Bound for Canaan
The Underground Railroad,  westward expansion, beliefs on each side of the slavery conflict, and efforts of black and white citizens to save thousands of lives. 
--Fergus Bordewich

Brown v. Board of Education
Describes the people involved and the smaller court cases that led up to Brown v. The Board of Education, and the results and repercussions of the case.
--Mark V. Tushnet

Knocking Down Barriers
A memoir of Gibson's life spent making a difference in the world one step at a time.
--Truman K. Gibson & Steve Huntley

The Oxford Anthology of African-American Poetry
What is Africa to me? --  Like walking out of shadow -- If we must die -- This man shall be remembered -- A rock against the world --  and more

Souled American
This book examines how black music foundations spawned the melding of black and white cultures to create country, hip hop, blues, rock `n' roll, and jazz.
--Kevin Phinney

A Piece of Cake
Describes how the author fell victim to the ills of the child welfare system and her long and difficult struggle to rebuild her life.
--Cupcake Brown

A Lesson Before Dying
In a small Cajun community in the late 1940s a man is condemned to die for a crime he did not commit.
--Ernest Gaines

Things Fall Apart
Recreates African tribal life before Christianity and shows how the coming of the white man led to the breaking up of the old ways.
 --Chinua Achebe

Devil in a Blue Dress
A classic American detective novel mixing in the hard-boiled poetry of Raymond Chandler with the racial realism of Richard Wright to explosive effect.
--Walter Mosley

Fallen Angels
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. 
--Dean Myers

Cry the Beloved Country
Zulu pastor Stephen Kumalo and his son Absalom in a land riven by racial inequality and injustice; the most famous and important novel in South Africa's history.
--Alan Paton

Their Eyes Were Watching God
When Janie Starks returns to her rural Florida home, her small black community is overwhelmed with curiosity about her relationship with a younger man.
--Zora Neale Hurston