The following is a list of resources that inspired, or was inspired by the 400.
Reading list:
Akbar, Naʼim. Visions for Black Men. New Mind Productions, 1991.
Visions for Black Men raises issues which are not only important to black men but to all of us. How do we restore African manhood to those whom the society has not viewed as the chosen people? Discover the startling prediction of the mystical tradition of Ancient Africa-- that the descendants of a once great nation will raise again.
Akbar, Naʼim. Chains and Images of Psychological Slavery. New Mind Productions, 1992.
In this book you will learn how to break the chains of your mental slavery by ordering this new book by one of the world’s outstanding experts on the African-American mind.
Akbar, Naʼim. Breaking the Chains and Images of Psychological Slavery. New Mind Productions, 1996.
Are African-Americans still slaves?" "Why can't Black folks get together?" "What is the psychological consequence for Blacks and Whites of Picturing God as a Caucasian?" Learn how to break the chains of your mental slavery with this new book by one of the world's outstanding experts on the African-American mind.
Akbar, Naʼim. Know Thyself. New Mind Productions, 1999.
How wonderful it is to taught by a free teacher, a spiritual teacher, a member of our family who truly loves the family, an architect of tranforming processes, a defender of African people, a beacon, a Son of Africa, a divine spirit manisfesting our creative genius. Thousands of thousands of people know Dr. Na’im Akbar as a special treasure. This book is another important gift from him to us. It is our responsibility to study these thoughts, carfully. To follow these teachings is to guarantee our liberation and to guide us toward our destiny. From forward by Asa G. Hilliard, III, Calloway Professor of Education at Georgia State University, Atlanta.
Alexander, Michelle. New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness. PENGUIN BOOKS, 2010.
The New Jim Crow is a stunning account of the rebirth of a caste-like system in the United States, one that has resulted in millions of African Americans locked behind bars and then relegated to a permanent second-class status—denied the very rights supposedly won in the Civil Rights Movement. Since its publication in 2010, the book has appeared on the New York Times bestseller list for more than a year; been dubbed the “secular bible of a new social movement” by numerous commentators, including Cornel West; and has led to consciousness-raising efforts in universities, churches, community centers, re-entry centers, and prisons nationwide. The New Jim Crow tells a truth our nation has been reluctant to face.
Allen, Theodore W. The Invention of the White Race. London: Verso, 2012.
When the first Africans arrived in Virginia in 1619, there were no “white” people, nor, according to colonial records, would there be for another sixty years. In his seminal two-volume work, The Invention of the White Race, Allen details the creation of the “white race” by the ruling class as a method of social control, in response to labor unrest precipitated by Bacon’s Rebellion. Distinguishing European Americans from African Americans within the laboring class, white privileges enforced the myth of the white race through the years and has been central to maintaining ruling-class domination over the entire working class.
Anderson, Carol. White Rage: The Unspoken Truth of Our Racial Divide. New York: Bloomsbury, an Imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing Plc, 2017.
Since 1865 and the passage of the Thirteenth Amendment, every time African Americans have made advances towards full participation in our democracy, white reaction has fueled a deliberate and relentless rollback of their gains. The end of the Civil War and Reconstruction was greeted with the Black Codes and Jim Crow; the Supreme Court's landmark 1954 Brown v. Board of Education decision was met with the shutting down of public schools throughout the South while taxpayer dollars financed segregated white private schools; the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and Voting Rights Act of 1965 triggered a coded but powerful response, the so-called Southern Strategy and the War on Drugs that disenfranchised millions of African Americans while propelling presidents Nixon and Reagan into the White House, and then the election of America's first black President, led to the expression of white rage that has been as relentless as it has been brutal. Carefully linking these and other historical flashpoints when social progress for African Americans was countered by deliberate and cleverly crafted opposition, Anderson pulls back the veil that has long covered actions made in the name of protecting democracy, fiscal responsibility, or protection against fraud, rendering visible the long lineage of white rage. Compelling and dramatic in the unimpeachable history it relates, White Rage will add an important new dimension to the national conversation about race in America.
