A revealing and dramatic chronicle of the twelve months leading up to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s assassination.Martin Luther King, Jr. died in one of the most shocking assassinations the world has known, but little is remembered about the life he led in his final year. New York Times bestselling author and award-winning broadcaster Tavis Smiley recounts the final 365 days of King's life, revealing the minister's trials and tribulations -- denunciations by the pr...

A remarkable story of friendship, love, and courage.When Maya Angelou and Tavis Smiley met in 1986, he was twenty-one and she was fifty-eight. For the next twenty-eight years, they shared an unlikely, special bond. Angelou was a teacher and a maternal figure to Smiley, and they talked often, of art, politics, history, race, religion, music, love, purpose, and -- more than anything -- courage. Courage to be open, to follow dreams, to believe in oneself.In

WHY A 56-MILE WALK FOR FREEDOM IN 1965 STILL CHALLENGES AMERICA TODAYTHE VOTING RIGHTS ACT OF 1965 WAS THE CROWNING ACHIEVEMENT OF THE CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT, FOREVER CHANGING POLITICS IN AMERICA. NOW, FOR THE FIRST TIME, VOICES OF THE ERA, ALONG WITH SOME OF TODAY'S MOST INFLUENTIAL WRITERS, SCHOLARS, AND SOCIAL ACTIVISTS, COMMEMORATE THE STRUGGLE AND EXAMINE WHY THE BATTLE MUST STILL BE WON."One of the difficult lessons we have learned is that you cannot depend on American...

Praise for The Unfinished Agenda of Brown V. Board of Education"My father, Oliver L. Brown, for whom Brown v. Board of Education is named, was a proud member of a group of a few hundred people, across the country, who took risks by taking a stand for what they believed. He died in 1961, just seven years after the case, so he didn't live long enough to know that Brown would become the foundation on which so much of this country's civil and human rights initiatives would rest....

A gripping tale of personal revolution by a man who went from Crips cofounder to Nobel Peace Prize nominee, author, and anti-gang activist.When his LA neighborhood was threatened by gangbangers, Stanley Tookie Williams and a friend formed the Crips, but what began as protection became worse than the original gangs. From deadly street fights with their rivals to drive-by shootings and stealing cars, the Crips' influence—and Tookie's reputation—began to spread across...

"A thorough and enlightening survey of the impact and legacy of the Great Recession on low-income Americans . . . accessible and readable." — Journal of American StudiesMillions entered poverty as a result of the Great Recession's terrible toll of long-term unemployment. In this book, Kristin S. Seefeldt and John D. Graham examine recent trends in poverty and assess the performance of America's safety-net programs.They consider likely scenarios for f...

A powerful chronicle of the sixteen weeks leading up to King of Pop Michael Jackson's death.Michael Jackson's final months were like the rest of his short and legendary life: filled with deep lows and soaring highs, a constant hunt for privacy, and the pressure and fame that made him socially fragile and almost -- ultimately -- unable to live.With the insight and compassion that he brought to his bestselling story of Martin Luther King, Jr.'s final year, Ta...

From the man who catapulted the Covenant with Black America to number one on the New York Times bestseller list comes a searing memoir of poverty, ambition, pain and atonment.Tavis Smiley grew up in a family of thirteen in rural Indian, where money was scarce and the sight of other black faces even scarcer. Always an outsider because of his race, economic background, and Pentecostal religious beliefs, he was sustained by his family’s love. But one day his world wa...

A practical and motivating gameplan that shows us how to battle complacency and fight for the causes we support.Tavis Smiley is the host of "Black Entertainment Television Tonight with Tavis Smiley," a one-hour nightly talk show that reaches fifty-five million households, and his political and social commentary is heard daily on "The Tom Joyner Morning Show," a national radio program with a listenership of seven million. "The Smiley Report," his monthly newsletter,...

Twenty years after sparking a national dialogue, The Covenant with Black America returns with renewed urgency, weaving original insights with contemporary voices, and reminding us that our collective liberation is essential for a more equitable society.Two decades ago, Tavis Smiley curated a pivotal national dialogue with the publication of The Covenant with Black America. This groundbreaking manifesto swiftly captured the nation's attention by ad...

Record unemployment and rampant corporate avarice, empty houses but homeless families, dwindling opportunities in an increasingly paralyzed nation—these are the realities of 21st-century America, land of the free and home of the new middle class poor. Award-winning broadcaster Tavis Smiley and Dr. Cornel West, one of the nation’s leading democratic intellectuals, co-hosts of Public Radio’s Smiley & West, now take on the "P" word—poverty.The Rich and the Rest of Us...

America I AM: The African American Imprint, a national traveling museum exhibition, was conceived by award-winning broadcaster and bestselling author Tavis Smiley as a one-of-a-kind multi-media experience that chronicles the distinct history of African Americans.This beautifully conceived companion volume addresses the central theme of the exhibition, posed by W. E. B. Du Bois: "Would America have been America without her Negro people?" Through exceptional photographic images and p...