Books like The Second by Carol (Carol Elaine) Anderson

Justice lawyer Bryan Stevenson recounts his battle against wrongful convictions, life‑sentence juvenile cases, and systemic bias while seeking reform of America’s criminal justice system.

Ijeoma Oluo’s guide gives Americans—and people of color—clear, practical tools to discuss race, privilege, police brutality, and micro‑aggressions, making the complex racial landscape accessible and actionable for all readers.

Michelle Alexander argues that mass incarceration has become a contemporary system of racial control, striking disproportionately at African‑American men and other disadvantaged groups while perpetuating a new form of Jim Crow.

Ibram X. Kendi examines the long history of anti‑black racist ideas in America, revealing how intellectuals have shaped and justified racial inequality.

Richard Rothstein’s *The Color of Law* uncovers how federal, state, and local policies deliberately created and maintained racial segregation in U.S. cities.

The Warmth of Other Suns is a non‑fiction study of the Great Migration, tracing the journey of nearly six million African Americans from the South to northern and western cities between 1915 and 1970.

Kiese Laymon’s memoir confronts how violence, grief, and addiction shape his life, exploring eating disorders, compulsive gambling, and a fraught mother‑child bond while exposing systemic abuse of Black bodies.

When Sister Jennifer Davidson is invited to a country cottage by consultant Andrew Barrett, her life takes an unexpected turn, especially when her ex‑husband, the locum orthopedic registrar Nick, returns for a second chance.

"Our nation's commitment to racial equality has never been consistent, nor has it been irresistibly driven forward by America's founding principles. In The Unsteady March, Philip A. Klinkner and Rogers M. Smith disprove the idea that the United States has been on a "steady march" toward the end of racial discrimination. Countering a spate of recent books claiming that black equality has nearly been realized, Klinkner and Smith argue that progress toward equality has a specific and unrecognized history: it has occurred only in brief periods, under special conditions, and it has always been followed by periods of stagnation and retrenchment."--BOOK JACKET. "In their conclusion, Klinkner and Smith argue that we are today in a period of retrenchment such as those that have followed previous reform eras. With its insights into contemporary racial politics and its wealth of historical material, The Unsteady March is a comprehensive, if controversial, analysis of race relations across two centuries."--BOOK JACKET.

"Civil rights scholar Charles E. Cobb, Jr. reveals how nonviolent activists and their allies kept the civil rights movement alive by bearing and, when necessary, using firearms. Whether patrolling their neighborhoods, garrisoning their homes, or firing back at attackers, these men and women were crucial to the movement's success, as were the weapons they carried. Drawing on his firsthand experiences in the Southern Freedom Movement and interviews with fellow participants, Cobb offers a controversial examination of the vital role guns have played in securing American liberties"--Provided by publisher.