Anderson, Claude. Black Labor, White Wealth: the Search for Power and Economic Justice. PowerNomics Corporation of America Publisher, 1994.
Black Labor, White Wealth tracks slavery and Jim Crow public policies that used black labor to construct a superpower nation. It details how black people were socially engineered into the lowest level of a real-life Monopoly game, which they are neither playing or winning. Black Labor is a comprehensive analysis of the issues of race. Dr. Anderson uses the analysis in this book to offer solutions to America’s race problem. A historical analysis of racism and the problem of Black Americans, the research in this book is the foundation for the solutions formulated in Powernomics: The National Plan to Empower Black America.
Anderson, Claude, and Brant Anderson. More Dirty Little Secrets about Black History, Its Heroes, and Other Troublemakers. PowerNomics Corporation of America, 2006.
To date, history remains largely white history. Black people, as a race, are virtually non-existent when historical events are described in textbooks, movies and centennial celebrations. Their role in America is most often that of cotton pickers, marchers or rioters. Black History Month narrowly limits contributions of Blacks to a familiar list to 10 to 15 individuals when, in fact, Blacks, though enslaved and powerless, had a profound and indelible influence on the American socioeconomic system. Black labor was the engine that drove this nation and civilization around the world. Slavery and its legacies shaped and continue to reveal this nation’s cultural, moral and ethical hypocrisy. The products of Black’s labor created industrial revolutions in Britain and America. They produced social tensions that led to the Revolutionary War, Civil War, Reconstruction and a national civil rights movement. Much information about race remains lost or buried in laws, bills of sales, newspaper reports, letters, economic analysis, and personal diaries. The purpose of this book is to unearth and expose some of the Dirty Little Secrets hidden in the darkness of history.
Anderson, Claude. PowerNomics®: the National Plan to Empower Black America. PowerNomics Corp. of America, 2001.
this powerful 288-page book analyzes the complex web of racial monopolies and Black America’s inappropriate behavior patterns that are driving it into a permanent underclass status. Dr. Anderson proposes new concepts that teach Blacks new ways to see, think, and behave in race matters. His new education, political and economic action steps are designed to make Black America self-sufficient and competitive. PowerNomics: The National Plan to Empower Black America is a five-year plan to make Black America a prosperous and empowered race that is self-sufficient and competitive as a group by the year 2005. In this book, Dr. Anderson obliterates the myths and illusions of black progress and brings together data and information from many different sources to construct a framework for solutions to the dilemma of Black America. In PowerNomics: The National Plan, Dr. Anderson proposes new principles, strategies and concepts that show blacks a new way to see, think, and behave in race matters. The new mindset prepares blacks to take strategic steps to create a new reality for their race. It offers guidance to others who support blacks self-sufficiency. In this book, Dr. Anderson offers insightful analysis and action steps Blacks can take to redesign core areas of life—Education, Economics, Politics and Religion—to better benefit their race. The action steps in each area require new empowerment tools that Dr. Anderson presents – a new group vision and a new culture of empowerment – tools designed to counter, if not break many of the racial monopolies in society. Vertical integration and Industrializing black communities are other major concepts and strategies that he presents in the book. He places a great deal of importance on building industries in black communities that are constructed upon group competitive advantages. At the same time he announced the release of PowerNomics: The National Plan, he also announced that he has established several models of the strategies he proposes in the book. PowerNomics: The Plan, is infused with Dr. Anderson’s trademark creative thinking and answers questions such as:
Asante, Molefi K. Egyptian Philosophers - Ancient African Voices from Imhotep to Akhenaten. African American Images, 2000.
