The Best of Simple

Author	William Wells Brown
ISBN	0142437727

First published in December 1853, Clotel was written amid then unconfirmed rumors that Thomas Jefferson had fathered children with one of his slaves. The story begins with the auction of his mistress, here called Currer, and their two daughters, Clotel and Althesa. The Virginian who buys Clotel falls...

Author	Nella Larsen
ISBN	0141181273

Born to a white mother and an absent black father, and despised for her dark skin, Helga Crane has long had to fend for herself. As a young woman, Helga teaches at an all-black school in the South, but even here she feels different. Moving to Harlem and eventually to Denmark, she attempts to carve out a comfortable...

Author

W.E.B. Du Bois

This landmark book is a founding work in the literature of black protest. W. E. B. Du Bois (1868–1963) played a key role in developing the strategy and program that dominated early 20th-century black protest in America. In this collection of essays, first published together in 1903, he eloquently...

Author	Dick Gregory
ISBN	0671735608

I read this book years ago. It was given to me by a young black man who was working to change the attitudes of white people. However, I was a young white woman and he knocked on my apartment door and asked to come in and talk about Civil Rights. It was 1964. I was a senior in high school. I asked him to come in. He...

Author	Dorothy West
ISBN	0385471440

An Oprah Winfrey Presents Mini-Series on ABC Network Television Starring Halle Berry

In her last novel, Dorothy West, an iconic member of the Harlem Renaissance, offers an intimate glimpse into African American middle class.  Set on bucolic Martha's Vineyard in the 1950s, The Wedding tells...

Author

Richard Wright

"Johnny, you're leaving us tonight . . . "Fifteen-year-old Johnny Gibbs does, well in school, respects his teachers, and loves his family. Then suddenly, with a few short words, his idyllic life is shattered. He learns that the family he has loved all his life is not his own, but a foster family. And now...

Author	Sam Greenlee
ISBN	1930097271

The Spook Who Sat by the Door tells the story of Dan Freeman, an intelligent and 'naturally athletic' man from the ghetto who becomes the first black CIA agent, then resigns and returns home to Chicago to work with what would now be called 'at risk' youth. To his white bosses and funders, he appears to be...