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My Brown Baby
My Brown Baby Denene Millner Excerpt Chapter 1 My Escort into Motherhood I WAS A YOUNG REPORTER WHEN I MET HER—full of energy, I had a flat stomach, still 120 pounds soaking wet, still ea...
The Quest of the Silver Fleece
The Quest of the Silver Fleece W.E.B. Du Bois Excerpt The entire novel is available at Project Gutenberg OneDREAMS Night fell. The red waters of the swamp grew sinister and sullen. The tall pines...
You Only Get Better: Celebrating Life Every Step of the Way
You Only Get Better: Celebrating Life Every Step of the Way Connie Briscoe, Lolita Files, and Anita Bunkley Excerpt The brass headboard thumped against the wall as he rolled off of her and onto his b...
You Only Get Better: Celebrating Life Every Step of the Way
You Only Get Better: Celebrating Life Every Step of the Way Connie Briscoe, Lolita Files, and Anita Bunkley Excerpt The brass headboard thumped against the wall as he rolled off of her and onto his b...
On The Shoulders Of Giants: My Journey Through The Harlem Renaissance
On The Shoulders Of Giants: My Journey Through The Harlem Renaissance Kareem Abdul-Jabbar Excerpt "Some Technicolor Bazaar" How Harlem Became the Center of the Universe Harlem!&helli...
Journey To Justice
Journey To Justice Johnnie Cochran Excerpt WHY I WANTED TO BE A LAWYER I have often been asked why I wanted to be a lawyer. One of the most important things that happened to me during ...
Two “Til Midnight
Two “Til Midnight Bernard L. Dillard Excerpt Lead-In: Faculty members and staff at a university are having a diversity meeting and are discussing issues that concern becoming a more diverse camp...
The Colored Garden
The Colored Garden O.H. Bennett Excerpt From Chapter One: Meeting the Gardener In the middle of Kentucky farmland where a cornfield of withered brown stalks meets the grass of a cow pasture there ...
The Devil’s Shadow
The Devil’s Shadow Ian K. Smith Excerpt Prologue Chicago, Illinois December 3, 2004 3:00 A.M. The Metropolitan Bank of Chicago was located on Michigan Avenue between Washington and Madison stre...
American Wings
American Wings Sherri L. Smith and Elizabeth Wein Excerpt PROLOGUE A Dream Takes Flight Omaha, Nebraska, 1919 It was going to cost three dollars to ride—about $50 in 2023, but the wo...
The Man Who Cried I Am
The Man Who Cried I Am John A. Williams Excerpt FOREWORD by Graham Hodges The publication of John A. Williams’ fourth novel, The Man Who Cried I Am, in October, 1967, caused cr...
All I Want For Christmas
All I Want For Christmas Joyce A. Brown, Princess F.L. Gooden, Terri Ann Johnson, Sonia Johnston, Patricia Woodside, Cryssy Dee, Candy Jackson, and others Excerpt An excerpt from Terri Ann Johnson&rs...
Juneteenth
Juneteenth Ralph Ellison Excerpt After Ellison’s death on April 16, 1994, speculation about the existence of the second novel reignited. In an article in the New York Times, William Grimes asse...
A Promised Land (Deluxe Signed Edition)
A Promised Land (Deluxe Signed Edition) Barack Obama Excerpt Preface I began writing this book shortly after the end of my presidency—after Michelle and I had boarded Air Force One for the l...
A Promised Land
A Promised Land Barack Obama Excerpt Preface I began writing this book shortly after the end of my presidency—after Michelle and I had boarded Air Force One for the last time and traveled we...
Chapter One
Chapter One Catherine Joy White Excerpt Silence This thread of gold that ties me to my mother, my grandmother, and the women who came before looks a lot like the color purple. Like the purple hibi...
A Long Way from Home
A Long Way from Home Connie Briscoe Excerpt Chapter One Clara sat up on the edge of her pallet and rubbed her eyes with her fists. She could tell it was awfully late by the wa...
