Black History Month Reading List

Black Brothers, Inc.: The Violent Rise and Fall of Philadelphia's Black Mafia

Sean Patrick Griffin

The Black Mafia is one of the bloodiest crime syndicates in modern US history. From its roots in Philadelphia's ghettos in the 1960's, it grew from a rabble of street toughs to a disciplined, ruthless organization based on fear and intimidation. Known in its "legitimate" guise as Black Brothers Inc, it held regular meetings, appointed investigators, treasurers and enforcers, and controlled drug dealing, loan-sharking, numbers rackets, armed robbery and extortion. Its ferocious crew of gunmen was led by Sam Christian, the most feared man on Philly's streets. They developed close ties with the influential Nation of Islam and soon were executing rivals, extorting bookies connected to the city's powerful Cosa Nostra crew, and cowing local gangs. Police say the Black Mafia was responsible for over forty killings, the most chilling being the massacre of two adults and five children in a feud between rival religious factions. Despite the arrests that followed, they continued their rampage, exploiting their ties to prominent lawyers and civil rights leaders. Convictions and sentences eventually shattered their strength-only for the crack-dealing Junior Black Mafia to emerge in their wake. Author Sean Griffin , a former Philadelphia police officer turned university professor, conducted scores of interviews and gained access to informant logs, witness statements, wiretaps and secret FBI files to make Black Brothers Inc. the most detailed account ever of an African American organized crime mob, and a landmark investigation into the modern urban underworld.

America's Black Capital: How African Americans Remade Atlanta in the Shadow of the Confederacy

Jeffrey O. G. Ogbar

Atlanta is widely considered to be America's Black Mecca. It has a higher concentration of black millionaires, black-owned businesses, and HBCUs than any other city in the United States. African Americans are overrepresented in every strata of Atlanta's governance. In 2020, more black voters in the Atlanta area cast ballots than those in any other state's metro, evincing a political power that flipped a once deeply red state blue. However, 150 years ago, Atlanta was a contender to be the capital of the Confederacy and harbored some of the most virulent white nationalism our country has ever seen. In chronicling the ascent of this iconic hub of Black excellence, America's Black Capital offers a riveting account of the push and pull between Black progress and racist backlash that has always been at the core of America's past. Historian Jeffrey Ogbar shows how in Atlanta African Americans built a city in which they could flourish. In the decades after the Civil War, Confederate ideology continued to linger in Georgia's capital, as city landmarks were renamed in honor of the Lost Cause, former Confederates were elected to political office, and white supremacist violence surged in the city. In response to relentless waves of racist retrenchment, African Americans pushed back, creating an extraordinary locus of achievement in a center of neo-Confederate white nationalism. What drove them, America's Black Capital shows, is the belief that black uplift would be best advanced by the creation and support of black institutions, an ideology that pre-dated Black Power by almost a century. Spanning from the Civil War to the present, America's Black Capital is an inspiring story of Black achievement against all odds--one that reveals both the persistence of the Confederacy and the remarkable legacy of Black resistance in the United States

The Garretts of Columbia: A Black South Carolina Family from Slavery to the Dawn of Integration

David Nicholson

A writer in search of his roots discovers stories of African American struggle, sacrifice, and achievement. In The Garretts of Columbia, author David Nicholson tells a multigenerational story of Black hope and resilience. Carefully researched and beautifully written, The Garretts of Columbia engages readers with stories of a family whose members believed in the possibility of America. Nicholson relates the sacrifices, defeats, and affirming victories of a cohort of stalwart men and women who embraced education, fought for their country, and asserted their dignity in the face of a society that denied their humanity and discounted their abilities. The letters of Anna Maria 'Mama' Threewitts Garrett, along with other archival sources and family stories passed down through generations, provided the framework that allowed Nicholson to trace his family's deep history, and with it a story about Black life in segregated Columbia, SC, from the years after the Civil War to World War II.

What Have We Here? Portraits of a Life

Billy Dee Williams

Billy Dee Williams was born in Harlem in 1937 and grew up in a household of love and sophistication. As a young boy, he made his stage debut working with Lotte Lenya in an Ira Gershwin/Kurt Weill production where Williams ended up feeding Lenya her lines. He studied painting, first at the High School of Music and Art, with fellow student Diahann Carroll, and then at the National Academy of Fine Art, before setting out to pursue acting with Herbert Berghoff, Stella Adler, and Sidney Poitier. His first film role was in The Last Angry Man, the great Paul Muni's final film. It was Muni who gave Billy the advice that sent him soaring as an actor, "You can play any character you want to play no matter who you are, no matter the way you look or the color of your skin." And Williams writes, "I wanted to be anyone I wanted to be." He writes of landing the role of a lifetime: co-starring alongside James Caan in Brian's Song, the made-for-television movie that was watched by an audience of more than fifty million people. Williams says it was "the kind of interracial love story America needed." And when, as the first Black character in the Star Wars universe, he became a true pop culture icon, playing Lando Calrissian in George Lucas's The Empire Strikes Back ("What I presented on the screen people didn't expect to see"). It was a role he reprised in the final film of the original trilogy, The Return of the Jedi, and in the recent sequel The Rise of Skywalker. A legendary actor, in his own words, on all that has sustained and carried him through a lifetime of dreams and adventure.

