HPL ALA Black Caucus Literary Awards | Green Hills Public Library District

The Second Floor Library will be closed for flooring repairs and maintenance from March 9-17. Programs will continue as scheduled, and staff will be available by phone/email during all hours.

1) Moonrise over New Jessup

Author

Minnicks, Jamila, 1977-

Description

"It's 1957, and after leaving the only home she has ever known, Alice Young steps off the bus into the all-Black town of New Jessup, Alabama, where residents have largely rejected integration as the means for Black social advancement. She falls in love with Raymond Campbell, whose clandestine organizing activities challenge New Jessup's status quo and could lead to the young couple's expulsion-or worse-from the home they hold dear. But as Raymond...

2) All the sinners bleed: a novel

Author

Description

"After years of working as an FBI agent, Titus Crown returns home to Charon County, land of moonshine and cornbread, fist fights and honeysuckle. Seeing his hometown struggling with a bigoted police force inspires him to run for sheriff. He wins, and becomes the first Black sheriff in the history of the county. Then a year to the day after his election, a young Black man is fatally shot by Titus's deputies. Titus pledges to follow the truth wherever...

3) The reformatory: a novel

Author

Due, Tananarive, 1966-

Series

Thorndike Press large print high octane

Description

"Gracetown, Florida June 1950. Twelve-year-old Robbie Stephens, Jr., is sentenced to six months at the Gracetown School for Boys, a reformatory, for kicking the son of the largest landowner in town in defense of his older sister, Gloria. So begins Robbie's journey further into the terrors of the Jim Crow South and the very real horror of the school they call The Reformatory. Robbie has a talent for seeing ghosts, or haints. But what was once a comfort...

Author

Description

"A groundbreaking debut collection portraying the lived experiences of Black Muslims grappling with faith, family, and freedom in America"-- Provided by publisher.

5) Promise: a novel

Author

Griffiths, Rachel Eliza

Description

"New England, 1957. The Kindred sisters-Ezra and Cinthy-grew up with an abundance of love. Love from their parents, who let them believe that the stories they tell on stars can come true. Love from their neighbors, the Junketts, the only other Black family in town, whose home is filled with spice-rubbed ribs and ground-shaking hugs. And love for their adopted hometown of Salt Point, a beautiful village perched high up on coastal bluffs. But as the...

6) Symphony of secrets

Author

Slocumb, Brendan

Description

"From the celebrated author of book club favorite The Violin Conspiracy: A gripping page-turner about a professor who uncovers a shocking secret about the most famous American composer of all time-that his music was stolen from a young Black composer named Josephine Reed. Determined to uncover the truth and right history's wrongs, Bern Hendricks will stop at nothing to finally give Josephine the recognition she deserves. Bern Hendricks has just received...

7) Black AF history: the un-whitewashed story of America

Author

Harriot, Michael

Description

"From acclaimed columnist and political commentator Michael Harriot, a searingly smart and bitingly hilarious retelling of American history that corrects the record and showcases the perspectives and experiences of Black Americans. America's backstory is a whitewashed mythology implanted in our collective memory. It is the story of the pilgrims on the Mayflower building a new nation. It is George Washington's cherry tree and Abraham Lincoln's log...

8) The new Brownies' book: a love letter to Black families

Description

"In 1920, as art and writing flourished during the Harlem Renaissance, W. E. B. Du Bois published The Brownies' Book: A Monthly Magazine for Children of the Sun-the first periodical for African American youth, collecting original art, stories, letters, and activities to celebrate their identities and inspire their imaginations and ambitions. Building upon Du Bois's mission, esteemed professor and scholar Karida Brown and celebrated artist Charly Palmer...

9) Driving the Green Book: a road trip through the living history of Black resistance

Author

Hall, Alvin, 1952-

Description

"Join award-winning broadcaster Alvin Hall on a journey through America's haunted racial past, with the legendary Green Book as your guide. For countless Americans, the open road has long been a place where dangers lurk. In the era of Jim Crow, Black travelers encountered locked doors, hostile police, and potentially violent encounters almost everywhere, in both the South and the North. From 1936 to 1967, millions relied on The Negro Motorist Green...

10) White burgers, Black cash: fast food from Black exclusion to exploitation

Author

Kwate, Naa Oyo A

Description

"White Burgers, Black Cash traces the evolution in fast food from the early 1900s to the present, from its long history of racist exclusion to its current damaging embrace of urban Black communities. Deeply researched, compellingly told, and brimming with surprising details, this book reveals the inequalities embedded in America's popular national food tradition"-- Provided by publisher.

11) The kneeling man: my father's life as a Black spy who witnessed the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr

Author

Seletzky, Leta McCollough

Description

In the famous photograph of the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. on the balcony of Memphis's Lorraine Motel, one man kneeled down beside King, trying to staunch the blood from his fatal head wound with a borrowed towel. This kneeling man was a member of the Invaders, an activist group that was in talks with King in the days leading up to the murder. He had a second identity: an undercover Memphis police officer reporting on the activities of...

12) Above ground: poems

Author

Smith, Clint, 1988-

Description

Clint Smith's vibrant and compelling new collection traverses the vast emotional terrain of fatherhood, and explores how becoming a parent has recalibrated his sense of the world. There are poems that interrogate the ways our lives are shaped by both personal lineages and historical institutions. There are poems that revel in the wonder of discovering the world anew through the eyes of your children, as they discover it for the first time. There are...

13) Why fathers cry at night: a memoir in love poems, letters, recipes, and remembrances

Author

Alexander, Kwame

Series

Thorndike Press large print biographies and memoirs

Description

"This powerful memoir from a #1 New York Times bestselling author and Newbery Medalist features poetry, letters, recipes, and other personal artifacts that provide an intimate look into his life and the loved ones he shares it with. In an intimate and non-traditional (or "new-fashioned") memoir, Kwame Alexander shares snapshots of a man learning how to love. He takes us through stories of his parents: from being awkward newlyweds in the sticky Chicago...

14) I done clicked my heels three times: poems

Author

Byas, Taylor (Poet)

Description

"Inspired by The Wiz, this poetry collection celebrates South Side Chicago and a Black woman's quest for self-discovery--one that pulls her away from the safety of home and into her power"-- Provided by publisher.

Author

Description

"Darrin Bell was six years old when his mother told him he couldn't have a realistic water gun. She said she feared for his safety, that police tend to think of little Black boys as older and less innocent than they really are.Through evocative illustrations and sharp humor, Bell examines how The Talk shaped intimate and public moments from childhood to adulthood. While coming of age in Los Angeles--and finding a voice through cartooning--Bell becomes...

16) The art of Ruth E Carter: costuming Black history and the Afrofuture, from Do the right thing to Black Panther

Author

Carter, Ruth E., 1960-

Description

"Career-spanning book by the Oscar-winning costume designer Ruth E. Carter"-- Provided by publisher.