Black Studies: Biographies and Autobiographies

The Hemingses of Monticello by Annette Gordon-Reed Historian and legal scholar Gordon-Reed presents this epic work that tells the story of the Hemingses, an American slave family and their close blood ties to Thomas Jefferson.

King: A Critical Biography by David L. Lewis

The Life and Times of Elijah Muhammad by Claude Andrew Clegg Elijah Muhammad (1897-1975) was one of the most significant and controversial black leaders of the twentieth century. His followers called him the Messenger of Allah, while his critics labeled him a teacher of hate. Southern by birth, Muhammad moved north, eventually serving as the influential head of the Nation of Islam for over forty years. Claude Clegg III not only chronicles Muhammad's life, but also examines the history of American black nationalists and the relationship between Islam and the African American experience.In this authoritative biography, which also covers half a century of the evolution of the Nation of Islam, Clegg charts Muhammad's early life, his brush with Jim Crow in the South, his rise to leadership of the Nation of Islam, and his tumultuous relationship with Malcolm X.

The Life of Langston Hughes, 1902-1941 by Arnold Rampersad In young adulthood Hughes possessed a nomadic but dedicated spirit that led him from Mexico to Africa and the Soviet Union to Japan, and countless other stops around the globe. Associating with political activists, patrons, and fellow artists, and drawing inspiration from both Walt Whitman and the vibrant Afro-American culture, Hughes soon became the most original and revered of black poets.

The Life of Langston Hughes, 1941-1967 by Arnold Rampersad The second volume in this masterful biography finds Hughes rooting himself in Harlem, receiving stimulation from his rich cultural surroundings. Here he rethought his view of art and radicalism, and cultivated relationships with younger, more militant writers such as Richard Wright, Ralph Ellison, James Baldwin, and Amiri Bakara.

Malcolm X: a Life of Reinvention by Manning Marable This biography of Malcolm X draws on new research to trace his life from his troubled youth through his involvement in the Nation of Islam, his activism in the world of Black Nationalism, and his assassination. Years in the making, it is a definitive biography of the legendary black activist. Of the great figures in twentieth-century American history perhaps none is more complex and controversial than Malcolm X. Constantly rewriting his own story, he became a criminal, a minister, a leader, and an icon, all before being felled by assassins' bullets at age thirty-nine. Through his tireless work and countless speeches he empowered hundreds of thousands of black Americans to create better lives and stronger communities while establishing the template for the self-actualized, independent African American man. In death he became a broad symbol of both resistance and reconciliation for millions around the world. Filled with new information and shocking revelations that go beyond the Autobiography of Malcolm X, this work unfolds a story of race and class in America, from the rise of Marcus Garvey and the Ku Klux Klan to the struggles of the civil rights movement in the fifties and sixties. Reaching into Malcolm's troubled youth, it traces a path from his parents' activism through his own engagement with the Nation of Islam, charting his astronomical rise in the world of Black Nationalism and culminating in the never-before-told true story of his assassination. This work captures the story of one of the most singular forces for social change, a man who constantly strove, in the great American tradition, to remake himself anew.

Ralph Ellison by Arnold Rampersad The definitive biography of an important American cultural intellectual of the twentieth century--Ralph Ellison, author of the masterpiece Invisible Man. In 1953, Ellison's explosive story of a young black man's search for truth and identity catapulted him to national prominence. Ellison earned many honors, but his failure to publish a second novel, despite years of striving, haunted him for the rest of his life. Rampersad provides a complex portrait of an unusual artist and human being.

