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Tired of being singled out at her mostly-white private school as someone who needs support, high school junior Jade would rather participate in the school's amazing Study Abroad program than join Women to Women, a mentorship program for at-risk girls.
Congressman Lewis concludes his firsthand account of the civil rights era, spotlighting pivotal moments (the bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, AL; the Freedom Summer murders; the 1964 Democratic National Convention; and the Selma to Montgomery marches).
Delphine, Vonetta, and Fern are off to Alabama to visit their grandmother, Big Ma, and her mother, Ma Charles. Across the way lives Ma Charles's half sister, Miss Trotter. The two half sisters haven't spoken in years. As Delphine hears about her family history, she uncovers the surprising truth that's been keeping the sisters apart. But when tragedy strikes, Delphine discovers that the bonds of family run deeper than she ever knew possible.
The author shares her childhood memories and reveals the first sparks that ignited her writing career in free-verse poems about growing up in the North and South.
The Gaither sisters return to Brooklyn, where they adapt to new feelings of independence while managing changes large and small, from Pa's new girlfriend to a very different Uncle Darnell's return from Vietnam.
"Hand in Hand" presents the stories of 10 men from different eras in American history, organized chronologically to provide a scope from slavery to the modern day. Men profiled include Frederick Douglass, W.E.B. DuBois, Martin Luther King, Jr., and Barack H. Obama II. Illustrations.
A simple introduction to African-American history, from Revolutionary-era slavery up to the election of President Obama.
In the summer of 1968, after travelling from Brooklyn to Oakland, California, to spend a month with the mother they barely know, eleven-year-old Delphine and her two younger sisters arrive to a cold welcome as they discover that their mother, a dedicated poet and printer, is resentful of the intrusion of their visit and wants them to attend a nearby Black Panther summer camp.
This biography profiles the life of Bass Reeves, a former slave who was recruited as a deputy United States Marshal in the area that was to become Oklahoma.
Using an "Everyman" player as his narrator, Kadir Nelson tells the story of Negro League baseball from its beginnings in the 1920s through the decline after Jackie Robinson crossed over to the majors in 1947. Illustrations from oil paintings by artist Kadir Nelson.
In 1859, eleven-year-old Elijah Freeman, the first free-born child in Buxton, Canada, which is a haven for slaves fleeing the American south, uses his wits and skills to try to bring to justice the lying preacher who has stolen money that was to be used to buy a family's freedom.
Two fifteen-year-old girls--one a slave and the other an indentured servant--escape their Carolina plantation and try to make their way to Fort Moses, Florida, a Spanish colony that gives sanctuary to slaves.
Emma has taken care of the Butler children since Sarah and Frances's mother, Fanny, left. Emma wants to raise the girls to have good hearts, as a rift over slavery has ripped the Butler household apart. Now, to pay off debts, Pierce Butler wants to cash in his slave "assets", possibly including Emma.
Toni Morrison has collected a treasure chest of archival photographs that depict the historical events surrounding school desegregation. These unforgettable images serve as the inspiration for Ms. Morrison's text-a fictional account of the dialogue and emotions of the children who lived during the era of "separate but equal" schooling. Remember is a unique pictorial and narrative journey that introduces children to a watershed period in American history and its relevance to us today. Remember will be published on the 50th anniversary of the groundbreaking Brown v. Board of Education Supreme Court decision ending legal school segregation, handed down on May 17, 1954.
Bobby's carefree teenage life changes forever when he becomes a father and must care for his adored baby daughter.
While studying the Harlem Renaissance, students at a Bronx high school read aloud poems they've written, revealing their innermost thoughts and fears to their formerly clueless classmates.
After the Civil War Paul, the son of a white father and a black mother, finds himself caught between the two worlds of colored folks and white folks as he pursues his dream of owning land of his own.
Twelve-year-old Lafayette's close relationship with his older brother Charlie changes after Charlie is released from a detention home and blames Lafayette for the death of their mother.
Ten-year-old Bud, a motherless boy living in Flint, Michigan, during the Great Depression, escapes a bad foster home and sets out in search of the man he believes to be his father--the renowned bandleader, H.E. Calloway of Grand Rapids.
