New and Featured Books at Pardee Library

With nearly 150 entries, this book has been carefully curated to showcase the inspiring stories of African Americans in entertainment, business, sports, politics, and other fields whose hard work, courage, and talent have led the course of US and global history.

In this brilliant corrective, Black Folk, acclaimed historian Blair LM Kelley restores the Black working class to the center of the American story. With the resurgence of labor activism in our own time, Black Folk presents a stirring history of our possible future.

Before, during, and after the Civil War, Boston's Black workers were barred from skilled trades, factories, and public works projects. Jacqueline Jones presents inspiring and heart-rending stories of people who ingeniously forged careers in spite of monumental obstacles.

Ted Mack fought in the Korean War, played football at Ohio State, organized buses to the March on Washington, and started his own beer company. Mack and Peoples Brewing is an inspirational story of Black entrepreneurship, innovation and pride.

In the darkest hours of the 20th century, iconic Black leaders gathered hundreds across the US and beyond to build vast networks of mutual aid. This book offers both an original account of Black cooperatives and a moving meditation on the possibilities of the present.