Featured Titles
Lovely One
A New York Times Book Review and New Yorker Best Book of the Year
With this unflinching account, Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson invites readers into her life and world, tracing her family's ascent from segregation to her confirmation on America's highest court within the span of one generation.
Named "Ketanji Onyika," meaning "Lovely One," based on a suggestion from her aunt, a Peace Corps worker stationed in West Africa, Justice Jackson learned from her educator parents to take pride in her heritage since birth. She describes her resolve as a young girl to honor this legacy and realize her dreams: from hearing stories of her grandparents and parents breaking barriers in the segregated South, to honing her voice in high school as an oratory champion and student body president, to graduating magna cum laude from Harvard, where she performed in musical theater and improv and participated in pivotal student organizations.
Here, Justice Jackson pulls back the curtain, marrying the public record of her life with what is less known. She reveals what it takes to advance in the legal profession when most people in power don't look like you, and to reconcile a demanding career with the joys and sacrifices of marriage and motherhood.
Through trials and triumphs, Justice Jackson's journey will resonate with dreamers everywhere, especially those who nourish outsized ambitions and refuse to be turned aside. This moving, openhearted tale will spread hope for a more just world, for generations to come.
This Is the Honey
A breathtaking poetry collection on hope, heart, and heritage from the most prominent and promising Black poets and writers of our time, edited by #1 New York Times bestselling author Kwame Alexander. In this comprehensive and vibrant poetry anthology, bestselling author and poet Kwame Alexander curates a collection of contemporary anthems at turns tender and piercing and deeply inspiring throughout. Featuring work from well-loved poets such as Rita Dove, Jericho Brown, Warsan Shire, Ross Gay, Tracy K. Smith, Terrance Hayes, Morgan Parker, and Nikki Giovanni, This Is the Honey is a rich and abundant offering of language from the poets giving voice to generations of resilient joy, "each incantation," as Mahogany L. Browne puts it in her titular poem, is "a jubilee of a people dreaming wildly."
This essential collection, in the tradition of Dudley Randall's The Black Poets and E. Ethelbert Miller's In Search of Color Everywhere, contains poems exploring joy, love, origin, race, resistance, and praise. Jacqueline A. Trimble likens "Black woman joy" to indigo, tassels, foxes, and peacock plumes. Tyree Daye, Nate Marshall, and Elizabeth Acevedo reflect on the meaning of "home" through food, from Cuban rice and beans to fried chicken gizzards. Clint Smith and Cameron Awkward-Rich enfold us in their intimate musings on love and devotion. From a "jewel in the hand" (Patricia Spears Jones) to "butter melting in small pools" (Elizabeth Alexander), This Is the Honey drips with poignant and delightful imagery, music, and raised fists.
The Black Box
A New York Times Notable Book
A magnificent, foundational reckoning with how Black Americans have used the written word to define and redefine themselves, in resistance to the lies of racism and often in heated disagreement with one another, over the course of the country's history. Distilled over many years from Henry Louis Gates, Jr.'s, legendary Harvard introductory course in African American studies, The Black Box: Writing the Race, is the story of Black self-definition in America through the prism of the writers who have led the way. From Phillis Wheatley and Frederick Douglass, W. E. B. Du Bois and Booker T. Washington, to Zora Neale Hurston and Richard Wright, James Baldwin and Toni Morrison--these writers used words to create a livable world, a home, for Black people destined to live out their lives in a bitterly racist society.
It is a book grounded in the beautiful irony that a group formed legally and conceptually by its oppressors to justify brutal subhuman bondage transformed itself through the word into a community joined in overcoming one of history's most pernicious lies. Out of that contested ground has flowered a resilient, creative, powerful, diverse culture of people who have often disagreed markedly about what it means to be Black, and about how best to use the past to create a more just and equitable future. This is the epic story of how, through essays and speeches, novels, plays, and poems, a long line of creative thinkers has unveiled the contours of--and resisted confinement in--the black box inside which this nation within a nation has been assigned, willy-nilly, from the nation's founding through to today. This is a book that records the compelling saga of the creation of a people.
The Homewood Trilogy
From "master of language" (The New York Times) John Edgar Wideman, a reissue of the revered trilogy that launched his career--two novels and story collection all set in Wideman's own hometown. Damballah, Hiding Place, and Sent for You Yesterday provide a stunning introduction to the uncompromising work of John Edgar Wideman, whose literary achievements have inspired The New York Times to name him "one of America's premier writers of fiction."
