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The World According to Fannie Davis
The World According to Fannie Davis Tony Lindsay Book Review The World According to Fannie Davis is the story of a Black woman who became a numbers’ banker, which was a miraculous accomplishmen...
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...
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 ...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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,...
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...
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...
Freedom Summer: The Savage Season That Made Mississippi Burn and Made America a Democracy
Freedom Summer: The Savage Season That Made Mississippi Burn and Made America a Democracy Thumper Book Review I decided to be ambitions this summer and read a number of non-fiction titles. I blame ...
Freedom Riders (American Experience)
Freedom Riders (American Experience) Kam Williams images/Sprite%20117.jpg Film Review American Experience: Freedom Riders Click to buy via Amazon.com Number of discs: 1 Rated: NR (...
Sweet Release
Sweet Release Kam Williams Book Review ’The racial struggle, for many of us, is over. Our struggles are now centered around schools for our children, career opportunities, and develop...
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...
Freedom's Journal: The First African-American Newspaper
Freedom's Journal: The First African-American Newspaper Kam Williams Book Review “While the Constitution declares that all men are born free and equal, the wise corporation of the city of...
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...
Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom
Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom Kam Williams mandela-2013-alternate-movie-poster.jpg Film Review Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom In Theaters: Nov 29, 2013 Limited PG-13 for sexuality, intense violence...
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 ...
Sovereign Evolution
Sovereign Evolution Kam Williams Book Review ’African-Americans could benefit from a 21st Century approach to freedom and equality, using sovereign principles as its interp...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
Eye of the Hurricane: My Path from Darkness to Freedom
Eye of the Hurricane: My Path from Darkness to Freedom Kam Williams Book Review "You may have heard of me, Rubin "Hurricane" Carter, as having been a professional prizefighter. That, alon...
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...
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 ...
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...
Miss Anne in Harlem: The White Women of the Black Renaissance
Miss Anne in Harlem: The White Women of the Black Renaissance Connie Bradley Book Review Definitions of Miss Anne: A coded term for any white woman. A derisive name for a white woman. An emanc...
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 Salt Roads
The Salt Roads Linda Watkins Book Review Award winning author Nalo Hopkinson’s The Salt Roads is a multilayered fantasy full of various meanings, Haitian voodoo, mythology, slavery and Europe...
Long Live the Spirit of the Million Man March
Long Live the Spirit of the Million Man March Kam Williams images/longlivemmm.jpg Film Review Long Live the Spirit of the Million Man March Click to Order via Amazon Unrated Running ti...
Freedom Bound
Freedom Bound Jayne Cubbage Book Review The novel Freedom bound is based on the life Anta Majigeen Ndiaya who had been captured by slave raiders from Yang Yang village in Senegal, West Africa. Auth...
An Uncaged Eagle -- True Freedom
An Uncaged Eagle -- True Freedom Kam Williams Book Review "This autobiography tells the story of my life while highlighting some of the tremendous people who helped me overcome adversities I fa...
Triangular Road: A Memoir
Triangular Road: A Memoir Thumper Book Review I don't know how I came to be aware of Paule Marshall’s new book, Triangular Road: a Memoir. Maybe it was the same still small voic...
Roots
Roots Kam Williams alex.h11.jpg Film Review 30th Anniversary Edition of Emmy-Winning Miniseries Arrives on DVD Roots (Four-Disc -30th Anniversary Edition) (1977) Click to order via AmazonDirec...
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...
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 Speech: The Story behind Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s Dream
The Speech: The Story behind Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s Dream Kam Williams Book Review “A great speech is both timely and timeless. First and foremost, it must touch and move its immediate ...
Selma
Selma Kam Williams selma-movie-poster.jpg Film Review Selma In Theaters: Dec 25, 2014 Limited, Jan 9, 2014 Wide PG-13 (for disturbing thematic material including violence, a suggestive moment, and...
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 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...
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...
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 ...
Strange Fruit
Strange Fruit Paige Turner Book Review "Anatomy of a Mind Blowing Song" One of the most deeply satisfying and thought provoking books traces the anatomy of a rarely remember song from...
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...
The New Age of Empire: How Racism and Colonialism Still Rule the World
The New Age of Empire: How Racism and Colonialism Still Rule the World Robert Fleming Book Review It’s always beneficial to understand how learned minds, from abroad, view our current world wit...
In Spite of the Consequences: Prison Letters on Exoneration, Abolition, and Freedom
In Spite of the Consequences: Prison Letters on Exoneration, Abolition, and Freedom Robert Fleming Book Review If you were politically conscious decades ago, you would have read the prison chronicles...