Traditional Eurocentric thought assumes that Greece was the origin of civilization. This book dispels this and other myths by showing that there is a body of knowledge that preceded Greek philosophy. The author documents how the great pyramids were built in 2800 B.C., 2,100 years before Greek civilization. The popular myth of Hippocrates being the father of medicine is dispelled by the fact that Hippocrates studied the works of Imhotep, the true father of medicine, and mentioned his name in his Hippocratic oath. Eleven famous African scholars who preceded Greek philosophers are profiled: Ptahhotep, Kagemni, Duauf, Amenhotep, Amenemope, Imhotep, Amenemhat, Merikare, Sehotepibre, Khunanup, and Akhenaten. These scholars’ ideas on a variety of topics are discussed, including the emergence of science and reason, the moral order, books and education, and the clash of classes.
Baptist, Edward E. The Half Has Never Been Told: Slavery and the Making of American Capitalism. New York: Basic Books, 2016.
Americans tend to cast slavery as a pre-modern institution — the nation’s original sin, perhaps, but isolated in time and divorced from America’s later success. But to do so robs the millions who suffered in bondage of their full legacy. As historian Edward E. Baptist reveals in the prizewinning The Half Has Never Been Told, the expansion of slavery in the first eight decades after American independence drove the evolution and modernization of the United States. In the span of a single lifetime, the South grew from a narrow coastal strip of worn-out tobacco plantations to a continental cotton empire, and the United States grew into a modern, industrial, and capitalist economy. Told through intimate slave narratives, plantation records, newspapers, and the words of politicians, entrepreneurs, and escaped slaves, The Half Has Never Been Told offers a radical new interpretation of American history.
Baradaran, Mehrsa. The Color of Money. Black Banks and the Racial Wealth Gap. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2017.
When the Emancipation Proclamation was signed in 1863, the black community owned less than one percent of the United States’ total wealth. More than 150 years later, that number has barely budged. The Color of Money pursues the persistence of this racial wealth gap by focusing on the generators of wealth in the black community: black banks. Studying these institutions over time, Mehrsa Baradaran challenges the myth that black communities could ever accumulate wealth in a segregated economy. Instead, housing segregation, racism, and Jim Crow credit policies created an inescapable, but hard to detect, economic trap for black communities and their banks. The catch-22 of black banking is that the very institutions needed to help communities escape the deep poverty caused by discrimination and segregation inevitably became victims of that same poverty. Not only could black banks not “control the black dollar” due to the dynamics of bank depositing and lending but they drained black capital into white banks, leaving the black economy with the scraps. Baradaran challenges the long-standing notion that black banking and community self-help is the solution to the racial wealth gap. These initiatives have functioned as a potent political decoy to avoid more fundamental reforms and racial redress. Examining the fruits of past policies and the operation of banking in a segregated economy, she makes clear that only bolder, more realistic views of banking’s relation to black communities will end the cycle of poverty and promote black wealth.
Baraka, Amiri. Blues People: Negro Music in White America. Perennial, 2002.
"The path the slave took to 'citizenship' is what I want to look at. And I make my analogy through the slave citizen's music -- through the music that is most closely associated with him: blues and a later, but parallel development, jazz... [If] the Negro represents, or is symbolic of, something in and about the nature of American culture, this certainly should be revealed by his characteristic music."
So says Amiri Baraka in the Introduction to Blues People, his classic work on the place of jazz and blues in American social, musical, economic, and cultural history. From the music of African slaves in the United States through the music scene of the 1960's, Baraka traces the influence of what he calls "negro music" on white America -- not only in the context of music and pop culture but also in terms of the values and perspectives passed on through the music. In tracing the music, he brilliantly illuminates the influence of African Americans on American culture and history.
Ben-Jochannan, Yosef A. A. African Origins of the Major Western Religions. Black Classic Press, 1991.
Dr. Ben critically examines the history, beliefs, and myths that are the foundation of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam.
Bennett, Lerone. Before the Mayflower a History of Black America. Chicago: Johnson, 1963.
