J-Rod moves like a small battle tank on the court, his face mean, staring down his opponents. "I play just like my father," he says. "Before my father died, he was a problem on the court. I'm a problem." Playing basketball for him fuses past and present, conjuring his father's memory into a force that opponents can feel in every bone-breaking drive to the basket. On the street every ballplayer has a story. Onaje X. O. Woodbine, a former streetball...

"A tremendously important book—gracefully done, painfully perceptive...fearless in its honesty."
—Jonathan Kozol, author of Savage Inequalities

"The most authoritative accounting I've seen of where our country stands in its unending quest to resolve the racial dilemma on which it was founded."
—Diane McWhorter, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Carry Me Home

"The End of Anger may be the defining work on America's

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Ruth Standish Baldwin came from a family of early New England colonists with a history of social activism. The Baldwins were deeply concerned about the poor and disadvantaged. The health and welfare of Negro migrants were their particular interest. Mr. Baldwin, William Henry Baldwin, Jr., was an active participant in civic commissions and social agencies and had many ties to the Negro community. He belonged to a group of New York civic leaders and...

In these pages Dr. Belay D. Reddick draws on his experience as a prominent mentor coach to provide practical advice on how to inspire African American boys and affect positive change in their lives. Youll find tips on everything from creating youth summits and working with the community to employing effective topics in your mentorship work and taking self-assessments. For every adult black male who wants to save a generation of lost black boys, Theres...

Paul Robeson, despite being one of the greatest Renaissance figures in American history, still remains in relative anonymity. An exceptional scholar, lawyer, athlete, stage and screen actor, linguist, singer, civil rights and political activist, he performed brilliantly in every professional enterprise he undertook. Any serious treatment of civil rights history and radical politics as well as American sports, musical, theatrical, and film history...

The Condition, Elevation, Emigration and Destiny of the Colored People of the United States is often considered Martin Delaney's seminal and most controversial work. It was first published in 1852, a time of intense conflict between proslavery and antislavery forces. Delany used The Condition, Elevation, Emigration to analyze this conflict and its probable solution. Crafting a skillful argument, he attacked slavery and the subjugation of Black people....

People of different races have been falling in love for centuries, but it has only been in the last 30 years that interracial relationships have become acceptable in American society not to mention by local police. This book addresses the problems facing interracial couples from a black perspective. From interracial dating to marriage and child rearing, it talks frankly about racism and discrimination, deals with the disapproval of relatives, discusses...

At the age of nineteen, Nasir "Nas" Jones began recording tracks for his debut album -- and changed the music world forever. Released in 1994, Illmatic was hailed as an instant masterpiece and has proven one of the most influential albums in hip-hop history. With its close attention to beats and lyricism, and riveting first-person explorations of the isolation and desolation of urban poverty, Illmatic was pivotal in the evolution of the genre. ...

Do we live in basically orderly societies that occasionally erupt into violent conflict, or do we fail to perceive the constancy of violence and disorder in our societies? In this classic book, originally published in 1980, Cedric J. Robinson contends that our perception of political order is an illusion, maintained in part by Western political and social theorists who depend on the idea of leadership as a basis for describing and prescribing social...

This book, written by one of the foremost researchers in this field, represents one of the intellectual efforts on the explanation of the inter-ethnic phenomenon. The author went into the critique of the whole phenomenon and approached his frame of meaning from the actors side. That is why the book is subtitled The peoples non-formal mechanisms. The author is phenomenological in his approach and believes that the real meaning of any event should be...