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Far From The Tree
Far From The Tree Paige Turner Book Review A prominent novelist once declared, "You can’t go home again", but co authors Virginia DeBerry and Donna Grant have reevaluated this truism...
Goony Goo-Goo and Ga-Ga Too!
Goony Goo-Goo and Ga-Ga Too! Kelly Starling Lyons Book Review Drawing inspiration from her own children, author Kia Morgan Smith has written a fun picture book about the trials and triumphs of ...
Black Chess
Black Chess Denolyn Carroll Book Review “Life’s a chess game…There are infinite possibilities and multiple universes, depending on the choices you make,” asserts Celeste, the ...
Lighting the Fires of Freedom by Janet Dewart Bell
Lighting the Fires of Freedom by Janet Dewart Bell Brenda M. Greene Book Review In Lighting the Fires of Freedom: African American Women in the Civil Rights Movement (The New Press, 2018), Dr. Janet ...
African American History for Dummies
African American History for Dummies Kam Williams Book Review ’African-American history, to be clear, is so much more than a handful of extraordinary individuals or practices like slaver...
Mirror Mirror
Mirror Mirror Kam Williams mirror_mirror.jpg Film Review Snow White Saves Prince in Refreshing Overhaul of Beloved Classic Mirror Mirror [2012] In Theaters: Mar 30, 2012 Wide Science Fiction &am...
The Fire of Freedom: Abraham Galloway and the Slaves’ Civil War
The Fire of Freedom: Abraham Galloway and the Slaves’ Civil War Kam Williams Book Review “This is the story of Abraham H. Galloway (1837-70), a fiery young slave rebel, radical abolitionist,...
Reflections of an Anxious African American Dad
Reflections of an Anxious African American Dad Robert Fleming Book Review Following a troubled childhood, Eric L. Heard, an army brat who resided in Germany and Japan, decided to write a book warning...
Temptation
Temptation Linda Dominique Grosvenor Book Review Temptation is a refreshing literary effort by first time novelist Victoria Christopher Murray. This book has crossed the line into mainstream fiction,...
Black Prisoner of War
Black Prisoner of War Thumper Book Review I can't honestly tell you when I started watching war movies and reading books written about the American wars. In my younger years, I considered the sub...
White Gold
White Gold Carol Taylor Book Review This sweeping historical novel follows aspiring railroad engineer, William Roberson, from his Jamaican homeland in 1897 at 16, to Panama, to help build the Pan...
Just As I Am By Cicely Tyson
Just As I Am By Cicely Tyson Robert Fleming Book Review How many of us pray when we board an airplane? Not everyone. This author, James T. Hollin Jr., a former military pilot and experienced ai...
Devil’s Dream: A Novel about Nathan Bedford Forrest by Madison
Devil’s Dream: A Novel about Nathan Bedford Forrest by Madison Thumper Book Review It is safe to say, I began this book in complete and total ignorance. I had not read any of Madison Smartt Bell&rs...
Sweet Sorrel Stand
Sweet Sorrel Stand Pamela Shivdyal Book Review Teaching kids about money from an early age can help them learn healthy financial habits that will last a lifetime. Yolanda T. Marshall, shares her Cari...
I Am New Orleans
I Am New Orleans Robert Fleming Book Review American poet, author, filmmaker, and teacher Kalamu ya Salaam, a leading citizen of New Orleans’s 9th Ward, has always been a booster for the Cresce...
Inner-City Interludes
Inner-City Interludes Jayne Cubbage Book Review Inner-City Interludes by Hoezee probably won’t go down in history as a literary classic. Perhaps as an ode to the ’hood’ and...
Radical: Fighting to Put Students First
Radical: Fighting to Put Students First Kam Williams Book Review “Why am I a radical? Because in order to live up to our promise as a nation, we cannot rest until we provide a quality educat...
Mrs. Black
Mrs. Black Idrissa Uqdah Book Review Angelia Vernon Menchan who also has written under the name, acVernon Menchan has just released an new novel that takes us further into the world of the...
Say It Loud! Great Speeches on Civil Rights and African-American Identity
Say It Loud! Great Speeches on Civil Rights and African-American Identity Kam Williams Book Review "This is the second anthology of great speeches by African-Americans meant for the eye and ea...
Terminus: Tales of the Black Fantastic from the ATL
Terminus: Tales of the Black Fantastic from the ATL Amanda Robinson Book Review Atlanta is one of the most popular cities in this country. This metropolis is one of the few epicenters dripping Black ...
