As a graduate student in the Comparative Black History Ph.D. Program here at Michigan State University, and an avid reader of Black Diaspora history, I endeavor to understand the historical experiences of people of African descent in Africa and throughout the Western hemisphere. In order to relieve my thirst for comparative black history, and to prepare myself for a career as a specialist in this field of inquiry, I have assembled a collection of books which reflect my interest. This collection, including biographies, anthologies, traditional historical monographs, encyclopedias, textbooks, and children's books, include many signed first edition cloth publications. Thematically, my collection documents the intricately connected yet distinct black cultures of a plethora of disparate societies. In this way the series explores the myriad ways that culture, ideology, and racial politics both distinguish and unite the experiences, reactions, and conditions of African peoples in different parts of the "New World". My goal in reading and building my collection of comparative black history, is to prepare myself to conduct innovative research, prepare instructive lectures, and provide service to historians who practice public history and public service with a specialization in African, African-American, Caribbean and/or Latin American history. My collection provides general exposure to the whole range of themes and methods in comparative black history, and promotes the development of an ability to teach and think comparatively.

My comparative black series examines the fascinating documents and historiography on people of African descent in African, the Caribbean, North America, South American, and other regions of the world from the thirteenth century A.D. to contemporary times. It focuses largely on the enslavement and emancipation of Africans in the diaspora. Specific topics of discussion include the African background (pre-1500 A.D.), the Atlantic slave trade, the nature of slavery, life and labor, resistance, the transition to freedom, identity, the social construction of race, gender, religion, and artistic expression. Selected countries, including the United States, Brazil, Angola, Senegal, Sierra Leone, South Africa, Mexico, Antigua, Haiti, Cuba, Puerto Rico, and Jamaica, provide the locus for many of the studies, and the basis for illuminating comparisons. Examining the intersection of race, class, and gender in the context of African slavery, the Atlantic slave trade, the middle passage, "New World" slavery, creolization, culture, consciousness, and resistance in the Black Diaspora, enables me, and those who share in my collection, to develop an appreciation for the major themes and conversations pertaining to people of African descent.

It must be noted that my books are not simply rooted fixtures on my bookshelves. Rather, they constitute what I call living history. A living history which must be disseminated if we are to learn from our failures and our successes. To this end, I utilize my collection regularly to provide material for various reading groups, undergraduates, my wife's elementary school, and anyone else interested in learning about Black Diaspora history. Indeed, withstanding the personal gratification I receive from reading and collecting, assisting others in the learning process is often as liberating and gratifying as reading itself.

A fascinating collection of biographical essays which highlight the lives of prominent African American leaders such Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Rosa Parks, and Malcolm X.

Andrews, George Reid. Blacks and Whites in Sao Paulo Brazil, 1888-1988. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1991.

Documents the complex history of the intersection of race, class, and gender as they effect relations between blacks and whites in one of the world's most diverse polities.

Asante, Molefi K., and Mattson, Mark T. Historical and Cultural Atlas of African Americans. New York: Macmillan, 1992.

A reference work of great detail which is both narrative and documentary.

Barickman, B.J. A Bahian Counterpoint: Sugar, Tobacco, Cassava, and Slavery in the Reconcavo, 1780- 1860. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1998.

This book examines black slavery and the social-economic history of the region know as the Reconcavo in the state of Bahia in Northeastern Brazil.

Beals, Melba Pattillo. Warriors Don't Cry: A Searing Memoir of the Battle to Integrate Little Rock's Central High. New York, NY: Washington Square Press, 1994.

Drawn from Beals' personal diaries, this book is a riveting true account of her junior year at Central High.

Beckles, Hilary, and Shepherd, Verene, Eds. Caribbean Slave Society and Economy: A Student Reader. Kingston: Ian Randle Publishers Limited, 1991.

This book is a comprehensive reader in Caribbean history. This is a must read for anyone who studies comparative slave systems, comparative black history, and Caribbean history.

Bennett, Lerone, Jr. Before the Mayflower: A History of Black America. New York, NY: Penguin, 1993.

A classic in African American history, this work presents a clear and concise history of the people of African descent in America that can be understood by readers with no prior knowledge of the subject.

Blackett, R. J. M. Beating Against the Barriers: The Lives of Six Nineteenth-Century Afro-Americans. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1989. c. 1986.

This book assembles six of the most illuminating biographies of blacks attempting to shape their own lives and give meaning to freedom.

Blassingame, John W. ed. Slave Testimony: Two Centuries of Letters, Speeches, Dictations, and Autobiographies. Baton Rouge, LA: Louisiana State University Press, 1977.