The Angry Ones
The Angry Ones John A. Williams Excerpt You remember a lot of things about a trip across America. You remember the sandstone rocks reared above red and brown plains, the twisted, fiercely shaped arro...
The Root of All Evil
The Root of All Evil Gibran Tariq and Gregory S. Jones Excerpt Chapter One November 1942 It was one thing to be cold, but quite another to be freezing. Not long ago, Paul Madsen, had been warm ...
Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass
Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass Frederick Douglass Excerpt PREFACE In the month of August 1841, I attended an anti-slavery convention in Nantucket, at which it was my happiness to beco...
In West Mills
In West Mills De’Shawn Charles Winslow Excerpt Part One In October of ’41, Azalea Centre’s man told her that he was sick and tired of West Mills and of the love affair she was having w...
Waiting in Vain
Waiting in Vain Colin Channer Excerpt On the day he met Sylvia, Fire woke up in Blanche’s arms with a numbness in his soul. It was his ninetieth day of celibacy, and the night before had almo...
Consequences
Consequences Martha Kennerson Excerpt Prologue Don’t pass out. Do not pass out. Kristine didn’t want to be that girl—the one who gets so tanked that she loses consciousness....
The New Negro: Voices Of The Harlem Renaissance
The New Negro: Voices Of The Harlem Renaissance Jose Andres and Matt Goulding Excerpt “Harlem” by Alain Locke If we were to offer a symbol of what Harlem has come to mean in the short s...
CHAPTER 1: Stunt Work
CHAPTER 1: Stunt Work Pam Grier Excerpt CHAPTER 1: Stunt Work I was snuggled in my mother’s arms in the backseat of the old Buick. My dad’s Air Force buddy was at the wheel, driving us...
Table of Contents <em>Black Power, Black Lawyer: My Audacious Quest for Justice</em>
Table of Contents Black Power, Black Lawyer: My Audacious Quest for Justice Nkechi Taifa Excerpt Table of Contents Black Power, Black Lawyer: Memoir of Nkechi Taifa Prologue—“Judge Not” Red Ba...
Not My Will
Not My Will Khara Campbell Excerpt Prologue “Virtue, your man dogged you and you gonna let him get away with that mess? If I was you, I would be busting some holes in his tires and smashing ou...
I Stand Accused
I Stand Accused Monica Anderson Excerpt I drove Interstate 20 West at eighty miles per hour. I slowed to seventy at the infamous speed traps. Then, I put the pedal to the metal again.&nbs...
A Life of Turmoil: The short stories of Ana Franken 08150017
A Life of Turmoil: The short stories of Ana Franken 08150017 Johanna Sparrow Excerpt Yes, Mother The turmoiled relationship of Ana Franken a Short Story “Sometimes I wish that I had all boys...
The Unmaking Of The Black Man
The Unmaking Of The Black Man Gibran Tariq and Gregory S. Jones Excerpt THE OTHER END OF THE STICK The social revolution for the control of the black image had a profound impact on the sistas as w...
Brothers, Lust, and Love: Thoughts on Manhood, Sex, and Romance
Brothers, Lust, and Love: Thoughts on Manhood, Sex, and Romance William July II Excerpt SBF Seeking Mr. Right. Must be 6’3", 215, have a mustache, degree in law or medicine from Ivy Leagu...
Standing at the Scratch Line
Standing at the Scratch Line Guy Johnson Excerpt LeRoi picked up the rifle that was leaning against a root with its stock in the water. He checked the barrel carefully for obstructions, then mounted ...
Unbossed: How Black Girls Are Leading the Way
Unbossed: How Black Girls Are Leading the Way Helon Habila and Kadija Sesay Excerpt Chapter 1 When she was just five years old, Ssanyu Lukoma fell in love with a book called Rosa, an inspiring chi...
Topaz
Topaz Beverly Jenkins Excerpt Chicago May 1884 Under the cover of the darkness, Katherine Love stood with her back pressed closely against the outside wall of the warehouse, hoping she couldn&r...
