The Souls of Black Folk (Penguin Classics)44 reviews W. E. B. Du Bois, Monica M. Elbert Penguin Classics, 1996 Speaks The Truth To Power + The Souls of a Fallen People... + Great W.E.B .DUBOIS + The Soul Of All Folk:             Major Taylor: The Extraordinary Career of a Champion Bicycle Racer5 reviews Andrew Ritchie The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1996 Important History - Not Just About Bicycling + Great as sports biography, social history, and history of cycling + Excellent early history of cycling and of a forgotten icon + Well written, very well documented important historical work + Major Taylor, worlds greatest cyclist of incredible morals             Shades of Glory: The Negro Leagues & the Story of African-American Baseball2 reviews Lawrence D. Hogan National Geographic, 2007 Shades of the Past In some ways, to look at the history of black baseball is to look at the past image of civil rights in the whole of U.S. society. For this baseball fan, Shades of Glory shows that the history of black baseball is part heartening, seeing that, in the early days, not a vast quantity of racism came ...             The Promised Land: The Great Black Migration and How It Changed America14 reviews Nicholas Lemann Vintage, 1992 outstanding book. + Recommended by a conservative talk show host + Great read with valuable insights on US history + Terrific reading             The Autobiography of Martin Luther King, Jr.44 reviews Martin Luther King Jr., Clayborne Carson Grand Central Publishing, 2001 The Radicalism of Martin Luther King, Jr. is Revealed + The best read of the year + Great + INSPIRATION + Really Enjoyed Reading the Book             Long Walk to Freedom: The Autobiography of Nelson Mandela119 reviews Nelson Mandela Back Bay Books, 1995 Must Read + "it is the oppressor who defines the nature of the struggle" + Mandela: a portrait of integrity + Wonderful Book + Should be required reading             Harriet Tubman: The Road to Freedom16 reviews Catherine Clinton Back Bay Books, 2005 A BLACK 'GENERAL' LEADS HER PEOPLE TO FREEDOM The story of the ex-slave, Civil War `general' and black liberation fighter Harriet Tubman is the stuff of legends. Although in recent decades she has received more of the proper attention due her the fight she so ardently fought for the real freedom for blacks still is the wave of the future. Her ...             Blacks5 reviews Gwendolyn Brooks Third World Press, 1994 Sweeping and Epic + Ms. Brooks best writings + Late Great American Writer's Collection of Standards + Excellent poetry + Brooks has "a long reach, / strong speech"             Baseball's Great Experiment: Jackie Robinson and His Legacy6 reviews Jules Tygiel Oxford University Press, USA, 1997 Baseball as History + Real Eye-Opener + Exceeds Expectations + Well Done + A book that increased my understanding             Parting the Waters : America in the King Years 1954-63 (America in the King Years)37 reviews Taylor Branch Simon & Schuster, 1989 Moving storytelling + Undiscovered Country + Amazingly Woven Detail + Indispensable + Excellent and Informative             Narrative of Sojourner Truth (Penguin Classics)2 reviews Sojourner Truth Penguin Classics, 1998 Narrative of Sojourner Truth + Interesting... This book is an excellent biography. It goes a little further into the creases and crefices of the life of this great woman. I used it for a presentation in one of my doctoral courses and found it on a level that fit my needs.             Black Boy (The Restored Text Established by The Library of America) (Perennial Classics)153 reviews Richard A. Wright Harper Perennial Modern Classics, 1998 Mississippi God Damn + Surprisingly good + incredible intelligence that can't be stopped. + Black Boy             Bessie: Revised and expanded edition2 reviews Chris Albertson Yale University Press, 2003 Empress of the Blues + Great Book on a True Queen Albertson has had the rare fortune to have interviewed Bessie Smith's niece Ruby Walker Smith who toured with Bessie for over a decade. No other book on Bessie is needed. You can't find all these great interviews w/ relatives and friends in another book. And the great thing is this one is written ...             Reminiscing In Tempo: A Portrait of Duke Ellington2 reviews Stuart Nicholson Northeastern, 2000 Musicians tell Duke's story - no holds barred. + it HAS got that swing There are a handful of books about jazz which provide musical insights and feelings and opinions which pull the reader into the lives of those who do the job of making music - still probably the best is HEAR ME TALKIN' TO YA edited by Shapiro and Hentoff along with Stuart Nicholson author of A ...             The Great Migration: An American Story2 reviews HarperTrophy, 1995 Art-lovers for life + A pleasure to read and a pleasure to see. Parents hoping to introduce their children to modern American art could do worse than to buy this edition reproducing 60 paintings by Jacob Lawrence (1917-2000), one of the finest African American artists in U.S. history. First published for children in a 1993 limited edition, with a poem by ...             The Big Sea: An Autobiography (American Century Series)12 reviews Langston Hughes Hill and Wang, 1993 The journies of a Hero + Path to Greatness + "Sometimes life is a ripe fruit too delicious for the taste of man." + Must read             Benjamin O. Davis Jr., American : An Autobiography4 reviews DAVIS BO Smithsonian, 2000 One of the best books I've ever read. + The Battle for Acceptance + A Great American Hero! + Benjamin O. Davis Jr. American             The Hairstons: An American Family in Black and White41 reviews Henry Wiencek St. Martin's Griffin, 2000 Amazing story of shared history, forgiveness and reconciliation... + Better Than I'd First Thought + Just as good, if not better, than Ball's book When Henry Wiencek was doing background work for a book on old houses, he visited a plantation home in North Carolina called Cooleemee. Cooleemee has been owned continuously by the Hairston family, and the present owner is Judge Peter W. Hairston. Wiencek asked Hairston if he knew of any ...             Can't Be Satisfied: The Life and Times of Muddy Waters18 reviews Robert Gordon Back Bay Books, 2003 Well Documented Biography + Chicago Blues and Mississippi Mud + Impressive Research + The Birth of the Chicago Blues..... + A mix of good & bad traits.             Frederick Douglass : Autobiographies : Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave / My ...5 reviews Frederick Douglass Library of America, 1994 The Life of a Free Man + One of my relatives + one of the founding American novels + Excellence in Achievement through the Human Spirit + Hard work and a positive attitude prevail