CELEBRATING AND SHOWCASING THE ESSENCE OF BLACK HISTORY
Featuring: Local SP Black Authors, Illustrators, & Great Reads
***Indiana & Missouri’s Own - Authors***
***Dr. Wes Parham MBA PhD.*** “is a higher education professional and Organizational Consultant at WEEW Consulting. He is a national speaker in the areas of student development, organizational innovation, and organizational leadership. With his unique mix of social commentary, humor, and scholarship Wes has presented to thousands of students, professionals, and individuals and has established himself as a dynamic voice in today's culture. Wes' newest area of interest is the intersection between dissent and disagreement, culture, and the media.
Wes earned a Bachelor's degree in communication and an MBA with an emphasis in Leadership and Organizational change from the University of Missouri-Kansas City. He earned his Ph.D. in Organizational Leadership from Regent University in Virginia Beach. He has a true passion for individual empowerment, personal growth, and creative leadership. His professional experiences include positions as a project manager, student life coach, academic advisor, recruiter, scholarship coordinator, consultant, admissions director and more. His newest area of emphasis is on the intersection of selective exposure theory, millennials, and haters. Wes hopes to challenge, grow, and entertain the next generation of students, professionals, and leaders.”
***Derrick D. Barnes *** “is from Kansas City, MO. He is a graduate of Jackson State University with a BA degree in Marketing. He is the author of the critically acclaimed picture book CROWN: An Ode to the Fresh Cut (Denene Millner Books/Agate Bolden) which won a multitude of literacy awards, making it one of the most decorated picture books in the history of children’s literature. The awards/prizes include two 2018 EZRA Jack Keats awards. It was also a HUGE winner at the American Library Association’s Youth Media Awards, taking home FOUR Honor awards: the Coretta Scott King Author Honor, Coretta Scott King Illustrator Honor, Newberry Honor, and the Caldecott Honor. In October of 2018, CROWN also took home the lucrative and highly coveted Kirkus Prize for Young Readers.
His first two books were published by Scholastic in 2004; Stop Drop and Chill, and The Low Down Bad Day Blues.His first YA novel, The Making of Dr. Truelove was published by Simon Pulse in 2007, and was recognized by the American Library Association as a Quick Pick For Reluctant Readers. He is also the author of the best selling chapter book series entitled Ruby and the Booker Boys (Scholastic). His 2011 middle grade hardcover classic We Could Be Brothers was rereleased in paperback in 2017 by Just Us Books.
Prior to becoming a published author, Derrick wrote best-selling copy for various Hallmark Card lines and was the first African American male staff writer for the company. His follow up to CROWN, entitled The King of Kindergarten, published by Nancy Paulsen Books/Penguin on July 2nd, 2019, debuted on the New York Times Best Sellers List, and was named one of the Best Books of 2019 by Kirkus Reviews and the Washington Post His upcoming title (April 2020) is entitled Who Got Game!? Baseball (Workman Publishing) is book one in a three book non fiction sports series.
On September 1, 2020, Derrick’s 12th trade title, I Am Every Good Thing, was released, and debut at #5 on the New York Times Best Seller’s List, as well as the IndieBound Bestseller List at #3. In November of the same year, Barnes became the only author, in the history of the Kirkus Prize Award, to have won it twice. IAEGT also brought home the 2021 Charlotte Huck Award for Outstanding Fiction for Children, given by the National Council of Teachers of English.
Derrick resides in Charlotte, NC with his enchanting wife, Dr. Tinka Barnes and their four sons, THE MIGHTY BARNES BROTHERS: Ezra, Solomon, Silas, and Nnamdi (Nom-dee).”
Indiana’s Own “Bestselling author Edward Kelsey Moore was born in the U.S. Midwest. He enjoys living there and writing about it. “The Supremes At Earl’s All -You -Can- Eat” was his first debut novel.
The Musician
Mr. Moore received a Bachelor of Music degree from Indiana University at Bloomington, and a Master of Music degree from the State University of New York at Stony Brook.
The Author
After decades as a working musician, and as he approached his fortieth birthday, Edward Kelsey Moore began focusing his artistic abilities on writing. Over the years that followed Mr. Moore's short fiction received publication in many literary magazines including Indiana Review, African American Review and Inkwell. In 2002 his short story, Grandma and the Elusive Fifth Crucifix, won a local contest and was dramatized and broadcast on National Public Radio. During these years Edward Kelsey Moore also wrote short essays, including Piaf and Roadkill, which received an Illinois Arts Council Literary Award. Mr. Moore has written essays on music, and about his life, which were commissioned by Minnesota Public Radio. Starting in 2018, and continuing this year, Edward Kelsey Moore has been honored to be included in the Novel Conversations Speakers Program, part of Indiana Humanities.”