A Flag for Juneteenth
A Flag for Juneteenth Mel Hopkins Book Review Choose Freedom In A Flag for Juneteenth, Kim Taylor weaves a tale of freedom and how to achieve it even when your world is in tatters. And while this...
When Minorities Lead in America: A Black Theologian’s Political Journey
When Minorities Lead in America: A Black Theologian’s Political Journey Alexis E. Jackson Book Review A worthwhile read, When Minorities Lead in America by Dr. Herman J. Fountain Jr. is one man&rsquo...
What Went Wrong in Ohio
What Went Wrong in Ohio Kam Williams Book Review With the November elections just over the horizon, this might be as good a time as ever to take note of what happened in Ohio in 2004 in order to b...
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 ...
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...
Conversation with the Mann
Conversation with the Mann Thumper Book Review Not since Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Man has a first person narrative novel struck me with such a poignant sense of completeness and satisfaction a...
Home
Home Connie Bradley Book Review I just recently completed Toni Morrison’s latest book Home, a novel I have been looking forward to reading because its advance notices promoted it as being set i...
Party Crashing
Party Crashing Kam Williams Book Review ’Unlike their parents and grandparents, young black Americans no longer view their political identity as black and white, so to speak. Today,...
Incognito: An American Odyssey of Race and Self-Discovery
Incognito: An American Odyssey of Race and Self-Discovery Kam Williams Book Review I grabbed the phone and punched in the number… my heart pounding… My dad… Thirty years late...
White Flight
White Flight Kam Williams Book Review "At the start of the 21st Century, the politics created by white flight are not simply still present; they are predominant. Despite its fundamental im...
The Black Panthers: Vanguard of the Revolution
The Black Panthers: Vanguard of the Revolution Kam Williams black-pathers-movie-poster.jpg Film Review The Black Panthers: Vanguard of the Revolution In Theaters: Sep 2, 2015 Limited Runtime: 1 hr....
9780764344879
9780764344879 Kam Williams Book Review “With a population of nearly half a million people, Harlem is America’s most celebrated African-American neighborhood. Its rich past and historic...
Spirit Seeker: John Coltrane’s Musical Journey
Spirit Seeker: John Coltrane’s Musical Journey Kam Williams Book Review “Music and religion were the twin forces that shaped John Coltrane’s early years. Both of his grandfathers were Me...
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 ...
Adam by Adam
Adam by Adam Thumper Book Review ’Never let anyone keep you contained and never let anyone keep your voice silent.’ -Adam Clayton Powell, Sr. to a young Adam Clayton Powell, Jr. If I were...
Adam by Adam: The Autobiography of Adam Clayton Powell, Jr.
Adam by Adam: The Autobiography of Adam Clayton Powell, Jr. Thumper Book Review ’Never let anyone keep you contained and never let anyone keep your voice silent.’ -Adam Clayton Powell, ...
The Pursuit of Porsha
The Pursuit of Porsha Robert Fleming Book Review Those people who follow television and podcasts will recognize Porsha Williams, one of the stars of the popular reality show, The Real Housewives of...
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...
The Rejected Stone: Al Sharpton and the Path to American Leadership
The Rejected Stone: Al Sharpton and the Path to American Leadership Kam Williams Book Review “As you read through the following pages and get a sense of my journey and the lessons I’ve...
Solving The Race Issue In America by H. J. Harris
Solving The Race Issue In America by H. J. Harris Robert Fleming Book Review This slender book, written by Harris, states it holds the solution to American racism, examining the checkered history of...
America I AM Pass It Down Cookbook: Over 130 Soul-Filled Recipes
America I AM Pass It Down Cookbook: Over 130 Soul-Filled Recipes Kam Williams Book Review "The Pass It Down Cookbook is filled with recipes that reflect the generations-long need to document and sh...
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 ...
Let Us Descend
Let Us Descend Donna Hill Book Review Acclaimed writer Jesmyn Ward, two-time National Book Award winner for Sing, Unburied, Sing and Salvage the Bones, returns with her latest, Let Us Descend, a haun...
When They Call You a Terrorist: A Black Lives Matter Memoir
When They Call You a Terrorist: A Black Lives Matter Memoir Kam Williams Book Review ’We have joined the rest of the country in protesting in order to get Trayvon Martin’s killer charged....
Duende
Duende Robert Fleming Book Review Poet Quincy Troupe’s literary magic has elevated him to the forefront of modern American writers. Born in St. Louis, Missouri, he, the son of a catcher in the ...
Why White Kids Love Hip Hop
Why White Kids Love Hip Hop Kam Williams Book Review "Hip-hop is the last hope for this generation and arguably the last hope for America… The best remedy for leaving the o...