Regina Anderson Andrews: Harlem Renaissance Librarian by Ethelene Whitmire The first African American to head a branch of the New York Public Library (NYPL), Regina Andrews led an extraordinary life. Allied with W. E. B. Du Bois, Andrews fought for promotion and equal pay against entrenched sexism and racism and battled institutional restrictions confining African American librarians to only a few neighborhoods within New York City. Andrews also played a key role in the Harlem Renaissance, supporting writers and intellectuals with dedicated workspace at her 135th Street Branch Library. After hours she cohosted a legendary salon that drew the likes of Langston Hughes and Zora Neale Hurston. Her work as an actress and playwright helped establish the Harlem Experimental Theater, where she wrote plays about lynching, passing, and the Underground Railroad. Ethelene Whitmire's new biography offers the first full-length study of Andrews's activism and pioneering work with the NYPL. Whitmire's portrait of her sustained efforts to break down barriers reveals Andrews's legacy and places her within the NYPL's larger history.

W. E. B. du Bois by David Levering Lewis This second volume of what is already a classic work begins with the triumphal return from WWI of African American veterans to the shattering reality of racism and lynching even as America discovers the New Negro of literature and art. In stunning detail, Lewis chronicles the little-known political agenda behind the Harlem Renaissance and Du Bois's relentless fight for equality and justice, including his steadfast refusal to allow whites to interpret the aspirations of black America. Seared by the rejection of terrified liberals and the black bourgeoisie during the Communist witch-hunts, Du Bois ended his days in uncompromising exile in newly independent Ghana. In re-creating the turbulent times in which he lived and fought, Lewis restores the inspiring and famed Du Bois to his central place in American history.

W. E. B. du Bois: Black Radical Democrat by Manning Marable Distinguished historian and social activist Manning Marable's book, W. E. B. Du Bois: Black Radical Democrat, brings out the interconnections, unity, and consistency of W. E. B. Du Bois's life and writings. Marable covers Du Bois's disputes with Booker T. Washington, his founding of the NAACP, his work as a social scientist, his life as a popular figure, and his involvement in politics, placing them into the context of Du Bois's views on black pride, equality, and cultural diversity. Marable stresses that, as a radical democrat, Du Bois viewed the problems of racism as intimately connected with capitalism.

Gay Guerrilla: Julius Eastman and his Music by Renée Levine Packer (Editor); Mary Jane Leach (Editor) The essays in Gay Guerrilla offer context on Eastman's life history and the era's social landscape, commentaries on the composer's personality and talents, and analyses of his music. The book presents an authentic portrait of a notable American artist that is compelling reading for the general reader as well as scholars interested in twentieth-century American music, American Studies, gay rights, and civil rights.

Thelonious Monk : the life and times of an American original by Robin D. G. Kelley

Kill 'em and leave : searching for James Brown and the American soul by James McBride

Frantz Fanon: Toward a Revolutionary Humanism by Christopher J. Lee Frantz Fanon is one of the most important intellectuals of the twentieth century. He presented powerful critiques of racism, colonialism, and nationalism in his classic books, Black Skin, White Masks (1952) and The Wretched of the Earth (1961). This biography reintroduces Fanon for a new generation of readers, revisiting these enduring themes while also arguing for those less appreciated—namely, his anti-Manichean sensibility and his personal ethic of radical empathy, both of which underpinned his utopian vision of a new humanism.Frantz Fanon is one of the most important intellectuals of the 20th century. He presented powerful critiques of racism, colonialism, and nationalism in his classic books. This biography reintroduces Fanon for a new generation of readers, revisiting these enduring themes while also arguing for those less appreciated which underpinned his utopian vision of a new humanism.

The Dead Are Arising: The Life of Malcolm X by Les Payne; Tamara Payne An epic biography of Malcolm X finally emerges, drawing on hundreds of hours of the author's interviews, rewriting much of the known narrative. Les Payne, the renowned Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative journalist, embarked in 1990 on a nearly thirty-year-long quest to interview anyone he could find who had actually known Malcolm X-all living siblings of the Malcolm Little family, classmates, street friends, cellmates, Nation of Islam figures, FBI moles and cops, and political leaders around the world. His goal was ambitious: to transform what would become over a hundred hours of interviews into an unprecedented portrait of Malcolm X, one that would separate fact from fiction.

