Volumes Celebrate Black History Month

The volume of literary offerings for Black History Month seems to multiply each year.

The deluge of books has required a narrowing of the field in this sampling of important titles.

Because this is Black History Month, the list below concentrates on the historical and includes only selected nonfiction works.

Unfortunately, this leaves some fine fiction by the wayside.

Norton’s Old School series is of particular interest for a celebration of African-American history with its reissue of long-neglected authors and a new edition of the complete text of Chester Himes’ first novel, “Yesterday Will Make You Cry.”

Poetically, Morrow repackages two Nikki Giovanni editions and Riverhead offers “Catch the Fire!!!,” an anthology of contemporary African-American verse.

The historical context means that many of these books deal with the racism of the past (and the present) in the hope that we can eradicate it from our future.

“James Baldwin: Collected Essays,” edited by Toni Morrison (Library of America, $35). Much of the important work of one of this century’s literary greats is conveniently collected here. There is a companion volume of early novels and stories.

“Soul: Black Power, Politics and Pleasure” edited by Monique Guillory and Richard C. Green (New York University, $19 paperback). Taking in everything from blaxploitation films to fashion to dance, this collection of essays examines the elusive concept of soul, and what has it and what doesn’t.

“Always in Pursuit: Fresh American Perspectives, 1995-1997” by Stanley Crouch ($25, Pantheon). New York Daily News columnist examines American culture and society in his latest gathering of essays.

“Black Spark, White Fire” by Richard Poe (Prima, $28). Poe adds his voice to the ongoing historical debate that rages around the theory that European civilizations may have had African origins.

“My Life and an Era” by Buck Colbert Franklin, edited by John Hope Franklin and John Whittington Franklin (Louisiana State University, $30). Born in 1879, Franklin writes in this autobiography about his early life in the Southwestern frontier, his time at Morehouse College (then Atlanta Baptist College) and the Tulsa, Okla., riots of 1921.

“Inheritors of the Spirit: Mary White Ovington and the Founding of the NAACP” by Carolyn Wedin (Wiley, $30). A biography of the white social activist and feminist who took up the cause of civil rights after hearing a speech by Booker T. Washington, and her contributions in the early days of the NAACP.

“A Shining Thread of Hope: The History of Black Women in America” by Darlene Clark Hine and Kathleen Thompson (Broadway, $27.50). A chronicle of black women’s lives from indentured servitude in the early American colonies to antebellum plantations, from Jim Crow South through the civil rights era.

“Black Genius and the American Experience” by Dick Russell (Carroll & Graf, $27.50). The contributions of black men and women in the intellectual and cultural achievements of our country are examined by journalist and author Russell.

“The Other Side of the River” by Alex Kotlowitz (Doubleday, $25). An examination of a city divided both physically and racially by a waterway.

“Black Heroes of the 20th Century” by Jessie Carney Smith (Visible Ink, $30). An attractive volume of biographical portraits of 150 authors, musicians, educators, artists, activists, sports figures, journalists and more. With a foreword by Nikki Giovanni.

“Home: Social Essays” by LeRoi Jones (Amiri Baraka) (Ecco, $15 paperback). These essays trace the political growth and development of one of the great African-American writers of the 20th century.

“Dorothy Dandridge: A Biography” by Donald Bogle (Boulevard, $17 paperback). The tragic story of the African-American movie star nominated for an Oscar for 1954’s “Carmen Jones,” from her birth in Cleveland in the 1920s to her death in 1965 from an overdose of anti-depressants.

“An Easy Burden” by Andrew Young (HarperPerennial, $16 paperback). The former U.N. ambassador and Atlanta mayor recalls his time on the front lines of the civil rights battle.

“Go Down, Moses: A Celebration of the African American Spiritual” by Richard Newman (Clarkson Potter, $30). Honoring the contribution of the spiritual to the American musical landscape.

“The Ghosts of Medgar Evers: A Tale of Race, Murder, Mississippi and Hollywood” by Willie Morris (Random House, $23). Morris unfurls the tangled threads of a story that began with the malicious murder of the civil rights warrior through the making of the 1996 movie.

“The Trials of Anthony Burns: Freedom and Slavery in Emerson’s Boston” by Albert J. Von Frank (Harvard, $28). Washington State University professor Frank looks at the escaped Virginia slave who was captured and brought to trial in Boston in 1854.

“Nelson Mandela” by Martin Meredith (St. Martin’s, $30). The South African freedom fighter and president gets an in-depth biographical treatment.

“Like Men of War: Black Troops in the Civil War, 1862-1865” by Noah Andre Trudeau (Little, Brown, $30). Drawing on newspapers, diaries and letters, Trudeau sheds light on the more than 175,000 African-American soldiers who fought in the Union Army.

“Lift Every Voice: African American Oratory, 1787-1900,” edited by Philip S. Foner and Robert James Branham (University of Alabama, $50 hardback, $25 paperback). The exploration of a rich heritage from freed slave Cyrus Bustill’s address to a group of slaves in 18th-century Philadelphia to W.E.B. Du Bois’ “To the Nations of the World,” delivered at the First Pan-African Conference in London.

“Black Miami in the Twentieth Century” by Marvin Dunn (University of Florida, $30). Florida International University professor traces the development of the African-American community in South Florida. Includes more than 130 photographs.

“One More River to Cross: Black and Gay in America” by Keith Boykin (Anchor, $14 paperback). Author E. Lynn Harris calls Boykin’s work a “tell-it-like-it-is book (that) will affirm our faith and the unity of our diversity in the home in the rock we proudly call Black America.”

“1001 Things Everyone Should Know About African American History” by Jeffrey C. Stewart (Doubleday, $15.95 paperback). A thoughtful, well-organized compendium of the most important events in black American history. A perfect starting point for the novice.

“Blues Legacies and Black Feminism” by Angela Y. Davis (Pantheon, $27.50). Political activist and intellectual Davis looks at the role of music in race, popular culture and American social values through the work of three legends: Gertrude “Ma” Rainey, Bessie Smith and Billie Holiday.