African Cities

Author Thomas Healy resurrects a forgotten saga of race, capitalism, and the struggle for equality in this fascinating, forgotten story of the 1970s attempt to build a city dedicated to racial equality in the heart of “Klan Country”.

Chris Grainger is a man on a mission. He has allowed his lady, Angel, to take care of the both of them long enough and drastically decides to make a change. When he uses money from their joint savings to finance his dream, unexpected trials stop his progress. His chance meetings with an old-school ex-bartender, a brainiac computer whiz kid, and a tough young punk could offer Chris much-needed help or unforeseen harm. With limited options, Chris is forced to take risks that could make or break his future.

Copeland Cane V, the child who fell outta Colored People Time and into America, is a fugitive. He is also just a regular teenager coming up in a terrifying world. A slightly eccentric, flip-phone loving kid with analog tendencies and a sideline hustling sneakers, the boundaries of Copeland’s life are demarcated from the jump by urban toxicity, an educational apparatus with confounding intentions, and a police state that has merged with media conglomerates - the highly rated Insurgency Alert Desk that surveils and harasses his neighborhood in the name of anti-terrorism.

In this epic showdown from "one of the best crime novelists alive" (Dennis Lehane), police officer Derek Strange hunts his brother's killer through a city erupting with rage...

If you really want to understand Jim Crow - what it was and how African Americans rose up to defeat it - you should start by visiting Mobile Street in Hattiesburg, Mississippi, the heart of the historic black downtown. William Sturkey introduces us to both old-timers and newcomers who arrived in search of economic opportunities promised by the railroads, sawmills, and factories of the New South. He also takes us across town and inside the homes of white Hattiesburgers to show how their lives were shaped by the changing fortunes of the Jim Crow South.

Discover how—and why—Black, Indigenous, and people of color in America experience societal, economic, and infrastructural inequality throughout history covering everything from Columbus’s arrival in 1492 to the War on Drugs to the Black Lives Matter movement. From reparations to the prison...

The powerful, long-repressed classic of Dallas history that examines the violent and suppressed history of race and racism in the city. Written by longtime Dallas political journalist Jim Schutze, formerly of the Dallas Times Herald and Dallas Observer and currently columnist at D Magazine, The Accommodation follows the story of Dallas from slavery through the civil rights movement and the city’s desegregation efforts in the 1950s and ‘60s.

The kingpins of Oklahoma City, one from the north side and one from the south side, push pounds of weed, gallons of PCP, and kilos of cocaine through the corridors of the OKC, using very different methods to keep their people in line. King is the leader of the north side crew. Along with his protégé, Tippi, he runs his crew with deadly force. Each member knows there is no room for error when it comes to getting money on the north side. Flamboyant, the leader of the south side crew, is the opposite.

The deliberate devaluation of Blacks and their communities has had very real, far-reaching, and negative economic and social effects. An enduring white supremacist myth claims brutal conditions in Black communities are mainly the result of Black people's collective choices and moral failings. But there is nothing wrong with Black people that ending racism can't solve. Noted educator, journalist, and scholar Andre Perry takes listeners on a tour of six Black-majority cities whose assets and strengths are undervalued.

Baltimore is the setting for (and typifies) one of the most penetrating examinations of bigotry and residential segregation ever published in the United States. Antero Pietila shows how continued discrimination practices toward African Americans and Jews have shaped the cities in which we now live. Eugenics, racial thinking, and white supremacist attitudes influenced even the federal government's actions toward housing in the 20th century, dooming American cities to ghettoization.

Most Americans believe that slavery was a creature of the South, and that Northern states and territories provided stops on the Underground Railroad for fugitive slaves on their way to Canada. In this paradigm-shifting book, celebrated historian Tiya Miles reveals that slavery was at the heart of the Midwest's iconic city: Detroit. In this richly researched and eye-opening book, Miles has pieced together the experience of the unfree - both native and African American - in the frontier outpost of Detroit.

What up, doe! Welcome back to the mean streets of Detroit. With all the drama going down in Motown, I knew your nosy self couldn't stay away. Don't worry, you haven't missed a thing. We pick up the story right where we left off in The Real Hoodwives of Detroit, part one. If you thought your first visit to the Motor City was crazy, you ain't seen nothing yet. Nikki, Gucci, and Chloe have been waiting for you, and boy, do they have some fire!

In 2015, Tony Carpenter stumbled upon the plans for the Chronocar, a time machine conceived before it could be built by Dr. Simmie Johnson, genius, scientist, and son of a slave. Tony’s visit to 1919 to see the doctor and his lovely daughter Ollie turned into disaster, forcing the doctor to make a most difficult final decision. Now the timeline has worked its way back to 2012.

Against the backdrop of one of the most tumultuous periods in recent American history, as riots and demonstrations spread across the nation, the Tigers of poor, segregated East High School in Columbus, Ohio did something no team from one school had ever done before: they won the state basketball...

A sweet trilogy of lost and found loves in nature and nurture. The beauty of the African continent is told here in all its splendid detail. Carnal, fragrant, visual perfume graces these words as they lead you to where only your imagination can take you.

From Daniel Bernstrom, the acclaimed author of One Day in the Eucalyptus, Eucalyptus Tree, comes a charming and irresistibly fun picture book about a young blind girl and her grandmother who experience the vibrant everyday music of their busy city. A young girl, filled with the sounds of her...

On October 16, 1968, during the medal ceremony at the Mexico City Olympics, Tommie Smith, the gold medal winner in the 200-meter sprint, and John Carlos, the bronze medal winner, stood on the podium in black socks and raised their black-gloved fists to protest racial injustice inflicted upon African Americans. Both men were forced to leave the Olympics, received death threats, and faced ostracism and continuing economic hardships.

“An illuminating portrait of Baltimore in the aftermath of the April 2015 death of Freddie Gray . . . Readers will be enthralled by this propulsive account.”—Publishers Weekly FINALIST FOR THE PORCHLIGHT BUSINESS BOOK AWARD NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY LIBRARY JOURNAL...

Berry Hamilton was living a pretty good life - up until he was accused of stealing money from his employer. Despite having worked for the family for 20 years, Berry is found guilty of a crime he did not commit and sentenced to prison. As his wife and children turn to the community, they find themselves shunned. Left with no other choice, Fannie Hamilton and her two children, Joe and Kitty, pick everything up and move to Harlem.

Set against the backdrop of Jim Crow, Night Train to Nashville takes readers behind the curtain of one of music's greatest untold stories during the era of segregation and Civil Rights. In another time and place, E. Gab Blackman and William Sousa "Sou" Bridgeforth might have been as close as...