Black Prophetic Fire by Cornel West; Christa Buschendorf Celebrated intellectual and activist Cornel West offers an unflinching look at nineteenth- and twentieth-century African American leaders and their visionary legacies. In an accessible, conversational format, Cornel West, with distinguished scholar Christa Buschendorf, provides a fresh perspective on six revolutionary African American leaders: Frederick Douglass, W.E.B. Du Bois, Martin Luther King Jr., Ella Baker, Malcolm X, and Ida Wells-Barnett. West examines the impact of these men and women on their own eras and across the decades. He not only rediscovers the integrity and commitment within these passionate advocates but also their fault lines. West finds that Douglass and, to some extent, Du Bois fall short of the high standards he holds them to, while King has been sanitized and even 'Santaclausified, ' rendering him less radical. By providing new insights that humanize all of these well-known figures, West takes an important step in rekindling the Black prophetic fire so essential in the age of Obama

Pearl's Secret: a Black Man's Search for His White Family by Neil Henry A black professor of journalism and award-winning correspondent takes an investigative look into his family's past in this autobiography and family story, as he pieces together the murky details of his family's past in search of the white branch of his family tree. Photos & illustrations. A black journalist uncovers his family history & racial legacy.

To Tell a Free Story: The First Century of Afro-American autobiography, 1760-1865 by William L. Andrews Discusses the writings of Richard Allen, Solomon Bayley, Henry Bibb, Henry Box Brown, John Brown, Leonard Black, William Wells Brown, Lewis Clarke, William Craft, Frederick Douglass, Martin R. Delany, Olaudah Equiano, Moses Grandy, Jacob D. Green, William Grimes, James A.U. Gronniosaw, Briton Hammon, Josiah Henson, Harriet Jacobs, John Jea, Lunsford Lane, Jarena Lee, John Marrant, Solomon Northrup, James W. Pennington, James Robert, Moses Roper, Venture Smith, Austin Steward, Nat Turner, Samuel R. Ward, Booker T. Washington, James Watkins, George White, James Williams, and others.

Words of Witness: Black Women's Autobiography in the Post-Brown Era by Angela A. Ards A literary and political genealogy of the last half-century, Words of Witness explores black feminist autobiographical narratives in the context of activism and history since the landmark 1954 segregation case, Brown v. Board of Education. Angela A. Ards examines how activist writers, especially five whose memoirs were published in the 1990s and 2000s, crafted these life stories to engage and shape progressive, post-Brown politics.

Reading African American Autobiography: Twenty-First-Century Contexts and Criticism by Eric D. Lamore This timely volume embraces and interprets the increasingly broad and deep canon of life narratives by African Americans. The contributors discover and recover neglected lives, texts, and genres, enlarge the wide range of critical methods used by scholars to study these works, and expand the understanding of autobiography to encompass photography, comics, blogs, and other modes of self-expression.

I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou Author's recollection of growing up black in the 1930's and 1940's. One of 8 autobiographies by Angelo.

Angela Davis by Angela Davis The political activist reflects upon the people and incidents that have influenced her life and commitment to global liberation of the oppressed.

The Autobiography of Malcolm X by Malcolm X; as told to Alex Haley Written by Alex Haley from conversations with the Negro leader over a period of two years before his death.

The Autobiography of Medgar Evers by Manning Marable; Myrlie Evers-Williams The American civil rights movement of the 1950s, and 1960s was spurred by innumerable heros who earned small triumphs in the face of epic intolerance and terror. [This book] reveals what it mean to fight the most intractably racist bureaucracy of the Tim Crow era. [In the book, the editor] ha[s] created a vibrant portrait of an activist at work. The result is both a tribute to a civil rights hero and a living testament to the power of grassroots political action to change our lives for the better.