“Richard Wright, (born September 4, 1908, near Natchez, Mississippi, U.S.—died November 28, 1960, Paris, France), novelist and short-story writer who was among the first African American writers to protest white treatment of Blacks, notably in his novel Native Son (1940) and his autobiography, Black Boy (1945). Richard Nathaniel Wright was an American author of novels, short stories, poems, and non-fiction. Much of his literature concerns racial themes, especially related to the plight of African Americans during the late 19th to mid-20th centuries, who suffered discrimination and violence in the South and the North.”
“Meet Shirley Chisholm. In 1968, Shirley Chisholm made history as the first African American woman elected to Congress. That same year, Shirley was voted one of the ten most admired women in the world. She also ran for president in 1972, the first African American woman to do so for one of the two big political parties. Shirley showed people it shouldn’t matter if you’re male or female or what the color of your skin is, everyone should be able to pursue their dreams. She lived out her life determined to be “unbossed and unbought” and remained a spokesperson for change. To this day she is still an inspiration to everyone who dreams of breaking boundaries.”
“The Ellises & The Time Machine is a series created to empower young children to learn more about often untold American history. Why Do We Have To Say ‘Black Lives Matter’? is the story of 9-year-old Jackson, who has trouble reconciling the term ‘Black Lives Matter’ as he watches his favorite athletes wear shirts with the phrase while they play sports on a national stage. When Jackson asks his father, Devale, why the phrase is used, Devale decides to take the family on a journey through time to learn about over 400 years of Black history in America. Jackson and his brothers, Kairo and Kaz, are not excited about this history lesson at first, until Devale reveals that their closet has a hidden time machine!”
“Robert Hayden (August 4, 1913 – February 25, 1980) was an American poet, essayist, and ... Robert Hayden was born Asa Bundy Sheffey in Detroit, Michigan, to Ruth and Asa Sheffey, who separated before his birth. He was taken in by a foster family next door, Sue Ellen Westerfield and William Hayden, and grew up in a Detroit ghetto nicknamed "Paradise Valley". The Haydens' perpetually contentious marriage, coupled with Ruth Sheffey's competition for her son's affections, made for a traumatic childhood. Witnessing fights and suffering beatings, Hayden lived in a house fraught with chronic anger, whose effects would stay with him throughout his life. On top of that, his severe visual problems prevented him from participating in activities such as sports in which nearly everyone else was involved. His childhood traumas resulted in debilitating bouts of depression that he later called "my dark nights of the soul".
Because he was nearsighted and slight of stature, he was often ostracized by his peers. In response, Hayden read voraciously, developing both an ear and an eye for transformative qualities in literature. He attended Detroit City College later called Wayne State University with a major in Spanish and minor in English, and left in 1936 during the Great Depression, one credit short of finishing his degree, to go to work for the Works Progress Administration Federal Writer’s Project, where he researched black history and folk culture.”
“The night of May 25, 2020 changed America. George Floyd, a 46-year-old Black man, was killed during an arrest in Minneapolis when a white cop suffocated him. The video of that night’s events went viral, sparking the largest protests in the nation’s history and the sort of social unrest we have not seen since the sixties. While Floyd’s death was certainly the catalyst, (heightened by the fact that it occurred during a pandemic whose victims were disproportionately of color) it was in truth the fuse that lit an ever-filling powder keg.
Long Time Coming grapples with the cultural and social forces that have shaped our nation in the brutal crucible of race. In five beautifully argued chapters―each addressed to a black martyr from Breonna Taylor to Rev. Clementa Pinckney―Dyson traces the genealogy of anti-blackness from the slave ship to the street corner where Floyd lost his life―and where America gained its will to confront the ugly truth of systemic racism. Ending with a poignant plea for hope, Dyson’s exciting new book points the way to social redemption. Long Time Coming is a necessary guide to help America finally reckon with race.”
“By telling the little-known stories of six pioneering African American entrepreneurs, Black Fortunes makes a worthy contribution to black history, to business history, and to American history.”—Margot Lee Shetterly, New York Times Bestselling author of Hidden Figures
Between the years of 1830 and 1927, as the last generation of blacks born into slavery was reaching maturity, a small group of industrious, tenacious, and daring men and women broke new ground to attain the highest levels of financial success.
