Books like Black Boy Smile by D. Watkins

Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption is a memoir by Bryan Stevenson that documents his career as a lawyer for disadvantaged clients. The book, focusing on injustices in the United States judicial system, alternates chapters between documenting Stevenson's efforts to overturn the wrongful conviction of Walter McMillian and his work on other cases, including children who receive life sentences and other poor or marginalized clients. Initially published by Spiegel & Grau, then an imprint of Penguin Random House, on 21 October 2014 in hardcover and digital formats and by Random House Audio in audiobook format read by Stevenson, a paperback edition was released on 16 August 2015 by Penguin Random House and a young adult adaptation was published by Delacorte Press on 18 September 2018. The memoir was later adapted into a 2019 movie of the same name by Destin Daniel Cretton and, commemorating the film, "Movie Tie-In" editions were released for both versions of the memoir on 3 December 2019 by imprints of Penguin Random House. The memoir has received many honors and won multiple non-fiction book awards. It was a New York Times best seller and spent more than 230 weeks on the paperback nonfiction best sellers list. It won the 2015 Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Nonfiction, given annually by the American Library Association. Stevenson's acceptance speech for the award, given at the Library Association's annual meeting, was said to be the best that many of the librarians had ever heard, and was published with acclaim by Publishers Weekly. The book was also awarded the 2015 Dayton Literary Peace Prize for Nonfiction and the 2015 NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Literary Work in Nonfiction. It was named one of "10 of the decade's most influential books" in December 2019 by CNN.

Zélie Adebola remembers when the soil of Orïsha hummed with magic. Burners ignited flames, Tiders beckoned waves, and Zélie's Reaper mother summoned forth souls. But everything changed the night magic disappeared. Under the orders of a ruthless king, maji were killed, leaving Zélie without a mother and her people without hope.

This book is an autobiographical account by runaway slave Frederick Douglass that chronicles his experiences with his owners and overseers and discusses how slavery affected both slaves and slaveholders.

In this epic, beautifully written masterwork, Pulitzer Prize-winning author Isabel Wilkerson chronicles one of the great untold stories of American history: the decades-long migration of black citizens who fled the South for northern and western cities, in search of a better life. From 1915 to 1970, this exodus of almost six million people changed the face of America. She interviewed more than a thousand individuals, and gained access to new data and offical records, to write this definitive and vividly dramatic account of how these American journeys unfolded, altering our cities, our country, and ourselves. - Back cover.

James McBride grew up one of twelve siblings in the all-black housing projects of Red Hook, Brooklyn, the son of a black minister and a woman who would not admit she was white. The object of McBride's constant embarrassment and continuous fear for her safety, his mother was an inspiring figure, who through sheer force of will saw her dozen children through college, and many through graduate school. McBride was an adult before he discovered the truth about his mother: The daughter of a failed itinerant Orthodox rabbi in rural Virginia, she had run away to Harlem, married a black man, and founded an all-black Baptist church in her living room in Red Hook. In her son's remarkable memoir, she tells in her own words the story of her past. Around her narrative, James McBride has written a powerful portrait of growing up, a meditation on race and identity, and a poignant, beautifully crafted hymn from a son to his mother.

At a time when Whoopi Goldberg and Eddie Murphy are major stars and In Living Color is a hit show, it is easy to forget that it was only thirty years ago that Bill Cosby became the first black star of a network series. Now Mel Watkins has written the first comprehensive history of black American humor - from the public face of minstrelsy and vaudeville to the "real side" of the slave enclaves and urban street corners, from folklore to prime time. On the Real Side is a thoroughly documented account of a rich comic tradition that grew out of slavery and remained underground for a century, before entering the mainstream in the 1970s. On the Real Side documents the stereotype of Negro humor established by nineteenth-century white minstrel performers who invariably portrayed blacks as irresponsible clowns or fools. Watkins traces the evolution of that distorted image in motion pictures and on stage, radio, and television - in the nation-wide craze created by the Amos 'n' Andy radio show, in Hollywood's representation of domestic servants (as portrayed by comic actors such as Hattie McDaniel, Willie Best, and Stepin Fetchit), and in the controversy surrounding the 1950s television version of Amos 'n' Andy. At the same time, Watkins chronicles the authentic underground humor that had originated in African-American communities and, although virtually unnoticed by mainstream society, was nurtured by word of mouth, passed on through folktales (from animal stories to trickster tales and urban tales such as "Stackolee"), and captured on race records and in all-black cabarets, films, and theaters. After generations of stereotypes and neglect, this hidden tradition finally emerged before general audiences with Richard Pryor in the 1970s. On the Real Side tells how pioneering humorists and comedians gradually altered the distorted stereotypes and revealed the impious undercurrents of black American humor and its critical appraisal of mainstream values. Watkins offers surprising reassessments of well-known figures such as Stepin Fetchit and Amos and Andy, new appreciations of familiar comedians such as Moms Mabley and Redd Foxx, and intriguing rediscoveries of neglected performers such as Bert Williams - all of whom paved the way for the new generation that included Bill Cosby, Flip Wilson, Dick Gregory, and Richard Pryor. On the Real Side also examines the social role of African-American humor in sustaining blacks during their struggle for equality, from slavery to the civil rights movement. A detailed record of the comic spirit's crucial role in black history, On the Real Side is also a wide-ranging examination of a tradition that has had a powerful influence on the whole of American culture.

Two kids with the same name lived in the same decaying city. One went on to be a Rhodes Scholar, decorated combat veteran, White House Fellow, and business leader. The other is serving a life sentence in prison. Here is the story of two boys and the journey of a generation. In December 2000, the Baltimore Sun ran a small piece about Wes Moore, a local student who had just received a Rhodes Scholarship. The same paper also ran a series of articles about four young men who had allegedly killed a police officer in a spectacularly botched armed robbery. The police were still hunting for two of the suspects who had gone on the lam, a pair of brothers. One was named Wes Moore. Wes just couldn't shake off the unsettling coincidence, or the inkling that the two shared much more than space in the same newspaper. After following the story of the robbery, the manhunt, and the trial to its conclusion, he wrote a letter to the other Wes, now a convicted murderer serving a life sentence without the possibility of parole. His letter tentatively asked the questions that had been haunting him: Who are you? How did this happen?That letter led to a correspondence and relationship that have lasted for several years. Over dozens of letters and prison visits, Wes discovered that the other Wes had had a life not unlike his own: Both had grown up in similar neighborhoods and had had difficult childhoods, both were fatherless; they'd hung out on similar corners with similar crews, and both had run into trouble with the police. At each stage of their young lives they had come across similar moments of decision, yet their choices would lead them to astonishingly different destinies.Told in alternating dramatic narratives that take readers from heart-wrenching losses to moments of surprising redemption, The Other Wes Moore tells the story of a generation of boys trying to find their way in a hostile world.From the Hardcover edition.