AALBC Search
The Lawyer as Leader: How to Plant People and Grow Justice
The Lawyer as Leader: How to Plant People and Grow Justice Kam Williams Book Review “The social challenges of our time are enormous. About one in seven U.S. residents live in poverty, and t...
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...
Justice While Black: Helping African-American Families Navigate and Survive the Criminal Justice System
Justice While Black: Helping African-American Families Navigate and Survive the Criminal Justice System Kam Williams Book Review “The August 9th fatal shooting of teenager Michael Brown by poli...
Justice While Black: Helping African-American Families Navigate and Survive the Criminal Justice Sys
Justice While Black: Helping African-American Families Navigate and Survive the Criminal Justice Sys Kam Williams Book Review “The August 9th fatal shooting of teenager Michael Brown by police ...
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...
Weathering the Storm: Navigating the Anti-Social Justice Wave
Weathering the Storm: Navigating the Anti-Social Justice Wave Shaundale Rénā Book Review In writing Weathering the Storm: Navigating the Anti-Social Justice Wave, author Tiffany G. Townsend, PhD, add...
Louise Thompson Patterson, A Life of Struggle and Justice by Keith Gilyard
Louise Thompson Patterson, A Life of Struggle and Justice by Keith Gilyard Brenda M. Greene Book Review To study her story is to witness the courage, sacrifice, vision and discipline of someone who s...
The African-American Criminal Justice Guide
The African-American Criminal Justice Guide Kam Williams Book Review “As a defense attorney, I spend a lot of time counseling young African-American men and women about making better lives fo...
Growing Up In The Nation’s Capital: We Made It, But It Took An Entire Village
Growing Up In The Nation’s Capital: We Made It, But It Took An Entire Village Carol Taylor Book Review “I am a native Washingtonian, but I did not ‘live’ where most people want t...
The Justice Imperative: How Hyper-Incarceration Has Hijacked the American Dream
The Justice Imperative: How Hyper-Incarceration Has Hijacked the American Dream Kam Williams Book Review “Our criminal justice system is in need of reform. [It] costs the taxpayers too much, ...
The Anonymous People
The Anonymous People Kam Williams The-anonymous-people.jpg Film Review 12-Step Documentary Rethinks Addiction The Anonymous People In Theaters: Mar 14, 2014 Limited Unrated Running time: 88 min...
Pregnant While Black: Advancing Justice for Maternal Health in America
Pregnant While Black: Advancing Justice for Maternal Health in America Eryka Parker Book Review As a Black woman born and raised in the United States, I have always been aware of how blessed I am to ...
Walking with Our Ancestors
Walking with Our Ancestors Denolyn Carroll Book Review On the face of it, contemplation is deep reflective thought or consideration. At a higher level, it hinges on a critical spiritual component tha...
Justice for Marcus Garvey
Justice for Marcus Garvey Robert Fleming Book Review Justice for Marcus Garvey: Look for Me in the Whirlwind is a recently published collection of essays that highlights the achievements and aspirati...
The Next Big Story
The Next Big Story Kam Williams Book Review "I began life as the child of a mixed-race marriage growing up in a white suburb, treated sometimes as a creature of bad circumstance… Bad things h...
Dear White People
Dear White People Kam Williams dear-wite-people-movie-poster.jpg Film Review Dear White People In Theaters: Oct 17, 2014 Limited On DVD: Feb 3, 2015 Rated R for profanity, ethnic and sexual prefe...
The Revolution Will Not Be Funded
The Revolution Will Not Be Funded Kam Williams Book Review ’Many white-led social justice non-profits proclaim, in everything from their mission statements to their funding proposals, that...
In-Dependence from Bondage
In-Dependence from Bondage Kam Williams Book Review ’Claude McKay (1890-1948) and Michael N. Manley (1924-1997) shared a common commitment to the struggle of African Diaspora people for libe...
Psalms of My People
Psalms of My People April R. Silver Book Review In the book Psalms of My People, author Lenny Duncan opens this work by stating: “I start this book in perhaps the most hopeless place I have eve...