Victory Is Assured
Victory Is Assured Robert Fleming Book Review Larger than life, controversial scribe Stanley Crouch loved to throw shade, raise hell, and put himself laughingly in the crosshairs. In the golden age o...
Inner City Miracle
Inner City Miracle Thumper Book Review Judge Greg Mathis makes his debut on the literary stage with his autobiography, Inner City Miracle: A Memoir. Mathis is the star of the popular The Judge Greg...
The Protest Psychosis: How Schizophrenia Became a Black Disease
The Protest Psychosis: How Schizophrenia Became a Black Disease Kam Williams Book Review "This book tells the story of how race gets written into the definition of mental illness… The book a...
Witnessing and Testifying
Witnessing and Testifying Paige Turner Book Review At the dawn of this new millennium when the "bimbo-ization" of American women is in full flower it is instructive to look back to times wh...
Turn the Page and You Don’t Stop: Sharing Successful Chapters in Our Lives with Youth
Turn the Page and You Don’t Stop: Sharing Successful Chapters in Our Lives with Youth Kam Williams Book Review “Why read? Reading isn’t just for sissies, or nerds or geeks. Research...
Black Power, Black Lawyer: My Audacious Quest for Justice
Black Power, Black Lawyer: My Audacious Quest for Justice Carol Taylor Book Review Much more than a memoir, Black Power, Black Lawyer traces not only Nkechi Taifa’s personal life, and her decad...
Motion Sickness
Motion Sickness RAWSISTAZ Book Review Terry O’Neal shares her collection of poetry in her first book entitled Motion Sickness. It is a compilation of poems that range in topics including ...
The Talented Ripkins by Ladee Hubbard
The Talented Ripkins by Ladee Hubbard Brenda M. Greene Book Review Drawing from W.E.B. DuBois’s concept of the Talented Tenth, Hubbard’s debut award-winning The Talented Ribkins follows t...
To the Mountaintop: My Journey through the Civil Rights Movement
To the Mountaintop: My Journey through the Civil Rights Movement Kam Williams Book Review “On January 20, 2009, 1.8 million people crowded onto the cold, hard grounds of the nation’s cap...
Before Brown
Before Brown Kam Williams Book Review "Before Brown details the ferment in civil rights that took place across the South before the momentous Brown vs. Board of Education decision in 1954. T...
Freedom’s Daughters
Freedom’s Daughters Paige Turner Book Review “Women hold up half the sky” is one of Chinese revolutionary Mao Tse Dung’s most often quoted statements. However readers of Freedom&rsq...
Eye on the Struggle: Ethel Payne
Eye on the Struggle: Ethel Payne Kam Williams Book Review “This groundbreaking biography… illuminates the life and accomplishments of pioneering journalist Ethel Lois Payne, while also...
Under the Skin
Under the Skin Robert Fleming Book Review Following the needless deaths of my grandfather and my father, I was very interested in reading Linda Villarosa’s Under The Skin: The Hidden Toll Of Ra...
City Son: Andrew W. Cooper’s Impact on Modern-Day Brooklyn
City Son: Andrew W. Cooper’s Impact on Modern-Day Brooklyn Robert Fleming Book Review So many African-American newspapers and publications have vanished from view, but their impact remains on the...
Wellington Webb
Wellington Webb Kam Williams Book Review ’I arrived in the Mile High City in 1953 as a sickly, 100-pound, 12 year-old with asthma. Denver had a small, tight-knit black communi...
Passin'
Passin' Idrissa Uqdah Book Review Is The Grass Any Greener On The Other Side? That is what Shanika Ann Jenkins seeks to find out as she applies for a position at a prestigious PR firm in New...
Blue in Green
Blue in Green Robert Fleming Book Review On August 25, 1959, jazz trumpeter Miles Davis escorts a white girl to a cab, lights a cigarette outside Birdland, and a city policeman harasses the black man...
Looking for Happy
Looking for Happy Judy Allen Dodson Book Review “Some days, Happy is Hard to Find” as we set out on a quest in this heartfelt and hopeful picture book, Looking For Happy, which follows a ...
Restless City
Restless City Kam Williams restlesscity.jpg Film Review Harlem Provides Backdrop for Gritty Survival Saga Restless City [2012] In Theaters: Apr 27, 2012 (limited) Rated R for drug use and brief sex...
Street Journeys
Street Journeys Kam Williams street-jouneys-movie-poster.jpg Film Review Street Journeys (2011) Director: Tracy Christian Kenya, 2011, Duration 58 min., English & Swahili In the he...
