Orange, VA: The Montpelier Foundation, (2010). A work originally published in 1865. Paul Jennings was an enslaved manservant of President James Madison (1751-1836) and afterwards of Daniel Webster, who purchased him from Mrs. Madison and freed him with the understanding he would be paid back. Jennings went on to work for the US government in Washington, D.C., was an active abolitionist and became a man of property, able to donate money to an aged and impoverished Dolly Madison, and to see his sons fought for the Union in the Civil War. 19 pp. Brief biography of Jennings on back cover.

New York: Harcourt Brace & Company, (1961) dj. Hardcover first edition - The first novel by this Trinidian-born African American. "Set in Trinidad, the novel brutally satirized the island's racial caste system and the entire social hierarchy the British had put in place. A Guardian review noted that Hercules 'animates an absurd milieu where skin color, hair texture, ethnic features, business acumen, respectability, and sometimes intelligence have to be carefully weighed before an individual can be given a social acceptability rating.' Named one of the five best first novels of the year by Newsweek magazine." (James M. Manheim) 212 pp.

New York: A & W Publishers, (1982) dj. Hardcover first edition - The inside story of TV news as covered by this Black veteran street reporter and anchorman of more then two decades, who was also a former Big Ten football star for the University of Wisconsin. .Illustrated with photographs. Index. 239 pp. ISBN: 0-894791036.

New York Harper & Row, (1973.) dj. SIGNED hardcover first edition - Collects writings by Olive Shreiner, a woman ahead of her time - born to missionary parents in South Africa in 1855, she became an advocate for women's rights, pacificism, and humanitarianism, despised slavery and abhored violence. She achieved literary fame with the 1883 publication of 'The Story Of An African Farm.' Edited and with a long and reflective introduction by Howard Thurman, Black American author, activist and theologian. INSCRIBED by Thurman on the title page and signed as "Howard." Scarce thus. xxxix, 198 pp. ISBN: 06-0680768.

New York Harper & Row, (1973.) dj. Hardcover first edition - Collects writings by Olive Shreiner, a woman ahead of her time - born to missionary parents in South Africa in 1855, she became an advocate for women's rights, pacificism, and humanitarianism, despised slavery and abhored violence. She achieved literary fame with the 1883 publication of 'The Story Of An African Farm.' Edited and with a long and reflective introduction by Howard Thurman, Black American author, activist and theologian. xxxix, 198 pp. ISBN: 06-0680768.

New York: Ballantine, (1995.). An expanded and updated edition of this book originally published in 1993 - a dispassionate and well-argued book on "America's deepest and most enduring division." Includes references, statistical sources and index. 267 pp. ISBN: 0-34593384.

Berkeley, CA & New York: University Of California Press / Russell Sage Foundation, (1999) dj. Hardcover first edition - A book which "brilliantly demonstrates how political power is disproportionately concentrated among the most advantaged segments of society and how the monetary, trade, and tax policies of recent years have deepened this power imbalance. Developing his earlier views on race in contemporary society, William Julius Wilson gives a simple, straightforward, and crucially important diagnosis of the problem of rising social inequality in the United States and details a set of recommendations for dealing with it." A title in the Aaron Wildavsky Forum for Public Policy Series. Notes, bibliography, index. 163 pp. ISBN: 0-520222261.

New York: Atria (Simon & Schuster), (2006) dj. Hardcover first edition - An account of the trial and hanging of Nathaniel Gordon in New York in 1862 for trading in slaves - the only man in American history who was convicted of this crime. While slave trading had been a hanging offense for more than 40 years, he had no reason to fear hanging as it had never been enforced, but with the beginning of the Civil War, public opinion was changing. Illustrated with photographs. Notes and sources, bibliography, index. 318 pp. ISBN: 978-0743267274.

San Francisco: KQED Books, (1996). First edition - Foreword by Ed Bradley. A companion volume to the PBS series on the art of African-American cuisine with 110 recipes, accompanied by folklore and anecdotes that trace the history and contribution of African roots to American cookery. Illustrated in full color. TV tie-in. Episode descriptions, index. Square format. 192 pp. ISBN: 0-91233388X.

Chicago: University of Chicago Press, (c 1980). Winner of the Sydney M. Spivak award. This edition includes a new essay by Wilson on the controversy surrounding this book when it was first published in 1978, and on the intersection of race, class and social policy. Extensive notes, index. xii, 249 pp. ISBN: 0-226901297.

New York: Ballantine, (2022) dj. Hardcover first edition - The author's very highly praised first book, one which appeared on many "must-read" lists at its publication. The New York Times review described it as Òrefreshingly direct and declarative . . . a mirror capturing the bleak comedies of life in a threatened community.Ó The plot revolves around the Guerreros, a Dominican American family living in Upper ManhattanÕs Nothar Park, and each memberÕs reaction to encroaching gentrification. The book examines the sacrifices people make to protect what they love the most. Natera herself was born in the Dominican Republic, and came to the United States at the age of ten. ISBN: 978-0593358481.

