"Following the Civil War, the Reconstruction era raised a new question to those in power in the US: Should African Americans, so many of them former slaves, be granted the right to vote? In a bitter partisan fight over the legislature and Constitution, the answer eventually became yes, though only after two constitutional amendments, two Reconstruction Acts, two Civil Rights Acts, three Enforcement Acts, the impeachment of a president, and an army...

The best-selling bible of the movement to defund the police in an updated edition
"Urgent, provocative, and timely, The End of Policing will make you question most of what you have been taught to believe about crime and how to solve it."
—James Forman Jr., author of Locking Up Our Own

The massive uprising that followed the police killing of George Floyd in the summer of 2020— by some estimates the largest...

"They Killed Freddie Gray exposes a conspiracy among Baltimore leaders to cover up what actually happened to Freddie Gray, who was fatally injured in police custody in April 2015. After Gray's death, Baltimore became ground zero for Black Lives Matter and racial justice protests that exploded across the country. State's Attorney Marilyn Mosby became a hero when she charged six officers in Gray's death, and the trials of the officers generated national...

"In 2008, Barack Obama's historic victory was heralded as a turning point for the country. And so it would be--just not in the way that most Americans hoped. The election of the nation's first Black president fanned long-burning embers of white supremacy, igniting a new and frightening phase in a uniquely American cycle of racial progress and white backlash. In American Whitelash, Pulitzer-Prizewinning journalist and bestselling author Wesley Lowery...

This book examines the lynching of blacks from 1865 to the 1950s, describes the violence of the civil rights movement, and discusses the prosecution of lynchers decades after the crimes were committed.

" 'If you want to understand the massive antiracist protests of 2020, put down the navel-gazing books about racial healing and read America on Fire.' -Robin D. G. Kelley, author of Freedom Dreams: The Black Radical Imagination. Library Journal "Books and Authors to Know: Titles to Watch 2021" From one of our top historians, a groundbreaking story of policing and "riots" that shatters our understanding of the post-civil rights era. What began in spring...

Introduces readers to the racial violence that erupted across the U.S. during the summer of 1919, and to the Tulsa race riots of 1921. Includes photographs, profiles, sidebars, critical-thinking questions, activities, a glossary, and additional resources.

Meticulously researched and drawn from numerous primary sources, this biography-in-verse tells the story of racism in the U.S. through six important Black Americans from different eras who struggled for justice, chronicling how much--and how little---racism has changed since our country's founding.

Randi Pink's The Angel of Greenwood is a historical YA novel that takes place during the Greenwood Massacre of 1921, in an area of Tulsa, OK, known as the "Black Wall Street." Seventeen-year-old Isaiah Wilson is, on the surface, a town troublemaker, but is hiding that he is an avid reader and secret poet, never leaving home without his journal. A passionate follower of W.E.B. Du Bois, he believes that black people should rise up to claim their place...

Explores the history and current state of racial injustice in the United States, and highlights key moments in the fight for racial justice. Discusses what can be done to end racial injustice in the present day and the future. Includes color photographs, fact boxes, a glossary, and additional resources.