Post-Traumatic Slave Syndrome
Post-Traumatic Slave Syndrome Kam Williams Book Review ’When African-Americans accept the deprecating accounts and images portrayed by the media, literature, music and the arts as a true ...
Ramblers: Loyola Chicago 1963 - The Team that Changed the Color of College Basketball
Ramblers: Loyola Chicago 1963 - The Team that Changed the Color of College Basketball Kam Williams Book Review “Was there a time when civil rights protesters could be attacked by a club-wield...
Racial Innocence: Performing American Childhood from Slavery to Civil Rights
Racial Innocence: Performing American Childhood from Slavery to Civil Rights Kam Williams Book Review “Whiteness… derives power from its status as an unmarked category… [It] nev...
Zion and Zara Stories: The Big Bike Race
Zion and Zara Stories: The Big Bike Race Amanda Robinson Book Review Good children’s books are hard to come by. Many of them lack morals for children to learn from or educational content to gro...
The New Brownies’ Book
The New Brownies’ Book Clarence V. Reynolds Book Review In the November 1910 premier issue of The Crisis, the official journal of the NAACP, historian, scholar, civil rights activist, sociologist, an...
Sins of the Mother
Sins of the Mother Idrissa Uqdah Book Review KARMA???? Victoria Christopher Murray is the best selling author of several contemporary novels that touch on hot topics that church people aren...
The Rebellious Life of Mrs. Rosa Parks
The Rebellious Life of Mrs. Rosa Parks Kam Williams Book Review “Described by the New York Times as ‘the accidental matriarch of the civil rights movement,’ the Rosa Parks who surf...
War Dance
War Dance Kam Williams war_da30.jpg Film Review DVD Examines Drive to Dance in the Midst of Ugandan Civil War War Dance Click to order via Amazon Audience Rating: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Sugg...
Wimbey’s Corner
Wimbey’s Corner Emanuel Carpenter Book Review At first glance, one might think that Wimbey’s Corner is a story about a big and black country bumpkin’ named Wayne Hunter who moves from a...
Black Male Frames: African-Americans in a Century of Hollywood Cinema
Black Male Frames: African-Americans in a Century of Hollywood Cinema Kam Williams Book Review “Black Male Frames charts the development and shifting popularity of two stereotypes of black mal...
Yoga
Yoga Kam Williams Book Review “This book is for you, the everyday person, the person who works, has a family (or not) and wants to stay stress-free, happy, fulfilled and healthy. This book ...
Between Good and Ghetto
Between Good and Ghetto Kam Williams Book Review ’The lives of the inner-city girls and young women profiled in this book are deeply influenced by violence of various kinds. ...
Brown Boys Rule
Brown Boys Rule Clarence V. Reynolds Book Review While listening to a recent meditation session on the app Happier—one of my favorites—I was reminded of the importance of embracing wo...
Different and the Same
Different and the Same AALBC Staff Writer Book Review In an age where there is a proliferation of emotional and physical Black trauma, that is videotaped and viewed widely online, we should strive to...
black misery
black misery Troy Johnson Book Review Misery is when you heardon the radio that the neighborhoodyou live in is a slum butyou always thought it was home” black misery is a pictur...
Zealot: The Life and Times of Jesus of Nazareth
Zealot: The Life and Times of Jesus of Nazareth Kam Williams Book Review “This book is an attempt to reclaim, as much as possible, the Jesus of history, the Jesus of Christianity… whos...
High Price: A Neuroscientist’s Journey of Self-Discovery That Challenges Everything You Kn
High Price: A Neuroscientist’s Journey of Self-Discovery That Challenges Everything You Kn Kam Williams Book Review “As a youth, Carl Hart didn’t realize the value of school; he studied ...
Dancing the Afrofuture: Hula, Hip-Hop, and the Dunham Legacy
Dancing the Afrofuture: Hula, Hip-Hop, and the Dunham Legacy Karen Brown Book Review I had just recently attended the 2024 International Conference and Festival of Blacks in Dance in Memphis, Tenness...
Second Line Home: New Orleans Poems
Second Line Home: New Orleans Poems Rudolph Lewis Book Review June 2005, almost a decade ago, was the time I last visited New Orleans. It was still almost the Big Easy I knew in the mid-1980s. Seve...
Insignificant Others: Erotic Novellas
Insignificant Others: Erotic Novellas Anita Doreen Diggs Book Review Award winning authors, Pynk and Carol Taylor have written two original tales for Insignificant Others. Fans will love both sto...
