African American History Month: Political Leaders

Speeches given by one of the most compelling orators of the U.S. Congress, Texas Congresswoman Barbara Jordan.

An in-depth resource about African American achievements.

Darryl Pinckney reflects on African Americans and democracy from Reconstruction to Barack Obama’s election while interspersing his own memories and thoughts on political participation.

Offers a historical look through photographs celebrating civil rights and equality for all Americans.

 

This collection of letters written between 1935 and 1957 illustrate Marshall's legal work leading up to his appointment to the U.S. Supreme Court.

A narrative of African American activists, intellectuals, artists, and politicians from the past 50 years. This chronicle reassesses the successes and failures of African American leaders in the last half-century and their impact on American democracy and the world.

An excellent resource covering “people, times, and events” that impacted African American history.

Bryan Stevenson, founder of the Equal Justice Initiative, recounts one of his first cases, Walter McMillian, a young man sentenced to die for a murder he insisted he didn’t commit. The author straightforwardly tells of his experience as a lawyer defending, among others, those on death row, those too harshly punished for crimes committed when they were children, and those victimized by a system that rewards wealth. This book, makes the case in the process, for a reformation of our country’s way of dealing justice.

This biography details the life and career of Thurgood Marshall through the lens of his contentious five-day Senate confirmation.

Derrick A. Bell, the first tenured black professor at Harvard, analyzes the continuing repercussions and negative impact of this landmark Supreme Court ruling on the educational needs of African American children.

Mrs. Rosa Parks has become best known as the woman who refused to move to the back of a segregated public bus in Montgomery, Alabama, in 1955. She was a life-long political activist who sought justice in all sectors of American life.

An incisive and provocative examination of the first African-American President, Barak Obama, and how race was a factor for the man, the country and his presidency.

Covering the New Deal to Ronald Reagan's Presidency, Republican African Americans chose alternatives to their Democratic African American colleagues.

Womanpower Unlimited was founded in 1961 to aid the Freedom Riders who were helping African Americans register to vote in the southern states. The organization grew and fought for voter registration and participated in the Women Strike for Peace.  Womanpower Unlimited encouraged and supported political and social activism for and by African American women.

After the assassination of her husband, civil-rights activist Medgar Evers, Myrlie Evers completed her B.A. in sociology at Pomona College, worked in private business and went on to become Chairwoman of the NAACP.

Tom Bradley served as Mayor of Los Angeles for twenty years and has been the city's only African American Mayor. The Bradley wing of Los Angeles Public Library's Cenral Library is named in his honor.

In many ways Julian Bond was a true Renaissance man: poet, politician, activist, rebel and pacifist. There were many "firsts" in his life: first elected legislator to the Georgia State Legislature to be denied his rightful place because of his previous anti-war position; led the Georgia delegation, and challenged that group's conservative views to the 1968 Democratic Convention; at the 1968 Democratic Convention he became the first black person nominated to be Vice President. In 1974, he was elected to the Georgia Senate.

In 1984 Jesse Jackson was a candidate for President in the Democratic Party. A civil rights activist, Baptist minister and politician, who has been and remains outspoken on key domestic and world issues.

For forty-six years, starting in 1931, Roy Wilkins worked for the NAACP, championing the cause of civil rights through legal action and lobbying. All of this paved the way forward to the Civil Rights Act and Voting Rights Act, and for the election of African American officials in city, state and federal government.

After the U.S. Civil War, the Reconstruction Acts and Civil War Amendments gave African Americans the right to vote, which resulted in two African Americans elected to the Senate and nineteen to the House of Representatives. There are brief autobiographies of these elected officials and documentation of their active fights for justice.

Ten brief biographies of eminent African-American lawyers, including those who were politically involved, either as public officials or through political activities.

Ralph Bunche was the first African American to receive The Nobel Peace Prize in 1950. Academic, political scientist, and diplomat, Ralph Bunche played a key role in the formation of the United Nations and was well known for his negotiation skills in mediating international conflicts.

Constance Baker Motley :. . . was the first black women appointed to the federal bench." She was a lawyer, judge, state Senator, and civil rights' activist.

Ron Dellums has been in politics for over 40 years: served in the United States House of Representatives for 27 years;  Mayor of Oakland from 2007 to 2011; and held other political offices during which he was always outspoken in his opinions and criticism.

Fannie Lou Hamer was a Mississippi cotton picker who shook up the 1964 Democratic Convention by leading the black Mississippi Freedom Party. For over fifteen years she was a leader in voter registration which led to the election of many African American politicians. Check for other editions of this book: 323.4092 H214Mil 1994; 323.4092 H214Mil.

Edward Brooke was the first African American elected to the United States Senate since Reconstruction when Hiram Revels was elected. Prior to that he was elected Attorney General of Massachussets. In this autobiography, Brooke recalls the challenges, as a black man, of growing up, serving during World War II, and the fight for equal rights in post-World War II America. 

Four-Star General in the United States Army, National Security Advisor, and Secretary of State, Colin Powell always was a man who trusted his own judgment and values.

Andrew Young has been an activist, diplomant, politician and elected official. His autobiography recounts is own life and the lives of others who were involved in the Civil Rights Movement.

The Northeastern United States was a refuge for escaped slaves, and in later years promised the equality that was lacking in the Jim Crow South. Sokol examines attitudes and realities beneath the appearance of equality and fairness, and how this region came to terms with its own conflicts.

For over 100 years, the NAACP has fought for voting equality, and the organization presently contuines the same fight.

Blanche Kelso Bruce was born a slave and became the first black U.S. Senator. He married Josephine Wilson, who came from a well-educated family. In 19th century Washington D.C. they succeeded in overcoming racial stereotypes and barriers.

Shirley Chisholm was the first African American Congresswoman and the first African American woman to run for President in 1972. Outspoken and candid, she was fearless in expressing her opinions and criticism regarding established politicians and activists alike.

Politician, activist and diplomat, Andrew Young's autobiography recounts what it was like to grow up in New Orleans prior to the Civil Rights Movement, his association with Martin Luther King Jr., his deep religious faith, and his achievements as Mayor of Atlanta Georgia, U.S. Congressman, and United States Ambassador to the United Nations.

Bayard Rustin was the quiet, diligent intellectual and strategical organizer behind the major civil rights political activities and events from the 1950s throught the 1970s. A Quaker and pacifist, he opposed militant black power advocates, and championed all forms of anti-discrimination and nuclear disarmament. As a homosexual, Rustin kept his private and public lives separate.

The official inaugural book of the first African American President. Essays and color photographs document the inaugural week.

In 1942 James Farmer was the founder of the Congress for Racial Equality. His work in organizing sit-ins at all white restaurants in Chicago, the founding of CORE, and his influence on Martin Luther King, Jr. regarding Gandhi's philosophy of non-violence laid the foundation for the Civil Rights movement of the 1960s.

Morain, a former editor for The Sacramento Bee, chronicles the meteoric rise of the first female, African-Asian American Vice President of the United States, Kamala Harris. This biography provides important background information on a political trailblazer, the daughter of immigrants, who went from the San Francisco District Attorney's Office to the second highest elected office in the country, and all of it accomplished in a decade's time.