Blue Blood (Ivy League Mysteries)
Blue Blood (Ivy League Mysteries) Pamela Thomas-Graham Excerpt Chapter One: We’re Not in Cambridge Anymore Georgian. Gothic. Houses. Colleges. The Yard. Old Campus. Widener. Sterli...
The Water Dancer
The Water Dancer Ta-Nehisi Coates Excerpt And I could only have seen her there on the stone bridge, a dancer wreathed in ghostly blue, because that was the way they would have taken her back when I w...
Chapters 1 and 2
Chapters 1 and 2 Harlow Giles Unger Excerpt Chapters 1 and 2 Chapter 1College Is Not for Everyone So your kid says he or she wants to go to college. “All my friends are going!&rdq...
Raisins in Milk – Chapter 1
Raisins in Milk – Chapter 1 Chauncey Ridley Excerpt Raisins in Milk – Chapter 1 Mandarin, Florida Springtime 1913 The breeze that came in from the sea was warm. It brought with it also the...
Life Upon These Shores: Looking at African American History, 1513-2008
Life Upon These Shores: Looking at African American History, 1513-2008 Henry Louis Gates, Jr. Excerpt Introduction Before the pen of Jefferson etched the majestic words of the Declaration of Ind...
Into Africa: A Personal Journey
Into Africa: A Personal Journey Yvonne Blackwood Excerpt “On Sunday afternoon Adamson and I returned to Labadi Beach. I did a double take when we entered the gate. The empty stretch of beach I&...
Running to Fall — Chapters 1 & 2
Running to Fall — Chapters 1 & 2 Kalisha Buckhanon Excerpt ONE MARCH 2021 Right around time things started reopening, the late March thaw brought a lifeless girl up to the tail end of the Grays...
Running to Fall — Chapters 1 & 2
Running to Fall — Chapters 1 & 2 Kalisha Buckhanon Excerpt ONE MARCH 2021 Right around time things started reopening, the late March thaw brought a lifeless girl up to the tail end of the Grays...
My Love Notes to a Black Man
My Love Notes to a Black Man Lana Reid Excerpt Your Utopia in Me This morning when the alarm rang I was a warm mahogany cocoon that enveloped you A slumbering medley of brown arms and legs wrapp...
The End of Race Politics
The End of Race Politics Coleman Hughes Excerpt Chapter 1Race, Anti-racism, and Neoracism For most of my life, I saw my mother as neither black nor white. Her Puerto Rican father was darker-skinned ...
Tuff: A Novel
Tuff: A Novel Paul Beatty Excerpt Now on this, the last cool night of summer, Brooklyn was short three more niggers for Winston to hate. Although he addressed all black men as “God,” Ch...
The Fisher King: A Novel
The Fisher King: A Novel Paule Marshall Excerpt Chapter 1 "Had the brass-face to come round me playing the Sodom and Gomorrah music!" The old woman they said was his g...
Sister Betty Says I Do
Sister Betty Says I Do Pat G’Orge Walker Excerpt Chapter 1 One year later… Moments earlier the sun had slowly rose on this sure-to-be blazing hot Saturday morning. For much of her adult ...
Stamped from the Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America
Stamped from the Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America Ibram X. Kendi Excerpt PART I Cotton Mather CHAPTER 1 Human Hierarchy THEY WEATHERED BRUTAL WINTERS, suffered...
Dick Gregory’s Natural Diet for Folks Who Eat: Cookin’ with Mother Nature
Dick Gregory’s Natural Diet for Folks Who Eat: Cookin’ with Mother Nature Dick Gregory Excerpt 1Warning: The Author Has Determined That Not Reading the Following Pages Is Dangerous to Your Health ...
Lifelines: The Black Book Of Proverbs
Lifelines: The Black Book Of Proverbs Askhari Johnson Hodari and Yvonne Mccalla Sobers Excerpt Introduction The tongue of Egyptian experience has the most truth. A lie runs in Cuba only until th...