Brown Girl in the Ring
Brown Girl in the Ring Sheree Renée Thomas Book Review Science fiction fans who love the vision and storytelling prowess of Octavia E. Butler are in for a treat with this up-all-nighter f...
Riot and Remembrance
Riot and Remembrance Thumper Book Review Although some say that times and attitudes are changing, I’m rather skeptical. Only now am I aware of events, individuals that I should have been introd...
Freedom at Dawn: Robert Smalls’s Voyage Out of Slavery
Freedom at Dawn: Robert Smalls’s Voyage Out of Slavery Richard Murray Book Review Frederick Douglass once said, “The American Government and the American Constitution are spoken of in a manner ...
Tears We Cannot Stop: A Sermon to White America
Tears We Cannot Stop: A Sermon to White America Kam Williams Book Review “America is in trouble, and a lot of that trouble—perhaps most of it—has to do with race. Everywhere we tu...
Transitioning to Real Life
Transitioning to Real Life Jamie Walker Book Review It isn't easy transitioning from college to the real world, but in Transitioning to Real Life: A Common Sense Guide for the African American ...
Dark Midnight When I Rise
Dark Midnight When I Rise Paige Turner Book Review The history of blacks in America remains a vast uncharted territory. While the contributions of mainstream cultures have been duly recorded, the e...
The First Eight: A Personal History of the Pioneering Black Congressmen Who Shaped a Nation
The First Eight: A Personal History of the Pioneering Black Congressmen Who Shaped a Nation Robert Fleming Book Review South Carolina Congressman Jim Clyburn’s The First Eight: A Personal Histo...
Of Thee I Sing: A Letter to My Daughters
Of Thee I Sing: A Letter to My Daughters Kam Williams Book Review In this tender, beautiful letter to his daughters, President Barack Obama has written a moving tribute to thirteen groundbreaki...
Best Kept Secret
Best Kept Secret Kam Williams best-kept-secret.jpg Film Review Moving Documentary Chronicles Dedicated Teacher’s Selfless Efforts on Behalf of Her Autistic Students Best Kept Secret In Theater...
Turning 15 on the Road to Freedom: My Story of the 1965 Selma Voting Rights March
Turning 15 on the Road to Freedom: My Story of the 1965 Selma Voting Rights March Kam Williams Book Review “Jailed nine times before her 15th birthday, Lynda Blackmon Lowery refused to give u...
White Coat Fever
White Coat Fever Thumper Book Review Roland S. Jefferson, author of the classic The School on 103rd Street, is back on the scene with his latest novel, White Coat Fever. The title of the novel is...
God and Race in American Politics
God and Race in American Politics Kam Williams Book Review "Together, race and religion make up, not only the nation’s deepest and most enduring moral problem, but also its broadest and mos...
The Black Rose
The Black Rose Paige Turner Book Review Journalist and novelist Tananarive Due is fast establishing herself as a professional writer who can master any genre she deigns to approach. With her previ...
Sweetsmoke
Sweetsmoke Thumper Book Review When I heard of the novel Sweetsmoke by David Fuller, I was intrigued. The novel takes place during the Civil War, 1862, at its heart lays a murder mystery wi...
The Light of Truth: Writings of an Anti-Lynching Crusader
The Light of Truth: Writings of an Anti-Lynching Crusader Kam Williams Book Review “Ida B. Wells was born a slave in Holly Springs, Mississippi in 1862. After beginning a teaching career to ...
Color Me Butterfly
Color Me Butterfly Idrissa Uqdah Book Review Domestic Abuse: A Generational Curse?This book spans a 60 year period in the lives of a family of strong African American women who survived domestic a...
My Holy Bible for African-American Children King James Version
My Holy Bible for African-American Children King James Version Kam Williams Book Review "If you’re walking down the right path and you’re willing to keep walking, eventually you’l...
Who Would Have Thunk It! The First Adventures of the Fraser Foster Kids
Who Would Have Thunk It! The First Adventures of the Fraser Foster Kids Kam Williams Book Review “Our story began a very long time ago when we were little kids with no place to live. Our moth...
Lincoln
Lincoln Kam Williams lincoln-movie-poster.jpg Film Review Civil War Docudrama Revisits Great Emancipator’s Team of Rivals Lincoln (2012) In Theaters: Nov 16, 2012 Wide Rated PG-13 for gruesom...
