Series: Black Lives

David Walker, a free (with a small f) black man, was one of the most significant African-American abolitionists of the nineteenth century. Born in a slave society before moving to Boston where, after the American Revolutionary War, slavery was abolished, Walker devoted his life to fighting slavery and antiblack racism. In this book, Sherrow O. Pinder brings to light Walker’s...

Revolutionary humanist and radical psychiatrist Frantz Fanon was one of the greatest Black thinkers of the twentieth century. Born in Martinique and known for his involvement in the Algerian liberation movement, his seminal books Black Skin, White Masks and The Wretched of the Earth are widely considered to be cornerstones of anti-colonial and anti-racist thought. In this essential introduction to...

A biography of Native Son's Bigger Thomas that examines his continued relevance in debates over Black men and the violence of racism Bigger Thomas, the central figure in Richard Wright's novel Native Son (1940), eludes easy categorisation. A violent and troubled character who rejects the rules of society, Bigger is both victim and perpetrator, damaged by racism and segregation on...

The rise and fall of one of America's first Black sports celebrities "Deeply and impressively researched. . . . Ms. Mooney pieces together a narrative with an arc so tight and clean that it's a wonder it actually happened. . . . It reads, in other words, like a novel, and that is because the author brought not just rigor,...

The first full-length biography of civil rights hero and congressman John Lewis For six decades, John Robert Lewis (1940–2020) was a towering figure in the U.S. struggle for civil rights. As an activist and progressive congressman, he was renowned for his unshakable integrity, indomitable courage, and determination to get into “good trouble.” In this first book-length biography of Lewis, Raymond...

The first full-length biography of civil rights hero and congressman John Lewis A New Yorker "Best Book of 2024" Selection "The perfect book, at the right time." — Michael Henry Adams, The Guardian For six decades, John Robert Lewis (1940–2020) was a towering figure in the U.S. struggle for civil rights. As an activist and progressive congressman, he was renowned...

The first-ever biography of the ultra-radical thinker Robert Wedderburn, from his native Jamaica to metropole London, by an award-winning historian Robert Wedderburn (1762–1834/5) was one of the most charismatic, irascible, and radical intellectuals of the eighteenth- and early nineteenth-century Atlantic world. Born to an enslaved woman and a slavemaster in Jamaica, and moving in the radical working-class circles of London,...

The rediscovery of a pivotal figure in Black history and his importance and influence in the struggle against slavery and discrimination Born on the Eastern Shore of Maryland, Samuel Ringgold Ward (1817–c. 1869) escaped enslavement and became a leading figure in the struggle for Black freedom, citizenship, and equality. He was extolled by his contemporary, Frederick Douglass, for his “depth...

Black Lives is an exciting new graphic novel series from award-winning author Tonya Bolden and illustrator David Wilkerson. Great Minds of Science celebrates the lives and contributions of Black scientists throughout history. Matilda Evans. Archie Alexander. Gladys West. Ayana Elizabeth Johnson. These aren’t names that many people learn about in school, but they’re some of the greatest scientists that people...

An intimate portrait of James Baldwin, offering a new understanding of his life and works as seen through his close relationships and private life James Baldwin (1924–1987) was a pivotal figure of the twentieth century, an influential author, intellectual, and activist who led a celebrated public life—and whose words and image and persona remain current in our culture. Baldwin's many...

Aimé Césaire is arguably the greatest Caribbean literary writer in history. Best known for his incendiary epic poem Notebook of a Return to My Native Land, Césaire reinvented black culture by conceiving 'négritude' as a dynamic and continuous process of self-creation. In this essential new account of his life and work, Jane Hiddleston introduces readers to Césaire's unique poetic voice...

A gripping biography of a man who escaped slavery to become an influential abolitionist, famously known as the "King of the Underground Railroad". Jermain Wesley Loguen (1813–1872) was a fugitive from slavery, an abolitionist, and a minister, teacher, and political activist. He worked alongside Harriet Tubman and Frederick Douglass, and his home in Syracuse, New York, was among the most...

The origins and influence of Jim, Mark Twain's beloved yet polarizing literary figure Mark Twain's Jim, introduced in Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1885), is a shrewd, self-aware, and enormously admirable enslaved man, one of the first fully drawn Black fathers in American fiction. Haunted by the family he has left behind, Jim acts as a father figure to Huck, the...

Cedric Robinson – political theorist, historian, and activist – was one of the greatest black radical thinkers of the twentieth century. In this powerful work, the first major book to tell his story, Joshua Myers explores how Robinson’s work interrogated the foundations of western political thought, modern capitalism, and changing meanings of race. Tracing the course of Robinson’s journey from...

Activist, journalist, and visionary Claudia Jones was one of the most important advocates of emancipation in the twentieth century. Arguing for a socialist future and the total emancipation of working people, Jones’s legacy made an enduring mark on both sides of the Atlantic. This ground-breaking biography traces Jones’s remarkable life and work, beginning with her immigration to the United States...

An intimate portrait of James Baldwin, offering a new understanding of his life and works as seen through his close relationships and private life "Baldwin authority Zaborowska's gracefully impassioned biography. . . . A creatively conceived appreciation for a decorated life and its far-flung influences on race, queer culture, and art."—Kirkus Reviews James Baldwin (1924–1987) was a pivotal figure of...

The origins and influence of Jim, Mark Twain’s beloved yet polarizing literary figure “Astute. . . . Sheds new light on a much-studied character.”—Publishers Weekly Mark Twain’s Jim, introduced in Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1885), is a shrewd, self‑aware, and enormously admirable enslaved man, one of the first fully drawn Black fathers in American fiction. Haunted by the family he...

An elegant biography of a prescient author whose novels portray Black women's experiences across the African diaspora Growing up in World War II–era Brooklyn among West Indian immigrants, Paule Marshall (1929–2019) was fiercely driven to become a writer, making art from the world she knew, the life she lived, and the world she imagined. Though her novels and stories are...

Huey P. Newton was called many things in his time: revolutionary, genius, criminal, even the most surveilled human being in world history. Yet, little is known about him still because of persistent distortions to his name and legacy as co-founder of the Black Panther Party. In this new and much-needed intellectual biography, political theorist Delio Vásquez establishes Newton as a...