Mary Ellen Pleasant, used her Gold Rush wealth to further the cause of abolitionist John Brown. Robert Reed Church, became the largest landowner in Tennessee. Hannah Elias, the mistress of a New York City millionaire, used the land her lover gave her to build an empire in Harlem. Orphan and self-taught chemist Annie Turnbo-Malone, developed the first national brand of hair care products. Mississippi school teacher O. W. Gurley, developed a piece of Tulsa, Oklahoma, into a “town” for wealthy black professionals and craftsmen that would become known as “the Black Wall Street.” Although Madam C. J Walker was given the title of America’s first female black millionaire, she was not. She was the first, however, to flaunt and openly claim her wealth—a dangerous and revolutionary act.
Nearly all the unforgettable personalities in this amazing collection were often attacked, demonized, or swindled out of their wealth. Black Fortunes illuminates as never before the birth of the black business titan.”
***Dr. Ashley Denmark*** comes from humble beginnings as the daughter of a carpenter. She was born and raised on the north side of Saint Louis, Missouri. Rather than becoming a product of her environment, she decided to become a product of her imagination and pursue her dream of becoming a doctor. Her journey into medicine was not easy, but following her dreams have taken her to many wonderful places from Spelman, to Tulane to even Harvard. She is now a family medicine physician with a strong passion to inspire others to follow their dreams. It is her hope this book will serve as a source of motivation to inspire the next generation of doctors!
***Dr. Gwendolyn Squires PhD.*** “is a former elementary/middle school principal having dedicated her entire career of over 40 years to public education. She holds a Bachelor of Science in Elementary Education, a Master of Science in Education, an Educational Specialist in School Administration, and a Doctor of Philosophy in Educational Administration. She has been a freelance writer since 1984. Her publishing credits include several books, news articles, and national journals. She is the owner of Tea Time Self-Publishing Services where she helps aspiring individuals become published authors.
The School Day Series consists of entertaining, funny, and imaginary stories of events that happen at Seaside Elementary School, placed on the main character, megaphone carrying, grumpy, and iron-fist Principal Squires. Each story in the School Day Series was inspired by Dr. Squires' 28 years of employment having spent 19 of those years as an elementary & middle The stories are humorous and the illustrations are drawn in bright colors and have a sense of playfulness. school principal.”
***John Jordan O'Neil *** “Nickname: Buck, Foots, Nancy. A smooth-fielding first baseman for the Kansas City Monarch’s as they won four consecutive Negro American League pennants (1939-1942), O'Neil hit .353 as the Monarchs swept the Homestead Gays in the first World Series played between the Negro American League and the more established Negro National League. That year, 1942, also marked the first of his three appearances for the West squad in the All Star game.
The Monarchs' dynasty was temporarily derailed by World War II, as O'Neil and several other Kansas City regulars were inducted into military service. O'Neil served in the U.S. Navy in a construction battalion. He left the Monarchs in mid-August to travel to Norfolk, Virginia, preparatory to entering the Navy. After three years he returned to the Monarchs and resumed his position at first base.
Before embarking on a professional baseball career, O'Neil first had to escape the celery fields of Florida, where he worked as a youngster. He moved to Sarasota when he was twelve years of age and began working in the fields soon afterward. One day during a break from work he voiced his desire to play baseball, and his father, overhearing his conversation, encouraged him to pursue his dream. After graduating from college in 1930, he began his professional baseball career touring with the Miami Giants in 1934 and got his nickname "Buck" from one of the team's owners, Buck O'Neal. The other owner was Johnny Pierce.
The next season he became a Monarch and stayed with the franchise until 1955.
A knowledgeable player, he became a successful manager for the Monarchs, winning the second-half title in 1948.
Finally, winning both halves of the Western Division in 1950, the Monarchs claimed the western championship. He continued to manage the Monarchs through 1955, winning a total of five pennants and serving as skipper of the West squad in four straight All Star games, 1951-1954.”
Although denied a chance to play in the major leagues, O'Neil did get to the "big time" when he joined the Chicago Cubs as a scout in 1956, and he became the first black coach in major league history in 1962, with the Cubs. As a Cubs scout he signed Ernie Banks and Lou Brock and later was also a special scout for the Kansas City Royals. He serves as a member of the Hall of Fame's Veterans' Committee and was chairman of the board of the Negro Leagues Museum in Kansas City.”