The black experience in America—starting from its origins in western Africa up to the present day—is examined in this seminal study from a prominent African American figure. The entire historical timeline of African Americans is addressed, from the Colonial period through the civil rights upheavals of the 1960s and 1970s. The most recent scholarship on the geographic, social, economic, and cultural journeys of African Americans, together with vivid portraits of key black leaders, complete this comprehensive reference.
Burrell, Tom. Brainwashed: Challenging the Myth of Black Inferiority. Smiley Books, 2010.
“Black people are not dark-skinned white people,” says advertising visionary Tom Burrell. In fact, they are a lot more. They are survivors of the Middle Passage and centuries of humiliation and deprivation, who have excelled against the odds, constantly making a way out of “no way!” At this point in history, the idea of black inferiority should have had a “Going-Out-of-Business Sale.” After all, Barack Obama has reached the Promised Land. Yet, as Brainwashed: Challenging the Myth of Black Inferiority testifies, too much of black America is still wandering in the wilderness. In this powerful examination of “the greatest propaganda campaign of all time”—the masterful marketing of black inferiority—Burrell poses 10 provocative questions that will make black people look in the mirror and ask why, nearly 150 years after the Emancipation Proclamation, so many blacks still think like slaves. Brainwashed is not a reprimand; it is a call to deprogram ourselves of self-defeating attitudes and actions. Racism is not the issue; how we respond to racism is the issue. We must undo negative brainwashing and claim a new state of race-based self-esteem and self-actualization. Provocative and powerful, Brainwashed dares to expose the wounds so that we, at last, can heal.
Bynum, Edward Bruce. The African Unconscious: Roots of Ancient Mysticism and Modern Psychology. Cosimo Books, 2012.
The African Unconscious, originally published in 1999, is an Afro-centric look at human history based on archaeology, genetics, and the biospiritual roots of religion and science. Author Edward Bruce Bynum offers a captivating and controversial viewpoint on the roots of our human existence, positing that all humans at their deepest core are variations on the African template, creating a shared identity and collective unconscious in all. He looks at both phenotypical types and psychic structures that form and identify us as human beings. Ideal for humanistic and transpersonal psychologists and those interested in African American art and culture, The African Unconscious is a blend of modern and ancient psychology that provides a relevant backdrop to humanity and our daily life.
Cone, James H. A Black Theology of Liberation. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 1970.
"Any message that is not related to the liberation of the poor in a society is not Christ's message. Any theology that is indifferent to the theme of liberation is not Christian theology." With the publication of his two early works, Black Theology & Black Power (1969) and A Black Theology of Liberation (1970), James Cone emerged as one of the most creative and provocative theological voices in North America. These books, which offered a searing indictment of white theology and society, introduced a radical reappraisal of the Christian message for our time. Here, combining the visions of Malcolm X and Martin Luther King, Jr., Cone radically reappraises Christianity from the perspective of the oppressed black community in North America. Forty years later after its first publication,his work retains its original power, enhanced now by reflections on the evolution of his own thinking and of black theology and on the needs of the present moment.
Cone, James H. The Spirituals and the Blues: an Interpretation. Orbis Books, 2000.
The best-selling masterpiece shows how two forms of song – the spirituals and the blues – helped sustain slaves and their children in the midst of “a powerful lot of tribulation.” The spirituals speak "about the rupture of black lives," about a "eople in the land of bondage." The blues are secular spirituals, telling about love and sex and black life and the "gut capacity to survive." Both musical forms undercut the dominant society, strengthening the black community in the face of oppression.
Cooper, Anna J. A Voice from the South: by a Black Woman of the South. University of North Carolina Press, 2017.
Published in 1892, A Voice from the South is the only book published by one of the most prominent African American women scholars and educators of her era. Born a slave, Anna Julia Haywood Cooper would go on to become the fourth African American woman to earn a doctoral degree. Cooper became a prominent member of the black community in Washington, D.C., serving as principal at M Street High School, during which time she wrote A Voice from the South. In it, she engages a variety of issues, including women’s rights, racial progress, segregation, and the education of black women. Cooper also discusses a number of authors and their representations of African Americans, including Harriet Beecher Stowe, Albion Tourgée, George Washington Cable, William Dean Howells, and Maurice Thompson, reaching the conclusion that an accurate depiction had yet to be written.
