The Voice that Challenged a Nation

The Voice that Challenged a Nation
Author: Russell Freedman
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Total Pages: 132
Release: 2004
Genre: African American singers
ISBN: 9780618159765

Marian Anderson Loved to Sing. Her deep, rich voice thrilled audiences the world over. By the mid-1930s she was a famed vocalist who had been applauded by European royalty, welcomed at the White House, and adored by appreciative listeners in concert halls across the United States. But because of her race, she was denied the right to sing at Constitution Hall, Washington's largest and finest auditorium. Though Marian Anderson was not a crusader or a spokesperson by nature, her response to this injustice catapulted her into the center of the civil rights movement of the time. She came to stand for all black artists -- and for all Americans of color -- when, with the help of prominent figures such as Eleanor Roosevelt, she gave a landmark performance on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial that broke racial barriers and hastened the end of segregation in the arts. Drawing on Anderson's own writings and other first-person accounts, Newbery medalist Russell Freedman shows readers a singer pursuing her art in the context of the social and political climate of the day. Profusely illustrated with contemporary photographs, here is an inspiring account of the life of a talented, determined artist who left her mark on musical and social history. Russell Freedman was aware that Marian Anderson was one of the great vocal artists of the 20th century. He hadn't thought of writing a book about her, however, until he found out about the encounter between her and Eleanor Roosevelt that led to the Lincoln Memorial concert and established Anderson as a seminal figure in the civil rights movement. Mr. Freedman is the acclaimed author of more than 40 nonfiction books for young people, He is also the recipient of the Laura Ingalls Wilder Award for his body of work. Mr. Freedman lives in New York City Book jacket.

The Voice That Challenged a Nation

The Voice That Challenged a Nation
Author: Russell Freedman
Publisher: Perfection Learning
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2011-01-03
Genre:
ISBN: 9781613830925

Drawing on Anderson's own writings and other first-person accounts, this book shows how the singer pursued her art in the context of the social and political climate of the day.

The Boys Who Challenged Hitler

The Boys Who Challenged Hitler
Author: Phillip Hoose
Publisher: Macmillan
Total Pages: 209
Release: 2015-05-12
Genre: Juvenile Nonfiction
ISBN: 0374300224

"The true story of a group of boy resistance fighters in Denmark after the Nazi invasion"--

Between the World and Me

Between the World and Me
Author: Ta-Nehisi Coates
Publisher: One World
Total Pages: 163
Release: 2015-07-14
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 0679645985

#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • NATIONAL BOOK AWARD WINNER • NAMED ONE OF TIME’S TEN BEST NONFICTION BOOKS OF THE DECADE • PULITZER PRIZE FINALIST • NATIONAL BOOK CRITICS CIRCLE AWARD FINALIST • ONE OF OPRAH’S “BOOKS THAT HELP ME THROUGH” • NOW AN HBO ORIGINAL SPECIAL EVENT Hailed by Toni Morrison as “required reading,” a bold and personal literary exploration of America’s racial history by “the most important essayist in a generation and a writer who changed the national political conversation about race” (Rolling Stone) NAMED ONE OF THE MOST INFLUENTIAL BOOKS OF THE DECADE BY CNN • NAMED ONE OF PASTE’S BEST MEMOIRS OF THE DECADE • NAMED ONE OF THE TEN BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY The New York Times Book Review • O: The Oprah Magazine • The Washington Post • People • Entertainment Weekly • Vogue • Los Angeles Times • San Francisco Chronicle • Chicago Tribune • New York • Newsday • Library Journal • Publishers Weekly In a profound work that pivots from the biggest questions about American history and ideals to the most intimate concerns of a father for his son, Ta-Nehisi Coates offers a powerful new framework for understanding our nation’s history and current crisis. Americans have built an empire on the idea of “race,” a falsehood that damages us all but falls most heavily on the bodies of black women and men—bodies exploited through slavery and segregation, and, today, threatened, locked up, and murdered out of all proportion. What is it like to inhabit a black body and find a way to live within it? And how can we all honestly reckon with this fraught history and free ourselves from its burden? Between the World and Me is Ta-Nehisi Coates’s attempt to answer these questions in a letter to his adolescent son. Coates shares with his son—and readers—the story of his awakening to the truth about his place in the world through a series of revelatory experiences, from Howard University to Civil War battlefields, from the South Side of Chicago to Paris, from his childhood home to the living rooms of mothers whose children’s lives were taken as American plunder. Beautifully woven from personal narrative, reimagined history, and fresh, emotionally charged reportage, Between the World and Me clearly illuminates the past, bracingly confronts our present, and offers a transcendent vision for a way forward.