![Indiana’s Own “Mari Evans was born on July 16, 1923 in Toledo, OH.[Her mother died when Evans was a young child. During her youth, her father encouraged her to begin writing.[6]In 1939, she enrolled at the University of Toledo to pursue fashion desi…](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ef284546813ed0337515015/1613257552519-0U4N8XVN5YYI2RIMT98K/Mari+Evans..jfif)
Indiana’s Own “Mari Evans was born on July 16, 1923 in Toledo, OH.[Her mother died when Evans was a young child. During her youth, her father encouraged her to begin writing.[6]
In 1939, she enrolled at the University of Toledo to pursue fashion design. However, Evans dropped out of the university in 1941 to pursue a career in jazz. She first moved to the East Coast, where she performed with jazz musicians such as Wes Montgomery, an Indianapolis native. Evans moved to Indianapolis in 1947, where she remained for the rest of her life. Evans began working for Indiana University in 1969, when she was appointed as writer-in-residence at IUPUI.[She taught courses such as “Black Literature: An Overview” and “Recent Black American Writing,” as well as a seminar called “Black Literary Tradition.” For nearly 70 years, Indiana was home to “one of the founders of the Black Arts Movement,” Mari Evans.[While Evans’ poetry is known worldwide, she also earned a reputation as a playwright, composer, musician, author, and activist whose work has been anthologized in over 400 collections.[2]
Evans’ work often tackled subjects such as racial and gender disparities both in Indianapolis and throughout greater society.[3She was writer-in-residence and an assistant professor at both IUPUI and IU Bloomington and used her affiliation with IU to urge social progress in numerous Hoosier communities.[
Evans died on March 10, 2017 in Indianapolis at the age of 97, although many reports incorrectly stated that she died at the age of 93.Mari Evans helped expose inequalities in Indiana and society as a whole through her insightful writing and other work throughout her legendary life.”[40]
Indiana’s Own “Derrick Slack is an Indiana award-winning poet, author, educator, and motivational speaker. For more than twenty years he has used his words to illuminate a positive light on difficult subjects, as an international speaker and Licensed Indiana Social Studies Teacher to middle and high school students. Award-winning poet, author, musician, life coach, motivational speaker, and teacher, Derrick S. Slack, is dedicated to healing the world through his work. For over twenty-five years, he has traveled throughout the United States and to over thirty countries around the world, delivering his his dynamic speeches, workshops, and poetry in such places as Ghana, Cuba, Italy, France, Antigua, Morocco, Senegal, and Holland. He is noted as leaving his audiences in awe with depth and insight that speaks to one's emotions, motivating and inspiring them to reject complacency, remove barriers that may be preventing upward progress, and remain focused on their goals. He passionately speaks and writes about education, over-coming obstacles, leadership, facilitating change, and spirituality. His work is diverse enough that it can be delivered in churches, universities, grade schools, conferences and more. Slack is a dynamic artist that can reach just about anyone with his vast, eclectic works.
D. Slack has written eight published books, including, "19,340: the Mountains of Your Dreams," a stirring, spiritual, and motivating book about overcoming obstacles on the way to pursuing your dreams. In this book, Slack shows us how to reach the destinations, purposes and goals that we may have in our lives. By utilizing his faith in God, life experiences, and successful trek to the top of Mt. Kilimanjaro, he guides us and provides principles in this book that can apply to just about any experience.
He has taught in New York, New Jersey, Indianapolis, and Accra, Ghana. He has also hosted an international radio and TV show in Africa and is currently hosting a radio show called the D.SLACK Show on the BIG Broadcasting Network which broadcast weekly worldwide. Mr. Slack has a Bachelor's in Communication & Media Studies from Indiana University and is currently completing a Master's in Teaching at Marian University in Indianapolis where he teaches high school Social Studies.”
“Cicely Tyson (December 19, 1924 – January 28, 2021) was an American actress and fashion model. In a career spanning more than seven decades, she became known for her portrayal of strong African-American women. In a remarkable career of many decades, she refused to take parts that demeaned Black people and won a Tony, Emmys and an honorary Oscar. Cicely Tyson, the pioneering Black actor who gained an Oscar nomination for her role as the sharecropper's wife in “Sounder,” won a Tony Award in 2013 at age 88 and touched TV viewers' hearts in “The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman,” died Thursday at age 96.Tyson dedicated her memoir “Just As I Am” (released 01-26-2021) to her daughter and revealed why she kept their relationship out of the spotlight.”
