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In the 1960s, Jordan was an advocate for the desegregation of Georgia’s colleges and helped escort a female black student through an angry mob when the University of Georgia was desegregated.

Quincy Jones cannot be pigeonholed. In his 50-year music career, Jones has worn the hats of composer, record producer, artist, arranger, conductor, instrumentalist and record company executive.

Toole explores the world of boxing with an insider’s directness and understanding, all the while remaining true to the flawed, noble humanity of his characters.

The Los Angeles Times Book Review calls it ‘a work of keen scholarship that will appeal to the general reader responsive to graceful, lucid prose by an author with an eye for ironic situations and complex emotions.’

Although Mosley’s fiction falls into a category that many consider subliterary—detective fiction—his depth of character, researched historical details, and realistic dialogue transcend the cliches of the genre.

Clifton’s writing is steeped in the rich oral tradition of the griot—the African storyteller. Through verse Clifton has scrutinized the American dream through the eyes of its most powerless and neglected citizens: women, minorities and children.

Edward W. Said was one of the foremost cultural critics of the postwar world. He wrote extensively on history, politics, literature, music and philosophy.

By exploring his own experiences as a second-generation Korean-born American, Lee’s novels portray the tensions between assimilation into a society and alienation from oneself and one’s heritage. 

Gaines was never exposed to black writers, and so his literary models were such white American writers as Ernest Hemingway and William Faulkner, and European writers such as Russian novelist Leo Tolstoy. He decided early, however, to focus his own writing on what he knew—which meant portraying African American culture and language.

Lewis marched with civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama, in an effort to secure voting rights for African Americans. During the march, a confrontation with police occurred, and Lewis was one of many marchers beaten in what became known as Bloody Sunday.

For Franklin, the task of correcting American history in the light of black experience had always been a crucial part of the fight for racial equality.

Raised in rural New Hampshire, Banks initially planned to follow his father into the plumbing business; where he grew up, he told an interviewer, ‘the idea of being a writer was like the idea of being a butterfly.’

The narrative improvises upon the oral tradition of talk-story, a form of storytelling that encouraged Hong Kingston’s aspirations to become a strong, self-articulate woman.

I learned that photography would enable me to show what was right and wrong about America, the world and life.

Persuaded that the enormity of a bygone injustice has been only partially perceived, I have taken upon myself the task of piecing together what might be called the ‘forgotten’ or ignored parts of the tapestry of those years.

Richard Kluger provides the fullest possible view of the human and legal drama in the years before 1954, the cumulative assaults on the white power structure that defended segregation, and the step-by-step establishment of a team of inspired black lawyers that could successfully challenge the law.

Paramount in his analysis is the importance of Islam, the principal Middle Eastern religion, and how it has helped mould the character and proclivities of the ‘elusive, self-contradictory Arab mentality.’