I Will Follow
I Will Follow Kam Williams images/iwillfollow.jpg Film Review Bittersweet Drama Chronicles Day in the Life of Grief-Stricken Caregiver I Will Follow Order via Amazon.com Unrated ...
Vanishing Rooms
Vanishing Rooms Thumper Book Review Upon my first glance at Vanishing Rooms, the debut novel by the late poet/novelist Melvin Dixon, I thought — in my mind’s voice that sounds like Billie...
This Leaves Me Okay
This Leaves Me Okay Ahmad Wright Book Review It is not every day that your grandmother writes you a letter. Even rarer for a grandmother with an eighth-grade education to write periodically in her ow...
Ain’t Nothing Like Freedom
Ain’t Nothing Like Freedom Kam Williams Book Review “Elected six times to the House from the state of Georgia, Cynthia McKinney cut a trail through Congressional deceit like a hot ember throug...
The Bondwoman’s Narrative
The Bondwoman’s Narrative Paige Turner Book Review In the 1850s a female slave owned by John Wheeler, a North Carolina plantation owner and minor government official, escaped and fled to freedom. Sh...
Osama Bin Laden
Osama Bin Laden Kam Williams Book Review ’In the Western media, and especially the United States, the demonization of Osama bin Laden has been complete. Almost without exception, he is ...
The Life of Olaudah Equiano
The Life of Olaudah Equiano Thumper Book Review In a continuing effort to broaden my horizon and go outside of my comfort zone, I decided to read The Life of Olaudah Equiano by Olaudah Equiano, eve...
The Freedom Writers Diary
The Freedom Writers Diary Kam Williams Book Review "My daughter Suhaila was born a full decade after my mother died… Becoming a parent made me think of my own mother with both intense g...
Blacktrospective 2013 by Kam Williams
Blacktrospective 2013 by Kam Williams Kam Williams http://aalbc.com/reviews/20-feet-from-stardom.jpg Film Review Blacktrospective 2013 - Annual Assessment of the Best in Black Cinema Each year we pub...
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...
Love
Love Thumper Book Review For those of you who don’t know me or have not read any of my reviews, I have a tendency of getting extremely excited over republished books written by African Amer...
Rudolph Lewis: The Prophetic Voice of the Poet
Rudolph Lewis: The Prophetic Voice of the Poet Miriam Decosta-Willis Book Review Rudolph Lewis In his lyrical Mockingbirds at Jerusalem: A Poetic Memoir, poet, editor, and former professor and l...
If My Hair Had a Voice
If My Hair Had a Voice Lisa Y? Wilson Book Review When another comb loses the battle with Kimya’s natural coils, feeling shame she apologizes and asks, “Can’t we just straighten it?...
El Cantante
El Cantante Kam Williams jennif9.jpg Film Review J-Lo Back in Bittersweet Bio-Pic about Seventies Salsa Singer El Cantante Rated R for sexuality, drug use and pervasive profan...
United in Anger: A History of ACT UP
United in Anger: A History of ACT UP Kam Williams united-in-anger.jpg Film Review Riveting Gay Rights Retrospective Revisits Rise of AIDS Activism Movement United in Anger: A History of ACT ...
Kinyarwanda
Kinyarwanda Kam Williams images/kinyarwanda_movie_poster.jpg Film Review Rwandan Tragedy Revisited in "Crash"-Like Ensemble Drama Read an interview with the film maker Alrick Brown Kinyarwanda ...
Mooz-Lum
Mooz-Lum Kam Williams images/img51.jpg Film Review Young Muslim Searches for Identity in Coming-of-Age Flick Mooz-Lum Rated PG-13 for violence and mature themes. Running time: 99 Minutes Dist...
Endgame
Endgame Kam Williams endgam10.jpg Film Review South African Docudrama Chronicles Demise of Apartheid Endgame Rated PG-13 for violence, profanity and disturbing images. In En...
A Dream Foreclosed: Black America and the Fight for a Place to Call Home
A Dream Foreclosed: Black America and the Fight for a Place to Call Home Kam Williams Book Review “Black families and neighborhoods have been disproportionately victimized by bankers’ p...
Rough Crossings
Rough Crossings Kam Williams Book Review ’Seeing the Revolutionary War through the eyes of enslaved blacks turns its meaning upside down. ’ The vaunted war for liberty was a...
Still I Rise
Still I Rise Kam Williams Book Review ’One of the invaluable features of Still I Rise, the first cartoon history of black America, is the wealth of information it provides abo...
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...