This anthology boasts the largest collection of annotated and authenticated accounts of slaves ever published in one volume.

Boahen, A. Adu. African Perspectives on Colonialism. Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1987.

This books combines theory and historical documentation, to discuss the legacy of colonialism in Africa.

Branch, Taylor. Pillar of Fire: America in the King Years, 1963-1965. New York, NY: Simon & Schuster, 1997.

The second volume of his America in the King Years trilogy, this work portrays the civil rights era at its zenith.

____________. Parting the Waters: America in the King Years, 1954-1963. New York, NY: Simon & Schuster, 1989.

A Winner of the Pulitzer Prize, this study is Monumental in scope and impact. It is a masterpiece of American history with this country's most dynamic leaders at its center.

Broussard, Albert S. Black San Francisco: The Struggle for Racial Equality in the West, 1900-1954. Lawrence, KS: The University of Kansas Press, 1995.

Broussard offers readers a desperately needed examination of the experiences of African American urbanites in the American West.

Bush, Barbara. Slave Women in the Caribbean, 1650-1838. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 1990.

A much needed scholarly treatment of the experiences and lives of black women in bondage in the Caribbean.

Carson, Clayborne, King, Martin Luther, Hine, Darlene Clark, Harding, Vincent. The Eyes on the Prize: Civil Rights Reader: Documents, Speeches, and Firsthand Accounts from the Black Freedom Struggle, 1954-1990. New York, NY: Penguin USA, 1991.

This book is a collection of primary documents which chronicles the civil rights movement, one of the volatile and defining eras in American history.

Clegg, Claude Andrew III. An Original Man: The Life and Times of Elijah Muhammad. New York, NY: St. Martins Press, 1997.

An Original Man gives us a complex, human, ordinary man, full of experiences and ready to do battle for the rights of definition.

Collins, Charles M., and Cohen, David. The African Americans. New York: Viking Studio Books, 1993.

This book is a table-top, fully illustrated work, which belongs in the collection of anyone interested in the contemporary African American experience.

Conniff, Michael L. and Davis, Thomas J. Africans in the Americas: A History of the Black Diaspora. New York, NY: St. Martin's Press, 1994.

This study is a synthesis of all the major themes in Black Diaspora history. Beginning with the Atlantic slave trade, this study takes the reader on a guided tour of black American history throughout the emancipation era.

Conrad, Robert Edgar. Children of God's Fire: A Documentary History of Black Slavery in Brazil. Pennsylvania State University Press, 1997.

This anthology brings together upwards of 117 primary documents which detail the reality of black slavery in Brazil.

Cope, R. Douglass. The Limits of Racial Domination: Plebeian Society in Colonial Mexico City, 1660- 1720. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1994.

This complex study undermines the popular belief of complete white domination in colonial Mexico, noting commoner's (including Afro-Mexicans) agency and influence on the development of Mexican society.

Curtin, Philip. The Atlantic Slave Trade: A Census. Madison, WI: University of Wisconsin Press, 1969.

This classic and to date unrivaled history of the volume of the Atlantic slave trade, belongs on the shelves of every student of African, African American, Atlantic, and Black Diaspora history.

_____________. Africa Remembered: Narratives by West Africans from the Era of the Slave Trade. Madison, WI: University of Wisconsin Press, 1968.

Curtin's anthology of biographies written by a number of West Africans, paints a picture of the nature of slavery and the slaver trade during its formative years.

Davis, Thulani. Malcolm X: The Great Photographs. New York: Stewart, Tabori & Chang, 1993.

Through its pictures and text, this book offers unparalleled insight into the life of a major historical figure whose ideas and inspiration challenge new generations.

Douglass, Frederick. Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass: An American Slave Written by Himself. Boston: Bedford Books, 1993.

Originally published in the 1840s, this classic autobiography provides a rich path into the life of one of America's most powerful voices of justice and liberty.

Du Bois, W.E.B. Black Reconstruction in America, 1860-1880. Reprint, New York, NY: Touchstone, 1992.

Of African American's contribution to Reconstruction it is beyond question the most painstaking and thorough study ever made. It is an imposing contribution to a critical period of American history.

________________. The Souls of Black Folk. New York, NY: Washington Square Press, 1970. c.1903.

First published in 1903, this unrivaled classic in American literature, examines the uniqueness, complexities, contradictions, problems, and promise of the souls of black folk.

________________. The Suppression of the African Slave Trade to the United States of America, 1838- 1870. Baton Rouge, LO: Louisiana State University Press, 1969.

First published in 1896, this book remains the standard work on the efforts made in the United States, from 1638-1870, to limit and suppress the trade in slaves between Africa and America.

