Books like The Divine Nine by Lawrence C. Ross Jr.

High school drama unfolds at South Bay High as Jayd Jackson balances drag racing, a budding romance with new Latino student Emilio, and the launch of the first African Student Union.

"Black Greek 101 is the first book to provide a complete analysis of the culture of historically Black fraternities and sororities. Based on over ten years of research, Black Greek 101 presents a detailed history of Black fraternalism as a whole. As a unique culture within the college environment, these organizations are fascinating examples of the ways students form groups with their own artifacts, rites, customs, stories, and rituals that help them to adapt to the larger college environment. When members of Black fraternal organizations and non-members alike finish Black Greek 101, they will have a foundation for understanding some of the most interesting organizations that have influenced not only campus culture, but American culture as a whole."--Jacket.

For over two centuries, in the North as well as the South, both within their own community and in the public arena, African Americans have presented their bodies in culturally distinctive ways. Shane White and Graham White consider the deeper significance of the ways in which African Americans have dressed, walked, danced, arranged their hair, and communicated in silent gestures. They ask what elaborate hair styles, bright colors, bandanas, long watch chains, and zoot suits, for example, have really meant, and discuss style itself as an expression of deep-seated cultural imperatives. Their wide-ranging exploration of black style from its African origins to the 1940s reveals a culture that differed from that of the dominant racial group in ways that were often subtle and elusive. A wealth of black-and-white illustrations show the range of African American experience in America, emanating from all parts of the country, from cities and farms, from slave plantations, and Chicago beauty contests. White and White argue that the politics of black style is, in fact, the politics of metaphor, always ambiguous because it is always indirect. To tease out these ambiguities, they examine extensive sources, including advertisements for runaway slaves, interviews recorded with surviving ex-slaves in the 1930s, autobiographies, travelers' accounts, photographs, paintings, prints, newspapers, and images drawn from popular culture, such as the stereotypes of Jim Crow and Zip Coon.

Casey Gerald’s memoir traces his journey from a black evangelical church in Dallas to Yale, Wall Street, and Washington, revealing how privilege and discrimination shape an African-American man’s rise and his awareness of systemic injustice.