Brave at Heart
Brave at Heart Kirkus Book Review “A professor emeritus reimagines Western notions of race, crime, and justice in this volume of essays. Not only has America failed to adequately say ‘...
Martin Luther King Bullavoid: Imploding Communities
Martin Luther King Bullavoid: Imploding Communities Carol Taylor Book Review “Amid mounting threats to his life, Martin Luther King chose to step onto the second floor balcony of the Lorrai...
Bittersweet
Bittersweet Thumper Book Review Bittersweet, the debut novel by Freddie Lee Johnson, lll, proves the old adage that you can’t always judge a book by its cover. As I picked up Bittersweet from t...
Colored Sugar Water
Colored Sugar Water Thumper Book Review Another moment of truth, I didn't care for Venise Berry’s new novel of the super-natural meets Jesus, Colored Sugar Water, at all. Although Colored S...
Seven Full Days
Seven Full Days Robert Fleming Book Review Ferris Shelton’s debut novel, Seven Full Days, is a cautionary tale of white racism, corporate burnout, and powerful identity issues. He crafts a blac...
The Middle Sister
The Middle Sister Thumper Book Review I’m still finding my footing. Being away from reading books for three years, obtaining another degree, has dulled my reading senses. Now that the...
Creating Black Americans
Creating Black Americans Kam Williams Book Review ’Over the course of more than two centuries, black American artists have represented their history- scrupulously, meaningfully, and brilliantl...
The Courage to Hope: How I Stood Up to the Politics of Fear
The Courage to Hope: How I Stood Up to the Politics of Fear Kam Williams Book Review “In the summer of 2010, Shirley Sherrod was catapulted into a media storm that blew apart her life…...
Crown Heights
Crown Heights Kam Williams ../reviews/images/crown-heights.jpg Film Review Courtroom Docudrama Recounts Real-Life Miscarriage of Justice Excellent (★★★★) Rated R for lan...
Stand Your Ground: Black Bodies and the Justice of God
Stand Your Ground: Black Bodies and the Justice of God Kam Williams Book Review “Why is it becoming increasingly acceptable to kill unarmed black children? Why are they so easily perceived as...
D.C. Unmasked & Undressed: A Memoir
D.C. Unmasked & Undressed: A Memoir Kam Williams Book Review "D.C. Unmasked & Undressed is a memoir. The story of my life includes events, characters and insights related to my miserable child...
Lynched by Corporate America
Lynched by Corporate America Kam Williams Book Review ’My intention in writing this book from the outset has been to illustrate what happens’ when one of the world’s largest com...
The Emperor of Ocean Park
The Emperor of Ocean Park Thumper Book Review Conservative Pundit’s Mystery Novel Only Partly Successful Stephen L. Carter makes his debut as a fiction writer with The Emperor of Ocean Par...
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,...
Dying Eyes Don’t Lie
Dying Eyes Don’t Lie Eryka Parker Book Review Set in 1981, Dying Eyes Don’t Lie by Keith Mosley is a genre-blending thriller that explores justice, community, and legacy through the eyes of two...
The Presumption of Guilt: The Arrest of Henry Louis Gates
The Presumption of Guilt: The Arrest of Henry Louis Gates Kam Williams Book Review "This book is about more than the arrest of one man. It is abut how we need to examine our criminal justice syst...
Tales of a Jailhouse Librarian: Challenging the Juvenile Justice System One Book at a Time
Tales of a Jailhouse Librarian: Challenging the Juvenile Justice System One Book at a Time Carol Taylor Book Review After almost thirty years as a high school teacher Marybeth Zeman quits her teach...
Obama Guilty of Being President While Black
Obama Guilty of Being President While Black Kam Williams Book Review "This book is an inspiration that came to me after witnessing the disrespect and venom expressed towards President Obama&h...
John McCain’s Racism and Why It Matters
John McCain’s Racism and Why It Matters Kam Williams Book Review ’’I hate the gooks,’ said John McCain in the year 2000. ’I will hate them as long as I live.&rsquo...
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...