Damballah's narratives examine the vexed history of Homewood, a Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania neighborhood whose origins are rooted in a time when slavery was still legal in the United States of America. The novels Hiding Place and Sent for You Yesterday personalize and interrogate that history's presence in the contemporary lives of Homewood people and all Americans. Deeply concerned that designations such as "economically oppressed" or "Black" continue to dismiss and marginalize rather than embrace communities like the one in which he was raised, John Edgar Wideman--employing words on the page as his weapon--has dedicated himself to recording the weight, beauty, complexity, and justice that he believes Homewood's voices, stories, and lives have earned and deserve. In 1983, The Homewood Trilogy signaled the arrival of a major voice in American literature.
Forty years later, this edition of the Trilogy celebrates Wideman's ongoing contribution by offering these masterworks to a new generation of readers.
Caste (Adapted for Young Adults)
In this young adult adaptation of the New York Times bestselling nonfiction work, Pulitzer Prize-winning author Isabel Wilkerson explores the unspoken hierarchies that divide us across lines of race and class. Revealing and timely, this work will speak to young people who are engaged more than ever with the world around them, or to anyone who believes in a more just existence for all.
Readers will be fascinated by this young adult adaptation of the New York Times bestselling nonfiction work as they follow masterful narratives about real people that reveal an insidious phenomenon in the United States: a hidden caste system. Caste is not only about race or class; it is about power--which groups have it and which do not. Isabel Wilkerson explores historical social hierarchies, including those in India and Nazi Germany, and explains how perpetuating these rankings dehumanizes vast sections of society. Once we learn the reasons behind caste and see the often heartbreaking effects, Wilkerson says, we can bridge the divides and make way for an inclusive future where we are all equal.
Black Joy
With deeply personal and uplifting essays in the vein of Black Girls Rock, You Are Your Best Thing, and I Really Needed This Today, this is "a necessary testimony on the magic and beauty of our capacity to live and love fully and out loud" (Kerry Washington). When Tracey M. Lewis-Giggetts wrote an essay on Black joy for The Washington Post, she had no idea just how deeply it would resonate. But the outpouring of positive responses affirmed her own lived experience: that Black joy is not just a weapon of resistance, it is a tool for resilience. With this book, Tracey aims to gift her community with a collection of lyrical essays about the way joy has evolved, even in the midst of trauma, in her own life. Detailing these instances of joy in the context of Black culture allows us to recognize the power of Black joy as a resource to draw upon, and to challenge the one-note narratives of Black life as solely comprised of trauma and hardship.
"Lewis-Giggetts etches a stunning personal map that follows in her ancestors' footsteps and highlights their ability to take control of situational heartbreak and tragedy and make something better out of it....A simultaneously gorgeous and heartbreaking read" (Kirkus Reviews, starred review).
Walking with the Wind
An award-winning national bestseller, Walking with the Wind is one of our most important records of the American Civil Rights Movement. Told by John Lewis, who Cornel West calls a "national treasure," this is a gripping first-hand account of the fight for civil rights and the courage it takes to change a nation. In 1957, a teenaged boy named John Lewis left a cotton farm in Alabama for Nashville, the epicenter of the struggle for civil rights in America. Lewis's adherence to nonviolence guided that critical time and established him as one of the movement's most charismatic and courageous leaders. Lewis's leadership in the Nashville Movement--a student-led effort to desegregate the city of Nashville using sit-in techniques based on the teachings of Gandhi--set the tone for major civil rights campaigns of the 1960s.
Lewis traces his role in the pivotal Selma marches, Bloody Sunday, and the Freedom Rides. Inspired by his mentor, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Lewis's vision and perseverance altered history. In 1986, he ran and won a congressional seat in Georgia, where he worked to enact change until his death in 2020. The late Edward M. Kennedy said of Lewis, "John tells it like it was...Lewis spent most of his life walking against the wind of the times, but he was surely walking with the wind of history."
Call Us What We Carry
The breakout poetry collection by #1 New York Times bestselling author and presidential inaugural poet Amanda Gorman
Formerly titled The Hill We Climb and Other Poems, the luminous poetry collection by bestselling author and presidential inaugural poet Amanda Gorman captures a shipwrecked moment in time and transforms it into a lyric of hope and healing. In Call Us What We Carry, Gorman explores history, language, identity, and erasure through an imaginative and intimate collage. Harnessing the collective grief of a global pandemic, this beautifully designed volume features poems in many inventive styles and structures and shines a light on a moment of reckoning. Call Us What We Carry reveals that Gorman has become our messenger from the past, our voice for the future.