Elkins, Stanley. Slavery: A Problem in American Institutional and Intellectual Life, 2nd ed. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 1968.

Considered a classic in the study of slavery, this book represents the thinking and trends in an important era of the publication of such studies.

Fage, J.D., and Oliver, Roland Anthony, eds., The Cambridge History of Africa, Vol. 7. London, EN: Cambridge University Press, 1975-1986.

This is a synthesis of all the major topics and themes in African history.

Fleming, Cynthia Griggs. Soon We Will Not Cry: The Liberation of Ruby Smith Robinson. New York: Rowman & Littlefield, 1998.

A valuable contribution to the history of SNCC and an important acknowledgment of the underappreciated leadership roles black women have had in the African American freedom struggle.

Fletcher, Richard. Moorish Spain. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1992.

Moorish Spain documents the impact of Moorish society and culture in Iberia during the period of Moorish occupation.

Franklin, John Hope, and Moss, Alfred A. From Slavery to Freedom: A History of African Americans. Seventh Edition. New York, NY: Alfred A. Knopf, 1994.

A classic in African American history, this text was first published by the eminent historian John Hope Franklin in 1947. Now in its seventh edition, the book maintains its preeminence as the most authoritative history of African Americans.

________________. The Emancipation Proclamation. Wheeling: Harlan Davidson, c1958, 1995.

A thorough and authoritative examination of one of America's most historic documents.

________________, and Franklin, John Whittington. My Life and An Era: The Autobiography of Buck Colbert Franklin. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1998.

This detailed, fascinating, and wide-ranging autobiography is the exciting story of his personal struggles and triumphs.

_______________, and Meir, August, Eds. Black Leaders of the Twentieth-Century. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1982.

Black Leaders of the Twentieth-Century is a volume of exceptional significance. All can learn from these illuminating biographies of illuminating figures.

Frey, Silvia, and Wood, Betty. Come Shouting to Zion: African American Protestantism in the American South and British Caribbean to 1830. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1997.

This excellent contribution to Caribbean history, Religious history, and the comparative study of slavery, emphasizes the critical role and the evolution of Protestantism in the Caribbean.

Gaspar, David Barry. Bondmen and Rebels: A Study of Master-Slave Relations in Antigua. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 1985.

Gaspar, in this study, has produced a riveting history of resistance and rebellion in Antigua.

________________, and Geggas, David P. A Turbulent Time: The French Revolution and the Greater Caribbean. Bloomington, IN: University of Indiana Press, 1997.

This work underscores the importance of the French Revolution in the shaping of not only Caribbean history, but the history in the whole of the Western hemisphere.

Gates, Henry Louis, Jr., Ed. African American Voices of Triumph, Perseverance: Songhai Empire, Slavery & Abolition, Surge Westward, Soldiers in the Shadows, Advocates for Change. Alexandria: Time Life Books, 1993.

A fully illustrated reference work which documents the whole of black history in American from 1619 to 1990.

Genovese, Eugene D. Roll Jordan Roll: The World the Slaves Made. New York, NY: Vintage Books, 1976.

A winner of the Bancroft Prize, and a classic in the field of "New World" slavery, this study is a detailed analysis of black slavery.

_________________, From Rebellion to Revolution: Afro-American Slave Revolts in the Making of the Modern World. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1979.

A refined collection of lectures and essays, Genovese's work examines the nature of revolts and rebellions, and their effect on the development of the modern world.

Greene, Lorenzo J. Selling Black History for Carter G. Woodson: A Diary, 1930-1933. Colombia: University of Missouri Press, 1996.

This diary is a major contribution to black history scholarship and to American historiography. It provides a unique window onto the Black History Movement launched by Carter G. Woodson almost a century ago.

Giddings, Paula. When and Where I Enter: The Impact of Black Women on Race and Sex in America. New York, NY: William Morrow and Company, Inc., 1984.

A detailed discussion of the interconnectedness of race and sex in the lives of black women in America.

Greenberg, Kenneth S. Honor & Slavery: Lies, Duels, Noses, Masks, Dressing as a Woman, Gifts, Strangers, Humanitarianism, Death, Slave Rebellions, The Proslavery Argument, Baseball, Hunting, Gambling in the Old South. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1996.

A wonderful look into the daily operations of slave society, both at the macro level and the micro.

Hacker, Andrew. Two Nations: Black, White, Separate, Hostile, Unequal. New York, NY: Ballantine Books, 1995.

This an insightful, disturbing reflection on the state of America society in the post civil rights era.