Why I Stopped Hating Shakespeare
Why I Stopped Hating Shakespeare James Baldwin Excerpt Why I Stopped Hating Shakespeare—James Baldwin, 1964 Every writer in the English language, I should imagine, has at some point h...
The Messenger Reader
The Messenger Reader Sondra Kathryn Wilson Excerpt In this short story, Fenton Johnson introduces the reader to Elizabeth (Eliza) Jan, an African-American servant. Liza, a Southerner, finds herself w...
Polo Cowboy Chapter 1
Polo Cowboy Chapter 1 G. Neri Excerpt Preface: Mama is fuming. “Say that again.” I swallow and take a deep breath. “I ain’t goin’ back to Detroit.” Five m...
Black Wings & Blind Angels: Poems
Black Wings & Blind Angels: Poems Professor Griff Excerpt Breaking Karma #5 i It is like a scene in a play. His bald spot shines upward between dark tufts of hair. We are sitting in a pool of...
A Lesson Before Dying
A Lesson Before Dying Ernest J. Gaines Excerpt I was not there, yet I was there. No, I did not go to the trial, I did not hear the verdict, because I knew all the time what it would be. Still,...
A Voice from the South
A Voice from the South Excerpt In the clash and clatter of our American Conflict, it has been said that the South remains silent. Like the Sphinx, she inspires vociferous disputation, but hersel...
Introduction and Chapter 9 – B. C. Franklin
Introduction and Chapter 9 – B. C. Franklin Carlos Moreno Excerpt Introduction and Chapter 9 – B. C. Franklin “Time is an enormous, long river, and I’m standing in it, just as yo...
Obsessive Intimacies
Obsessive Intimacies Yani Excerpt This nigga must’ve either lost his fucking mind or he thinks I’m still the same dumb and naïve Tierra from high-school and college. I know muthafucking ...
The Immortality Of Influence
The Immortality Of Influence Salome Thomas-El Excerpt Foreword by Will Smith If you finish this book and are not inspired to immediately go out and effect change in your community, then you w...
Drone Child Chapters 1 and 2
Drone Child Chapters 1 and 2 David H. Rothman Excerpt CHAPTER ONE: THE DEATHS OF PAPA AND MAMA BOULE-BOULE People called me “The Fix-It Boy.” I repaired broken radios and TVs around ou...
Drone Child Chapters 1 and 2
Drone Child Chapters 1 and 2 David H. Rothman Excerpt CHAPTER ONE: THE DEATHS OF PAPA AND MAMA BOULE-BOULE People called me “The Fix-It Boy.” I repaired broken radios and TVs around ou...
A Thug’s Redemption 3: The Wrath of Andre
A Thug’s Redemption 3: The Wrath of Andre Yani Excerpt Tiffany disconnected the phone and paced the living room. Jamal had a second phone with only one number in it that went to a man who seemed to ...
Cowards and Angels
Cowards and Angels Aileen Muhammad Excerpt Mia (From Cowards and Angels) Death before dishonor. An embrace like no other. A fair exchange. An honored declaration that life’s sagging hypocr...
An Approach to Style: The 21 Reminders
An Approach to Style: The 21 Reminders William Strunk Jr. and E. B. White Excerpt In the final chapter of The Elements of Style, E. B. White provides a list of guidelines to help writers develop a di...
Wake Up Happy: The Dream Big, Win Big Guide to Transforming Your Life
Wake Up Happy: The Dream Big, Win Big Guide to Transforming Your Life Michael Strahan and Veronica Chambers Excerpt WHAT I LEARNED FROM HERSCHEL WALKER Rule #1 Help can—and will—c...
Where to Choose: A Novel
Where to Choose: A Novel Penny Mickelbury Excerpt Chapter Four Late-morning sun shone directly down on the purple and lilac and pink and white bougainvillea; shone easily through the tops of to...
Dear G-Spot: Straight Talk About Sex and Love
Dear G-Spot: Straight Talk About Sex and Love Zane Excerpt Chapter One: Sexual Addiction Sexual addiction is a topic very near and dear to my heart. When I first decided to write my novel Add...
