African American History and Culture

The book’s purpose is to take us behind-the-scenes so we can see what it’s like to grow up and live life in the Gullah community. Sayings such as “dog got four feet but can’t walk but one road” are uniquely Gullah. This translates to “you can only do one thing at a time.” The book has black adn white photos of Gullah people fishing, riding on horseback, boating, and playing music. One of the co-authors is of South CarolinaGullah heritage: Dr. Emory Campbell, President of Gullah Heritage Consulting Services.

Legend has it that in 1803 at St. Simons Island, Georgia, a group of 75 Igbo warriors from what is now Nigeria committed mass suicide by drowning rather than begin life in America as slaves. They survived the Middle Passage only to walk willingly into the sea wearing chains. A private land dispute prevents a memorial from being built at the site where this happened. This book was edited by Queen Quet, Chieftess of the Gullah/Geechee Sea Island Nation. This book features beautiful color paintings of Gullah life and history.

This beautiful coffee table book book is signed by the author, Jonathan Green of South Carolina. It contains 108 color portraits and paintings, with captions describing each work of art. The first thirty pages share a biography of the artist and describe his life’s work. The rest of the book is devoted entirely to nothing but beautiful art. The images depict the artist’s upbringing. He was raised on a farm in Gullah country, the coastal areas of South Carolina and Georgia, inhabited by the descendants of freed slaves from the area. 

This autobiography/memoir covers the life of abolitionist and former slave Frederick Douglass. Its text is preceded by an introduction from Dr. John Blassingame: Yale graduate, Yale professor, and pioneer in the study of American slavery. After the text, there are about fifty pages of historical information, including book reviews written by people shortly after the autobiography was published. What makes this autobiography so significant is the fact that it was written only seven years after Douglass’ escape from slavery.

This book is only 75 pages long, but is full of valuable information about Frederick Douglass (1818-1895). It is an unabridged republication of his 1845 autobiography, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave. In it, Douglass describes, in unflinching honesty, the horrors of slavery. He tells of how he watched a slave mother kill her baby with a piece of wood and saw a slave get shot to death for trespassing. His heartbreaking and disturbing tales make his own escape even more extraordinary and his calls for abolition even more passionate.

The book discusses the transatlantic partnership of the abolitionist movement by describing how Frederick Douglass (1818-1895) got an early start in the abolitionist movement overseas. His 1845 trip to what is known today as the United Kingdom changed his life forever. This book is a set of essays written by ten different scholars, professors of American and African American studies, from both the United States and the United Kingdom. 

President Abraham Lincoln and Frederick Douglass were opponents who became close friends. Although their views and methods differed, Douglass had the President’s ear and could give him advice on recruiting African Americans to win the Civil War, emancipation, and how to treat freed slaves. They met inside of the White House three times. Douglass was fortunate to congratulate Lincoln in person at his second Inaugural Ball, just six weeks before the president was assassinated. This book was written by a CUNY Graduate School history professor who specializes in slavery and the South.

This book covers the final 18 years of Frederick Douglass’ life when he lived in a mansion on top of Cedar Hill in Anacostia, a neighborhood of Washington, D.C. The author is a graduate of George Washington University, a prominent university in Washington, D.C. The book is filled with black and white pencil sketches, images, and photographs, many depicting the interior of Douglass’ home, as well as his family life.

This book was written by Dr. Gregory Lampe, a retired provost and vice chancellor for academic and student affairs, and emeritus communications professor at Michigan State University. Since Douglass was an orator, it seems fitting for a communications and speech professor to write about his oratory and rhetoric. Now, after reading this book, you have to go to freedomarchives.org to listen to a recording of Frederick Douglass's voice.

This book is a treasure trove of color portraits and photographs depicting the life of Frederick Douglass. It is an inspiring work of art divided into ten chapters tracing the highlights of his life from slavery to full citizenship. Because it was published recently, the back of the book offers useful websites after the bibliography. Especially poignant is the image on the title page verso of a ball and chain being broken at the shackles, a very fitting image for this great man's life.

This book is a tragic love story. One of Frederick Douglass’ friends from Germany, feminist Ottilie Assing (1819-1884), traveled to the United States, interviewed him, and translated his autobiography into German. Assing was a journalist by profession. They were about the same age. She fell in love with him, but he said he was wary of the racial divide in the United States. After the death of her sister, Assing returned to Europe to settle the family estate. During this trip, she learned through the newspaper that Frederick Douglass had married another woman seven months prior.

This children's book tells the story of how Frederick Douglass (1818-1895) fought his slave master and claimed his freedom from slavery. It is based on the true story of Douglass' escape from slavery and tells of how he earned the respect of the slave masters and his fellow slaves. The book features many beautiful color illustrations by Cedric Lucas, bringing to life Douglass' inspiring and enthralling story.

This quick read is directed at teenagers. It is full of powerful black and white sketches. This book shares the fascinating story of Frederick Douglass's young life as well as trials that today's teens can relate to: young Fred’s early life, the deaths of his loved ones, changing his last name to avoid being tracked, learning to stand up for himself and fight, and learning about the importance of education. This biographic work is a classic coming of age true story. 

Black Stars in Orbit is an overview of the first African Americans who were selected to be astronaut candidates, the first who worked for NASA on new technologies for mission projects, and the first to travel to space as part of the NASA Space Shuttle program. This volume is beatifully illustrated and contains brief biographical overviews.

A detailed and riveting history of early African Americans and aviation written by one of the Tuskegee pilots who served in the U.S. Army Air Corps during World War II. This book details the stories of those first aviation pioneers and their contributions that aided in the founding of the Tuskegee program and its success. It is unsparing in detailing the realities and risks they faced to achieve their goals.