Hall, Gwendolyn Midlo. Africans in Colonial Louisiana: The Development of Afro-Creole Culture in the Eighteenth Century. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1992.

This book is simply superb, and must be read by anyone interested in colonialism, the Atlantic slave trade, slavery, resistance, acculturation, creolization, race and ethnicity, and the role of gender conventions in colonial Louisiana.

Hamilton, Charles V. Adam Clayton Powell, Jr.: A Political Biography of An American Dilemma. New York, NY: Collier, 1991.

A lucid, balanced, and well-written account of Powell's political career. Hamilton's absorbing study deepens our appreciation of Powell as a contradictory man living in a contradictory society.

Harris, Richard E. The First 100 Years: A History of Arizona's Blacks. Apache Junction: Relmo, 1983.

The first book published which documents the history of African Americans in Arizona.

Haygood, Wil. King of The Cats: The Life and Times of Adam Clayton Powell, Jr.. Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1993.

This study is one of the best biographies of an American politician to be published in recent years. Haygood presents an engaging portrait of this minister, orator, agitator for justice, and maker of headlines.

Hendricks, Wanda A. Gender, Race, and Politics in Midwest: Black Club Women in Illinois. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1998.

Documents the thirty-year period from 1890-1920, when African American club women in Illinois helped establish the nation's largest network of black women's clubs.

Higginbotham, A Leon, Jr. In the Matter of Color: Race & The American Legal Process, The Colonial Period. New York: Oxford University Press, 1978.

This book chronicles in unrelenting detail the role of the law in the enslavement and subjugation of black Americans during the colonial period.

Higginbotham, Evelyn Brooks. Righteous Discontent: The Women's Movement in the Black Baptist Church, 1880-1920. Cambridge, MA: The Harvard University Press, 1993.

A winner of the American Academy of Religion's Award for Excellence and the American Historical Association's Prize in Women's History, Higginbotham gives us our first full account of the crucial role of black women in making the church a powerful institution for social and political change in the black community.

Hill, Pascoe G. Fifty Days on Board a Slave Vessel. Baltimore, MD: Black Classic Press, 1993. c.1848.

A powerful first-hand account of the horrors of the Atlantic trade in African slaves.

Hine, Darlene Clark. A Shining Thread of Hope: The History of Black Women in American History. New York, NY: Broadway Book, 1998.

A Shining Thread of Hope is the first comprehensive history of black women in America.

_______________, and Gaspar, David Barry. More Than Chattel: Black Women and Slavery in the Americas. Bloomington, IN: University of Indiana Press, 1996.

A much needed volume on a neglected topic of great interest to scholars of women, slavery, and African American history.

_______________. Speak Truth to Power: Black Professional Class in United States History. Brooklyn, New York: Carlson Publishing, Inc., 1996.

Speak Truth to Power sheds new light on the dilemmas of black professionals and artists in a world divided by race, sex, and class.

_______________, King, Wilma, and Reed, Linda. "We Specialize in the Wholly Impossible" : A Reader in Black Women's History. Brooklyn, NY: Carlson Publishing, Inc., 1995.

A ground breaking collection of essays dealing with myriad topics in the history of African American women.

_______________. Hine Sight: Black Women and the Re-Construction of American History. Carlson Publishing, Inc., 1994.

A collection of essays by one of the leading American historians of our generation that examines the richly intertwined community-making and self-making that shaped the historical experience of African American women.

_______________, Barkley Brown, Elsa, and Terborg-Penn, Rosalyn. Black Women in America: An Historical Encyclopedia. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 1993.

With 604 full-scale biographical entries, and more than 450 photographs, this engagingly written 2,267- page work which documents the struggles and triumphs of African American women.

_______________. Black Women in White: Racial Conflict and Cooperation in the Nursing Profession, 1890-1920. Cambridge, MA: The Harvard University Press, 1989.

This trailblazing study analyzes the impact of racism on the development of the nursing profession, particularly on black women in the profession.

_______________, ed. The State of Afro-American History: Past, Present, and Future. Louisiana State University Press, 1986.

The study recognizes the significance of the field of African American history, and how, in recent years, it has begun to reach wide acceptance and respectability as a legitimate are of intellectual inquiry.

Hodes, Martha. White Women, Black Men: Illicit Sex in the Nineteenth Century South. New Haven, CO: Yale University Press, 1997.

This is an unprecedented study of the significance of interracial sex between black men and white women in American history.

Holloway, Joseph E., Eds. Africanisms in American Culture. Joseph E. Holloway, ed. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 1990.

Holloways has produced an excellent anthology of articles which argue for a profound African influence on American culture, including dance, music, material culture, and language.

