Black History

Proudly printed in America, this beautiful gift edition contains the complete text of the United States Constitution, as well as all of its amendments.

The landmark legal document of the United States, the U.S. Constitution comprises the primary law of the Federal Government. Signed by the members of the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia on September 17, 1787, the Constitution outlines the powers and responsibilities of the three chief branches of the Federal Government, as well as the basic rights of the citizens of the United States.

The revolutionary pamphlet that helped light the fire of American Independence in an elegant hardback gift edition.

Thomas Paine arrived in America from England in 1774. A friend of Benjamin Franklin, he was a writer of poetry and tracts condemning the slave trade. In 1775, as hostilities between Britain and the colonies intensified, Paine wrote Common Sense to encourage the colonies to break the British exploitative hold and fight for independence. The little booklet of 50 pages was published January 10, 1776 and sold a half-million copies, approximately equal to 75 million copies today.

Authors Joseph Bilby and Harry Ziegler chart the brief rise of the Ku Klux Klan and how New Jersey collectively stood up to bigotry.

The state, though, was not immune to the reemergence of the Ku Klux Klan in the first half of the twentieth century. Former vaudevillians Arthur H. Bell and his wife used the tactics of public theater to advertise and recruit for the organization. At a massive riot in Perth Amboy, thousands of immigrants besieged a few hundred Klansmen, tossed them out of building windows, burned their cars and ran them out of town. The allying of pro-Nazi German Bund groups and the Klan in the lead-up to World War II marked the end of the Klan’s foothold. Authors Joseph Bilby and Harry Ziegler chart the brief rise of the Ku Klux Klan and how New Jersey collectively stood up to bigotry.

Though you may not know the man, you probably know his music. Arkansas-born Louis Jordan's songs like Baby, It's Cold Outside," "Caldonia" and "Ain't Nobody Here But Us Chickens" can still be heard today, decades since Jordan ruled the charts. In his five-decade career, Jordan influenced American popular music, film and more and inspired the likes of James Brown, B.B. King, Chuck Berry and Ray Charles. Known as the "King of the Jukeboxes," he and his combo played a hybrid of jazz, swing, blues and comedy music during the big band era that became the start of R&B. In a stunning narrative portrait of Louis Jordan, author Stephen Koch contextualizes the great, forgotten musician among his musical peers, those he influenced and the musical present."

The Old West Baltimore community is the nation's largest registered African American historic district. The designated Pennsylvania Avenue Black Arts and Entertainment District is the commercial main street in this area. The Colored High and Training School (later renamed Frederick Douglass High School), along with other segregated schools within the district, produced many prominent individuals, including Thurgood Marshall, the nation's first African American Supreme Court justice, and Lucy Diggs Slowe, educator, tennis champion, and one of the 16 founders of Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority. Many notable people have visited the area, such as Booker T. Washington, W.E.B. DuBois, Countee Cullen, Elton Fax, Madame C.J. Walker, Marcus Garvey, and Princess Wee Wee.

“It’s a cultural encyclopedia that’s long overdue.”             —Louisiana Book News   “Keith Weldon Medley creates a context for the cultural understanding of our city. Whether it’s the legal scholars, the families that integrated the public schools, innovative musicians, young people resisting segregation across the South, or Zulu maskers, Skeletons, Baby Dolls, and Indians, Medley shines a light on all of the players with an intimacy born of acute observation and careful research.” —New Orleans Tribune/Orissa Arend, author of Showdown in Desire: The Black Panthers Take a Stand in New Orleans  Two hundred years ago, on a barren plot of land just outside New Orleans proper, enslaved and free black people would gather on Sundays to freely practice religions both ancient and new. It was a sight unseen anywhere else in the country. This was Congo Square, where the heartbeat of New Orleans was born. The story of the impact people of African descent have had upon one of America’s most dynamic cities does not end there. In this well-researched and personal work, historian Keith Weldon Medley takes readers on a journey through New Orleans’ African roots.  Praise for We as Freemen: Plessy v. Ferguson   “Rich in family and community history and local lore, Medley’s work details the world of New Orleans’s free people of color . . . this remarkable read is recommended for public and academic library collections on U.S., African American, and local history.” —Library Journal

The Ku Klux Klan emerged in Wood County, Ohio, in late 1922, and at its peak, the white supremacist group numbered nearly 1,400 members in the county. Klan members occupied many municipal and county-elected positions, and nearly 40 percent of the Protestant ministers of Wood County joined the group in the 1920s. The Klan engaged in cross burnings, public marches and vigilante activities here during the 1920s and 1930s. Join author Michael Brooks as he examines the unsettling history of the KKK in Wood County.

Dutch and English settlers brought the first enslaved people to New Jersey in the seventeenth century. By the time of the Revolutionary War, slavery was an established practice on labor-intensive farms throughout what became known as the Garden State. The progenitor of the influential Morris family, Lewis Morris, brought Barbadian slaves to toil on his estate of Tinton Manor in Monmouth County. “Colonel Tye,” an escaped slave from Shrewsbury, joined the British “Ethiopian Regiment” during the Revolutionary War and led raids throughout the towns and villages near his former home. Charles Reeves and Hannah Van Clief married soon after their emancipation in 1850 and became prominent citizens of Lincroft, as did their next four generations. Author Rick Geffken reveals stories from New Jersey’s dark history of slavery.

February 22, 1960, bore witness to an event that would forever change the social, political, and economic life of a city, a state, and millions of inhabitants.

