Event Search

Special Programs

small text medium text large text

Black History Retro to the 1970s (40 years)


If Beale Street Could Talk



A Hero Ain't Nothin' But A Sandwich



The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman

She is one of the most unforgettable heroines in American fiction, a woman whose life has come to symbolize the struggle for freedom, dignity and justice. Spanning one hundred years of Miss Jane's remarkable life, from her childhood as a slave on a Louisiana plantation to the Civil Rights era of the 1960s it is a story of courage and survival, history, bigotry and hope -- as seen through the eyes of a woman who lived through it all.


Spin a Soft Black Song: Poems for Children

A favorite collection of thirty-five poems for and about black children celebrates the energy and joy of life.


Roots: The Saga of an American Family

The story of a young African boy named Kunte Kinte who, in the late 1700s, was kidnapped from his homeland and brought to the United States as a slave. Haley follows Kunte Kinte's family line over the next seven generations, creating a moving historical novel spanning 200 years.


His Own Where

The story of Buddy, a fifteen-year-old boy whose world is spinning out of control. He meets Angela, whose angry parents accuse her of being "wild." When life falls apart for Buddy and his father, and when Angela is attacked at home, they take action to create their own way of staying alive in Brooklyn. In the process the two find refuge in one another and learn that love is real and necessary.


The Bluest Eye

Pecola Breedlove, a young black girl, prays every day for beauty. Mocked by other children for the dark skin, curly hair and brown eyes that set her apart she yearns for normalcy, for the blond hair and blue eyes that she believes will allow her to finally fit in. Yet as her dream grows more fervent, her life slowly starts to disintegrate in the face of adversity and strife. A powerful examination of our obsession with beauty and conformity.


Seize The Time: The Story of the Black Panther Party and Huey P. Newton

A primary source of the Black Panther Party -- written by the Party's courageous co-founder. Much of the book focuses on the work and vision of Huey P. Newton.


Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry



The Lynchers

A revolutionary and controversial story about four African American men who hatch a terrorist plot to shake a complacent America to its foundations. They see their plan to lynch a white cop as the ultimate symbolic act of protest in a racist, hypocritical society mired in fundamental inequalities that contradict its "Home of the Free" credo.