You never know what's gonna come down -- in Heaven. At fourteen, Marley knows she has Momma's hands and Pops's love for ice cream, that her brother doesn't get on her nerves too much, and that Uncle Jack is a big mystery. But Marley doesn't know all she thinks she does, because she doesn't know the truth. And when the truth comes down with the rain one stormy summer afternoon, it changes everything. It turns Momma and Pops into liars. It makes her brother a stranger and Uncle Jack an even bigger mystery. All of a sudden, Marley doesn't know who she is anymore and can only turn to the family she no longer trusts to find out. Truth often brings change. Sometimes that change is for the good. Sometimes it isn't. Coretta Scott King award-winning author Angela Johnson writes a poignant novel of deception and self-discovery -- about finding the truth and knowing what to do when truth is at hand.
When Gerald was a child he was fascinated by fire. But fire is dangerous and powerful, and tragedy strikes. His substance-addicted mother is taken from him. Then he loses the loving generosity of a favorite aunt. A brutal stepfather with a flaming temper and an evil secret makes his life miserable. The one bright light in Gerald's life is his little half sister, Angel, whom he struggles to protect from her father, Jordan Sparks, who abuses her, and from their mother, whose irresponsible behavior forces Gerald to work hard to keep the family together. As a teenager, Gerald finds success as a member of the Hazelwood Tigers basketball team, while Angel develops her talents as a dancer. Trouble still haunts them, however, and Gerald learns, painfully, that young friends can die and old enemies must be faced. In the end he must stand up to his stepfather alone in a blazing confrontation. Sharon M. Draper has interwoven characters and events from her previous novel, Tears of a Tiger, in this unflinchingly realistic portrayal of poverty and child abuse. It is an inspiring story of a young man who rises above the tragic circumstances of his life by drawing on the love and strength of family and friends.
An exciting, eye-catching repackage of acclaimed author Walter Dean Myers' bestselling paperbacks, to coincide with the publication of SUNRISE OVER FALLUJA in hardcover. Seventeen-year-old Greg "Slam" Harris can do it all on the basketball court. He's seen ballplayers come and go, and he knows he could be one of the lucky ones. Maybe he'll make it to the top. Or maybe he'll stumble along the way. Slam's grades aren't that hot. And when his teachers jam his troubles in his face, he blows up. Slam never doubted himself on the court until he found himself going one-on-one with his own future, and he didn't have the ball.
In the tradition of Hamilton's The People Could Fly and In the Beginning, a dramatic new collection of 25 compelling tales from the female African American storytelling tradition. Each story focuses on the role of women--both real and fantastic--and their particular strengths, joys and sorrows. Full-color illustrations.
Rich in historical detail and filled with luminous illustrations, this poignant book movingly describes the holiday celebrations of both slaves and slave owners on a pre-Civil War plantation. The year is 1859, and it's Christmastime on a Virginia Plantation. The slaves are cleaning and setting up the Big House--where their masters live--for the festivities. The Big House is filled with warmth, colorful decorations, and yummy food...but there is talk of war and a sense that times may be changing. In the quarters--where the slaves live--conditions are poor, dirty, and cold, but the slaves are filled with hope for better times ahead, and they sing songs of freedom. Moving deftly between two worlds, this beautifully illustrated book is a historical tale as well as a holiday treat.
Angela Johnson's Coretta Scott King Award winning novel that traces three generations of African American women as they learn one another's truths. Three generations of African American women, each holding on to a separate truth. Their story -- encompassing racism and murder as well as the family commonplaces that make a life -- is one that readers will never forget.
A collection of ghost stories with African American themes, designed to be told during the Dark Thirty--the half hour before sunset--when ghosts seem all too believable.
History has made me an African American. It is an Africa that I have come from, and an America that I have helped to create. Since they were first brought as captives to Virginia, the people who would become African Americans have struggled for freedom. Thousands fought for the rights of all Americans during the Revolutionary War, and for their own rights during the Civil War. On the battlefield, through education, and through their creative genius, they have worked toward one goal: that the rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness be denied no one. Fired by the legacy of men and women like Abd al Rahman Ibrahima, Ida B. Wells, and George Latimer, the struggle continues today. Here is African-American history, told through the stories of the people whose experiences have shaped and continue to shape the America in which we live.
It is 1941, and while America is on the verge of war, Cassie is fighting a battle of her own. She is not prepared for the violent explosion when her black friend lashes out at his white tormentors, an action unheard of in Mississippi.