“Lorraine Hansberry (1930 – 1965) was an American playwright and author best known for A Raisin in the Sun, a 1959 play that was influenced by her background and upbringing in Chicago. The fascinating facts about Lorraine Hansberry that follow illustrate her growth as an African American woman, activist, and writer.
Though A Raisin in the Sun is the crown jewel in Hansberry’s legacy, she was also known for the plays The Sign in Sidney Brustein’s Window and Les Blancs.
To Be Young, Gifted and Black was a posthumously produced play and collection of writings that capped a brief and brilliant career. When she died of pancreatic cancer in 1965, she was only 34 years old. She was the first Black woman to have a play staged on Broadway.
Her father was a plaintiff in a Supreme Court housing case.
Nina Simone dedicated a song to her.
Hansberry was an advocate for gay rights.
She addressed social issues in her writings.”
***Tyia Lashe*** “is a native of Kansas City, MO. She graduated from the University of Central Missouri with a Bachelor's of Science degree in Communication Disorders and a Master's of Science degree in Speech-Language Pathology. As a child, Tyia struggled with her self-image which had a negative impact on her life growing up. As a young adult she realized the importance and power of her words and decided to start speaking LIFE! Because of her past experiences, Tyia wants to make sure she is able to send a message to those kids who may be struggling with their self-esteem. Tyia aims to create literature that will inspire and empower the next generation to be bold, courageous, creative, and fearless!”
***Dr. Grace LaJoy*** “began writing at a very early age, keeping her first poem when she was only 12 years old. Over the years she shared her poems with family, friends, at school and at church. Her professional writing career began in 2003 when she wrote and published her first book of poetry, for which she received an endorsement from the famous author and motivational speaker, Les Brown. She went on to write over 20 books, like Writer's Breakthrough to help aspiring authors who do not know where to begin, and her foster care story, A Gifted Child in Foster Care: A story of resilience.
Grace LaJoy's graduate degrees are in the fields of Education, and Curriculum and Instruction. Her under-graduate degree is in Social Psychology. She has served youth in public school, church, and community settings. She enjoys talking, reading stories, and sharing poetry with youth and adult groups.
Her most recent accomplishment is completing the The Gracie Series, a set of 6 children's books.”
Indiana’s Own “Darryl Pinckney grew up in a middle-class African-American family in Indianapolis, IN, where he attended local public schools. He was educated at Columbia University in New York City. Darryl Pinckney is a long time contributor to The New York Review of Books, the author of two novels, High Cotton (1992) and Black Deutschland (2016), and two works of nonfiction, Out There: Mavericks of Black Literature (2002) and Blackballed: The Black Vote and US Democracy (2014). He has contributed to numerous other periodicals, including The Guardian, Harper's, Los Angeles Times, The Nation, The New Republic, The New Yorker, the New York Times Book Review, The Paris Review, Slate, TLS, Vanity Fair, and Vogue. His several theatrical collaborations with director Robert Wilson have appeared internationally and at Brooklyn Academy of Music. Darryl Pinckney's first novel was High Cotton (1992). The novel won the Los Angeles Times Art Seidenbaum Award for First Fiction. The story follows an unnamed narrator as he moves from his safe childhood in conservative Indianapolis to a brief tenure as minister of information for a local radical organization, to eventually settling into the life as an expatriate in Paris. Through it all, his imagination is increasingly dominated by his elderly African American relations and the lessons of their experiences in the “Old Country” of the South.
Pinckney's next book was a collection of essays Out There: Mavericks of Black Literature (2002). Originating with Pinckney's Alain Locke Lectures at Harvard University, the essays focus on three writers: J. A. Rogers, Vincent O. Carter, and Caryl Phillips.
“Blackballed - The Black Vote and US Democracy” was reissued with a new essay in 2020. Described as "Pinckney’s meditation on a century and a half of participation by blacks in US electoral politics. In this combination of memoir, historical narrative, and contemporary political and social analysis, he investigates the struggle for black voting rights from Reconstruction through the civil rights movement to Barack Obama’s two presidential campaigns.
Pinckney's second novel Black Deutschland (2016) was named one of The Guardian (UK) Best Books of the Year.
Pinckney's most recent publication is Busted in New York and Other Essays with a foreword by Zadie Smith.”
“Amanda S. C. Gorman is an American poet and activist. Her work focuses on issues of oppression, feminism, race, and marginalization, as well as the African diaspora. Gorman was the first person to be named National Youth Poet Laureate. She published the poetry book The One for Whom Food Is Not Enough in 2015.“
“A little-known civil rights hero and college football MVP finally gets a voice in this fictional account detailing Chester Pierce's game-changing role as the first Black college football player to compete south of the Mason-Dixon Line.
