Featured Books Archive at Pardee Library

Shennette Garrett-Scott explores Black financial innovation and its transformative impact on U.S. capitalism through the story of the St. Luke Bank in Richmond, Virginia: the first and only bank run by Black women.

Penned by a former editor in chief of the Chicago Sun-Times, Binga is the definitive biography of the first Black banker in Chicago as well as a history of race, politics, and finance in early twentieth-century Chicago.

The story of the life of A.G. Gaston, a grandson of slaves who died with a fortune well over $130 million and a business empire spanning real estate, communications, and insurance; written by his niece and grandniece.

Michael Boston examines Washington as an entrepreneur, spelling out his business philosophy at great length and discussing the influence it had on Black America.

Bessie House-Soremekun provides this historical analysis of African American entrepreneurship in Cleveland, Ohio, from the early 1800s to the present.

The first book to bring together the key writings and speeches of civil rights activist Sadie Tanner Mossell Alexander--the first Black American economist.

For African Americans, fast food is a battlefield on which the fight for racial justice has been waged for decades. Taking us from the first McDonald's drive-in in San Bernardino in the 1940s to civil rights protests at the McDonald's on Florissant Avenue in Ferguson in 2014, Franchise charts how the fight for racial justice is intertwined with the fate of Black businesses.

During the Civil Rights Movement, activists created Freedom Libraries in the segregated South, often the first encounter African Americans had with a library. This book delves into how these brave activists forever changed libraries and librarianship.

A compilation of essays that examines how race matters in people's experience of work and leadership. What does it mean to be Black in corporate America today? How are racial dynamics in organizations changing? How do we build inclusive organizations?

The life of Jake Simmons, Jr., the international tycoon who was the most successful African American in the history of the oil industry.

The brash, inspirational, and unforgettable autobiography of John H. Johnson, who rose from the welfare rolls of the Depression to become the most successful Black businessman in American history.

A relentlessly optimistic memoir by Cynthia Marshall, one of the most influential Black business leaders in America today, offering hope and practical guidance for navigating life's most difficult challenges.