The arrest of 34 Virginia Union University students during a sit-in protest at the most upscale department store in Richmond, Virginia, heralded the upending of a long-established way of life and a change of direction from which there would be no turning back. The students would see their actions galvanize a community into effecting wide-ranging reforms in desegregation and play a significant role in ending the nearly 70-year grip on power of one of the nation’s strongest political machines. Bafflingly, their achievement faded into obscurity, and only in recent years has its importance been recognized.

Dr. Kimberly A. Matthews is a professor of leadership at Virginia Commonwealth University. Dr. Matthews earned her doctorate in education at Virginia Commonwealth University (2012) and began teaching with Virginia Commonwealth University’s LEAD living-learning program. She is the author of a history of the Richmond Crusade for Voters. Dr. Raymond Pierre Hylton is professor of history at Virginia Union University. Dr. Hylton earned his doctorate in history at the University College Dublin, Ireland (1986), and first taught at Virginia Union as an adjunct instructor in 1988. He became a full-time faculty member in 1991 and served as dean and department chair. He is the author of a History of Virginia Union University.

In 1619, a group of thirty-two African men, women and children arrived on the shores of Virginia. They had been kidnapped in the royal city of Kabasa, Angola, and forced aboard the Spanish slave ship San Juan Bautista. The ship was attacked by privateers, and the captives were taken by the English to their New World colony. This group has been shrouded in controversy ever since. Historian Ric Murphy documents a fascinating story of colonialism, treason, piracy, kidnapping, enslavement and British law.

A detailed history of a New Orleans landmark. Congo Square is an iconic location in New Orleans culture, filled with the echoes of jazz and the footsteps of modern dance. Brimming with the rich history of the city, this auspicious landmark traces its origins back to the 1740s. A popular gathering place for African-Americans, the square hosted public markets, musical events, and even the Congo Circus throughout its history. Johnson's detailed analysis of the development of the landmark places the deep-set culture of both the African-American community and the roots of New Orleans music firmly in the heart of Congo Square.

Wilmington’s East Side is the oldest residential community in the city. The first Swedish colony settled there in the 1600s, and over time, Jewish, Polish, and African American people followed. By the mid-1950s, the East Side emerged as a predominantly Black, achievement-oriented community—a place where working-class families, Black-owned businesses, and Black doctors, lawyers, teachers, musicians, and community leaders lived, worshipped, and worked together amid segregation. Among historic landmarks are Howard High School, People’s Settlement Association, Walnut Street Y, St. Michael’s School and Nursery, Clifford Brown Walk, Louis Redding House, and multidenominational churches. Situated in an urban setting east of downtown, the East Side is walking distance from the central business district, small retail establishments, and employers.

Rap-A-Lot Records, U.G.K. (Pimp C and Bun B), Paul Wall, Beyonce, Chamillionaire and Scarface are all names synonymous with contemporary hip-hop. And they have one thing in common: Houston. Long before the country came to know the chopped and screwed style of rap from the Bayou City in the late 1990s, hip-hop in Houston grew steadily and produced some of the most prolific independent artists in the industry. With early roots in jazz, blues, R&B and zydeco, Houston hip-hop evolved not only as a musical form but also as a cultural movement. Join Maco L. Faniel as he uncovers the early years of Houston hip-hop from the music to the culture it inspired.

The revolutionary pamphlet that helped light the fire of American Independence in an elegant hardback gift edition, proudly printed in America and beautifully stamped in celebration of America 250

Thomas Paine arrived in America from England in 1774. A friend of Benjamin Franklin, he was a writer of poetry and tracts condemning the slave trade. In 1775, as hostilities between Britain and the colonies intensified, Paine wrote Common Sense to encourage the colonies to break the British exploitative hold and fight for independence. The little booklet of 50 pages was published January 10, 1776 and sold a half-million copies, approximately equal to 75 million copies today.

The America250™️ word mark and logo are trademarks owned by the United States Semiquincentennial Commission and any use of such marks by Applewood Books is under license.

The civil rights era in the United States was a turbulent time of struggle and protest, with groups making history all across the nation. African American police officers in Charleston were immersed in their own battle to integrate local law enforcement agencies. These pioneers endured hatred and resentment within the department and sometimes from those they were sworn to protect. Lieutenant Eugene Frazier, Detective George Gathers and others fought the establishment while climbing the ranks to solve some of the toughest crimes that Charleston has ever seen. Join Frazier as he recounts the true stories of those who fought for equality.

Cincinnati's LGBTQ history is a study in riveting contradictions. Seen as one of the more conservative cities in Ohio, Cincinnati is also the home of the first Pride march in the entire state. A strong move to censor the LGBTQ-related art of Robert Mapplethorpe at the Cincinnati Contemporary Arts Center resulted in a nationally publicized trial where freedom of expression emerged victorious in the face of those who zealously sought to suppress the LGBTQ community's voice. The passage of Issue 3 in 1993 epitomized the tenet that minority rights should never be up for majority vote, while the repeal of Article XII eleven years later displayed the sheer power of mobilization. Through protests, celebrations, and demonstrations of unadulterated pride, Cincinnati has proven itself over and over again as a community of individuals trying to make the Queen City live up to its royal--and decidedly LGBTQ--name.

A true music-lover’s journey into the past!

   

Late one night in 2005, Zeke Schein made an amazing discovery while searching for a vintage guitar on eBay: a grainy, battered photograph captioned Old Snapshot Blues Guitar BB King???? Neither man looked like King, but one seemed to resemble the twentieth century’s most mysterious musician, Robert Johnson. Would others see what he saw? With only three or four known images of the legendary blues guitarist in existence, this single picture was certainly an exceptional link to the past.

In 2014, the truth about the photo was finally revealed. Schein details his strange journey in solving this musical mystery and crusade for legitimacy amidst pushback from music historians.