Becoming by Michelle Obama In a life filled with meaning and accomplishment, Michelle Obama has emerged as one of the most iconic and compelling women of our era. As First Lady of the United States of America, she helped create the most welcoming and inclusive White House in history. With unerring honesty and lively wit, she describes her triumphs and her disappointments, both public and private. A deeply personal reckoning of a woman of soul and substance who has steadily defied expectations.

Assata by Assata Shakur On May 2, 1973, Black Panther Assata Shakur (aka JoAnne Chesimard) lay in a hospital, close to death, handcuffed to her bed, while local, state, and federal police attempted to question her about the shootout on the New Jersey Turnpike that had claimed the life of a white state trooper. Long a target of J. Edgar Hoover's campaign to defame, infiltrate, and criminalize Black nationalist organizations and their leaders, Shakur was incarcerated for four years prior to her conviction on flimsy evidence in 1977 as an accomplice to murder. This intensely personal and political autobiography belies the fearsome image of JoAnne Chesimard long projected by the media and the state. With wit and candor, Assata Shakur recounts the experiences that led her to a life of activism and portrays the strengths, weaknesses, and eventual demise of Black and White revolutionary groups at the hand of government officials. The result is a signal contribution to the literature about growing up Black in America that has already taken its place alongside The Autobiography of Malcolm X and the works of Maya Angelou. Two years after her conviction, Assata Shakur escaped from prison. She was given political asylum by Cuba, where she now resides.

Fifty Years in Chains by Charles Ball Fifty Years in Chains: Or, the Life of an American Slave (1859) was an abridged and unauthorized reprint of the earlier Slavery in the United States (1836). In the narratives, Ball describes his experiences as a slave, including the uncertainty of slave life and the ways in which the slaves are forced to suffer inhumane conditions. He recounts the qualities of his various masters and the ways in which his fortune depended on their temperament.

Here I Stand by Paul Robeson; Sterling Stuckey (Introduction by); Lloyd L. Brown (Preface by) Robeson's international achievements as a singer and actor in starring roles on stage and screen made him the most celebrated black American of his day, but his outspoken criticism of racism in the United States, his strong support of African independence, and his fascination with the Soviet Union placed him under the debilitating scrutiny of McCarthyism. Blacklisted, his famed voice silenced, Here I Stand offered a bold answer to his accusers. It remains today a defiant challenge to the prevailing fear and racism that continues to characterize American society.

Ain't Gonna Let Nobody Turn Me Around: Forty Years of Movement Building with Barbara Smith by Barbara Smith: Alethia Jones (Editor); Virginia Eubanks (Editor); Reveals a remarkable woman's life and her contributions to social justice movements related to Civil Rights, feminism, lesbian and gay liberation, anti-racism, and Black feminism.

The Life and the Adventures of a Haunted Convict by Austin Reed; Caleb Smith (Editor); David W. Blight (Foreword by); Robert B. Stepto (Foreword by) The Life and the Adventures of a Haunted Convict is a rare and original autobiography, a first-person account of a young black man's life as an indentured servant, a juvenile delinquent, and a prisoner in New York State in the mid-nineteenth century. Austin Reed was born a free man near Rochester, NY in the 1820s. As a young adult, he was sent to a juvenile reform school in Manhattan, where he learned to read and write. In the decades that followed, Reed would be repeatedly incarcerated for theft in a state prison in Auburn. It was there that he began to write this memoir, which explores America's first reformatory and first industrial prison from an inmate's point of view, and the great cruelties and kindnesses he experienced in those places, excavating patterns of racial segregation, exploitation, and bondage extending beyond the boundaries of the slaveholding South, into free New York. A work of uncommon, haunting beauty, this is a major historical document that transforms our understanding of nineteenth-century history and literature

Negroland by Margo Jefferson Margo Jefferson has spent most of her life among (call them what you will) the colored aristocracy, the colored elite, the blue-vein society. Since the nineteenth century they have stood apart, these inhabitants of Negroland, "a small region of Negro America where residents were sheltered by a certain amount of privilege and plenty." Reckoning with the strictures and demands of Negroland at crucial historical moments--the civil rights movement, the dawn of feminism, the fallacy of post-racial America--Jefferson brilliantly charts the twists and turns of a life informed by psychological and moral contradictions.

