Fayetteville, University of Arkansas Press, 2006. First edition - A book which "chronicles how violence brought about the founding of the Black Panther Party in 1966 by Huey P. Newton and Bobby Seale, dominated its policies, and finally destroyed the party as one member after another Eldridge Cleaver, Fred Hampton, Alex Rackley left the party, was killed, or was imprisoned. Austin shows how the partys early emphasis in the 1960s on self-defense, though sorely needed in black communities at the time, left it open to mischaracterization, infiltration, and devastation by local, state, and federal police forces and government agencies. . . [A book which puts] the violent history of the party in perspective and shows that the survival programs, such as the Free Breakfast for Children program and Free Health Clinics, helped the black communities they served to recognize their own bases of power and ability to save themselves." Foreword by Elbert "Big Man" Howard; chronology of the Black Panther Party, several appendices, notes, bibliographic essay, bibliography. xxix, 438 pp.

New York: St Martin's, (1997). SIGNED hardcover first edition - A brief but powerful first novel. In a starred review Publisher's Weekly wrote: "Related by ancestry and by their common story, the African American voices form a turbulent current of racial memory that flows through two continents, three centuries and incalculable terror, suffering and grief. A nameless African progenitor searches for the home of the great tree planted as a seed by his grandfather, and for his name, which he eventually comes to know as River. His story - told in timeless, mythlike language - weaves in and out of the counterpointing narratives of his succeeding generations. Ampofo, a new slave, describes the last hours of his life; Sally, also a slave, tells why she killed Ampofo while he still had the heart of a free man; Tom, the biracial son of a plantation owner, relates the torment of being caught between two races." and onto three generations of more contemporary times. SIGNED on the title page. 118 pp plus a family tree. ISBN: 0-312-151780.

New York: Viking, (2003). SIGNED hardcover first edition - Young African American author's second novel, set in the aftermath of World War II. Two men, one an African American raised in France who enlists after his parents are killed trying to flee France, and the other a white Southerner from Mississippi, serve together during World War II only to confront the painful post-war realities of American racism. Mather is denied the Medal of Freedom because of his race, and after a futile visit to Washington DC, he is driving back to Los Angeles through Mississippi where a confrontation with a racist winds up with the white man's death, and his brother vowing revenge. SIGNED on the title page. 275 pp. Review copy with publisher's material laid in. ISBN: 0-67003164X.

New York: John Wiley & Sons, (1998) dj. Hardcover first edition - The first complete story of the life of a remarkable woman who rose from poverty and oppression to become a hero of the civil rights movement. Born in Virginia in 1903, she moved North in 1927 to New York at the height of the Harlem Renaissance, where she began organizing consumer co-operatives and working for the NAACP. Although Ella Baker was a vital grass roots organizer in the founding of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee and the establishment of Dr. Martin Luther King's Southern Christian Leadership Conference, she remains a relatively obscure figure compared to male colleagues such as Dr. King, Ralph Abernathy, and Stokely Carmichael. Grant first met Ella Baker in 1960, and they remained friends and coworkers until Miss Baker's death in 1986; in this book she draws on many sources, including extensive interviews with Ella Baker and her friends, relatives, and colleagues. Chronology, notes, bibliography, index. xvii, 270 pp. ISBN: 0-471020206.

New York: Farrar, Straus & Giroux, (1998.). First edition - The author's first book, winner of the 1998 National Book Award. "The story of one man's exploration of his family's slave-owning past and his search for the descendants of the people his family kept as slaves. In 1698, Elias Ball traveled from his home in Devon, England, to Charleston, Carolina to take possession of his inheritance: part of a plantation and twenty slaves. Elias and his progeny built an American dynasty that lasted six generations, acquiring more than twenty plantations along the Cooper River near Charleston, selling rice known as Carolina Gold, and enslaving close to four thousand Africans and African-Americans until 1865, when Union troops arrived on the lawns of Balls' estates to force emancipation. ... A nonfiction American saga that is part history, part journey of discovery. This is the story of black and white families who have lived side-by-side through three hundred years.." Illustrated with black and white photographs. Genealogy charts, notes, index. 489 pp.

New York: Farrar, Straus & Giroux, (1998.) dj. Hardcover first edition - The author's first book, winner of the 1998 National Book Award. From the dj flap: this "is the story of one man's exploration of his family's slave-owning past and his search for the descendants of the people his family kept as slaves. In 1698, Elias Ball traveled from his home in Devon, England, to Charleston, Carolina to take possession of his inheritance: part of a plantation and twenty slaves. Elias and his progeny built an American dynasty that lasted six generations, acquiring more than twenty plantations along the Cooper River near Charleston, selling rice known as Carolina Gold, and enslaving close to four thousand Africans and African-Americans until 1865, when Union troops arrived on the lawns of Balls' estates to force emancipation. ... A nonfiction American saga that is part history, part journey of discovery. This is the story of black and white families who have lived side-by-side through three hundred years.." Illustrated with black and white photographs. Genealogy charts, notes, index. 495 pp. Illustrated endpapers. ISBN: 0-374-265828.

New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, (1972) dj. Hardcover first edition - An authoritative biography, well written and thoroughly researched of one the earliest African American men of science in the United States. A free Black tobacco planter in Baltimore County, the son and grandson of a slave and a woman from England who came to the country as an indentured servant, Banneker taught himself mathematics and astronomy late in life. Based on long lost manuscripts and personal papers, this not only recognizes Banneker for his accomplishments, but it is also a history of the economy of 18th-century Maryland, the surveying of the District of Columbia, and the methods used by early almanac makers in their computations. Illustrations and maps. Includes an extensive section of documents, reference notes, bibliography and index. xvii, 434 pp. ISBN: 0-684125749.

Charleston, WV: Parchment Gallery Graphics, (1996.). SIGNED first edition - A collection of pages from 3 of his notebooks, in which Baraka merges the printed word with graphic design, covering a period of over 30 years, from the 1950s when he was in Greenwich Village with Frank O'Hara and Larry Rivers. Published in conjunction with an exhibit being held at the University of Charleston. Although the introduction mentions 450 copies, the editor, William Plumley stated that the actual edition was 250, of which approximately half were signed on the title page. This is one of the SIGNED copies.(Baraka has also corrected the misprint in his name on the title page) Baraka defies classification - a beat poet, a playright, an artist, a member of the New York school - but perhaps most proudly a black activist. 34 pages, large format (approximately 8x11), inside sheets matte finish, fine paper, printed in black and white, brief introduction, biographical information and back cover by Plumley. A full color image of the black and white one on the cover is tipped inside the front cover.