DiAngelo, Robin. White Fragility Why Its so Hard for White People to Talk about Racism. Boston: Beacon Press, 2018.
antiracist educator Robin DiAngelo deftly illuminates the phenomenon of white fragility and “allows us to understand racism as a practice not restricted to ‘bad people’” (Claudia Rankine). Referring to the defensive moves that white people make when challenged racially, white fragility is characterized by emotions such as anger, fear, and guilt, and by behaviors including argumentation and silence. These behaviors, in turn, function to reinstate white racial equilibrium and prevent any meaningful cross-racial dialogue. In this in-depth exploration, DiAngelo examines how white fragility develops, how it protects racial inequality, and what we can do to engage more constructively.
Diop, Cheikh Anta. The African Origin of Civilization: Myth or Reality. New York: Lawrence Hill, 1974.
Now in its 30th printing, this classic presents historical, archaeological, and anthropological evidence to support the theory that ancient Egypt was a black civilization.
Diop, Cheikh Anta. Civilization or Barbarism. Lawrence Hill Books, 1981.
Challenging societal beliefs, this volume rethinks African and world history from an Afrocentric perspective.
Diop, Cheikh Anta. Precolonial Black Africa. Lawrence Hill & Co., 1987.
A comparison of the political and social systems of Europe and black Africa from antiquity to the formation of modern states that demonstrates the black contribution to the development of Western civilization.
Du Bois W. E.B., and David Levering Lewis. W.E.B. Du Bois: a Reader. H. Holt and Co., 1995.
The essential writings of Du Bois
Du Bois W. E. B., The Souls of Black Folk. Knopf, 2010.
The landmark book about being black in America, now in an expanded edition commemorating the 150th anniversary of W. E. B. Du Bois’s birth and featuring a new introduction by Ibram X. Kendi, the National Book Award–winning author of Stamped from the Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America “The problem of the Twentieth Century is the problem of the color-line.” When The Souls of Black Folk was first published in 1903, it had a galvanizing effect on the conversation about race in America—and it remains both a touchstone in the literature of African America and a beacon in the fight for civil rights. Believing that one can know the “soul” of a race by knowing the souls of individuals, W. E. B. Du Bois combines history and stirring autobiography to reflect on the magnitude of American racism and to chart a path forward against oppression, and introduces the now-famous concepts of the color line, the veil, and double-consciousness.
Fields, Karen E., and Barbara J. Fields. Racecraft: The Soul of Inequality in American Life. London: Verso Book, 2016.
Sociologist Karen E. Fields and historian Barbara J. Fields argue otherwise: the practice of racism produces the illusion of race, through what they call “racecraft.” And this phenomenon is intimately entwined with other forms of inequality in American life. So pervasive are the devices of racecraft in American history, economic doctrine, politics, and everyday thinking that the presence of racecraft itself goes unnoticed. That the promised post-racial age has not dawned, the authors argue, reflects the failure of Americans to develop a legitimate language for thinking about and discussing inequality. That failure should worry everyone who cares about democratic institutions.
Finch, Charles. Echoes of the old Darkland: Themes from the African Eden. Khenti Incorporated. 1991.
In this book, Dr. Finch explores the origin and evolution of humanity and culture in the ‘placenta lands’ of inner Africa, leading out of the primordial matriarchy through the ensuing patriarchy, and culminating in Judaeo-Christian religion, all foreshadowed by the cosmic prophecies of the World’s Great Year.
Gates, Henry Louis. The Signifying Monkey: a Theory of African American Literary Criticism. Oxford University Press, 2014.