My Bondage and My Freedom by Frederick Douglass; Philip S. Foner (Introduction by) Autobiography of the nineteenth-century abolitionist who advocated the full freedom of the blacks.

A Taste of Power: a Black Woman's Story by Elaine Brown By August 1974, the Black Panthers were a national organization to be reckoned with, supported by millions of blacks as well as white liberals. How Brown came to leadership in this paramilitary, male-dominated organization, and what she did with that power, is an unsparing story of self-discovery. Brown's account of her life at the highest levels of the Black Panther party's hierarchy. More than a journey through a turbulent time in American history, this is the story of a black woman's battle to define herself.

Alone Atop the Hill: The Autobiography of Alice Dunnigan, Pioneer of the National Black Press by Alice Dunnigan; Carol McCabe Booker (Editor) n 1942 Alice Allison Dunnigan, a sharecropper's daughter from Kentucky, made her way to the nation's capital and a career in journalism that eventually led her to the White House. With Alone atop the Hill, Carol McCabe Booker has condensed Dunnigan's 1974 self-published autobiography to appeal to a general audience and has added scholarly annotations that provide historical context.

Redefining Realness: My Path to Womanhood, Identity, Love & So Much More by Janet Mock A young woman recounts her coming-of-age as a transgender teen--a portrait of self-revelation, adversity, and heroism.

I Wonder As I Wander by Langston Hughes; Arnold Rampersad (Introduction by) Hughes vividly recalls the most dramatic and intimate moments of his life in the turbulent 1930s. His wanderlust leads him to Cuba, Haiti, Russia, Soviet Central Asia, Japan, Spain (during its Civil War), through dictatorships, wars, revolutions. He meets and brings to life the famous and the humble, from Arthur Koestler to Emma, the Black Mammy of Moscow.

Black White and Jewish: Autobiography of a Shifting Self by Rebecca Walker The story of a child's unique struggle for identity and home when nothing in her world told her who she was or where she belonged. Poetic reflections on memory, time, and identity punctuate this gritty exploration of race and sexuality.

Fathering Words: the Making of an African American Writer by E. Ethelbert Miller; Bennington Writing Seminars Faculty 1999-2014 With ample insight, candor, and lyricism, poet, scholar, editor, and anthologist E. Ethelbert Miller reflects in these pages on his childhood in the South Bronx, his college days at Howard University, and his ongoing development as a husband, father, poet, and African American author.

Mo' Meta Blues: the World According to Questlove by Ahmir "Questlove" Thompson; Ben Greenman Questlove tells his own story while tackling some of the lates, the greats, the fakes, the philosophers, the heavyweights, and the true originals of the music world. He digs deep and unearths some pivotal moments in black art, hip hop, and pop culture. More than just a memoir, this is a dialogue about the nature of memory and the idea of a post-modern black man saddled with post-modern blues.

The Lights of Pointe-Noire by Alain Mabanckou; Helen Stevenson (Translator) "A dazzling meditation on home-coming and belonging from one of "Africa's greatest writers."--The Guardian"

A Taste of Power: a Black Woman's Story by Elaine Brown By August 1974, the Black Panthers were a national organization to be reckoned with, supported by millions of blacks as well as white liberals. How Brown came to leadership in this paramilitary, male-dominated organization, and what she did with that power, is an unsparing story of self-discovery. Brown's account of her life at the highest levels of the Black Panther party's hierarchy. More than a journey through a turbulent time in American history, this is the story of a black woman's battle to define herself.

How to Say Babylon: A Memoir by Safiya Sinclair '10 This stunning story of the author's struggle to break free of her strict Rastafarian upbringing ruled by a father whose rigid beliefs, rage and paranoia led to violence shows how found her own power and provides a unique glimpse into a rarefied world we know little about.

