In this stylish and complex memoir, Laymon, an English professor at the University of Mississippi and novelist (Long Division), presents bittersweet episodes of being a chubby outsider in 1980s Mississippi. He worships his long-suffering, resourceful grandmother, who loves the land her relatives farmed for generations and has resigned herself to the fact of commonplace bigotry. Laymon laces the memoir with clever, ironic observations about secrets,...

"This comprehensive biography, written by celebrated nonfiction author Susan Goldman Rubin, explores the tumultuous and passionate life of activist, singer, and actor Paul Robeson. When faced with the decision to remain silent or be ostracized, Paul Robeson chose to sing, shout, and speak out. Sing and Shout: The Mighty Voice of Paul Robeson explores how Robeson's love of African American spirituals and deep empathy towards the suffering of others...

Many people in the world today see those who do not look like them, or who speak differently as being separate; as "other." Relations challenges the human illusion of separation, illuminating the connections that link us all as humans, different though equal in every way. In this powerful anthology, new and established storytellers reshape the narratives that restrict and subjugate, revealing the truth of our shared humanity despite differences such...

Beth Macy, master chronicler of life in the South, combines exhaustive research, exclusive interviews and sources, and attention to detail in this riveting American story about race, greed, and a mother's love. George and Willie Muse from Truevine, Virginia were two little boys born in a brutal time, sharecropping a field in the segregated South, stolen away by a white man offering candy, and set on a path of events that would forever change their...

"In the summer of 2020, when the nation was erupting in protest over the murder of George Floyd, Chad Sanders was quietly celebrating for selfish reasons. Why? After years of struggling to get his footing as a writer, he’d finally landed a New York Times op-ed. He wrote an essay about the hollow messages of concern he’d been receiving from white friends and colleagues. It went viral, and in the years that followed, he built a solid career as a...

Richard Wright - Black Boy is an Emmy Award winning film -- the first documentary film on the life, work and legacy of Richard Wright. Born outside Natchez, Mississippi in 1908, Wright overcame a childhood of poverty and oppression to become one of America's most influential writers. His first major works, Native Son and Black Boy, were runaway best sellers which are still mainstays of high school and college literature and composition classes. According...

"Malcolm X Speaks collects the major late speeches of one of the most important leaders of our time, a man who was not only a champion of Black liberation but also one of the greatest orators of the twentieth century. This long-celebrated book of Malcolm X's speeches from 1963 to 1965 is a testament to the enduring power of his extraordinary words. These speeches show his changing attitudes to the Nation of Islam, questions of segregation and integration,...

"In his art Jonathan Green paints the world of his childhood and an ode to a people imbued with a profound respect for the dignity and value of others--the Gullah people of the South Carolina barrier islands. His vibrant canvases, beloved for their sense of jubilation and rediscovery, evoke the meaning of community Gullah society and display a reverence for the rich visual, oral, and spiritual traditions of its culture. His art reveals a keen awareness...

"The long journey of an American song, passed down from generation to generation, bridging a nation’s fraught disconnect between history and warped illusion, revealing the country’s ever evolving self. MY OLD KENTUCKY HOME, from its enormous success in the early 1850s, written by a white man, considered the father of American music, about a Black man being sold downriver, performed for decades by white men in blackface, and the song, an anthem...

"Ray Scott was part of the early wave of Black NBA players like Bill Russell, Wilt Chamberlain, and later Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, who literally changed how the game of professional basketball is played-leading to the tremendously popular financial blockbuster the NBA is today. Scott was a celebrated 6'9" forward/center after being chosen by the Detroit Pistons as the #4 pick of the 1961 NBA draft, and then again after he was named head coach of the Pistons...