Hooks, Bell. Ain't I A Woman: Black Women and Feminism. Boston, MA: South End Press, 1981

A wonderful feminist examination of the history of black women as it pertains to their past, and that past's consequence for contemporary times and the future.

Hunter, Tera. To ‘joy My Freedom: Southern Black Women's Lives and Labors After the Civil War. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1997.

This work brings to life the experiences, aspirations, and struggles of black domestic workers of Atlanta. It opens a new window on the study of emancipation and its aftermath and, in so doing, tremendously enriches our understanding of Reconstruction and the New South.

Jacobs, Harriet A. Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl: Written by Herself, Ed. Jean Fagan Yellin. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1987.

One of the few slave narratives written by a woman. It offers a unique perspective on the complex plight of the black woman as a slave and writer.

Jones, Howard. Mutiny on the Amistad. New York: Oxford University Press, 1987.

A classic history of perhaps the most famous slave ship revolt in American history. The inspiration of Steven Spielberg's epic motion picture, this book represents the best of social and legal history.

Jones, Jacqueline. Labor of Love, Labor of Sorrow: Black Women, Work and the Family, from Slavery to The Present. New York, NY: Vintage, 1986.

A powerful testament to the ability of black women to uphold the foundation of the black community and American society through work both outside and inside the home.

Jones, James Earl, and Niven, Penelope. James Earl Jones: Voices and Silences. New York: Scribners, 1993.

James Earl Jones has given us a moving memorable book about his remarkable life, a life in which he has faced extraordinary challenges and reached new heights at every turn.

Jones, James H. Bad Blood: The Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment, A Tragedy of Race and Medicine. New York: The Free Press, 1987.

A authentic, exquisitely detailed case study of the consequences of racism and American life. This book should be read by everyone who is concerned about the racial meanings of government policy and social practice in the United States.

Johnson, Michael P. & Roark, James L. Black Masters: A Free Family of Color in the Old South. New York, NY: W. W. Norton & Company, 1984.

A biographical account of one of the nation's wealthiest black slave owners in the South.

Jones, Norrece T. Born a Child of Freedom, Yet a Slave: Mechanisms of Control and Strategies of Resistance in Antebellum South Carolina. Hanover, NH: Wesleyan University Press, 1990

This book lays bare the harsh conflict between slaveholders' multiple mechanisms for trying to keep their slaves servile and the slaves' determined efforts to resist domination.

Jordan, Winthrop. The White Man's Burden: Historical Origins of Racism in the United States. New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 1974.

This is a must read for the student of history who requires an accurate, concise, comprehensive, absorbing account of the history of the foundations upon which modern America has been constructed.

Katz, William Loren. The Black West: A Documentary and Pictorial History of the African American Role in the Westward Expansion of the United States. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1996.

A meticulously constructed, illustrated history of a relatively unmined field of historical inquiry.

Kelly, Robin D.G. Race Rebels: Culture, Politics, & the Black Working Class. New York, NY: The Free Press, 1994.

A refreshing new voice in the historical profession underscores the true nature of public and private forms of resistance among working class populations in this excellent book.

_____________. Hammer & Hoe: Alabama Communists During the Great Depression. Durham, NC: University of North Carolina Press, 1990.

This study unveils African Africans desire to bring justice and freedom to their American reality through a unique appropriation of communist principles.

King, Coretta Scott. My Life with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.: As Told by Coretta Scott King. New York, NY: HarperCollins, 1972.

Coretta Scott King's story of the remarkable life she shared with Martin Luther King, Jr.

King, Martin Luther, Jr. A Testament of Hope: The Essential Writings and Speeches of Martin Luther King, Jr.. James M. Washington, ed. New York, NY: HarperCollins, 1986.

A collection of King's writings and speeches which reveals the breadth and enduring words of the man who touched the conscience of the nation and the world.

King, Wilma. Stolen Childhood: Slave Youth in Nineteenth-Century America. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 1995.

An exhaustive study which sheds light on a long overlooked aspect of slavery in the United States-the wretched lives of the millions of young people enslaved in the nineteenth-century South.

Lawson, Steven F. Running for Freedom: Civil Rights and Black Politics in America Since 1941. Philadelphia, PA: Temple University Press, 1991.

This is a very concise, cogently argued examination of African Americans and the politics of racial liberation.

Leckie, William H. The Buffalo Soldiers: A Narrative of the Negro Cavalry in the West. Norman, OK: The University of Oklahoma Press, 1967.

One of the first histories of African American contributions to the settlement of the American West by non- Indians. This definitely a must read.

Lemke-Santangelo, Gretchen. Abiding Courage: African American Migrant Women and the East Bay Community. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1996.