The End of Race Politics: Arguments for a Colorblind America

Coleman Hughes

An exciting new voice makes the case for a colorblind approach to politics and culture, warning that the so-called 'anti-racist' movement is driving us-ironically-toward a new kind of racism. As one of the few black students in his philosophy program at Columbia University years ago, Coleman Hughes wondered why his peers seemed more pessimistic about the state of American race relations than his own grandparents-who lived through segregation. The End of Race Politics is the culmination of his years-long search for an answer. Contemplative yet audacious, The End of Race Politics is necessary reading for anyone who questions the race orthodoxies of our time. Hughes argues for a return to the ideals that inspired the American Civil Rights movement, showing how our departure from the colorblind ideal has ushered in a new era of fear, paranoia, and resentment marked by draconian interpersonal etiquette, failed corporate diversity and inclusion efforts, and poisonous race-based policies that hurt the very people they intend to help. Hughes exposes the harmful side effects of Kendi-DiAngelo style antiracism, from programs that distribute emergency aid on the basis of race to revisionist versions of American history that hide the truth from the public. Through careful argument, Hughes dismantles harmful beliefs about race, proving that reverse racism will not atone for past wrongs and showing why race-based policies will lead only to the illusion of racial equity. By fixating on race, we lose sight of what it really means to be anti-racist. A racially just, colorblind society is possible. Hughes gives us the intellectual tools to make it happen.

Black History in the Philadelphia Landscape: Deep Roots, Continuing Legacy

Amy Jane Cohen

Recounts events in Philadelphia African American history. Each brief chapter addresses a different topic, exploring the event itself and how it is marked in the landscape, whether through a historical marker, a monument, a mural, or some other means. Chapters conclude with suggested ways to learn more about the topic.

Wandering in Strange Lands: A Daughter of the Great Migration Reclaims Her Roots

Morgan Jerkins

Black Cowboys of Texas

Sara R. Massey

The Black President: Hope and Fury in the Age of Obama

Claude A. Clegg

The Black Joke: One Ship's Battle Against the Slave Trade

A. E. Rooks

The Story of Motown

Peter Benjaminson

Vigilance: The Life of William Still, Father of the Underground Railroad

Andrew K. Diemer

The Talk: Conversations about Race, Love & Truth

Cheryl Willis Hudson

Diverse collection of short stories, essays, and poems from notable writers and artists who share their personal experiences and discussions about racism, identity, and self-esteem. Features stories filled with love, acceptance, truth, and peace. Includes supplemental material. Commercial audiobook. For grades 5-8 and older readers. 2020. 

Four Hundred Souls: a Community History of African America, 1619-2019

Keisha N. Blain and Ibram X. Kendi

A "community" history of African Americans spanning the four centuries between 1619 and 2019 that contains pieces from ninety writers, each covering the span of a few years. Each period of time is explored in a variety of ways, including essays, short stories, vignettes, and polemics. Unrated. Commercial audiobook. Bestseller. 2021.        

Invisible Man

Ralph Ellison

Classic novel of man's search for identity. Follows a young black man from his youth in a Southern town through the depression years in Harlem, where he examines and rejects the values thrust on him by both whites and blacks. 

Another Country

James Baldwin

A talented black musician, his beautiful sister, and his white friend strike out against the conventions of sex, race, and society. Violence and explicit descriptions of sex. 

Punching the Air

Ibi Aanu Zoboi and Yusef Salaam

A novel in verse. Sixteen-year-old Amal's bright future is upended: he is convicted of a crime he didn't commit and sent to prison. Fighting despair and rage, Amal turns to the refuge of his words, his art. Strong language. Commercial audiobook. For senior high and older readers. 2020.

The Hate U Give

Angie Thomas

When sixteen-year-old Starr Carter witnesses the fatal shooting by a police officer of her childhood best friend, Khalil, she is afraid to speak out. But remaining quiet and safe is difficult with rising tensions between the police and the community. Violence and strong language. Commercial audiobook. For senior high and older readers. 2017.