A chronicle of the first black-controlled union, made up of Pullman porters, who after years of unfair labor practices staged a battle against a corporate giant resulting in a "David and Goliath" ending.
Seventeen-year-old Richie Perry, just out of his Harlem high school, enlists in the Army in the summer of 1967 and spends a devastating year on active duty in Vietnam.
Four children witness a confrontation between an elderly black man and a white storekeeper in rural Mississippi in the 1930s.
Suffering in a family full of females, ten-year-old Justin feels that cleaning and keeping house are women's work until he spends time on his beloved grandfather's ranch.
Retold Afro-American folktales of animals, fantasy, the supernatural, and desire for freedom, born of the sorrow of the slaves, but passed on in hope.
Motown lives in a burned-out building one floor above the rats, searching out jobs every day, working his muscles every night, keeping strong, surviving. Didi lives in her cool dream bubble, untouched by the Harlem heat that beats down on her brother until only drugs can soothe him. Didi escapes, without needles, in her tidy plans and stainless visions, etchings of ivycovered colleges where her true life will begin. Didi can survive inside her own safe mind, until Motown steps into her real world and makes it bearable. Together they can stand the often brutal present. What about the future?
Everett Anderson has a difficult time coming to terms with his grief after his father dies.
The first time Teresa saw Brother was the way she would think of him ever after. Tree fell head over heels for him. It was love at first sight in a wild beating of her heart that took her breath. But it was a dark Friday three weeks later when it rained, hard and wicked, before she knew Brother Rush was a ghost.Why had he come to her, with his dark secrets from a long-ago past? Was it to help Dab, her retarded older brother, wracked with mysterious pain? Was it for her mother, Vy, who loved them the best she knew how, but wasn't home enough to ease the terrible longing? Whatever secrets he held, Tree knew she must follow. She must follow Brother Rush through the magic mirror, and find out the truth. About all of them.
Four black children growing up in rural Mississippi during the Depression experience racial antagonisms and hard times, but learn from their parents the pride and self-respect they need to survive.
An autobiography of the actor who arrived in Miami, from the Bahamas, at age sixteen. Some of his movies have been "A Raisin in the Sun," "Guess Who's Coming to Dinner," and "In the Heat of the Night."
If you were looking for a real ghetto dump, you couldn't beat The Stratford Arms. There was Askia Ben Kenobi throwing karate chops upstairs, Petey Darden making booze downstairs, and Mrs. Brown grieving for Jack Johnson, who'd died for the third time in a month and not a rent payer in the bunch. Still, when Paul Williams and the Action Group got the Arms for one dollar, they thought they had it made. But when their friend Chris was arrested for stealing stereos and Dean's dog started biting fire hydrants and Gloria started kissing, being a landlord turned out to be a lot more work than being a kid.
Douglass overcame his beginnings as a slave to become the first black man to hold a diplomatic office. He was a great orator and also wrote several books. This play emphasizes his contributions.
An African-American child dreams of long-ago Africa, where she sees animals, shops in a marketplace, reads strange words from an old book, and returns to the village where her long-ago granddaddy welcomes her.
A biography of the blind composer, pianist, and singer who was a child prodigy and went on to win nine Grammy awards.
A maple seedling becomes separated from his mother tree, makes friends with a bottle and a log, and searches for his own place in life.
An allegorical tale of Africa's struggle against the ravishment of its people and country.
As a young boy he fell in love with music, and as a man, the world fell in love with his music. Ray Charles and his soulful, passionate rhythms and melodies have been embraced around the world for decades. Now, in this beautiful new edition of an award-winning biography, readers can follow Charles from his boyhood, when he lost his sight and learned to read and write music in Braille, until the age of 40, when he had become a world-renowned jazz and blues musician packing auditoriums and stadiums.
Before Barry Bonds, before Reggie Jackson, before Hank Aaron, baseball's stars had one undeniable trait in common: they were all white. In 1947, Jackie Robinson broke that barrier, striking a crucial blow for racial equality and changing the world of sports forever. I Never Had It Made is Robinson's own candid, hard-hitting account of what it took to become the first black man in history to play in the major leagues. I Never Had It Made recalls Robinson's early years and influences: his time at UCLA, where he became the school's first four-letter athlete; his army stint during World War II, when he challenged Jim Crow laws and narrowly escaped court martial; his years of frustration, on and off the field, with the Negro Leagues; and finally that fateful day when Branch Rickey of the Brooklyn Dodgers proposed what became known as the "Noble Experiment" -- Robinson would step up to bat to integrate and revolutionize baseball. More than a baseball story, I Never Had It Made also reveals the highs and lows of Robinson's life after baseball. He recounts his political aspirations and civil rights activism; his friendships with Martin Luther King, Jr., Malcolm X, William Buckley, Jr., and Nelson Rockefeller; and his troubled relationship with his son, Jackie, Jr. Originally published the year Robinson died, I Never Had It Made endures as an inspiring story of a man whose heroism extended well beyond the playing field.