Thru My Eyes
Thru My Eyes Kam Williams Book Review ’Growing up in Iran, I had often heard of dervishes, people who possess a dynamic, heightened sense of awareness. Much like the shaman or the prophet, th...
Crisis of the Black Intellectual
Crisis of the Black Intellectual Kam Williams Book Review ’Today there are many Black intellectuals who do not think of Black people as a people and have no wish to do so. They think of the...
People Buy Brands
People Buy Brands Kam Williams Book Review "Once I was like a lot of people who think that marketing is just a way of convincing people to buy a whole bunch of things they don’t need&hellip...
Come on People
Come on People Kam Williams Book Review "For the last three and a half years, I have been holding community call-outs in cities around the country… This book will cover selec...
I Take My Coffee Black
I Take My Coffee Black Alvin Romer Book Review In his memoir, I Take My Coffee Black author, actor, musician, comedian, and activist, Tyler Merritt recounts, in his uniquely poignant way, the trials ...
Shayla Sweet and Her Magical Pen
Shayla Sweet and Her Magical Pen Denolyn Carroll Book Review “…And a little child shall lead them…” (Isaiah 11:6 NKJV). While spending summer break at her grandmother Nani&...
The People Could Fly
The People Could Fly Kam Williams Book Review "The People Could Fly is one of the most extraordinary, moving tales in black folklore… [It] is a detailed fantasy of suffering, of magi...
The Manual: A Guide to Achievement & Enlightenment in the Urban Community
The Manual: A Guide to Achievement & Enlightenment in the Urban Community Robert Fleming Book Review In a way, this book, The Manual: A Guide to Achievement & Enlightenment In The Urban Communit...
The Roux in the Gumbo
The Roux in the Gumbo Idrissa Uqdah Book Review A Black Family’s Odyssey in America Kim Robinson has written a remarkable account of her family’s history gathered from stories she was ...
Blacklash: How Obama and the Left Are Driving Americans to the Government Plantation
Blacklash: How Obama and the Left Are Driving Americans to the Government Plantation Kam Williams Book Review “There is this strange notion that because I am black I should agree with all blac...
Losing My Cool: How a Father’s Love and 15
Losing My Cool: How a Father’s Love and 15 Kam Williams Book Review "Since the dawn of the hip-hop era in the 1970s, black people have become increasingly freer and freer as individuals, with a wid...
Rock the Boat: How to Use Conflict to Heal and Deepen Your Relationship
Rock the Boat: How to Use Conflict to Heal and Deepen Your Relationship Kam Williams Book Review “This book is about the reality of relationships. It offers no comforting fantasies, false pro...
Don’t Blame It on Rio
Don’t Blame It on Rio Kam Williams Book Review ’Black women were once at the center of black men’s lives, as wives, mothers, lovers and partners’ However, in this generation, b...
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...
A Reason to Believe: Lessons from an Improbable Life
A Reason to Believe: Lessons from an Improbable Life Kam Williams Book Review "My life is often described as ‘improbable’ because I grew up in a broken home and in poverty…...
Ordinary Girls: A Memoir
Ordinary Girls: A Memoir Brenda M. Greene Book Review Jaquira Diaz, in her memoir Ordinary Girls, crafts a story that illustrates the intersection of race, ethnicity, sexuality, and poverty on the li...
What Money Can’t Buy: The Moral Limits of Markets
What Money Can’t Buy: The Moral Limits of Markets Kam Williams Book Review “We live at a time when almost everything can be bought and sold… Over the past three decades, markets—...
Mama Made the Difference
Mama Made the Difference Kam Williams Book Review ’My mother was a most remarkable person. She embodies the reasons that I esteem mothers so highly. In fact, when people ask me why muc...
Logic
Logic Thumper Book Review I was caught unaware. I was not forewarned or prepared for Olympia Vernon’s beyond marvelous second novel Logic. I knew Vernon was a capable writer after reading her...
Wounded
Wounded Carol Taylor Book Review As the headliner at a strip club, Samantha Miller is using her beautiful face and sexy body to get ahead, and hopefully make enough money to leave stripping behind ...
