"[I]n New York ... Barack Obama learns that his father--a figure he knows more as a myth than as a man--has been killed in a car accident. This sudden death inspires an emotional odyssey--first to a small town in Kansas, from which he retraces the migration of his mother's family to Hawaii, and then to Kenya, where he meets the African side of his family, confronts the bitter truth of his father's life, and at last reconciles his divided inheritance"--Container....

This poignant and powerful narrative tells the dramatic story of Kunta Kinte, snatched from freedom in Africa and brought by ship to America and slavery, and his descendants. Drawing on the oral traditions handed down in his family for generations, the author traces his origins back to the seventeen-year-old Kunta Kinte, who was abducted from his home in Gambia and transported as a slave to colonial America. In this account Haley provides an imaginative...

A memoir of growing up in the tough world of Baltimore in the 1980s chronicles the relationship between the author and his father, a Vietnam vet and Black Panther affiliate, and his campaign to keep his sons from falling victim to the temptations of the streets.

Presents the memoir of founding Black Panther member Huey P. Newton in which he describes the inner circle of the revolutionary organization and covers his childhood in Oakland, Calif., struggles within the system, and confinement in the Alameda County Jail.

Twelve Years a Slave by Solomon Northup is a memoir of a black man who was born free in New York state but kidnapped, sold into slavery and kept in bondage for 12 years in Louisiana before the American Civil War. He provided details of slave markets in Washington, DC, as well as describing at length cotton cultivation on major plantations in Louisiana.

"Walking readers through a rich but often overlooked part of American history, this compendium addresses the people, times, and events that influenced and changed African American history. An overview of major biographical figures and history-making events is followed by a deeper look at the development in the arts, entertainment, business, civil rights, music, government, journalism, religion, science, sports, and more. Mimicking the a broad range...

Ruby Bridges recounts the story of her involvement, as a six-year-old, in the integration of her school in New Orleans in 1960.

Presents the inspiring stories of baseball players who overcame obstacles in the course of their careers due to race, religion, ethnicity, or gender, including Jackie Robinson, Hank Greenburg, Fernando Valenzuela, and Ila Borders.

For months six-year-old Ruby Bridges must confront the hostility of white parents when she becomes the first African American girl to integrate Frantz Elementary School in New Orleans in 1960.

As a 14-year-old he was Malcolm Little, the president of his class and a top student. At 16 he was hustling tips at a Boston nightclub. In Harlem he was known as Detroit Red, a slick street operator. At 19 he was back in Boston, leading a gang of burglars. At 20 he was in prison. It was in prison that Malcolm Little started the journey that would lead him to adopt the name Malcolm X, and there he developed his beliefs about what being black means...