Examining the ancient poetry and myths found in African, Latin American, and Caribbean culture, Gates uncovers a unique system for interpretation and a powerful vernacular tradition that black slaves brought with them to the New World. Exploring the process of signification in black American life and literature by analyzing the transmission and revision of various signifying figures, Gates provides an extended analysis of what he calls the "Talking Book," a central trope in early slave narratives that virtually defines the tradition of black American letters. Gates uses this critical framework to examine several major works of African-American literature--including Zora Neale Hurston's Their Eyes Were Watching God, Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man, and Ishmael Reed's Mumbo Jumbo--revealing how these works signify on the black tradition and on each other.
Hollins, Caprice D., and Ilsa M. Govan. Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Strategies for Facilitating Conversations on Race. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2015.
This book walks you through the important steps to create a foundation where participants feel brave enough to take risks and share their stories and perspectives. It guides you through strategies for engaging participants in courageous conversations with one another in ways that don’t shame and blame people into understanding. This book is a useful tool for individuals, organizations and college professors who are interested in learning techniques for guiding their audience through dialogue whereby they become open to listening to one another for understanding rather than holding on to old beliefs and maintaining a posture of defense.
Jackson, John G. Man, God, & Civilization. Lushena Books. 2002.
Drawing from sources of ancient, classic, and contemporary literature, the author shows how European culture was derived from the older civilizations of Africa and Asia.
Jackson, John G., et al. Introduction to African Civilizations. Citadel Press, 2001.
At the time of its publications Jackson's work constituted a new approach to African history, from prehistoric to modern times, focusing on the contributions of African civilization to the cultural evolution of early Europe. "The picture we get today of Africa in past ages from the history taught in our schools is that Africans were savages and that, although Europeans invaded their lands and made slaves of them, they were in a way conferring a great favor on them, since they brought to them the blessings of Christian civilization," writes John G. Jackson. With brilliantly objective scholarship, Jackson obliterates that picture and presents one infinitely more rich. This book challenges all the standard approaches to African history, from the dawn of prehistory to the resurgent Africa of today. It will challenge the parochial historian, devastate the theoretical pretensions of white supremacists, and expand intellectual horizons. It is a fascinating book to be read and reread by the layman and the scholar for pleasure and knowledge.
Leary, Joy DeGruy. Post Traumatic Slave Syndrome: Americas Legacy of Enduring Injury and Healing: The Study Guide. Portland, OR: Joy DeGruy Publications, 2009.
In the 16th century, the beginning of African enslavement in the Americas until the ratification of the Thirteenth Amendment and emancipation in 1865, Africans were hunted like animals, captured, sold, tortured, and raped. They experienced the worst kind of physical, emotional, psychological, and spiritual abuse. Given such history, isn’t it likely that many of the enslaved were severely traumatized? And did the trauma and the effects of such horrific abuse end with the abolition of slavery? Emancipation was followed by one hundred more years of institutionalized subjugation through the enactment of Black Codes and Jim Crow laws, peonage, convict leasing, domestic terrorism and lynching. Today the violations continue, and when combined with the crimes of the past, they result in yet unmeasured injury. What do repeated traumas, endured generation after generation by a people produce? What impact have these ordeals had on African Americans today? Dr. Joy DeGruy, answers these questions and more. With over thirty years of practical experience as a professional in the mental health field, Dr. DeGruy encourages African Americans to view their attitudes, assumptions, and behaviors through the lens of history and so gain a greater understanding of how centuries of slavery and oppression have impacted people of African descent in America. Post Traumatic Slave Syndrome helps to lay the necessary foundation to ensure the well-being and sustained health of future generations and provides a rare glimpse into the evolution of society’s beliefs, feelings, attitudes and behavior concerning race in America.
Marable, Manning, and Leith Mullings. How Capitalism Underdeveloped Black America Problems in Race, Political Economy, and Society. Chicago: Haymarket Books, 2015.
How Capitalism Underdeveloped Black America is a classic study of the intersection of racism and class in the United States. It has become a standard text for courses in American politics and history, and has been central to the education of thousands of political activists since the 1980s.