Biographies of seventeen black artists.
Biography of Langston Hughes.
A biography of the minister, orator, and crusader for equal civil rights who was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1964.

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HARDEEVILLE - A pair of sawhorses held the long piece of equipment Busby Construction Co. was using to make or repair the aluminum trim on roof eaves in Mercy Circle. Eldred Busby and his nephew, Leonard Busby, both of Estill, were making new fascia at the end of an apartment unit. They have been at it since February, Eldred said.
The pair are part of the efforts being made by Jasper County Neighbors United to improve the condition of existing apartments at the end of Garr Lane in Hardeeville before construction begins on additional affordable housing in the same area.
Use the phrase "affordable housing" and a number of unsavory images seem to pop up in the minds of most people, but those most in need of it are, as JCNU Executive Director E. Tedd Moyd says, their neighbors. That includes residents in Colleton, Beaufort, Hampton and Jasper counties.
"This housing is for the low- to moderate-income citizen of Jasper and surrounding counties," Moyd said. "It's for the working class people, the working poor who are making minimum wage up to $12 an hour, those who qualify for minimal government assistance. That includes the waitress, the paraprofessional at school, the dietary worker in the hospital, the bus driver, cabbie, Walmart employee."
JCNU will be working in Bluffton, St. Helena Island, Dale, and Hampton and Colleton counties in the near future and, according to Moyd, negotiations are underway with the town to do some affordable housing repairs in the outskirts of Bluffton.
"We also have a contract to go into Beaufort County and do six home repairs up to $28,000 each and that should start soon," he said.
According to statistics gathered by various agencies, including the U.S. Census Bureau, 2009 Annual Social and Economic (ASEC) Supplement and U. S. Department Of Commerce Economics and Statistics Administration, one-quarter of two-parent, two-child households in America make $50,800 or less. The median income - the figure that sits in the middle between the highest income and the very lowest - is $80,600. Somewhere below that is where affordable housing becomes a challenge. And by affordable housing, Moyd does not mean mobile homes.
"Jasper County has a large population of heirs properties, so most people have always lived in mobile homes on their family's land," he said. "Owning a mobile home is not as stringent as buying a house. Mobile homebuyers need to know that the minute you pull that home off the lot it decreases in value. You can never create wealth like that."
That is one reason, Moyd said, JCNU is trying to help people build a home out of sticks and mortar that would increase in value every year.
"JCNU identifies financial literacy as one of the major impediments to buying a home here and around the area," he said. "We have a home and emergency repair program here and what we are seeing is a lot of times, they come in to get help repairing their mobile homes. When I see them, I tell them about our first-time homebuyer's class. It's a stipulation that we will help them with those repairs. Then we will teach them about homebuyers' opportunities."
Each homebuyer's class takes four weeks - five hours on either a Saturday or a Sunday for a total of 20 hours. Upon receiving their certificates of completion, the students are then eligible for up to $10,000 in tax credits and down payments through several grants.
Moyd said that nearly 400 people have gone through the program since it began in 2000. In the past two years, 16 families have bought homes since graduating from the class, for a total of $200,000 in down payment assistance.
JCNU was recently presented the Eagle Award for the Best Emerging Community Development Corporation by the South Carolina Association of Community Development Corporations.
"That means we are growing in hope," Moyd said.
"Once they are ready to buy, we hold the homebuyer's hand until they purchase the home and turn the key," Moyd said. "We work with the bank, realtors, home financing, everything they need because we don't want them to fail. And we'll go with them to the bank if there are any problems. We're trying to break the cycle of poverty one family at a time."
The next homebuyer education program will be held in May. To register for the class, call 784-7172 or email email@example.com
Jasper County Neighbors United is at 118 Garr Lane, Unit C-1, in Hardeeville.