Carter, Dan T., Scottsboro: A Tragedy of the American South, Louisiana State University Press, 1979.

Carter carefully reconstructs the ill-fated path that led several young, black men to prison for a crime that they did not commit. This controversial case, which eventually made its way to the Supreme Court, reverberates with the details of a judicial system gone bad.

Gates, Henry Louis, and K. A. Appiah, eds., Richard Wright: Critical Perspectives Past and Present, Amistad Press, 1993.

Richard Wright has been credited with changing the mode of African-American writing, and this book offers readers a chance to see how he did it and what his critics thought about him. This book provides a great background study of his works.

Horne, Gerald, Black Liberation/Red Scare: Ben Davis and the Communist Party, University of Delaware Press, 1994.

Horne gives an in-depth analysis of the role played by the African-American communists...