The Poems of Phillis Wheatley, as They Were Originally Published in London, 1773
Phillis Whwatley's Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral is the first published volume of poetry by an African American author. Much has been written about Wheatley and the enduring impact of her writing.
The Beautiful Struggle (Adapted for Young Adults)
Adapted from the adult memoir by the #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Water Dancer and Between the World and Me, this father-son story explores how boys become men, and quite specifically, how Ta-Nehisi Coates became Ta-Nehisi Coates. As a child, Ta-Nehisi Coates was seen by his father, Paul, as too sensitive and lacking focus. Paul Coates was a Vietnam vet who'd been part of the Black Panthers and was dedicated to reading and publishing the history of African civilization. When it came to his sons, he was committed to raising proud Black men equipped to deal with a racist society, during a turbulent period in the collapsing city of Baltimore where they lived.
Coates details with candor the challenges of dealing with his tough-love father, the influence of his mother, and the dynamics of his extended family, including his brother "Big Bill," who was on a very different path than Ta-Nehisi. Coates also tells of his struggles at school and with girls, making this a timely story to which many readers will relate.
Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave
A critical edition of one of the most influential literary documents in American and African American history
"This edition is the most valuable teaching tool on slavery and abolition available today. It is exceptional."--Nancy Hewitt, Distinguished Professor Emerita, Rutgers University
Ideal for independent reading or for coursework in American and African American history, this revised edition of the memoir written by Frederick Douglass (1818-1895) of his life as a slave in pre-Civil War Maryland incorporates a wide range of supplemental materials to enhance students' understanding of slavery, abolitionism, and the role of race in American society. Offering readers a new appreciation of Douglass's world, it includes documents relating to the slave narrative genre and to the later career of an essential figure in the nineteenth-century abolition movement.
Promise, Witness, Remembrance
The New York Times called the Speed Art Museum's Promise, Witness, Remembrance -- centered around artist Amy Sherald's portrait of Breonna Taylor and originally commissioned by Ta-Nehisi Coates for the cover of Vanity Fair magazine -- one of the best art exhibitions of 2021.
In the words of critic Holland Cotter, "the show was assembled in four months -- warp speed in museum-time -- and created a prototype for institutional responses to history-as-it's-happening." This breathtaking book documents not just the 32 works featured in the exhibition, but also the process by which the Speed used this opportunity to memorialize the life of Breonna Taylor, who was killed by Louisville police in March 2020, and to serve its community through art, featuring real-time quotations from Curator Allison Glenn, Community Engagement Strategist Toya Northington, Director Stephen Reily, Tamika Palmer (Breonna Taylor's mother), artist Amy Sherald, and others. With 200 photos, featuring work by 22 Black artists, including Sam Gilliam, Lorna Simpson, Kerry James Marshall, Hank Willis Thomas, and Theaster Gates, Promise, Witness, Remembrance is a vital addition to the canon of Black American art.
Narrative of Sojourner Truth
Narrative of Sojourner Truth is one of the most important documents of slavery ever written, as well as being a partial autobiography of the woman who became a pioneer in the struggles for racial and sexual equality. With an eloquence that resonates more than a century after its original publication in 1850, the narrative bears witness to Sojourner Truth's thirty years of bondage in upstate New York and to the mystical revelations that turned her into a passionate and indefatigable abolitionist. In this new edition, which has been edited and extensively annotated by the distinguished scholar and biographer of Sojourner Truth, Margaret Washington, Truth's testimony takes on added dimensions- as a lens into the little-known world of northern slavery; as a chronicle of spiritual conversion; and as an inspiring account of a black woman striving for personal and political empowerment.
Origins
An exploration of new theories about the formation and evolution of the universe traces from the big bang, through the first three billion years on Earth, to today's search for life on other planets.
The Autobiography of W. E. B. Du Bois
W. E. B. Du Bois was a public intellectual, sociologist, and activist on behalf of the African American community. He profoundly shaped black political culture in the United States through his founding role in the NAACP, as well as internationally through the Pan-African movement. Du Bois's sociological and historical research on African-American communities and culture broke ground in many areas, including the history of the post-Civil War Reconstruction period. Du Bois was also a prolific author of novels, autobiographical accounts, innumerable editorials and journalistic pieces, and several works of history.
