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Slavery and the Post-Black Imagination

By Bertram D. Ashe, Ilka Saal

From Kara Walker’s hellscape antebellum silhouettes to Paul Beatty’s bizarre twist on slavery in The Sellout and from Colson Whitehead’s literal Underground Railroad to Jordan Peele’s body-snatching Get Out, this volume offers commentary on contemporary...

Stars for Freedom

Hollywood, Black Celebrities, and the Civil Rights Movement

By Emilie Raymond

From Oprah Winfrey to Angelina Jolie, George Clooney to Leonardo DiCaprio, Americans have come to expect that Hollywood celebrities will be outspoken advocates for social and political causes. However, that wasn’t always the case. As...

The Portland Black Panthers

Empowering Albina and Remaking a City

By Lucas N. N. Burke and Judson L. Jeffries

Portland, Oregon, though widely regarded as a liberal bastion, also has struggled historically with ethnic diversity; indeed, the 2010 census found it to be “America’s whitest major city.” In early recognition of such disparate realities,...

Carl Maxey

A Fighting Life

By Jim Kershner

Carl Maxey was, in his own words, “a guy who started from scratch - black scratch.” He was sent, at age five, to the scandal-ridden Spokane Children's Home and then kicked out at age eleven...

Free Boy

A True Story of Slave and Master

By Lorraine McConaghy and Judy Bentley

Free Boy is the story of a 13-year-old slave who escaped from Washington Territory to freedom in Canada on the West's underground railroad.

When James Tilton came to Washington Territory as surveyor-general in the 1850s he...

Narrative of the Sufferings of Lewis Clarke

By Lewis Clarke. Introduction by Carver Clark Gayton

Lewis George Clarke published the story of his life as a slave in 1845, after he had escaped from Kentucky and become a well-regarded abolitionist lecturer throughout the North. His book was the first work...

On American Soil

How Justice Became a Casualty of World War II

By Jack Hamann

During the night of August 14, 1944, an Italian prisoner of war was lynched on the Fort Lawton army base in Seattle--a murder that shocked the nation and the international community. It was a time...

Seattle in Black and White

The Congress of Racial Equality and the Fight for Equal Opportunity

By Joan Singler, Jean C. Durning, Bettylou Valentine, and Martha (Maid) J. Adams

Seattle was a very different city in 1960 than it is today. There were no black bus drivers, sales clerks, or bank tellers. Black children rarely attended the same schools as white children. And few...

Better than the Best

Black Athletes Speak, 1920-2007

By John C. Walter, Malina Iida

In these engaging and forthright interviews, thirteen African American athletes talk about how they endured through pain, loneliness, and rejection to become champions. In sports as diverse as football and fencing, wrestling and track and...

Passing the Three Gates

Interviews with Charles Johnson

By Jim McWilliams

Known for his blending of philosophy, spirituality, humor, and a rollicking good story, Charles Johnson is one of the most important novelists writing today. From his magical first novel, Faith and the Good Thing, to...