• Image for Flamboyants : the queer Harlem renaissance I wish I'd known

    Flamboyants : the queer Harlem renaissance I wish I'd known

    "From New York Times-bestselling author of ALL BOYS AREN'T BLUE comes an illuminating set of profiles of Black and Queer icons from the Harlem Renaissance, interspersed with personal essays and spot illustrations by a Steptoe Award-winning illustrator"--

  • Image for Something kindred

    Something kindred

    Jericka Walker had planned to spend the summer before senior year soaking up the sun with her best friend on the Jersey Shore. Instead she finds herself in Coldwater, Maryland, a small town with a dark and complicated past where her estranged grandmother lives--someone she knows only two things about: her name and the fact that she left Jericka's mother and uncle when they were children. But now Jericka's grandmother is dying, and her mother has dragged Jericka along to say goodbye. As Jericka attempts to form a connection with a woman she's never known, and adjusts to life in a town where everything closes before dinner, she meets "ghost girl" Kat, a girl eager to leave Coldwater and more exciting than a person has any right to be. But Coldwater has a few unsettling secrets of its own. The more you try to leave, the stronger the town's hold. As Jericka feels the chilling pull of her family's past, she begins to question everything she thought she knew about her mother, her childhood, and the lines between the living and the dead.

  • Image for The color of a lie

    The color of a lie

    In 1955, a Black family relocates to the suburbs where they must pass for white, but dark secrets about the town and its inhabitants threaten their new home.

  • Image for Surrounded : America's first school for Black girls, 1832

    Surrounded : America's first school for Black girls, 1832

    In 1832, in Canterbury, Connecticut, a " charming and picturesque" little school for young girls opens to accommodate around twenty residents. Educating girls is a bit ridiculous and useless, they think in the area, but harmless enough. Until the day, when the "charming school" led by Prudence Crandall, announces that it will now welcome Black girls... Thirty years before the abolition of slavery, some fifteen young people in the Crandall school are greeted by a wave of hostility of insane proportion. White America is afraid of some of its children. The story of this school and its legal legacy for civil rights cannot be understated. Crandall v. State (of Connecticut) was the first full-throated civil rights case in U.S. history. The arguments by attorneys in the Crandall case played a role in two of the most fateful Supreme Court decisions, Dred Scott v. Sandford, and the landmark case of Brown v. Board of Education. It catapulted Ms. Crandall into a Civil Rights pioneer.

  • Image for A most perilous world : the true story of the young abolitionists and their crusade against slavery

    A most perilous world : the true story of the young abolitionists and their crusade against slavery

    "Kristina R. Gaddy tells the story of America's tumultuous years leading up to the Civil War and of the war itself from the viewpoints of four children of famous abolitionists, including those of Frederick Douglass and William Lloyd Garrison. Gaddy crafts a surprisingly contemporary braided coming-of-age narrative, supported by meticulous research and featuring dozens of primary documents. Each of these four young people-two white, two Black-was strongly committed to the anti-slavery cause but felt just as keenly a need to make their own names, away from the often over-protective or disapproving shadows of the famous adults in their lives. This is a true story of how a torch of resistance is passed and how a new generation makes its mark"-- Provided by publisher.

  • Image for The swans of Harlem : five Black ballerinas, a legacy of sisterhood, and their reclamation of a groundbreaking history

    The swans of Harlem : five Black ballerinas, a legacy of sisterhood, and their reclamation of a groundbreaking history

    "A full accounting of five incredibly talented Black ballerinas from The Dance Theater of Harlem, founding members among them, that illuminates their hard-fought, historic, and overlooked contributions to the world of classical dance at a time when racism shut out Black dancers from major dance companies"--

  • Image for Messenger : the legend of Muhammad Ali

    Messenger : the legend of Muhammad Ali

    "Muhammad Ali was one of the most photographed--and photogenic--figures in the history of sports. He demanded to be looked at, to be seen, and this epic captures his meteoric rise from Cassius Clay to Olympian and heavyweight champion of the world with stunning illustrations befitting his storied legacy. Bringing readers through major moments of his life--his first meeting with civil rights leader Malcolm X, his interview with sports broadcaster Howard Cosell about his reasons for opposing the Vietnam War, and his titanic bout with then-undefeated heavyweight champion George Foreman, among others--this graphic biography will be a crucial and instantly popular resource on The Greatest" --

  • Image for Everything I learned about racism I learned in school

    Everything I learned about racism I learned in school

    From preschool to higher education and everything in between, Everything I Learned About Racism I Learned in School focuses on the experiences Black and Brown students face as a direct result of the racism built into schools across the United States. The overarching nonfiction narrative follows author Tiffany Jewell from early elementary school through her time at college, unpacking the history of systemic racism in the American educational system along the way. Throughout the book, other writers of the global majority share a wide variety of personal narratives and stories based on their own school experiences. Everything I Learned About Racism I Learned in School provides young folks with the context to think critically about and chart their own course through their current schooling -- and any future schooling they may pursue.

  • Image for Ida, in love and in trouble

    Ida, in love and in trouble

    "A historical novel about Ida B. Wells, from her teen years up through becoming an investigative journalist and civil rights crusader without peer"--

  • Image for Under the heron's light

    Under the heron's light

    Told in alternating timelines, African American Atlas learns of her ancestral powers and their connection to the Great Dismal Swamp which shielded her grandmother as a formerly enslaved girl in the 1700s.

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