Starting the Conversation: Adult Nonfiction

In our commitment to serve our community and foster the pursuit of knowledge, we offer these resources to help begin important conversations.

Showing 1 - 20 of 33  There are a total of 82 valid entries on the list.
Book cover for "The accident of color"
Star rating for The accident of color
Description:
"A history of the first civil rights movement and the origins of black and white in America. When we hear "civil rights," we tend to think of the 1950s and 1960s activism that put an end to Jim Crow segregation laws. In The Accident of Color, Daniel Brook takes us to New Orleans and Charleston, where before the Civil War, free, biracial people-- sometimes referred to as "browns"-- exercised many rights of citizenship. During Reconstruction, as a black-...
Book cover for "The blood of Emmett Till"
Star rating for The blood of Emmett Till
Average Rating:
4.5 stars
Description:
"In 1955, white men in the Mississippi Delta lynched a fourteen-year-old from Chicago named Emmett Till. His murder was part of a wave of white terrorism in the wake of the 1954 Supreme Court decision that declared public school segregation unconstitutional ... But what actually happened to Emmett Till--not the icon of injustice but the flesh-and-blood boy? Part detective story, part political history, [this book] draws on a wealth of new evidence,...
Book cover for "Color blind"
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Author:
Description:
Dunkel traces the rise of a Bismarck integrated squad and follows them through their ups and downs, focusing on the 1935 season, and the first National Semi-Pro Tournament in Wichita, Kansas -- a decade before Jackie Robinson broke into the Major Leagues!
Book cover for "The color of law"
Star rating for The color of law
Average Rating:
4.8 stars
Description:
Rothstein examines the idea "that America's cities came to be racially divided through de facto segregation--that is, through individual prejudices, income differences, or the actions of private institutions like banks and real estate agencies. Rather, [he argues] that it was de jure segregation--the laws and policy decisions passed by local, state, and federal governments--that actually promoted the discriminatory patterns that continue to this day"--Amazon.com....
Book cover for "The defender"
Star rating for The defender
Average Rating:
5 stars
Description:
Giving voice to the voiceless, the Chicago Defender condemned Jim Crow, catalyzed the Great Migration, and focused the electoral power of black America. Robert S. Abbott founded The Defender in 1905, smuggled hundreds of thousands of copies into the most isolated communities in the segregated South, and was dubbed a "Modern Moses," becoming one of the first black millionaires in the process. Drawing on dozens of interviews and extensive archival research,...
Book cover for "Democracy in black"
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Average Rating:
4 stars
Description:
"A polemic on the state of black America that argues that we don't yet live in a post-racial society"--
Book cover for "A dreadful deceit"
Star rating for A dreadful deceit
Average Rating:
4 stars
Description:
"Traces the lives of six African Americans from the colonial era to the late 20th century, using their stories to illustrate the complex ways in which racial ideologies in this country have changed since the first Africans arrived on the nation's shores hundreds of years ago. The very idea of 'blackness,' she shows, has changed fundamentally over this period"--
Book cover for "Ebony & ivy"
Star rating for Ebony & ivy
Average Rating:
4.5 stars
Description:
An African American historian of race in America outlines his beliefs about race, slavery, and the American academy, positing that leading universities, dependent on human bondage, became breeding grounds for the racist ideas that sustained it.
Book cover for "The family tree"
Star rating for The family tree
Average Rating:
3 stars
Description:
The provocative true account of the hanging of four black people by a white lynch mob in 1912--written by the great-granddaughter of the sheriff charged with protecting them.
Book cover for "The fire next time"
Star rating for The fire next time
Average Rating:
4.4 stars
Description:
Contains a letter to Baldwin's nephew on the 100th anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation. Also describes his childhood, views on Black Muslims, and his visions.
Book cover for "Jackson, 1964"
Star rating for Jackson, 1964
Book cover for "Lies my teacher told me"
Star rating for Lies my teacher told me
Average Rating:
4.3 stars
Description:
Criticizes the way history is presented in current textbooks, and suggests a fresh and more accurate approach to teaching American history.
Book cover for "The lynching"
Star rating for The lynching
Average Rating:
3.5 stars
Description:
Describes the brutal killing of a young black man and subsequent conviction of two Klansmen in 1981 Alabama and the civil suit that exposed the true motives and philosophy of the organization and ultimately bankrupted them.
Book cover for "The making of a racist"
Star rating for The making of a racist
Average Rating:
4 stars
Description:
"This unique blend of memoir and history interweaves autobiography with the history of the slave trade and the American South"--Provided by publisher.
Book cover for "Malcolm X"
Star rating for Malcolm X
Average Rating:
4 stars
Description:
An authoritative biography of Malcolm X draws on new research to trace his life from his troubled youth through his involvement in the Nation of Islam, his activism in the world of Black Nationalism, and his assassination.
Book cover for "Negroland"
Star rating for Negroland
Average Rating:
4 stars
Description:
NATIONAL BOOK CRITICS CIRCLE WINNER • NATIONAL BESTSELLER • An extraordinary look at privilege, discrimination, and the fallacy of post-racial America by the renowned Pulitzer Prize–winning cultural critic

Jefferson takes us into an insular and discerning society: “I call it Negroland,” she writes, “because I still find ‘Negro’ a word of wonders, glorious and terrible.”
 
Margo...
Book cover for "Not quite not white"
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Book cover for "The other Wes Moore"
Star rating for The other Wes Moore
Average Rating:
4.3 stars
Description:
Traces the parallel lives of two youths with the same name in the same community, describing how the author grew up to be a Rhodes Scholar and promising business leader while his counterpart suffered a life of violence and imprisonment.
Book cover for "A people's history of the United States"
Star rating for A people's history of the United States
Average Rating:
4.2 stars
Description:

THE CLASSIC NATIONAL BESTSELLER

"A wonderful, splendid book—a book that should be read by every American, student or otherwise, who wants to understand his country, its true history, and its hope for the future." –Howard Fast

Historian Howard Zinn's A People's History of the United States chronicles American history from the bottom up, throwing out the official narrative taught in

...
Book cover for "Race man"
Star rating for Race man
Description:
"An inspiring, historic collection of writings from one of America's most important civil rights leaders"--