Exit, Voice, and Loyalty

Exit, Voice, and Loyalty
Author: Albert O. Hirschman
Publisher: Harvard University Press
Total Pages: 180
Release: 1970
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 9780674276604

An innovator in contemporary thought on economic and political development looks here at decline rather than growth. Albert O. Hirschman makes a basic distinction between alternative ways of reacting to deterioration in business firms and, in general, to dissatisfaction with organizations: one, “exit,” is for the member to quit the organization or for the customer to switch to the competing product, and the other, “voice,” is for members or customers to agitate and exert influence for change “from within.” The efficiency of the competitive mechanism, with its total reliance on exit, is questioned for certain important situations. As exit often undercuts voice while being unable to counteract decline, loyalty is seen in the function of retarding exit and of permitting voice to play its proper role. The interplay of the three concepts turns out to illuminate a wide range of economic, social, and political phenomena. As the author states in the preface, “having found my own unifying way of looking at issues as diverse as competition and the two-party system, divorce and the American character, black power and the failure of ‘unhappy’ top officials to resign over Vietnam, I decided to let myself go a little.”

The Assignment

The Assignment
Author: Liza Wiemer
Publisher: Ember
Total Pages: 337
Release: 2021-08-31
Genre: Young Adult Fiction
ISBN: 0593123190

Inspired by a real-life incident, this riveting novel explores the dangerous impact discrimination and antisemitism have on one community when a school assignment goes terribly wrong. Would you defend the indefensible? That's what seniors Logan March and Cade Crawford are asked to do when a favorite teacher instructs a group of students to argue for the Final Solution--the Nazi plan for the genocide of the Jewish people. Logan and Cade decide they must take a stand, and soon their actions draw the attention of the student body, the administration, and the community at large. But not everyone feels as Logan and Cade do--after all, isn't a school debate just a school debate? It's not long before the situation explodes, and acrimony and anger result. Based on true events, The Assignment asks: What does it take for tolerance, justice, and love to prevail? "An important look at a critical moment in history through a modern lens showcasing the power of student activism." --SLJ

Members Only

Members Only
Author: Sameer Pandya
Publisher: Mariner Books
Total Pages: 363
Release: 2020
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 0358098548

First the white members of Raj Bhatt's posh tennis club call him racist. Then his life falls apart. Along the way, he wonders: where does he, a brown man, belong in America? This award-winning novel "offers deep insight into the ways the characters are shaped by racism" (Publishers Weekly). ¶ An NPR Best Book - A Millions Most Anticipated Title of 2020 - A Rumpus Best Book for Asian and Pacific Islander American Heritage Month ¶ Raj is often unsure of where he belongs. Having moved to America from Bombay as a child, he knew few Indian kids. Now middle-aged, he lives mostly happily in California, with a job at a university. Still, his white wife seems to fit in better than he does at times, especially at their tennis club, a place he's cautiously come to love. But it's there that, in one week, his life unravels. It begins at a meeting for potential new members: Raj thrills to find an African American couple on the list; he dreams of a more diverse club. But in an effort to connect, he makes a racist joke. The committee turns on him, no matter the years of prejudice he's put up with. And worse still, he soon finds his job is in jeopardy after a group of students report him as a reverse racist, thanks to his alleged "anti-Western bias." Heartfelt, humorous, and hard-hitting, Members Only explores what membership and belonging mean, as Raj navigates the complicated space between black and white America.

