• Africans in America – Part 2: Revolution (1750 – 1805)
• Africans in America – Part 3: Brotherly Love (1791-1831)
• Africans in America – Part 4: Judgment Day (1831-1865)  

African American lives

This four part series uses genealogy, oral histories, family stories and DNA to trace roots of several accomplished African Americans down through American history and back to Africa.

• African American Lives - Part 1: Listening to our Past
• African American Lives - Part 2: The Promise of Freedom
• African American Live - Part 3: Searching for Our Names
• African American Lives - Part 4: Beyond the Middle Passage  

Citizen King
By Orlando Bagwell and Noland Walker.
This two-hour documentary explores the last five years in the life of slain civil rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.  

 Flyers In search of a dream
By Philip Hart
The stories of  Americas pioneering black aviators, who overcame social pressures to gain the right to fly.

In remembrance of Martin
Personal comments from family, friends, and advisors fill this remarkable documentary honoring Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.  

Murder of Emmett Till
By Stanley Nelson
The shameful, sadistic murder of 14-year old  Emmett Till, a black youth who whistled at a white woman in a Mississippi grocery store in 1955.

Partners of the heart
By Andrea Kalin
The story of a white surgeon, Dr. Alfred Bialock, and black carpenter’s apprentice Vivien Thomas , who forged a partnership in 1930s Nashville that changed the course of medical history.

 Roots of resistance: The story of the Underground Railroad
By Orlando Bagwell and Susan Bellows
The story of the underground railroad through narratives of escaped slaves.  

This far by faith
Blackside
In 6 hours of dramatic storytelling, This Far by Faith, examines the African-Amerian religious experience through the last three centuries. From the arrival of the early African slaves into the 21 st century, the the connections between faith and the development of the African American cultural values are explored.

• This Far by Faith- Part 1: There is a River
• This Far by Faith- Part 2: God is a Negro
• This Far by Faith- Part 3: Guide My Feet
• This Far by Faith- Part 4: Freedom Faith
• This Far by Faith- Part 5: Inheritors of the Faith
• This Far by Faith- Part 6: Rise up and call their name  

Tuskegee airmen
This inspiring World war II story spotlights 450 men who fought in Europe and North Africa while also combating racism.

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LINK DIRECTLY TO OUR CATALOG ON THESE SUBJECTS:

African Americans - Civil Rights

African Americans - History

African Americans - Segregation

Many more subjects concerning African Americans are available by searching the library catalog.

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