The African Americans: Many Rivers to Cross
The African Americans: Many Rivers to Cross Kam Williams Book Review “One of the central themes of African Americans is the exploration of the diversity of ethnic origins of the people from ...
Diary of a Lost Girl (2)
Diary of a Lost Girl (2) Chris Stevenson Book Review “There are more pyramids in the Sudan than there are in Egypt, that’s a statistical fact… and today there are still 2-3 milli...
He Talk Like a White Boy
He Talk Like a White Boy Kam Williams Book Review "I have grown tired of hearing people badmouth America. I love my country and claim it as my own because I believe America is good. And...
Our Kind of People
Our Kind of People Paige Turner Book Review A comedian joked that ethnic groups need an elite "Royal Family" to look up to. He mentioned that most WASPS identify with the British Royal fami...
The Roots of Rap
The Roots of Rap Neoma Nwasike Book Review Hip-Hop is a culture that has spanned generations and has become worldwide. It found its humble beginnings in some of the roughest trenches, deep in the Bro...
In Trembling Boldness: Wisdom for Today from Ancient Jesus People
In Trembling Boldness: Wisdom for Today from Ancient Jesus People Denolyn Carroll Book Review The book In Trembling Boldness: Wisdom for Today from Ancient Jesus People brings us newly discovered wri...
Minding the Wealth Gap
Minding the Wealth Gap Shaundale Rénā Book Review “The racial wealth gap for Black Americans remains significant, with a direct impact on social and economic growth in the United States” ...
Unburdened by Conscience: A Black People’s Collective Account of America’s Antebellum So
Unburdened by Conscience: A Black People’s Collective Account of America’s Antebellum So Kam Williams Book Review "While pursuing my Bachelor of Arts degree in college, I took a lot of history cour...
The Survival Bible
The Survival Bible Kam Williams Book Review ’On April 13th, 1999, I was released from federal prison after serving 7 years for being ignorant. Yeah, I was a dope dealer’...
Faith in the Fire: Wisdom for Life
Faith in the Fire: Wisdom for Life Kam Williams Book Review "Amazingly, many people of faith and members of the reading public have not heard of Gardner Taylor or his accomplishments. Publication ...
Ashamed to Die: Silence
Ashamed to Die: Silence Kam Williams Book Review "HIV/AIDS remains a significant public health and social justice crisis in the United States, and the South in particular is heavily burdenedï...
Judge Not!
Judge Not! Idrissa Uqdah Book Review Waiting For Justice To Prevail Audrey Forrest Carter has penned a great sequel to her well-received debut novel, The Wages of Sin. In Judge Not! readers f...
A Perilous Path: Talking Race, Inequality, and the Law
A Perilous Path: Talking Race, Inequality, and the Law Kam Williams Book Review We are definitely in challenging times. A lot of things so many of us fought for are being deliberately and actively ro...
The Wounds Are the Witness
The Wounds Are the Witness Denolyn Carroll Book Review The Wounds Are the Witness speaks to the often disregarded or denied cycles of pain and trauma among marginalized and disenfranchised people, wh...
We’ve Been Here Before: How Rebellion and Activism Have Always Sustained America
We’ve Been Here Before: How Rebellion and Activism Have Always Sustained America Eryka Parker Book Review We’ve Been Here Before: How Rebellion and Activism Have Always Sustained America by Michael I...
The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness
The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness Kam Williams Book Review ”Precisely how the system of mass incarceration works to trap African-Americans in a virtual (and ...
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 ...
Raisins in Milk
Raisins in Milk Brenda M. Greene Book Review Raisins in Milk by David Covin is a coming of age story focused on a young girl, Ruth-Ann Weathering, who is subjected to the staunch racism and stark rea...
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...
Eight Minutes of Heaven
Eight Minutes of Heaven Robert Fleming Book Review Travis English, author of Knights of Paris, returns with his second work of fiction, Eight Minutes of Heaven, a story about Derek Treadwell, w...
Reputations Fade Away
Reputations Fade Away Kam Williams Book Review ’I can understand and relate to why most black men are giving up on life, especially the ones my age’ Only a few of us mak...
