2007

Barack Obama. The Audacity of Hope: Thoughts on Reclaiming the American Dream

The junior senator from Illinois discusses how to transform U.S. politics, calling for a return to America's original ideals and revealing how they can address such issues as globalization and the function of religion in public life.

2006

Michael A. Gomez. Black Crescent: The Experience and Legacy of African Muslims in the Americas

 

2005

Howard W. French. A Continent for the Taking The Tragedy and Hope of Africa

In this powerfully written book, a senior writer for the "New York Times" gives an unstinting account of the disastrous consequences of the centuries-old encounters between Africa and the West.

2004

Wil Haygood. In Black and White: The Life of Sammy Davis, Jr.

Wil Haygood takes from the beginning in vaudeville, where it all began for four-year-old Sammy, who ran out onstage one night and stole the show, up to the end. In his broad and varied friendships and alliances he forged uncharted paths across racial lines. Admired and reviled by both blacks and whites, he was tormented all his life by raging insecurities, and never quite came to terms with his own skin. Ultimately, his only true sense of his identity was as a performer.

2003

Elizabeth McHenry. Forgotten Readers: Recovering the Lost History of African American Literary Societies

2002

Vernon E. Jordan. Vernon Can Read! A Memoir

Since the 1960s, civil rights activist Vernon Jordan has provided leadership to organizations such as the NAACP, the United Negro College Fund, and the National Urban League. Here, he describes his life including his work registering black voters in the South, his survival of an assassination attempt, and his relationships with American presidents and business leaders.

2001

Larry Eugene Rivers. Slavery In Florida: Territorial Days To Emancipation

Rivers traces the presence of Africans in Florida from Spain's early attempts to build an American empire, long before the institution of slavery was introduced. (eBook)

2000

Adele Logan Alexander. Homelands and Waterways: The American Journey of the Bond Family 1846-1926

1999

Carolyn Mazloomi. Spirits of the Cloth: Contemporary African American Quilts

Featuring 150 color photographs, "Spirits of the Cloth" is one of the first popular books to showcase the work of contemporary African-American quilters.

1998

Toi Derricotte. The Black Notebooks: An Interior Journey

A light-skinned black woman, Toi Derricotte moved to an all-white neighborhood near New York City 20 years ago and began making journal entries of encounters with neighbors, family, and colleagues. The result is a brilliant and painful document about the complexity of race in America.

1997

Nell Irvin Painter. Sojourner Truth: A Life, A Symbol

Sojourner Truth: ex-slave and fiery abolitionist, figure of imposing physique, riveting preacher and spellbinding singer who dazzled listeners with her wit and originality. Straight talking and unsentimental, Truth became a national symbol for strong black women - indeed, for all strong women.

1996

Herb Boyd and Robert L. Allen (editors). Brotherman: The Odyssey of Black Men In America

An anthology of writing by black men, about black men. Authors such as W.E.B. Dubois, Ralph Ellison, Paul Robeson, Malcolm X, Kareem Abdul- Jabbar, Alex Haley, and Ice T explore the black man's experience as adolescent, lover, husband, father, worker, warrior, and elder.

1995

Sara Lawrence-Lightfoot. I've Known Rivers: Lives of Loss and Liberation

In I've Known Rivers, sociologist Sara Lawrence-Lightfoot practices her unique "human archaeology", peeling back the layers of six extraordinary lives. What she creates is a wholly original work, a penetrating portrait of the lives of middle-class African-Americans that has not been seen before.

1994

David Levering Lewis. W. E. B. DuBois: Biography of a Race 1868-1919

Presents the life story of the towering and controversial civil rights leader, focusing on a crucial 50 year period in his--and the nation's--life.