Coming Forth by Day
Coming Forth by Day Kakwasi Somadhi Excerpt Excerpt from Chapter Seven When Loretha showed up with Solly that hot July evening, the village was already crowded. Men and women with Afros as big as ...
Black Girl You Are Atlas
Black Girl You Are Atlas Renée Watson Excerpt at•las | \ ’at-les \ from Merriam-Webster Dictionary 1 capitalized: a Titan who for his part in the Titans’ revolt against the gods ...
The Future Has a Past
The Future Has a Past J. California Cooper Excerpt A Shooting Star Now, you don’t know me. And, I know that you know that nobody knows everything. But a person does have to go by whatever ...
Wonderful Ethiopians Of The Ancient Cushite Empire, Book 1
Wonderful Ethiopians Of The Ancient Cushite Empire, Book 1 Drusilla Dunjee Houston Excerpt The minds of men today are stirred with eager questionings about the origin of civilization and about ...
Faith in the Valley: Lessons for Women on the Journey to Peace
Faith in the Valley: Lessons for Women on the Journey to Peace Iyanla Vanzant Excerpt Chapter 1 The Valley of Light Teaches us the lesson of stillness, through the imposition of a state of so...
Sometimes I Cry
Sometimes I Cry Linda Dominique Grosvenor Excerpt I have never been more anxious in my entire life than I am right now. I’m sitting at my desk with an hour or more to kill and a list of things...
Life, Love & Loneliness
Life, Love & Loneliness Crystal Lacey Winslow Excerpt CHAPTER 3 - LYRIC DEVANEY At 11:00 am sharp, Richard’s black Mercedes- Benz arrived. His driver got out and opened the door and Richard ...
My Love, My Love: or The Peasant Girl
My Love, My Love: or The Peasant Girl Rosa Guy Excerpt Chapter One On that island where rivers run deep, where the sea sparkling in the sun earns it the name Jewel of the Antilles, the tops of t...
Prince and Me: His #1 Fan: My Minneapolis Memories
Prince and Me: His #1 Fan: My Minneapolis Memories Andrea Foy Excerpt NEW YEAR’S EVE, PART 1 I spent New Year’s Eve 1992 in Minneapolis with friends I met from the Controversy Fan Clu...
In the Still of the Night: Personal Safety for Women
In the Still of the Night: Personal Safety for Women Andrea Foy Excerpt Une Nuit de Paris\ “How did I get myself into this mess?” I thought. There I was, riding on the Metro out of Par...
You Are Free: Stories
You Are Free: Stories Danzy Senna Excerpt What’s the Matter with Helga and Dave? When I married Hewitt, I didn’t realize — among other things — that I would become a member...
Of One Blood
Of One Blood Pauline Hopkins Excerpt Chapter One The recitations were over for the day. It was the first week in November and it had rained about every day the entire week; now freezing temperatur...
God in the Ghetto: A Prophetic Word Revisited
God in the Ghetto: A Prophetic Word Revisited William Augustus Jones Jr. Excerpt Chapter 1: The System “The System” refers implicitly to the American trinity of capitalism, racism,...
Operation Sisterhood
Operation Sisterhood Olugbemisola Rhuday-Perkovich Excerpt 1 So it really was a dark and stormy night, and it figured, thought Bo. Of course it was a dark and stormy night. Of course it was. Ok...
Woleté The Story of an Enslaved Ethiopian Girl
Woleté The Story of an Enslaved Ethiopian Girl Aklilu Kidanu Woldegiorgis Excerpt Part 5 The Catastrophe In one unsuspecting bright morning, the lives of a happy girl and her childhood friends ch...
Table of Contents <em>Black Power, Black Lawyer: My Audacious Quest for Justice</em>
Table of Contents Black Power, Black Lawyer: My Audacious Quest for Justice Patrice Lawrence Excerpt Chapter 1 Al I’m hungry. Really hungry. I want to fill the biggest bowl with cornflakes and ...