Voice of the Paiutes

Voice of the Paiutes
Author: Jodie Shull
Publisher: Millbrook Press
Total Pages: 68
Release: 2007-01-01
Genre: Juvenile Nonfiction
ISBN: 0822587793

Sarah Winnemucca, a Northern Plains Indian, lived in the last half of the nineteenth century when white settlers were moving west into land the Paiutes had inhabited for thousands of years. Sarah's grandfather encouraged her to learn the ways of the white settlers, including their language. As a result, she was instrumental in negotiating benefits for her people. She traveled across the country speaking about the plight of the Paiutes. She challenged reservation agents, cooperated with the U.S. Army, and traveled to Washington D.C. to meet with Secretary of the Interior Carl Schurz and President Rutherford B. Hayes. With the help of two East Coast women, she wrote a book about Paiute life and established a school for Paiute children.

Holy Nation

Holy Nation
Author: Sarah Crabtree
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
Total Pages: 285
Release: 2015-07-13
Genre: History
ISBN: 022625593X

How Early American Quakers transcended the idea of the nation-state during the turbulent Age of Revolution: “Provocative . . . important . . . Highly recommended.” —Choice Early American Quakers have long been perceived as retiring separatists, but in Holy Nation Sarah Crabtree transforms our historical understanding of the sect by drawing on the sermons, diaries, and correspondence of Quakers themselves. Situating Quakerism within the larger intellectual and religious undercurrents of the Atlantic world, Crabtree shows how Quakers forged a paradoxical sense of their place in the world as militant warriors fighting for peace. She argues that during the turbulent Age of Revolution and Reaction, the Religious Society of Friends forged a “holy nation,” a transnational community of like-minded believers committed first and foremost to divine law and to one another. Declaring themselves citizens of their own nation served to underscore the decidedly unholy nature of the nation-state, worldly governments, and profane laws. As a result, campaigns of persecution against the Friends escalated as those in power moved to declare Quakers aliens and traitors to their home countries. Holy Nation convincingly shows that ideals and actions were inseparable for the Society of Friends, yielding an account of Quakerism that is simultaneously a history of the faith and its adherents and a history of its confrontations with the wider world. Ultimately, Crabtree says, the conflicts between obligations of church and state that Quakers faced can illuminate similar contemporary struggles. “A significant and highly important contribution to the scholarship on the intersection of religion and nationalism during [these] critical decades. . . . carefully researched and elegantly written.” —Kirsten Fischer, University of Minnesota

I Take My Coffee Black

I Take My Coffee Black
Author: Tyler Merritt
Publisher: Worthy Books
Total Pages: 325
Release: 2021-09-14
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 1546029400

In the wake of his deeply powerful viral videos ("Before You Call the Cops" and "Walking While Black"), Tyler Merritt shares his experiences as a black man in America with truth, humor, and poignancy. Tyler Merritt's video "Before You Call the Cops" has been viewed millions of times. He's appeared on Jimmy Kimmel and Sports Illustrated and has been profiled in the New York Times. The viral video's main point—the more you know someone, the more empathy, understanding, and compassion you have for that person—is the springboard for this book. By sharing his highs and exposing his lows, Tyler welcomes us into his world in order to help bridge the divides that seem to grow wider every day. In I Take My Coffee Black, Tyler tells hilarious stories from his own life as a black man in America. He talks about growing up in a multi-cultural community and realizing that he wasn't always welcome, how he quit sports for musical theater (that's where the girls were) to how Jesus barged in uninvited and changed his life forever (it all started with a Triple F.A.T. Goose jacket) to how he ended up at a small Bible college in Santa Cruz because he thought they had a great theater program (they didn't). Throughout his stories, he also seamlessly weaves in lessons about privilege, the legacy of lynching and sharecropping and why you don't cross black mamas. He teaches readers about the history of encoded racism that still undergirds our society today. By turns witty, insightful, touching, and laugh-out-loud funny, I Take My Coffee Black paints a portrait of black manhood in America and enlightens, illuminates, and entertains—ultimately building the kind of empathy that might just be the antidote against the racial injustice in our society.