W. E. B. Du Bois's The Souls of Black Folk  is one of the masterworks of 20th century literature, a collection of essays as powerful today as it was nearly a century ago, in 1903, when it was first published. Du Bois begins with the simple observation that what he calls the "color line" is the single greatest problem facing this country. His essays move from history through sociology to spirituality in search of the authentic black soul.

Nelson Mandela's Long Walk to Freedom recounts the twenty-seven years he spent in jail as a result of his anti-apartheid work leading Umkhonto we Sizwe (Spear of the Nation), the military wing of the African National Congress, and South Africa's peaceful transition to majority rule in 1994.

Ivan Turgenev's "The District Doctor." Gaines himself cites Ivan Turgenev as one of his more important...