Books with category Civil Rights
Displaying 8 books

A Calamity of Souls

2024

by David Baldacci

Set in the tumultuous year of 1968 in southern Virginia, A Calamity of Souls is a gripping courtroom drama from #1 New York Times bestselling author David Baldacci. The story revolves around a racially-charged murder case that pits a duo of white and Black lawyers against a deeply unfair system as they work to defend their wrongfully-accused Black defendants.

Jack Lee, a white lawyer from Freeman County, Virginia, has never challenged racism. Yet, he finds himself representing Jerome Washington, a Black man charged with the heinous murder of an elderly, wealthy white couple. As Lee questions his decision, he fears his legal skills may not suffice against the overwhelming odds.

Desiree DuBose is a Black lawyer from Chicago, dedicated to the fight for justice and equality. She joins Lee in Freeman County, forming an uneasy alliance against the state's best prosecutor. DuBose is also cognizant of the external forces seeking to undermine the Civil Rights movement's gains.

Lee and DuBose are vastly different, and alone, they stand little chance against a prosecution bent on a guilty verdict. But united, they strive for what once seemed unattainable: a fair trial and justice. With over a decade spent on its creation, A Calamity of Souls vividly brings to life a past era, navigating a world both alien and recognizable to the modern reader.

The American Daughters

The American Daughters is a gripping historical novel about Ady, a spirited girl who, alongside her fierce mother Sanite, dreams of a loving future while enslaved in the French Quarter of New Orleans. Their days are filled with memories of their family's rebellious past. When separated from her mother, Ady finds herself hopeless until an encounter at the Mockingbird Inn introduces her to Lenore, a free Black woman.

Lenore, recognizing Ady's potential, invites her to join the Daughters, a secret society of spies. The courage passed down by Sanite, combined with the strength of these women, empowers Ady to prioritize her own well-being. This marks the start of her quest for liberation and the ability to envision a new future.

The American Daughters is a novel of hope and triumph, celebrating the power of community solidarity in the fight for freedom.

King

2023

by Jonathan Eig

King: A Life by Jonathan Eig is the first major biography in decades of the civil rights icon Martin Luther King Jr.—and the first to include recently declassified FBI files. This revelatory new portrait offers an intimate view of the preacher and activist who demanded peaceful protest for his movement but was rarely at peace with himself.

Eig casts fresh light on the King family's origins as well as MLK's complex relationships with his wife, father, and fellow activists. He reveals a minister wrestling with his own human frailties and dark moods, a citizen hunted by his own government, and a man determined to fight for justice even if it proved to be a fight to the death.

Following MLK from the classroom to the pulpit to the streets of Birmingham, Selma, and Memphis, Eig dramatically re-creates the journey of a man who recast American race relations and became our only modern-day founding father—as well as the nation's most mourned martyr.

In this landmark biography, Eig presents an MLK who was a deep thinker, a brilliant strategist, and a committed radical who led one of history's greatest movements. His demands for racial and economic justice remain as urgent today as they were in his lifetime. The book also includes 8 pages of black-and-white photographs.

Master Slave Husband Wife

2023

by Ilyon Woo

The remarkable true story of Ellen and William Craft, who escaped slavery through daring, determination, and disguise, with Ellen passing as a wealthy, disabled White man and William posing as “his” slave.

In 1848, a year of international democratic revolt, a young, enslaved couple, Ellen and William Craft, achieved one of the boldest feats of self-emancipation in American history. Posing as master and slave, while sustained by their love as husband and wife, they made their escape together across more than 1,000 miles, riding out in the open on steamboats, carriages, and trains that took them from bondage in Georgia to the free states of the North.

Along the way, they dodged slave traders, military officers, and even friends of their enslavers, who might have revealed their true identities. The tale of their adventure soon made them celebrities, and generated headlines around the country. Americans could not get enough of this charismatic young couple, who traveled another 1,000 miles criss-crossing New England, drawing thunderous applause as they spoke alongside some of the greatest abolitionist luminaries of the day—among them Frederick Douglass and William Wells Brown.