Race
Race Kam Williams Book Review “There is a lot to learn from this book. If you are feeling cynical and discouraged that you can’t fight the powerful, read it! If you want to learn the ...
Powder Necklace
Powder Necklace Thumper Book Review I was trying not to like Powder Necklace, the debut novel by Nana Ekua Brew-Hammond. I had had my fill of the black girl coming-of-age story. A few years ago, ...
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...
Shooting Stars
Shooting Stars Kam Williams Book Review ’I was born in December 1984 in a house on Hickory St. that was mostly maintained by my mother’s mother. But when I was three, my...
An Inconvenient Friend
An Inconvenient Friend Idrissa Uqdah Book Review Is This What Friends Are For? This novel is a great follow-up to McKnight's debut novel, Secrets and Lies. The protagonist, Samaria Jacobs ...
Don’t Make a Black Woman…
Don’t Make a Black Woman… Kam Williams Book Review Madea’s Uninhibited Commentaries on Love and Life: #1 spot on the New York Times best sellers list (May 2006). "Whoever came...
Faith under Fire
Faith under Fire Kam Williams Book Review ’God has given me the opportunity to reach scores of women, connecting with their spirits to bring understanding to the ’dow...
Free Lunch
Free Lunch Kam Williams Book Review ’The evidence of a growing divide between the superrich and everyone else in America is so overwhelming that all but the few lightweight ideologues amo...
Making Bold Moves: Creating Multimillion Dollar Success in 500 Days or Less
Making Bold Moves: Creating Multimillion Dollar Success in 500 Days or Less Kam Williams Book Review “In building NobleStrategy, [Bill Parrish] not only built a force in the construction mana...
Medical Apartheid
Medical Apartheid Kam Williams Book Review ’The experimental exploitation of African-Americans is not an issue of the last decade or even the past few decades. Dangerous, involuntary, a...
Gangsta Lean
Gangsta Lean Linda Watkins Book Review Too Clean! Debut novel, Gangsta Lean, penned by Rochan Morgan is one of the few chronologically tight stories written by a new author this year. It is so ti...
Gift of Truth
Gift of Truth Michelle Paynter Book Review There are literary craftsmen who spend a lifetime writing in one particular genre, and there are others who possess a creative and literary zeal, which ...
Love Unlimited
Love Unlimited Paige Turner Book Review The man is known by many names: The Maestro; The Icon of Love; The First, Last and Everything! In his new autobiography, recording legend Barry White lives up ...
Buddy Guy: When I Left Home — My Story
Buddy Guy: When I Left Home — My Story Robert Fleming Book Review When I Left Home, the memoir of legendary blue guitarist Buddy Guy, with support from noted writer David Ritz, traces the musician ...
Love Bones: A Collection of Poetry
Love Bones: A Collection of Poetry Robert Fleming Book Review Love seems to be the emotional fuel for all forms of popular expression. This book’s author, Ronald Oliphant, knows firsthand ...
Black Swan
Black Swan Rondall Brasher Book Review When Poetry Takes Wing Black Swan by Lyrae Van Clief-Stefanon was published in 2002. This lapse of time annoys me because I somehow missed this rare "lot...
Fourplay: The Dance of Sensuality
Fourplay: The Dance of Sensuality Thumper Book Review Fourplay…the Dance of Sensuality, the latest novel by Brenda L. Thomas, is the continuing story of Sasha Boranni from Thomas’s firs...
I’m Telling
I’m Telling Thumper Book Review For those who are curious as to whether Karen E. Quinones Miller successfully evades the mythical writers’ "sophomore slump" with her latest novel, I&...
Negro with a Hat
Negro with a Hat Thumper Book Review I’m not an average reader of biographies. I am now realizing the older I get, the more biographies and history books my reading palette finds attr...
Pieces from Life’s Crazy Quilt
Pieces from Life’s Crazy Quilt Walter Benefield Book Review Marvin Sprague says that her mother’s favorite quilts to make were what she called ’Crazy Quilts.’ She defines these qui...