Satin Doll: A Novel
Satin Doll: A Novel Karen E. Quinones Miller Excerpt Bang! The sound was loud, but not quite jarring enough to register instant recognition in her reefer-dulled brain. It could have been a fire...
Alain Locke: An Introduction
Alain Locke: An Introduction Charles Molesworth Excerpt ALAIN LOCKE: AN INTRODUCTION(Part 1) Alain Locke established his intellectual brilliance by a lifetime of study ...
Empire of Illusion: The End of Literacy and the Triumph of Spectacle
Empire of Illusion: The End of Literacy and the Triumph of Spectacle Chris Hedges Excerpt Now the death of God combined with the perfection of the image has brought us to a whole new state of expe...
Unsung Heroes
Unsung Heroes Elizabeth Ross Haynes Excerpt In casting about for stories to read to a little friend, one day I drew from the Library "My Life and Times" by Frederick Douglass. I knew that t...
No Man’s Compass
No Man’s Compass S. D. Hines Excerpt Michael Healy carried a sidearm, a .45 colt revolver. As the two men ran towards the boy, Michael gasped to his brother, "Get the boy…to safety…I...
Chapter 3 Jonathan Fraiser
Chapter 3 Jonathan Fraiser Alicia D. Williams Excerpt one Nobody could tell me that today wasn’t gon’ be my day. Even though I couldn’t determine the correct term of equality in ...
Food and the City
Food and the City Ina Yalof Excerpt Alexander SmallsThe Cecil Daylight floods his Harlem apartment, an eclectic space crammed with old and new mementos from a well-traveled, well-lived life. The...
Zora Neale Hurston: A Life In Letters by Carla Kaplan
Zora Neale Hurston: A Life In Letters by Carla Kaplan Zora Neale Hurston Excerpt Chapter 1 “DE TALKIN’ GAME” The Twenties (and Before) First and foremost a storyteller, with ...
INTRODUCTION
INTRODUCTION Khristi Lauren Adams Excerpt INTRODUCTION The turn of the millennium has seen an upsurge in new and young African writers and this has been particularly noticeable in terms of the num...
One Blood
One Blood Denene Millner Excerpt 1 The blood never much bothered Grace. Maw Maw Rubelle got her used to it early on, when she was little ol’, way before she let her only granddaughter, her a...
Night Hawks: Stories
Night Hawks: Stories Charles Johnson Excerpt The Weave Three thieves battered through a wall, crawled close to the floor to dodge motion detectors and stole six duffel bags filled with human hair ...
A Thug’s Redemption 2: Jamal’s Return
A Thug’s Redemption 2: Jamal’s Return Yani Excerpt They jumped on the elevator and rode down to the garage. Neither Maurice nor Angela knew what to say to Keisha so they followed in silence. They ma...
Hot Johnny (and the Women Who Loved Him)
Hot Johnny (and the Women Who Loved Him) Sandra Jackson-Opoku Excerpt He knew just how to feed them You see all our hungry faces in the photo album of his life. And you wonder. Who is ...
I Can’t Wait on God
I Can’t Wait on God Albert French Excerpt Chapter One Pittsburgh, 1950 Summer night air was always sticky kind of air, had that stinkin mill smoke stuck all in it. Them old freight trains ...
To Find You
To Find You Cerece Rennie Murphy Excerpt Part I: In The Beginning I wait for him here, at the place where the night sky and the earth become lovers. In the tall grass of our homeland, between two k...
Murder At Cape Three Points
Murder At Cape Three Points Kwei Quartey Excerpt PROLOGUE Cape Three Points, the southernmost tip of Ghana, is beautiful and wild. Verdant forest covers the three finger-like peninsulas th...
Provenance: A Novel
Provenance: A Novel Donna Drew Sawyer Excerpt Prologue Park Place, Virginia - Fall 1909 “Hank, run!” was the last thing he heard Junior say. Deputies struggled to hold and handcuff ...