Published posthumously in 1968, The Autobiography of W. E. B. Du Bois is his last and most complete autobiography. Covering his life over almost a century of living in America, it's the closest thing we have to a true autobiography of this important scholar and activist. The book, broken up into three parts, delves into the 90-year-old Du Bois's thoughts on everything from his relationship with sex to his storied association with the NAACP to his political persecution during the Cold War years to his many travels abroad. As Du Bois writes, he takes the reader on a journey to "view my life as frankly and fully as I can." With a series introduction by editor Henry Louis Gates, Jr., and an introduction by Werner Sollors, this edition is essential for anyone interested in African American history.
A Promised Land
In the stirring first volume of his presidential memoirs, Barack Obama tells the story of his improbable odyssey from young man searching for his identity to leader of the free world, describing in strikingly personal detail both his political education and the landmark moments of the first term of his historic presidency--a time of dramatic transformation and turmoil. Obama takes readers on a compelling journey from his earliest political aspirations to the pivotal Iowa caucus victory that demonstrated the power of grassroots activism to the watershed night of November 4, 2008, when he was elected 44th president of the United States, becoming the first African American to hold the nation's highest office.
Obama is candid about the balancing act of running for office as a Black American, bearing the expectations of a generation buoyed by messages of "hope and change," and meeting the moral challenges of high-stakes decision-making. He is frank about the forces that opposed him at home and abroad, open about how living in the White House affected his wife and daughters, and unafraid to reveal self-doubt and disappointment. Yet he never wavers from his belief that inside the great, ongoing American experiment, progress is always possible. This beautifully written and powerful book captures Barack Obama's conviction that democracy is not a gift from on high but something founded on empathy and common understanding and built together, day by day.
About the African American Voices Collection
African American autobiographies are the core of the African American Voices collection, which has expanded to include voices of notable African American novelists, scientists, artists, historians, and more. As a small browsable collection, these books are just a portion of the published works by Black and African American authors. Selected titles include notable and unique works reflecting the interests of Penn State Beaver students, and serve as a resource for the campus community and beyond. Additional works may be located by searching the University Libraries' catalog.
- Catalog (Penn State University Libraries catalog) This link opens in a new windowTo find additional items in the University Libraries catalog, select “Subject” from the dropdown and search the phrase “Black people” or “African Americans.” At this time, we don’t have a perfect way to search for works by Black people, but this may change in the future.
- Sample catalog search for "Black people" OR "African Americans"Adjust the keywords or use the limits offered with the search results to further refine your search.
History
The collection recognizes and is inspired by the work of Dr. Russell C. Brignano, professor emeritus of English and scholar of African American autobiography. Dr. Brignano donated many of his personal copies to help establish the collection, and in 1997 the African American Autobiography collection was dedicated in his honor.
- "In their own words" (Penn State News)2017 article featuring the collection
Related Penn State Digital Collections
- Black History and Visual CultureThe Black History and Visual Culture digital collection consists of materials gathered from Penn State Special Collections that highlight Black life and Culture. This ongoing initiative will be integral to research, teaching, and experiential learning for the Penn State community and beyond.
- Black Student Alumni Oral History ProjectFounded and led by Maia Hill (PSU 2020 grad), this year long project to interview Black alumni who attended Penn State from 1969-1971 provides an essential narrative of the student experience at Penn State. The site includes a short film introducing the project, The Struggle Continues: The Black Student Alumni Oral History Project, which was made by student filmmakers from the CommAgency.
- Colored Conventions ProjectA cornerstone of Black organizing in the nineteenth century, the “Colored Conventions” brought Black men and women together in a decades-long campaign for civil and human rights. This is a re flagship project of the Center for Black Digital Research, #DigBlk, at Penn State University.
- The Emilie Davis DiariesThe Emilie Davis Diaries provide a unique opportunity to see the fascinating work of a free African American Woman living in Philadelphia during the Civil War era.
- Jack Rabin Collection on Alabama Civil Rights and Southern ActivistsMulti-layered compilation of documents, sound recordings, and visual images documenting the activities of the Montgomery Improvement Association, photographs and surveillance tapes of sit-ins, the Selma March, the Poor People's Campaign, oral histories of the white activists, and films of African-American activists.
Related Resources for Penn State Researchers
- Charles L. Blockson Collection of African-Americana and the African DiasporaThis multidisciplinary collection includes books, magazines, photographs, manuscripts, sheet music, postcards, record albums, and artifacts of the African experience in the United States, Latin America, Caribbean, and Africa, dating from 1632 to the present. The collection is located on the 3rd Floor of West Pattee and has limited hours, however, materials from the collection can be accessed in the Special Collections Library during open hours.