Black History Month - Biographies

1) The autobiography of Malcolm X

Author

Series

Formats:

Description

The Black leader discusses his political philosophy and reveals details of his life, shedding light on the ideas that enabled him to gain the "In this searing classic autobiography, originally published in 1965, Malcolm X, the Muslim leader, firebrand, and Black empowerment activist, tells the extraordinary story of his life and the growth of the Human Rights movement. His fascinating perspective on the lies and limitations of the American dream...

2) Harriet Tubman: the road to freedom

Author

Clinton, Catherine

3) My bondage and my freedom

Author

Douglass, Frederick

Series

Oxford world's classics

Formats:

Book, Large Print, Audiobook CD

Description

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Appearing in 1855, [this book] is the second biography written by Fredrick Douglass (1818-95), a man who was born into slavery in Maryland and who went on to become the most famous antislavery author, orator, philosopher, essayist, historian, intellectual, statesman, and freedom-fighter in U.S. history. An instant bestseller, Douglass's autobiography tells the story of his early life as lived in 'bondage' and of his later life as lived in 'freedom'...

4) MOM & ME & MOM

Author

Angelou, Maya

Formats:

Book, Large Print, Audiobook CD, Pre-loaded Audio

Description

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In this book, Angelou details what brought her mother to send her away, and unearths the well of emotions she experienced long afterward as a result. For the first time, she reveals the triumphs and struggles of being the daughter of Vivian Baxter, an indomitable spirit whose petite size belied her larger-than-life presence, a presence absent during much of the author's early life. When her marriage began to crumble, Vivian famously sent three-year-old...

5) King: a biography

Author

Lewis, David Levering

Series

Blacks in the New World

Description

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Acclaimed by leading historians and critics when it appeared shortly after the death of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., this foundational biography wends through the corridors in which King held court, posing the right questions and providing a keen measure of the man whose career and mission enthrall scholars and general readers to this day. Updated with a new preface and more than a dozen photographs of King and his contemporaries, this edition presents...

6) Langston Hughes: a biography

Author

Leach, Laurie F

Series

Greenwood biographies

7) Jane Crow: the life of Pauli Murray

Author

Rosenberg, Rosalind

Description

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"Euro-African-American activist Pauli Murray was a feminist lawyer who played pivotal roles in both the modern civil rights and women's movements, and later become the first woman ordained a priest by the Episcopal Church. Born in 1910 and identified as female, she believed from childhood that she was male. Jane Crow is her definitive biography, exploring how she engaged the arguments used to challenge race discrimination to battle gender discrimination...

8) Looking for Lorraine: the radiant and radical life of Lorraine Hansberry

Author

Perry, Imani

Formats:

Book, Audiobook CD

Description

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Winner of the 2019 PEN/Jacqueline Bograd Weld Award for Biography
Winner of the Lambda Literary Award for LGBTQ Nonfiction
Winner of the Shilts-Grahn Triangle Award for Lesbian Nonfiction
Winner of the 2019 Phi Beta Kappa Christian Gauss Award
A New York Times Notable Book of 2018
A revealing portrait of one of the most gifted and charismatic, yet least understood, Black artists and intellectuals...

9) A promised land

Author

Obama, Barack

Formats:

Book, Large Print, Audiobook CD

Description

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In the stirring, highly anticipated 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 listeners on a compelling journey from his earliest...

10) Up from slavery: an autobiography

Author

Washington, Booker T

Series

Dover thrift editions

Formats:

Book, Audiobook CD

Description

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Born a slave in Virginia in 1856, Booker T. Washington rose in prominence to become black America's foremost spokesman. This is the dramatic autobiographical account of Washington's struggle to succeed and prosper in a country that refused to acknowledge his existence. From his fight for an education to his founding of the world-renowned Tuskegee Institute, Up From Slavery is one of the most significant and defining works in American literature. A...

11) Thurgood Marshall: civil rights attorney and Supreme Court justice

Author

Rowh, Mark

Series

African-American biographies

Description

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Traces the life, accomplishments, and legacy of the civil rights attorney who became a prominent Supreme Court Justice.

12) The rebellious life of Mrs. Rosa Parks

Author

Theoharis, Jeanne

Formats:

Book, Large Print

Description

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The definitive political biography of Rosa Parks examines her six decades of activism, challenging perceptions of her as an accidental actor in the civil rights movement and presenting a corrective to the popular notion of Rosa Parks.

13) Sting like a bee: Muhammad Ali vs. the United States of America, 1966-1971

Author

Montville, Leigh

Description

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When Cassius Clay joined the Nation of Islam, changed his name to Muhammad Ali, and refused military service for religious reasons, he was stripped of his boxing license, and stood at the center of an incendiary legal case that gripped the nation. Montville presents an intimate portrait of a pivotal five-year span-- 1966 to 1971-- during which Ali evolved into a politically aware, bombastic public figure who would forge a complicated relationship...

14) Louis Armstrong: the offstage story of Satchmo

Author

Cogswell, Michael

15) Michael Jordan: the life

Author

Lazenby, Roland

Formats:

Book, Audiobook CD

Description

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Traces the life of one of the most legendary basketball players in the history of the sport, drawing upon interviews with Jordan's friends, family, and teammates, and following his career from college to the NBA. The shrug. The shot. The flu game. Michael Jordan is responsible for sublime moments so ingrained in sports history that they have their own names. When most people think of him, they think of his beautiful shots with the game on the line,...

16) Colin Powell: a biography

Author

Steins, Richard