Best of
African-American

1992

Playing in the Dark: Whiteness and the Literary Imagination


Toni Morrison - 1992
    She shows how much the themes of freedom and individualism, manhood and innocence, depended on the existence of a black population that was manifestly unfree--and that came to serve white authors as embodiments of their own fears and desires.Written with the artistic vision that has earned Toni Morrison a pre-eminent place in modern letters, Playing in the Dark will be avidly read by Morrison admirers as well as by students, critics, and scholars of American literature.

Faces at the Bottom of the Well: The Permanence of Racism


Derrick A. Bell - 1992
    These essays shed light on some of the most perplexing and vexing issues of our day: affirmative action, the disparity between civil rights law and reality, the “racist outbursts” of some black leaders, the temptation toward violent retaliation, and much more.

Queen


Alex Haley - 1992
    Multigenerational saga of Alex Haley's father's family through his grandmother, Queen, the proud daughter born of a slave and a white slave owner.

Your Blues Ain't Like Mine


Bebe Moore Campbell - 1992
    For speaking a few innocuous words in French to a white woman, Armstrong is killed. And the precariously balanced world and its determined people--white and black--are changed, then and forever, by the horror of poverty, the legacy of justice, and the singular gift of love's power to heal.

Erotique Noire/Black Erotica


Roseann P. Bell - 1992
    Of lasting value for all lovers of literature and the erotic, this is a glorious, groundbreaking celebration of black sensuality, including works by Alice Walker, Ntozake Shange, and many more.

Daughters of the Dust: The Making of an African American Woman's Film


Julie Dash - 1992
    The film tells the story of an African American sea-island family preparing to come to the mainland at the turn of the century. In her richly textured, highly visual, lyrical portrayal of the day of the departure, Julie Dash evokes the details of a persisting African culture and the tensions between tradition and assimilation. Daughters of the Dust: The Making of an African American Woman’s Film, which includes Dash’s complete screenplay, describes the story of her extraordinary sixteen-year struggle to complete the project.

Paul Robeson


Martin Duberman - 1992
    Martin Duberman's classic biography, reissued by The New Press, offers a monumental and powerfully affecting portrait of one of this century's most notable performers, political radicals, and champions of racial equality.

The Judas Factor: The Plot to Kill Malcolm X


Karl Evanzz - 1992
    Photos. National TV and radio coverage."

Daughters of Africa


Margaret BusbyMakeda - 1992
    A monumental literary enterprise, it is the most inclusive anthology ever attempted of oral and written literature--in every conceivable genre--by women of African descent the world over. (Pantheon)List of Contributors Continued:Dorothy West, Carolina Maria de Jesus, Ellen Kuzwayo, Billie Holiday, Claudia Jones, Margaret Walker, Gwendolyn Brooks, Marie Vieux-Chauvet, Caroline Ntseliseng Khaketla, Aída Cartagena Portalatín, Louise Simone Bennett-Coverley, Alice Childress

Aunt Harriet's Underground Railroad in the Sky


Faith Ringgold - 1992
    in full color. Cassie, who flew above New York in Tar Beach, soars into the sky once more. This time, she and her brother Be Be meet a train full of people, and Be Be joins them. But the train departs before Cassie can climb aboard. With Harriet Tubman as her guide, Cassie retraces the steps escaping slaves took on the real Underground Railroad and is finally reunited with her brother at the story's end.