"A powerful book, a harrowing case study made all the more so by Madigan's skillful, clear-eyed telling of it." —Adam Nossiter, The New York Times Book Review
On the morning of June 1, 1921, a white mob numbering in the thousands marched across the railroad tracks dividing black from white in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and obliterated a black community then celebrated as one of America's most prosperous. 34 square blocks of

In October of 1966, in Oakland California, Huey Newton, and Bobby Seale founded the Black Panther Party for Self-Defense. The Panthers practiced militant self-defense of minority communities against the U.S. government, and fought to establish revolutionary socialism through mass organizing and community-based programs. The party was one of the first organizations in U.S. history to militantly struggle for ethnic minority and working class emancipation—a

This pioneering work was the first full-length study of the role black Americans played in the crucial period after the Civil War, when the slaves had been freed and the attempt was made to reconstruct American society. Hailed at the time, Black Reconstruction in America, 1860-1880 has justly been called a classic.

In 1896, Harvard University awarded Booker T. Washington with an honorary master of arts degree. He was invited to deliver an address to a group of Harvard alumni. He took the opportunity to speak about the gradual improvements being made to racial disparities in the South. A former slave and leader in the African-American community, Washington felt optimistic about the future of race relations but still felt his people needed additional help to