Wandering in Strange Lands: a Daughter of the Great Migration Reclaims Her Roots by Morgan Jerkins, MFA '16 Jerkins recreates her ancestors' journeys across America, following the migratory routes they took from Georgia and South Carolina to Louisiana, Oklahoma, and California. She did this not only her own past, but the lineage of an entire group of people who have been displaced, disenfranchised, and disrespected throughout our history.

Heavy: an American Memoir by Kiese Laymon Laymon writes eloquently and honestly about the physical manifestations of violence, grief, trauma, and abuse on his own body. He writes of his own eating disorder and gambling addiction as well as similar issues that run throughout his family. Heavy seeks to bring what has been hidden into the light and to reckon with all of its myriad sources, from the most intimate, to the most universal--a society that has undervalued and abused black bodies for centuries.

Officer Clemmons: A Memoir by Francois Clemmons When he created the role of Officer Clemmons on the television series Mister Rogers' Neighborhood, François Clemmons made history as the first African American actor to have a recurring role on a children's program. The role also required him to make painful personal choices and sacrifices. Here he details a life marked by family trauma and loss. During studies as a music major at Oberlin College, Clemmons began to investigate and embrace his homosexuality.

American Cocktail by Anita Reynolds; Howard Miller (As told to); George Hutchinson; Patricia J. Williams This is the rollicking, never-before-published memoir of a fascinating African American woman with an uncanny knack for being in the right place in the most interesting times. Actress, dancer, model, literary critic, psychologist, and free-spirited provocateur, Anita Reynolds was, as her Parisian friends nicknamed her, an American Cocktail.

The Beautiful Struggle by Ta-Nehisi Coates A memoir of growing up in the tough world of Baltimore in the 1980s chronicles the relationship between the author and his father, a Vietnam vet and Black Panther affiliate, and his campaign to keep his sons from falling victim to the temptations of the streets.

Bone Black by Bell Hooks Stitching together girlhood memories with the finest threads of innocence, the author presents a powerfully intimate account of growing up in the South.

Brother, I'm Dying by Edwidge Danticat Danticat came to think of her uncle Joseph, a charismatic pastor, as her "second father" when she was placed in his care at age four when her parents left Haiti for America. So she experiences a jumble of emotions when, at twelve, she joins her parents in New York City, whom she struggles to remember--she has left behind Joseph and the only home she's ever known. T

Dancing in Blackness by Halifu Osumare; Brenda Dixon Gottschild (Foreword by) Dancing in Blackness is a professional dancer's personal journey over four decades, across three continents and 23 countries, and through defining moments in the story of black dance in America. In this memoir, Halifu Osumare reflects on what blackness and dance have meant to her life and international career.

Dead Woman Pickney: A Memoir of Childhood in Jamaica by Yvonne Shorter Brown

Dreams from My Father by Barack Obama In this lyrical, unsentimental, and compelling memoir, the son of a black African father and a white American mother searches for a workable meaning to his life as a black American. It begins in New York, where Barack Obama learns that his father--a figure he knows more as a myth than as a man--has been killed in a car accident. This sudden death inspires an emotional odyssey7first to a small town in Kansas, from which he retraces the migration of his mother's family to Hawaii, and then to Kenya, where he meets the African side of his family, confronts the bitter truth of his father's life, and at last reconciles his divided inheritance.

Garvey and Garveyism by Amy Jacques Garvey; Julius Garvey (Contribution by); John Henrik Clarke (Introduction by) Amy Jacques Garvey worked closely with her husband, Marcus Garvey, throughout his crusade. Here she gives an insider detailed account of Garvey, Garveyism, and this nascent period of Black Nationalism. Like all great dreamers and planners, Marcus Garvey dreamed and planned ahead of his time and his peoples' ability to understand the significance of his life's work. A set of circumstances, mostly created by the world colonial powers, crushed this dreamer, but not his dreams. Due to the persistence and years of sacrifice of Mrs. Amy Jacques Garvey, widow of Marcus Garvey, a large body of work by and about this great nationalist leader has been preserved and can be made available to a new generation of black people who have the power to turn his dreams into realities.