Mercer, Samuel A. B. The Pyramid Texts. Forgotten Books, 2008.
The Pyramid Texts are the oldest known corpus of ancient Egyptian religious texts dating to the Old Kingdom. ... During the Middle Kingdom (2055 BCE – 1650 BCE), pyramid texts were not written in the pyramids of the pharaohs, but the traditions of the pyramid spells continued to be practiced.
Rothstein, Richard. The Color of Law: A Forgotten History of How Our Government Segregated America. New York: Liveright Publishing Corporation, a Division of W.W. Norton & Company, 2018.
The Fair Housing Act of 1968 prohibited future discrimination but did nothing to reverse residential patterns that had become deeply embedded. Yet recent outbursts of violence in cities like Baltimore, Ferguson, and Minneapolis show us precisely how the legacy of these earlier eras contributes to persistent racial unrest. “The American landscape will never look the same to readers of this important book” (Sherrilyn Ifill, president of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund), as Rothstein’s invaluable examination shows that only by relearning this history can we finally pave the way for the nation to remedy its unconstitutional past.
Sertima, Ivan Van. They Came before Columbus. Vintage Books, 1989.
They Came Before Columbus reveals a compelling, dramatic, and superbly detailed documentation of the presence and legacy of Africans in ancient America. Examining navigation and shipbuilding; cultural analogies between Native Americans and Africans; the transportation of plants, animals, and textiles between the continents; and the diaries, journals, and oral accounts of the explorers themselves, Ivan Van Sertima builds a pyramid of evidence to support his claim of an African presence in the New World centuries before Columbus. Combining impressive scholarship with a novelist’s gift for storytelling, Van Sertima re-creates some of the most powerful scenes of human history: the launching of the great ships of Mali in 1310 (two hundred master boats and two hundred supply boats), the sea expedition of the Mandingo king in 1311, and many others. In They Came Before Columbus, we see clearly the unmistakable face and handprint of black Africans in pre-Columbian America, and their overwhelming impact on the civilizations they encountered.
Sertima, Ivan Van. The Golden Age of the Moors. Van Sertima, 1991.
This book examines the debt owed by Europe to the Moors for its Renaissance, and the significant role played by the Africans in the Muslim invasions of the Iberian peninsula. While the authors focus mainly on Spain and Portugal, they also examine the races and roots of the original North Africans before the later ethnic mix of the blackamoors and tawny Moors in the medieval period. The study ranges from characterizations of the Moors in the literature of Cervantes and Shakespeare to their profound influence upon the development of Europe's university system, and the diffusion through this system of ancient and medieval sciences.
Ture, Kwame, and Charles V. Hamilton. Black Power: The Politics of Liberation in America. New York: Vintage Books, 1992.
A revolutionary work since its publication, Black Power exposed the depths of systemic racism in this country and provided a radical political framework for reform: true and lasting social change would only be accomplished through unity among African-Americans and their independence from the preexisting order. An eloquent document of the civil rights movement that remains a work of profound social relevance 50 years after it was first published.
1856-1915, Washington Booker T. Up from Slavery. Hardpress Ltd, 2013.
In Up from Slavery, Washington recounts the story of his life—from slave to educator. The early sections deal with his upbringing as a slave and his efforts to get an education. Washington details his transition from student to teacher, and outlines his own development as an educator and founder of the Tuskegee Institute in Alabama. In the final chapters of Up From Slavery, Washington describes his career as a public speaker and civil rights activist.
Wilson, Amos N. Awakening the Natual Genius of Black Children. Afrikan World InfoSystems, 2015.