A masterful study that helps us understand the crucial nexus between race, gender, and culture in explaining both the World War II-era black migration and its profound consequences for the San Francisco Bay Area.

Lerner, Gerda. Black Women in White America: A Documentary History. New York, NY: Vintage, 1973.

A superb anthology. A highly readable, comprehensive survey of black history from the point of view of black women.

Lewis, David Levering. W.E.B. Du Bois: Biography of A Race 1868-1919. New York, NY: Henry Holt and Company, 1993.

This a formidable work of scholarship and discernment. Lewis's remarkable, stunningly detailed book reshapes our understanding of Du Bois at so many points as it instantly became the standard biography.

Litwack, Leon F. Trouble in Mind: Black Southerners in the Age of Jim Crow. New York: Alfred a. Knopf, 1998.

This sequel to the award winning Been in the Storm So Long, is a eloquently, sympathetic, and passionately insightful account of America's experience with emancipation.

_____________. Been in the Storm So Long: The Aftermath of Slavery. New York: Vintage, 1979.

Winner of the Pulitzer Prize, this book shows how, during the Civil War and after Emancipation, blacks and whites interacted in ways that dramatized not only their mutual dependency but the frightening ambiguities and tensions that had always been latent.

Love, Nat. The Life and Adventures of Nat Love. Lincoln, NB: The University of Nebraska Press, 1995. c.1907.

This is uncanny autobiography of one of the American West's most famous black cowboys.

Luckingham, Bradford. Minorities in Phoenix: a Profile of Mexican American, Chinese American, and African American Communities, 1860-1992. Tucson, AZ: The University of Arizona Press, 1994.

This text boasts the first scholarly treatment of African Americans in Phoenix, Arizona, the sixth largest city in America.

Magida, Arthur J. Prophet of Rage: A Life of Louis Farrakhan and His Nation. New York, NY: Harpercollins, 1996.

A fascinating story which reminds Americans that an understanding of who Farrakhan is, where he comes from, and from what sources his thinking and views arise, is important to our understanding of ourselves.

Marable, Manning. Race, Reform, and Rebellion: The Second Reconstruction in Black America, 1945-1990. Oxford: University Press of Mississippi, 1991.

A contemporary history of black America which outlines the basic problems and challenges during the crucial era of black reform.

Martinez-Alier, Verena. Marriage, Class, and Colour in Nineteenth-Century Cuba: a Study of Racial Attitudes and Sexual Values in a Slave Society, Second Edition. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1991.

This study examines the intersection of race, gender, class, and color in Cubanos during the nineteenth- century.

Massey, Douglass S., and Denton, Nancy A. American Apartheid: Segregation and the Making of the Underclass. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1993.

This study looks at the enduring problem of racial segregation in the United States, and its effects on African American, and the nation at large.

McBride, James. The Color of Water : A Black Man's Tribute to His White Mother. New York, NY: Riverhead Books, 1996.

This autobiographical book highlights the complexity and simplicity of identity construction in American society, the black family, and culture and consciousness in the Unites States.

McFeely, William S. Frederick Douglass. New York, NY: W.W. Norton & Company, 1991.

An eloquent and illuminating study of a great nineteenth-century American about whom we know less than we may think.

McLaurin, Melton A. Celia, a Slave: A True Story of Violence and Retribution in Antebellum Missouri. Athens, GA: University of Georgia Press, 1991.

A classic in American history, this book brings the story of Celia chillingly alive. McLaurin uses the story of one woman in one small place to probe the largest questions of southern history, women's history, legal history, and the history of slavery.

________________. Separate Pasts: Growing Up White in the Segregated South. Athens, GA: University of Georgia Press, 1987.

An autobiographical account of this historian's formative years in the segregated American South, this book examines the complexities and silences of racism and sexism.

Meir, August, and Rudwick, Elliot. Black History and the Historical Profession, 1915-1980. Urbana, IL: University of Illinois Press, 1986.

This text is full of fascinating biographical information and unraveled scholarly connections, it is a sound work of scholarship and a "good read."

Moody, Anne. Coming of Age in Mississippi. New York, NY: Laureleaf, 1997. C1965.

This is a touchstone work: an accurate, authoritative portrait of black family life and insurgency in the rural South and a moving account of a woman's indomitable heart.

Morgan, Philip D. Slave Counterpoint: Black Culture in the Eighteenth-Century Chesapeake & Lowcountry. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1998.

This thoroughly researched and written book successfully reveals the multifaceted nature of black culture in the Chesapeake, and its influence on the development of the region.

