NAACP Image Award Finalist: "Boyd's riveting new history…turns an oft-caricatured community into a world of actual, struggling human beings."—Ta-Nehisi Coates, author of Between the World and MeA Michigan Notable Books HonoreeIn this book, the author of Baldwin's Harlem looks at the evolving culture, politics, economics, and spiritual life of Detroit—in "a blend of memoir, love letter, history, and clear-eyed reportage that explores...

No modern tragedy has had a greater impact on race relations in America than the kidnapping and murder of Emmett Till, the 14-year-old black boy from Chicago whose body was battered beyond recognition and dumped in the Tallahatchie River while visiting relatives in Money, Mississippi, in 1955. This grotesque crime became the catalyst for the civil rights movement.Simeon Wright saw and heard his cousin Emmett whistle at Caroline Bryant at a grocery store; he was sleeping in the same...

"An informative account of the life of Hollywood-handsome middleweight champion Sugar Ray Robinson" ( Essence )."A rich history of the athlete, the man, the sport and a fascinating time in African American history." — EbonyHailed by critics as a long overdue portrait of Sugar Ray Robinson, a man who was as elusive out of the ring as he was magisterial in it, Pound for ...

A sweeping, deeply rooted history of Harlem at the center of Black cultural, political, and intellectual lifeFrom its earliest Indigenous inhabitants and Dutch settlers to its emergence as a global center of Black culture, Epic Harlem offers one of the most comprehensive narrative histories ever written about this storied New York neighborhood. Author, journalist, and longtime Harlem resident Herb Boyd traces the evolution of Harlem across centuries, captu...

Baldwin's Harlem is an intimateportrait of the life and genius of oneof our most brilliant literary minds:James Baldwin.Perhaps no other writer is as synonymous with Harlem as James Baldwin (1924-1987). The events there that shaped his youth greatly influenced Baldwin's work, much of which focused on his experiences as a black man in white America. Go Tell It on the Mountain, The Fire Next Time, Notes of a Native ...

**Discover the complete Black history of New York—from 1609 to the present—by the award-winning author of Breaking the Chains and Black Indians. For readers 12 and up.Includes a new intro and last chapter with insights on modern-day movements like Black Lives Matter, plus 50+ historical maps, illustrations, and photos. Essential for NY teachers, librarians and teens.**From the arrival of the first enslaved Africans in New Amsterdam in 1609 to the Harlem Re...

African History For Beginners explores the rich history of this continent of contrasts. Discover the glory of the Pharaohs and Towers of Zimbabwe, the cosmology of the Yoruba, the courage of the Masai and the golden wonders of Mali, the art treasures of the Bushongo and the sophistication of the Egyptians. It is a unique documentary portrait of the Africans’ struggle to preserve their cultural heritage and homeland.Recent archeological discoveries indicate that Africa was ...

There is no neighborhood in America as famous, infamous, and inspiring as Harlem. From its humble beginnings as a farming district and country retreat for the rich, Harlem grew to international prominence as the meccaof black art and culture, then fell from grace, despised as a crime-ridden slum and symbol of urban decay. But during all of these phases there was writing in Harlem—great writing that sprang from one of the richest and most unique communities in the world. From Harlem’...

Autobiography of a People is an insightfully assembled anthology of eyewitness accounts that traces the history of the African American experience. From the Middle Passage to the Million Man March, editor Herb Boyd has culled a diverse range of voices, both famous and ordinary, to creat a unique and compelling historical portrait:Benjamin Banneker on Thomas JeffersonOld Elizabeth on spreading the WordFrederick Douglass on life in the NorthW.E.B. Du Boi...

“The problem of the twentieth century is the problem of the color line.” These were the prescient words of W. E. B. Du Bois’s influential 1903 book The Souls of Black Folk. The preeminent Black intellectual of his generation, Du Bois wrote about the trauma of seeing the Reconstruction era’s promise of racial equality cruelly dashed by the rise of white supremacist terror and Jim Crow laws. Yet he also argued for the value of African American cultural traditions and provided inspir...

A crowd of onlookers gawked from the sidewalk as four young black men dressed in black leather jackets and berets leaped from a Volkswagen, each of them wielding shotguns with bandoliers strapped across their bodies. The young men surrounded two white police officers who had accosted a black man and had him spread-eagled against a building.The young men did not say a word as the police officers watched them nervously, their eyes fixed on the shotguns. One of the young ...

The author of Baldwin’s Harlem looks at the evolving culture, politics, economics, and spiritual life of Detroit—a blend of memoir, love letter, history, and clear-eyed reportage that explores the city’s past, present, and future and its significance to the African American legacy and the nation’s fabric.Herb Boyd moved to Detroit in 1943, as race riots were engulfing the city. Though he did not grasp their full significance at the time, this critical moment would be one o...