In 1947, no African American player can play at a southern school; in return, the opposing team benches a player of "equal talent." This historical fiction picture book frames a turbulent time in the civil rights era with the clever use of a football play to show race relations and teamwork. Inspired by a true story, capturing a historic defense against the Jim Crow laws of the South.”
“Jessie Redmon Fauset was an African-American editor, poet, essayist, novelist, and educator. Jessie Redmon Fauset was born on April 27, 1882, in New Jersey's Camden County and known as the “Midwife of the Harlem Renaissance,” She grew up in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Her literary work helped sculpt African-American literature in the 1920s as she focused on portraying a true image of African-American life and history. She aided the careers of several of the most notable writers from the Harlem Renaissance, publishing Langston Hughes's first poem, “The Negro Speaks of Rivers”.
“Phillis Wheatley Peters, also spelled Phyllis and Wheatly was the first African-American author of a published book of poetry as well as the third American woman to do so. Born in West Africa, she was sold into slavery at the age of seven or eight and transported to North America. She was enslaved by the Wheatley family of Boston. A strong supporter of America's fight for independence, Wheatley penned several poems in honor of the Continental Army's commander, George Washington. Two hundred and fifty-nine years ago this July, a girl captured somewhere between present-day Gambia and Ghana stepped off the Phillis, a slave ship, and onto the docks of Boston Harbor. The only existing account of this day records that she was thought to be “about seven years old, at this time, from the circumstance of shedding her front teeth.” Wrapped in nothing more than “a quantity of dirty carpet,” she was taken to the city’s slave market, where Mrs. Susanna Wheatley, the wife of a wealthy Boston merchant, was in search of a faithful servant for her old age. Though there were “several robust, healthy females” on display, Mrs. Wheatley selected the seven-year-old, “influenced to this decision by the humble and modest demeanor and interesting features of the little stranger.” Why the girl should have been there at all is a bit of a mystery. The slave trader who owned the Phillis had instructed his crew, “You’ll Observe to get as few Girl Slaves as Possible & as many Prime Boys as you Can.”
The gap-toothed girl in the dirty carpet would become an international literary celebrity. She would be held up as evidence of Black people’s innate equality, at a time when David Hume was declaring them a different species and Immanuel Kant was ordering the “nations” with Africans at the bottom. In centuries to come, she would be recognized as the mother of the African-American literary tradition. But her name, whatever it was, was obliterated by her abduction. The Wheatley’s called her Phillis, after the ship that took her from her home.”
“Take a crash course in the social justice issues that keep the United States from realizing its promise of equality! This civil rights book for kids is simultaneously a guide for parents and educators who worry about broaching the topics of racism, discrimination, and prejudice. Civil Rights Then and Now: A Timeline of the Fight for Equality in America presents the reader with facts, biographies, and landmark supreme court cases in an easily digestible manner and within a historical context. The minor editorializing helps to guide readers to understand the events that have shaped the United States and then challenges them to become advocates for change. Included in this book are vocabulary lists, questions for comprehension and discussion, and even essay/journaling prompts. This information-packed social justice book and civil rights timeline introduces readers to a selection of many critical civil rights movement events in black history. From the embarrassing origins of Slavery to the modern struggle against systemic and overt oppression, this book will spark conversations about subjects that we can no longer afford to ignore.”
“In January 2017, Barack Obama concluded two terms of his historic presidency. Through stunning images by White House photographers and beyond, as well as notable essays and quotes from a broad spectrum of people, Obama looks back at President Obama’s journey—from his remarkable victory to his final days in office and the significant milestones along the way.
Obama features rare and unseen photographs, along with iconic images and newspaper front pages from the president’s 2,920 days in office. It includes dramatic pictures, including the iconic shot from the situation room as the president and his staff watched the live unfolding of the bin Laden raid; day-to-day images of Obama in his roles as a world leader, policy maker, commander in chief, and father; lighthearted photos from the White House Correspondents’ Dinner; late-night television appearances; and moments with the entire Obama family.
Included are excerpts from seven historic speeches and contributions from notable historians, community leaders, journalists, academics and business leaders—including Sir Richard Branson, Laurie Garrett, Tweed Roosevelt, Anastasia Somoza and others whose lives have been touched by Obama’s actions and initiatives. Obama is truly a keepsake memento of a beloved president.”