But even then, they were not out of danger. With the passage of an infamous new Fugitive Slave Act in 1850, all Americans became accountable for returning refugees like the Crafts to slavery. Then yet another adventure began, as slave hunters came up from Georgia, forcing the Crafts to flee once again—this time from the United States, their lives and thousands more on the line and the stakes never higher.

With three epic journeys compressed into one monumental bid for freedom, Master Slave Husband Wife is an American love story—one that would challenge the nation’s core precepts of life, liberty, and justice for all—one that challenges us even now.

Run: Book One

First you march, then you run. From the #1 bestselling, award–winning team behind March comes the first book in their new, groundbreaking graphic novel series, Run: Book One.

“In sharing my story, it is my hope that a new generation will be inspired by Run to actively participate in the democratic process and help build a more perfect Union here in America.” –Congressman John Lewis

The sequel to the #1 New York Times bestselling graphic novel series March—the continuation of the life story of John Lewis and the struggles seen across the United States after the Selma voting rights campaign.

To John Lewis, the civil rights movement came to an end with the signing of the Voting Rights Act in 1965. But that was after more than five years as one of the preeminent figures of the movement, leading sit–in protests and fighting segregation on interstate busways as an original Freedom Rider. It was after becoming chairman of SNCC (the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee) and being the youngest speaker at the March on Washington. It was after helping organize the Mississippi Freedom Summer and the ensuing delegate challenge at the 1964 Democratic National Convention. And after coleading the march from Selma to Montgomery on what became known as “Bloody Sunday.”

All too often, the depiction of history ends with a great victory. But John Lewis knew that victories are just the beginning. In Run: Book One, John Lewis and longtime collaborator Andrew Aydin reteam with Nate Powell—the award–winning illustrator of the March trilogy—and are joined by L. Fury—making an astonishing graphic novel debut—to tell this often overlooked chapter of civil rights history.

Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass

In 1845, runaway slave Frederick Douglass became, almost overnight, the most celebrated African American author in history with the publication of his Narrative. In stark, powerful prose, he conveyed his observations of owners and overseers, the demoralizing effects of slavery on both slave and slaveholder, and his own triumph over oppression.

In the latter part of the century, Douglass became a public figure of enormous stature: an orator, a newspaper publisher, and a statesman. But he is perhaps best remembered as America's first major African American writer, a man whose work still makes a powerful impact on both our minds and hearts.

For a new perspective on Douglass' narrative, Henry Louis Gates, Jr.'s, introduction examines its literary and social importance, and considers the issues Douglass raised as the foundation for today's field of African American studies. Gates's illuminating insights, and an extensive bibliography, make this edition essential reading for scholars, historians, and students of African American literature.

Seattle in Black and White

Seattle was a very different city in 1960 than it is today. There were no black bus drivers, sales clerks, or bank tellers. Black children rarely attended the same schools as white children. And few black people lived outside of the Central District. In 1960, Seattle was effectively a segregated town.


Energized by the national civil rights movement, an interracial group of Seattle residents joined together to form the Seattle chapter of the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE). Operational from 1961 through 1968, CORE had a brief but powerful effect on Seattle. The chapter began by challenging one of the more blatant forms of discrimination in the city, local supermarkets. Located within the black community and dependent on black customers, these supermarkets refused to hire black employees. CORE took the supermarkets to task by organizing hundreds of volunteers into shifts of continuous picketers until stores desegregated their staffs.


From this initial effort, CORE, in partnership with the NAACP and other groups, launched campaigns to increase employment and housing opportunities for black Seattleites, and to address racial inequalities in Seattle public schools. The members of Seattle CORE were committed to transforming Seattle into a more integrated and just society.


Seattle was one of more than one hundred cities to support an active CORE chapter. Seattle in Black and White tells the local, Seattle story about this national movement. Authored by four active members of Seattle CORE, this book not only recounts the actions of Seattle CORE but, through their memories, also captures the emotion and intensity of this pivotal and highly charged time in America’s history.

Walden & Civil Disobedience

Henry David Thoreau's masterwork, Walden, is a collection of his reflections on life and society. His simple but profound musings—as well as Civil Disobedience, his protest against the government's interference with civil liberty—have inspired many to embrace his philosophy of individualism and love of nature.

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