René Maran was born in Martinique, educated in France, and served as a colonial administrator in the French colonies of West Africa.  In 1921, he won the Prix Goncourt for Batouala. He was the first black author to be so honored. Although the book's preface includes a blistering critique of French colonial abuses, Maran asserts that the novel is a story not of black against white, but simply of two men in a Banda village fighting over a woman.

This beautiful book, a wordless novel, tells a story of the African slave trade and one slave trader’s obsession and tragic downfall—all in 128 powerful woodcuts that combine Art Deco and Expressionist styles. Lynd Ward was one of America’s finest wood engravers, and the detailed, complicated plates in this book show him as a master craftsman and illustrator who could also reveal psychological anguish through his art. The plates in this second-edition copy are reproduced photographically; the front and back covers are bound in papers showing a woodcut-style design in black and white.

This book highlights the lives, works, and accomplishments of African American scholars in recent history whose work is influential in the field of anthropology. The contributions of these scholars vary, ranging from the cultural impacts of Zora Neale Hurston’s field works and writings to Caroline Bond Day and her research in physical anthropology. Each chapter focuses on a specific person, discussing both their biography and their scholarly work.

The authors use the discovery of discarded 19^th-century cadavers at the Medical College of Georgia to examine the use of African American bodies as a medical education tool. The book looks at the cultural implications of these practices as well as the resulting medical knowledge. This research brings added dimension to physical anthropology discoveries and historical medical findings.

Upon the discovery of a long-forgotten cemetery in Philadelphia, excavation and study exposed the remains of a Baptist church cemetery and its African-American inhabitants. Thorough research of the skeletons and surrounding area shed light on the living conditions of the African Americans in 19^th-century Philadelphia and its environs. This book is important to scientists and curators studying 19^th-century American life and physical remains of 19^th century Africa -Americans.

Fifty years in chains: or, the life of an American slave is an abridged and unauthorized 1858 reprint of the 1836 Slavery in the United States: a narrative of the life and adventures of Charles Ball... . As one of the earliest slave narratives, its influence on later works is a well-established phenomenon.

This 1773 collection of poems was the only edition of Phillis Wheatley's work printed in her lifetime. Wheatley was first brought to the United States at age 7 or 8 to be sold into slavery. She was purchased by John Wheatley of Boston and taught to read and write. Having been tutored in the classics by Mrs. Wheatley, Wheatley began to write poetry herself and became well-known for it in Boston's domestic circles. A trip to England in 1773 brought her under the patronage of the Countess of Huntingdon who arranged for this 1773 English edition of her poetry to be published.

On August 31, 1962, Fannie Lou Hamer rode a bus with 17 other African Americans from her hometown of Ruleville to Indianola, Mississippi to register to vote. She was refused her legal right to register. When she returned home, she was fired by her employer and her family was thrown off the land where they had been sharecroppers. This injustice lit a fire inside Mrs. Hamer and put her on a path to becoming an important leader for the Civil Rights Movement in the South. This book tells the life story of this strong, indomitable woman who marched with Dr.

This highly illustrated book is a masterpiece. Over 100 pages in length, it describes the evolution of African American artists over time. This book focuses on the late 1900s and spans through the first decade of the 21st century. This is a Smithsonian American Art Museum publication. A New York native, the author graduated from multiple Ivy League universities including Princeton University and Columbia University. Every chapter is illustrated with reprints of paintings by influential African American artists followed by an extensive bio of each artist.

This small book, furnished with black and white pencil drawings throughout, details life on a slave ship in vivid detail. It also shares stories of life in a slave castle in Africa prior to boarding the ship. It honestly describes the horrors that enslaved Africans were forced to endure during the Middle Passage crossing from Africa to the New World. Two million kidnapped Africans who were transported across the Atlantic Ocean died during the Middle Passage. Those who survived were delivered into the hands of slavery. 

Written by Dr. Cynthia Carter, former director of Africare and current Chief Development Officer at the Smithsonian Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage, this richly illustrated book uses artifacts, images, and documents to trace the history of slavery in North America, from ancient Africa to the suffering still experienced by African Americans today.

Born a slave on a Virginia farm in 1856, Booker T. Washington taught himself to read after emancipation, worked hard to fund his own education, and eventually attended the Hampton Institute. He became a prominent Black educator and an important voice on race in America during the late 1800s and early 1900s. The Future of the American Negro, written by Washington in 1899, outlines his ideas on the history of enslaved and freed African American people and their need for education to advance themselves.

This gigantic "book" is actually a stack of unnumbered color plates, arranged in alphabetical order, by the last name of the African American hero featured on each. The author, Thomas Blackshear, is a contemporary African Americna artist who draws, paints, illustrates, and sculpts. Mr. Blackshear's artwork is seen on the 25c Ida B.

Julius Rosenwald (1862–1932) was a businessman, billionaire and philanthropist. His net worth was $80M at death (equaling about $1.4B today).  He was half owner of Sears--he saved the company during the infamous financial panic of 1893--and he donated millions to educating African Americans in the South in the 1920s. He also donated to the Tuskegee Institute. In this biography, Mr. Ascoli paints a portrait of Julius Rosenwald, aka, "JR." This book, which was signed by the author, has 450 pages and features black and white photographs.

This pocket sized exhibition booklet contains a chronicle of the African American experience told through the unique lens of stamps and mail. At around 100 pages long, it is full of beautiful color illustrations of stamp art. The National Postal Museum's exhibition opened to the public in the middle of Black History Month 2015, and ended in the middle of Black History Month 2016. Museum visitors learned about letters carried by slaves, mail to and from civil rights leaders, and original artwork from the USPS Black Heritage stamp series.