New York: Pantheon, (1998.) dj. SIGNED hardcover first edition - A reinterpretation and celebration of the tradition of black blues singers, the importance of blues not only as the roots of jazz but as a 'life-sustaining' vehicle for black women - focusing on Gertude "Ma" Rainey, 1886-1939; Bessie Smith, 1898?- 1937; and Billie Holiday, 1915-1959. Includes a transcription of all the extant lyrics recorded by Rainey and Smith. SIGNED on the half title page. Illustrated with photographs. Notes, works consulted, index. xx, 427 pp. ISBN: 0-679-45005X.

Levine Querido, (2023). SIGNED first edition - A graphic novel telling the story of six witches - Black, Choctaw, Asian and queer - who get caught up in the excitement and danger of illegal broom racing in an alternate historical 1930s Mississippi. Teo DuVall's art is beautiful, clean and luminous but also very understated. SIGNED by Walls on the half title page. 230 pp plus a heartwarming and uplifting scrapbook-style epilogue showing the witches futures. ISBN: 978-1646142675.

New York & Boston: Little Brown, (1998) dj. SIGNED hardcover first edition - First science fiction novel by the author of the Easy Rawlins mystery series, this "imagines a world in which human potential is suddenly, amazingly fulfilled - a change that calls into question the meaning of human differences and the ultimate purpose and fate of the human race. Narrated by Chance, a biracial man whose entire life has been a struggle for self-definition, the novel traces the desperate attempts of the "Blues" with one of their own, a man who - struck by the inscrutable blue light at the moment he expired - has become the living embodiment of death." SIGNED on the title page. 296 pp. ISBN: 0-316570982.

New York: Farrar, Straus & Giroux, (2005.) dj. SIGNED hardcover first edition - Autobiography of this noted historian, whose work "From Slavery to Freedom" remained the classic text for over 60 years. Born in 1915, he was "confined to segregated schools, threatened and consistently subjected to racismÕs denigration of his humanity." Yet he went on to earn a Ph.D. at Harvard & become the first black historian to assume a full professorship at a white institution; he has reshaped the understanding and teaching of African American history. INSCRIBED on the half title page.Photographs, index. xi, 401 pp. ISBN: 0-374-29944-7.

Boston: Little Brown, (2004.) dj. SIGNED hardcover first edition - An Easy Rawlins mystery, set in Los Angeles in 1965 at the height of the Watts riots. SIGNED on the title page. 306 pp. ISBN: 0-316-073032.

New York & London: Oxford University Press, 1993. dj. Hardcover - A study on how African American voices, folklore and rhetorical traditions of his time influenced Twain's writing, and especially the character of Huck Finn. Extensive notes, works cited, index. 275 pp. ISBN: 0-195082141.

New York: Random House, (2012) dj. SIGNED hardcover - A book which was a James Beard Award Nominee and named one of the ten best books of The Year By Vogue. "It begins with a simple ritual: Every Saturday afternoon, a boy who loves to cook walks to his grandmothers house and helps her prepare a roast chicken for dinner. The grandmother is Swedish, a retired domestic. The boy is Ethiopian and adopted, and he will grow up to become the world-renowned chef Marcus Samuelsson. This book is his love letter to food and family in all its manifestations." Boldly INSCRIBED on the front endpaper. 319 pp. ISBN: 978-0385342605.

New York: The Citadel Press, 1970. dj. Hardcover first edition - Includes a new 16 pp. introduction by Herbert Aptheker. Attended by 1000 people from 50 countries, the purpose of this Congress was "to discuss, in the light of science and the modern conscience, the general relations subsisting between the peoples of the West and those of the East, between the so-called white and so-called coloured peoples." Also discussed was the position of women in society, the nature of imperialism, and the prospects for world peace. Reprint of the 1911 edition, including papers by Felix Adler, Israel Zangwill, Alfred Caldecott, W. E. B. DuBois ('The Negro Race in the United States of America'), Edwin D. Mead, and many others. Appendix, bibliography, index. [16 pp], xlvi, 485 pp. ISBN: 0-806502177.

New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, (1991) dj. Hardcover first edition - A collection of 15 stories "many from South Carolina, especially from the Sea Islands, while others are from Florida, Jamaica, the Bahamas, Michigan, and the Cape Verde Islands. Most were collected 50 years ago or more by Zora Neale Hurston among others, and many are not in print in other collections. The use of dialect (especially in the Gullah stories from the South Carolina Sea Islands) adds to the sense of authenticity. Short informative notes at the end of each tale provide a context and explain any unfamiliar words. In the notes and reading lists link the stories to the history of slavery." (School Library Journal) Notes, bibliography, suggestions for further reading. 88 pp. ISBN: 0-684193337.

New York: Exposition Press, (1968) dj. Hardcover first edition - A survey of African-American music from the ante-bellum South to the Fisk Jubilee Singers through the 1950s. Jackson focuses mainly on the tradition of black spirituals as they lead to African-American classical composers. Jackson himself was a journalist, author, composer, community activist, and postal worker. Among other things, in 1978, he became the Galveston's first Black postmaster, where he served until 1984. While enrolled at Tuskegee University in Alabama, Jackson grew close to composer William L. Dawson, then a professor and director of the schools choir, known as the Golden Voices and later he Jackson founded Tuskegee's alumni choir and served as interim director for the Golden Voices between 1992-96 and 2000-04. Bibliography. 54 pp.