I'm Still Here: Black Dignity in a World Made for Whiteness by Austin Channing Brown The author's first encounter with a racialized America came at age seven, when her parents told her they named her Austin to deceive future employers into thinking she was a white man. She grew up in majority-white schools, organizations, and churches, and has spent her life navigating America's racial divide as a writer, a speaker, and an expert helping organizations practice genuine inclusion. While so many institutions claim to value diversity in their mission statements, many fall short of matching actions to words. Brown highlights how white middle-class evangelicalism has participated in the rise of racial hostility, and encourages the reader to confront apathy and recognize God's ongoing work in the world.

Keeping Heart: A Memoir of Family Struggle, Race, and Medicine by Otis Trotter; Joe William Trotter (Introduction by) Organized around the life histories, medical struggles, and recollections of Trotter and his thirteen siblings, the story begins in 1914 with his parents, Joe William Trotter Sr. and Thelma Odell Foster Trotter, in rural Alabama. By telling his story alongside the experiences of his parents as well as his siblings, Otis reveals cohesion and tensions in twentieth-century African American family and community life in Alabama, West Virginia, and Ohio.

The Last Holiday: A Memoir by Gil Scott-Heron A personal account by the late musician and poet traces the story of his life, career, and history-making 1981 tour at the side of Stevie Wonder to raise support for the establishment of Martin Luther King, Jr. Day.

Makes Me Wanna Holler by Nathan McCall Examining the complexities of the problems of black youths from an insider's perspective, an African-American journalist recalls his own troubled childhood, his rehabilitation while in prison, and his successful Washington Post career. Reprint. 150,000 first printing. The author remembers his journey from a working class African American neighborhood to prison to a prestigious position on the Washington Post.

Manchild in the Promised Land by Claude Brown I want to talk about the first Northern urban generation of Negroes. I want to talk about the experiences of a misplaced generation, of a misplaced people in an extremely complex, confused society. This is a story of their searching, their dreams, their sorrows, their small and futile rebellions, and their endless battle to establish their own place in America's greatest metropolis--and in America itself.

The Manley Memoirs by Beverley Manley

The Misadventures of Awkward Black Girl by Issa Rae An introvert braves the cybersex, the pitfalls of eating out alone, the difficulties of weight gain, and other hurdles faced by shy people living in a world that urges us to be cool as "J" humorously recounts her life in all its awkward glory.

Open House: Family, Friends, Food, Piano Lessons and the Search for a Room of My Own by Patricia J. Williams The "Nation" columnist shares insights from her life as a lawyer, scholar, and mother, tackling such touchy subjects as racial stereotypes, Oprah Winfrey, and notions of feminine beauty.

Ordinary Light: A Memoir by Tracy K. Smith In Ordinary light, Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Tracy K. Smith explores her coming-of-age and the meaning of home against a complex backdrop of race, faith, and the unbreakable bond between a mother and daughter.

Revolutionary Suicide by Huey P. Newton Presents the memoir of founding Black Panther member Huey P. Newton in which he describes the inner circle of the revolutionary organization and covers his childhood in Oakland, Calif., struggles within the system, and confinement in the Alameda County Jail.

A Small Place by Jamaica Kincaid

Twin of Blackness: A Memoir by Clifford Thompson TWIN OF BLACKNESS is a culturally important memoir that traces an artist's evolution in the post-civil rights era, a literary odyssey that comes triumphantly to rest in a humanity that transcends small- spirited notions about race. Clifford Thompson is simply one of the wisest, warmest, and most trustworthy essayists writing today.

What Doesn't Kill You Makes You Blacker by Damon Young