Murray, Pauli. Pauli Murray: The Autobiography of a Black Activist, Feminist, Lawyer, Priest, and Poet. Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press, 1987.

A truly engrossing, powerful, and calmly moving autobiography. Murray's remarkable story provides a unique perspective on the battles of women and blacks for equal rights.

Nash, Gary B. Forging Freedom: The Formation of Philadelphia's Black Community, 1720-1840. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1988.

This book examines the role of the black and white abolitionists, the black church, and free blacks in the construction of a flourishing black community in Philadelphia.

Oates, Stephen B. Let The Trumpet Sound: A Life of Martin Luther King, Jr.. New York, NY: HarperPerennial, 1982.

This is the thrilling story of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., his bravery, his triumph, his pain and his doubts.

Oliver, Roland. The African Experience: Major Themes in African History From Earliest Times to the Present. New York, NY: HarperCollins Publishing, 1991

Oliver's work is a monument in synthetic history, as it describes the major themes in African history over the course of thousands of years.

Painter, Nell Irvin. Sojourner Truth: A Life, a Symbol. New York, NY: W.W. Norton & Company, 1997.

This study gives us the extraordinary gift of sight into the life of a legendary woman, into a culture compelled to transfigure her.

______________. Exodusters: Black Migration to Kansas After Reconstruction. New York, NY: W.W. Norton & Company, 1976.

The first full-length scholarly study of this migration and the forces that produced it.

Pakenham, Thomas. The Scramble for Africa: The White Man's Conquest of the Dark Continent from 1876-1912. New York: Random House, 1991.

Pakenham, in this dense, Eurocentric study, examines the role of European colonial powers in the transformation of Africa into a site of "European domination."

Palmer, Colin A. The First Passage: Blacks in the Americas, 1502-1617. New York: Oxford University Press, 1995.

Examines the first century of the recorded black presence in the Americas.

Powell, Colin, and Persico, Joseph E. My American Journey: Colin Powell. New York: Random House, 1995.

The life story of a young Bronx boy, from a Caribbean immigrant family, who grew up to become one of America's most decorated generals, and a member of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

Powell, Adam Clayton, Jr. Adam by Adam: The Autobiography of Adam Clayton Powell, Jr. New York, NY: The Citadel Press, 1971.

The autobiography of one of America's most flamboyant, most controversial, and most popular politicians.

Quarles, Benjamin. Black Abolitionists. New York: Da Capo Press, 1969.

This is one of the most useful texts detailing the history of black participation in and leadership of the abolitionist movement.

Rampersad, Arnold. Jackie Robinson: A Biography. Alfred A. Knopf, 1997.

One of the best biographies written, and like Robinson himself, this book goes well beyond sports and in the end suggests how people everywhere must live.

Robinson, Jo Ann Gibson. The Montgomery Bus Boycott and the Women Who Started It: The Memoir of Jo Ann Gibson Robinson. David J. Garrow, ed. Knoxville, TN: The University of Tennessee Press, 1987.

This is a valuable first-hand account of the historic Montgomery Bus Boycott, written by an important, behind the scenes organizer.

Schwalm, Leslie A. A Hard Fight for We: Women's Transition from Slavery to Freedom in South Carolina. Urbana, IL: University of Illinois Press, 1996..

This is a compelling, well-documented work which offers us an intriguing look at a particular group of black women and their struggles to work for themselves and the communities on their own terms.

Schwartz, Stuart B. Sugar Plantations in the Formation of Brazilian Society, Bahia, 1550-1835. Boston: Cambridge University Press, 1985.

This book is a powerful testament to the critical role of sugar production in the shaping of slave life and Brazilian society.

Shaw, Stephanie J. What a Woman Ought to Be and to Do: Black Professional Women Workers During the Jim Crow Era. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1996.

This book brings to life a world in which African American families, communities, and schools worked to encourage the self-confidence, individual initiative, and social responsibility of black women.

Skidmore, Thomas E. Black into White: Race and Nationality in Brazilian Thought. Durham: Duke University Press, 1993.

Skidmore offers readers a detailed discussion of the nature of the social construction of race, identity and nationality in Brazil.

Silva, Eduardo. Prince of the People: The Life and Times of a Brazilian Free Man of Color. London: Verso, 1993.

This book is an informative biography of one of Brazil's most interesting free Afro-Brazilian figures.

Stein, Stanley J. Vassouras, a Brazilian Coffee Country, 1850-1900: The Roles of Planter and Slave in a Plantation Society. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1985, c1958.

Stein, in Vassouras, gives us a detailed account of the nature of coffee production vis-a-vis slavery in Brazil.

