Urban African American

Inner-city Black America is often stereotyped as a place of random violence; in fact, violence in the inner city is regulated through an informal but well-known code of the street. How you dress, talk, and behave can have life-or-death consequences, with young people particularly at risk. The most powerful force counteracting this code and its reign of terror is the strong, loving, decent family, and we meet many heroic figures in the course of this narrative.

Billionaire Elliott Kantor, who ruled over a mammoth real estate portfolio in Chicago, was a creature of habit. His trainer came to his house three mornings every week for a five-thirty workout. By six-thirty he was in the car and his driver drove him down into the city where he’d get a shave...

The past few months have been a living hell for Persia. Seemingly overnight, she has fallen from grace and found herself scraping rock bottom, all in the name of two lovers - Chucky and cocaine. One was supposed to love her and the other take away the pain, but they've both fallen short on their promises. The last time she saw either one of them was the night she almost lost her life.

Lynch mobs, chain gangs, and popular views of black Southern criminals that defined the Jim Crow South are well known. We know less about the role of the urban North in shaping views of race and crime in American society. Chronicling the emergence of deeply embedded notions of black people as a dangerous race of criminals by explicit contrast to working-class whites and European immigrants, this fascinating book reveals the influence such ideas have had on urban development and social policies.

Urban Books' popular Girls from da Hood series is back, bringing listeners more dramatic tales about the lives of some tough, resourceful women who can hold their own when things get rough on the streets. This time, Redd, Nikki-Michelle, and Erick S. Gray deliver the stories with their trademark flair. Like a hood-rich Bonnie and Clyde, Candy and Raynail have their hands on all of the drugs that run through the veins of Westwood. When Raynail is set up to take the fall for a crime he didn't commit, Candy goes on a mission to take down everyone involved.

Is love really the only thing O'Asia needs to save the waters? Or, is that just the tip of the iceberg? O'Asia and Zale need to fall in love, but they're currently surrounded by angry guards ready to uphold the law. Can Odessa succeed in protecting them both? With Emperor Seera now back in open waters, they quickly become more dangerous for one merm in particular, and O'Asia soon realizes that the prince and his love aren't the only things she needs to protect. She has to protect them all.

Blossom Baker has watched her sisters find love one by one. And just when she began to wonder when her Prince Charming would show his face, Roman Fields entered the picture, helping to bring all of her deepest desires to fruition.

Impassioned antislavery rhetoric made antebellum Boston famous as the nation’s hub of radical abolitionism. In fact, the city was far from a beacon of equality. In No Right to an Honest Living, historian Jacqueline Jones reveals how Boston was the United States writ small—a place where the soaring rhetoric of egalitarianism was easy, but justice in the workplace was elusive. Highlighting the everyday struggles of ordinary Black workers, this book shows how injustice in the workplace prevented Boston—and the United States—from securing true equality for all.

Just when Alize believes that things just can't get any worse, she's proven wrong once again. Her aunt Melva is in critical condition, Lindsey's been shot, and her chances of getting her girls back seem to be slipping further and further away. All Alize can do is hope and pray that things work out, but with more drama brewing in the background, she's going to need more than just some hope and prayers.

Marcus vows to spread a positive message with his upbeat flow. After one too many dead-end relationships, he plans on ditching the distraction until he meets the alluring Desta. Struck speechless by her passion and drive, he agrees to feature his mission in her documentary and secretly hopes to capture her heart. My Light: An African American Romance is the first stand-alone book in a series inspired by hip-hop songs. If you like simmering chemistry, driven characters, and Black love in motion, then you’ll enjoy Ebony Rose’s soulful novel.

The children we meet through the deepening friendships that evolve between Janathan Kozol and their families defy the stereotypes of urban youth too frequently presented on TV and in newspapers. Tender, generous, and often religiously devout, they speak with painful clarity about the poverty and racial isolation that have wounded but not hardened them. "It's not like being in a jail," says 15-year-old Isabel. "It's more like being hidden."

A prequel to Ashley and JaQuavis' New York Times best-selling Cartel series, this story follows the rise of notorious gangster Carter Diamond, taking listeners through his days on the mean streets of Michigan to his becoming the biggest drug lord Miami has ever seen. Before the cartel was ever created, he stood alone.

Award-winning novelist Tayari Jones delivers a story based on the 1979-1980 Atlanta child murders. Told from the perspective of three fifth-grade classmates, Leaving Atlanta is a vividly disturbing, but hopeful novel.

Imagine coming home to find a farewell note, an empty refrigerator, a disconnect notice from the electric company, and an eviction letter giving you 30 days to vacate the premises - all without a job to fall back on. Well, that's what happened to Africa Evans, a shy, insecure woman without a backup plan. From one bad choice to another, Africa leans on love as an escape from her dilemma. But for this girl from da hood, tough love may prove detrimental to her well-being.

Read by “Da Brat” DuPart and her wife Judy DuPart Hip-hop legend “Da Brat” DuPart and her wife Judy DuPart, stars of WEtv’s highly rated reality series Brat Loves Judy, share their journey to the altar and parenthood in this candid relationship guide and marriage memoir. Hip-hop legend...

Veteran authors Ashley and JaQuavis offer up their first solo efforts, and they're hotter than ever! Along with Ayana Ellis, they introduce listeners to some "real sistas" who know how to get what they want at all costs. For these women, if it's dangerous it just means the payout will be that much sweeter.

Mama Black Widow tells the tragic story of Otis Tilson, a stunning black drag queen trapped in a cruel queer ghetto underworld. In hopes of escaping the racial bigotry andeconomic injustice of the South, Otis' family journeys north from their plantation to an urban promised land. Once in Chicago, Otis and his siblings become prisoners to a wasteland of violence, crime, prostitution, and rape. This is the gut-wrenching tale of the destruction of a family and the truest portrayal of homosexuality in the ghetto ever told.

Sassy, sophisticated, and sensual are the three adjectives Sugar uses to define her personality, her style, and her shapely curves. Fiercely confident about her luxurious, full-figured body, Sugar sashays through Chicago’s nightlife belting high notes as a well-known singing sensation. Idolized by many, only few know her secret: She and her longtime manager, Ace, share more than a common passion for Sugar’s career - they’re lovers. At Ace’s insistence, Sugar has always agreed to secrecy for the sake of her career, but now she’s tired of hiding.

In Juliana Goodman's powerful young adult debut The Black Girls Left Standing, Beau Willet will stop at nothing to clear her sister's name. Sixteen-year-old Beau Willet has dreams of being an artist and one day leaving the Chicago projects she’s grown up in. But after her older sister, Katia...

Azu Wilson gave his oldest daughter the name Snow because she was born amongst his snowfall on the city of Gary, Indiana in 2001. Then, Azu had just began to drop tons kilos of coke on the city, starting the birth of his empire. Fast forward 18 years later, Snow is Azu's favorite girl and only daughter. She has been doted on by her father. Now, she is off to college with her best friends, Tristan and Bae. They hope that their move out of the violent streets of Chicago to Tallahassee will bring positive change to the brutally savage lives they have lived.