William Kunstler
William Kunstler Kam Williams willia18.jpg Film Review Bio-Pic Chronicles the Life and Times of Late Civil Rights Lawyer William Kunstler: Disturbing the Universe Unrated ...
The Empire in Africa
The Empire in Africa Kam Williams the_em41.jpg Film Review Disturbing Documentary Graphically Chronicles Sierra Leone’s Civil War The Empire in Africa Unrated In French, English and l...
I am Barack Obama
I am Barack Obama Kam Williams Book Review "This book tells a story of how a child can change the world. It creates a space where children can experience the extraordinary life of P...
Sugar of the Crop
Sugar of the Crop Kam Williams Book Review Everyone I interviewed for this book is now dead” Before I started the search, the one person I knew who was a granddaughter of a ...
Mimi’s Village and How Basic Health Care Transformed It
Mimi’s Village and How Basic Health Care Transformed It Kam Williams Book Review “Mimi’s fictional village is like thousands of real villages in the developing world, where health care...
The Adventures of Sasha & Malia at the White House
The Adventures of Sasha & Malia at the White House Kam Williams Book Review "[This] story came to me in a dream one night not long after the inauguration of President Barack Obama… I d...
Black Food
Black Food Robert Fleming Book Review Black food, aka Soul food, is celebrated all over the world for its delicious ingredients, tangy flavors, homegrown recipes, and traditional richness. This book,...
Bright Eyes
Bright Eyes Troy Johnson Book Review Here, Cheryl Willis Hudson co-author of: Bright Eyes, Brown Skin, helps young children see the beauty of their physical characteristics. Bright eyes, brown sk...
Breaking the Code of Silence
Breaking the Code of Silence Kam Williams Book Review ’I felt even more secure with this man than I had ever felt in an previous relationship. Even though h...
Secrets and Lies
Secrets and Lies Idrissa Uqdah Book Review For Better or For Worse Rhonda McKnight's debut novel, Secrets and Lies is about a married couple who despite their comfortable financial situation a...
Children of the Waters
Children of the Waters Idrissa Uqdah Book Review Blood Ties, Family Lies Carleen Brice has returned to the literary scene with her second novel, Children of the Waters and she’s ...
Because of Race
Because of Race Kam Williams Book Review ’Today, racial inequality of opportunity and outcome in education is still the result of past generations of explicit policy decree...
An Extraordinary Life: Josephine E. Jones
An Extraordinary Life: Josephine E. Jones Brenda M. Greene Book Review Wendy Jones has written a tribute to her late mother Josephine E. Jones. Her mother was part of the Great Migration, depicted so...
Jimmy’s Rhythm & Blues
Jimmy’s Rhythm & Blues Clarence V. Reynolds Book Review This year, we will celebrate the centennial of the birth of prominent writer, civil rights activist, and intellectual James Baldwin. Born in Ha...
The Color of Justice
The Color of Justice Thumper Book Review Gary Hardwick, author of Cold Medina, Double Dead and Supreme Justice, is back on the literary scene with his latest inner-city crime drama, The Color of Just...
Rabbit: The Autobiography of Ms. Pat
Rabbit: The Autobiography of Ms. Pat Julianne Malveaux Book Review I don’t often write about comedians, but the recent passing of my friend Dick Gregory reminded me of the very important role t...
Round & Round Together
Round & Round Together Kam Williams Book Review “About four months before the March on Washington, Dr. Martin Luther King was arrested during demonstrations in Birmingham, Alabama. While in j...
Walking Among The Kudzu
Walking Among The Kudzu Emanuel Carpenter Book Review In H. Victoria Hargro Atkerson's latest book, "Walking Among the Kudzu," readers are taken on the journey of the life of Shelby ...
Rainbow in the Cloud: The Wisdom and Spirit of Maya Angelou
Rainbow in the Cloud: The Wisdom and Spirit of Maya Angelou Kam Williams Book Review “‘Words mean more than what is set down on paper,’ Maya Angelou wrote in her groundbreaking m...
A Song for Gwendolyn Brooks
A Song for Gwendolyn Brooks Neoma Nwasike Book Review Gwendolyn Brooks was a very influential African American poet who became the first Black writer to win a Pulitzer Prize award (Poetry). In the ch...
Big Enough to Be Inconsistent
Big Enough to Be Inconsistent Thumper Book Review There is a great chance that my review of Big Enough to Be Inconsistent: Abraham Lincoln Confronts Slavery and Race by George M. Fredrickso...