Sugrue, Thomas J. The Origin of the Urban Crisis: Race and Inequality in Postwar Detroit. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1996.

This text traces the history of Detroit's current racial crisis to historical institutional inequality and deeply rooted personal prejudice.

Taylor, Quintard Jr. In Search of the Racial Frontier: African Americans in the American West, 1528- 1990. New York, NY: W.W. Norton & Company, 1998.

In this seminal work, Taylor brings to life 500 years of African American history of the Western United States.

_______________. The Forging of a Black Community: Seattle's Central District from 1870 Through the Civil Rights Era. University of Washington Press, 1994.

This book documents the history of Seattle's black community and its efforts to secure social, economic, and political equality.

Thomas, Richard W. Life for Us is What We Make It: Building Black Community in Detroit, 1915-1945. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1992.

A winner of the American Historical Associations best book in African American history award for 1992, this study is a model for historical studies seeking to shed light on community history.

Thornton, John. Africa and Africans in the Making of the Atlantic World, 1400-1680.
New York, Cambridge University Press, 1992.

In this classic text, Thornton has produced a cornucopia of history reflecting the importance of people of African descent in the formation of the Atlantic World.

Washington, Booker T. Up From Slavery. New York: Double Day, 1901.

This classic autobiographical text documents the life and philosophies of one of the America's most famous African American leaders.

Watkins-Owens, Irma. Blood Relations: Caribbean Immigrants and The Harlem Community, 1900- 1930. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1996.

Blood Relations clearly demonstrates the pivotal role Caribbean immigrants played in shaping Harlem between 1900-1930.

Wells-Barnett, Ida B. Crusade for Justice. Alfreda M. Duster, ed. Chicago, IL: The University of Chicago Press, 1970.

Besides being the story of an incredibly courageous and outspoken black woman in the face of innumerable odds, the book is a valuable contribution to the social history of the United States and to the literature of the women's movement as well.

____________. The Memphis Diary of Ida B. Wells. Miriam Decosta-Willis, ed. Boston, MA: Beacon Press, 1995.

This is an important contribution to the understanding of one of the most significant and complex figures in American history.

White, Deborah Gray. Ar'nt I a Woman: Female Slaves in the Plantation South. New York, NY: W.W. Norton & Company, 1986.

A winner of the Letitia Brown Memorial Publication Prize, Ar'nt I a Woman explores the situation of black women in slavery, comparing the myths that stereotyped them with the realities of their lives.

__________________. Let My People Go: African Americans, 1804-1860. New York: Oxford University Press, 1995.

Examines the slavery and abolitionist movement in the United States.

_________________. Too Heavy a Load: Black Women in Defense of Themselves, 1894-1994. New York, NY: W.W. Norton & Company, 1998.

A major paradigm-setting book that refines the frame, making visible the souls of twentieth-century black women as they struggled to ‘defend their name' and to ‘uplift the race.'

Williamson, Joel. A Rage for Order: Black White Relations in the American South Since Emancipation. New York: Oxford University Press, 1986.

This is a truly unsettling history of the vitriolic period of racial unrest immediately following emancipation.

Wilson, William Julius. When Work Disappears: The World of the New Urban Poor. New York, NY: Knopf, 1996.

Wilson uncovers the painful truth behind the relationship between joblessness, poverty, racism, and "ghettoization."

_________________. The Truly Disadvantaged : The Inner City, The Underclass, and Public Policy. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 1990.

In this award winning study, Wilson uncovers the truth behind the failures of public policy and the growth of the "underclass."

__________________. The Declining Significance of Race: Blacks and Changing American Institutions. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 1980.

In this controversial study, Wilson argues that for many blacks race is not the determining factor that it once was. He posits that class must be factored in to any assessment of the state of African America.

Wood, Peter H. Black Majority: Negroes in Colonial South Carolina from 1670 through the Stono Rebellion. New York, NY: Alfred a. Knopf, 1974.

A winner of the Albert J. Beveridge Award of the American Historical Association, this book stands as a classic in the historical profession. It provides a powerful study of the history of slavery in the colonial period.

X, Malcolm. The Autobiography of Malcolm X. Alex Haley, ed. New York, NY: Ballantine Books, 1964.

A classic in African American history and black nationalist thinking, this magnificent book, its dead level honesty, its passion, its exalted purpose makes it stand as a monument to the most painful truth.

____________. Malcolm X: The Final Speeches, February 1965. New York, NY: Pathfinder, 1992.

This is the first is a series of books which collect in chronological order the major speeches and writings of this great revolutionary thinker and leader of the twentieth century.

Matthew Whitaker (right) discusses his collection with a guest at the reception.