Best of
African-American

1987

Some Soul to Keep


J. California Cooper - 1987
    California Cooper writes with a transparent clarity and such exuberant energy that her characters leap off the page, bursting with stories they've got to tell--stories of simple people, stories of families and fate, of love and marriage, of death and the triumph of the human spirit.

Good Woman: Poems and a Memoir 1969-1980


Lucille Clifton - 1987
    "Lucille Clifton is one of the four or five most authentic and profound living American poets."--Denise Levertov

The Classic Slave Narratives


Henry Louis Gates Jr. - 1987
    Here are four of the most notable narratives: The Life of Olaudah Equiano; The History of Mary Prince; Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass; and Incidents in the Life of Slave Girl.

Now Sheba Sings The Song


Maya Angelou - 1987
    84 two-color halftones.

Marcus Garvey Life and Lessons: A Centennial Companion to the Marcus Garvey and Universal Negro Improvement Association Papers


Marcus Garvey - 1987
    "I do not speak carelessly or recklessly but with a definite object of helping the people, especially those of my race, to know, to understand, and to realize themselves."—Marcus Garvey, Halifax, Nova Scotia, 1937A popular companion to the scholarly edition of The Marcus Garvey and Universal Negro Improvement Association Papers, this volume is a collection of autobiographical and philosophical works produced by Garvey in the period from his imprisonment in Atlanta to his death in London in 1940.

Black Robes, White Justice: Why Our Legal System Doesn't Work for Blacks


Bruce Wright - 1987
    In this important book, he takes a hard look at these inequities, documenting them with numerous cases drawn from his years of experience in the courts.With unflinching honesty, he tackles such controversial subjects as the deep-seeded societal prejudices of white judges, the lack of black judges, the long history of excluding blacks from law schools and bar associations, the practice of setting higher bail for black defendants, the anti-black biases of white jurors, and the black defendant's limited access to quality legal representation.Judge Wright also addresses the abuse of police power against blacks, the dehumanizing conditions in jails populated primarily by blacks, and the way that death penalty convictions discriminate against blacks. Finally, he proposes remedies that must be taken if the courts are truly to become a place of justice for all.Timely and relevant, "Black Robes, White Justice" is a book that every American should read in order to understand one of the most important issues of our time.