Afrikan children are naturally precocious and gifted. They begin life with a "natural head start." However, their natural genius is too frequently underdeveloped and misdirected by (1) the fact that the racist and imperialist status quo politically mandates their intellectual under-achievement and social mal-adaptiveness; (2) belief in the myth that intelligence is fixed at birth and that Afrikans are innately less intelligent than Europeans; (3) a lack of knowledge of their positively unique developmental psychology; (4) a lack of confidence in their ability to equal or surpass the intellectual performance of any other ethnic group; and (5) the general lack of infant and early childhood educational experiences which stimulate, sustain and actualize their abundant human potential. Awakening the Natural Genius of Black Childrenprovides effective means by which these political and social maladies may be fully remedied. Intelligence is not fixed at birth. The quality of children's education experiences during infancy and early childhood are substantially related to their measured intelligence, academic achievement and prosocial behavior. In this volume, Amos N. Wilson, author of the bestseller, The Developmental Psychology of the Black Child, surveys the daily routines, child-rearing practices, parent-child interactions, games and play materials, parent-training and pre-school programs which have made demonstrably outstanding and lasting differences in the intellectual, academic and social performance of Black children. Parents, professionals, para-professional and interested lay-persons will no doubt benefit immensely from reading this timely review and by putting into practice its numerous helpful recommendations, following-up its up-to-date references and suggested reading list. For persons or organizations who have been looking for a practical guide to bring out the best in Afrikan American children, Awakening the Natural Genius of Black Children is a "must read."
Wilson, Amos N. Blueprint for Black Power: a Moral, Political, and Economic Imperative for the Twenty-First Century. Afrikan World InfoSystems, 2011.
Afrikan life into the coming millennia is imperiled by White and Asian power. True power must nest in the ownership of the real estate wherever Afrikan people dwell. Economic destiny determines biological destiny. ‘Blueprint for Black Power’ details a master plan for the power revolution necessary for Black survival in the 21st century. White treatment of Afrikan Americans, despite a myriad of theories explaining White behavior, ultimately rests on the fact that they can. They possess the power to do so. Such a power differential must be neutralized if Blacks are to prosper in the 21st century … Aptly titled, ‘Blueprint for Black Power’ stops not at critique but prescribes radical, practical theories, frameworks and approaches for true power. It gives a biting look into Black potentiality.
https://afrikanworld.info/collections/amos-wilson-books
Welsing, Frances Cress. The Isis Papers: The Keys to the Colors. Place of Publication Not Identified: C.W. Pub., 1991.
The Isis Papers: The Keys to the Colors is a collection of essays by Dr. Francis Cress Welsing, a physician specializing in general and child psychiatry, focusing on the global system of White supremacy and strategies for coping with racism in modern society.
Woodson, Carter G. A History of the Education of the Colored People of the United States from the Beginning of Slavery to the Civil War. Brooklyn, NY: & B Books Publishers, 1933.
Woodson, Carter Godwin. The Mis-Education of the Negro. Africa World Press, 1998.
Originally released in 1933, The Mis-Education of the Negro continues to resonate today, raising questions that readers are still trying to answer. The impact of slavery on the Black psyche is explored and questions are raised about our education system, such as what and who African Americans are educated for, the difference between education and training, and which of these African Americans are receiving. Woodson provides solutions to these challenges, but these require more study, discipline, and an Afrocentric worldview. This new edition contains a biographical profile of the author, a new introduction, and study questions.
X, Malcolm, Alex Haley, and Sam Sloan. The Autobiography of Malcolm X. New York: Ishi Press International, 2015.
Through a life of passion and struggle, Malcolm X became one of the most influential figures of the 20th Century. In this riveting account, he tells of his journey from a prison cell to Mecca, describing his transition from hoodlum to Muslim minister. Here, the man who called himself "the angriest Black man in America" relates how his conversion to true Islam helped him confront his rage and recognize the brotherhood of all mankind. An established classic of modern America, The Autobiography of Malcolm X was hailed by the New York Times as "Extraordinary. A brilliant, painful, important book." Still extraordinary, still important, this electrifying story has transformed Malcom X's life into his legacy. The strength of his words, the power of his ideas continue to resonate more than a generation after they first appeared.