Books or articles that are not available in your campus library may be borrowed from other campuses via intercampus loan (ICL), or from other institutions via interlibrary loan (ILL).
Items that can be obtained from libraries within the Florida College System are usually received within 3 to 7 days. Other items may take up to 2 weeks to be received. The loan period for an ILL item depends on the policy of the lending institution.
Contact your campus library Reference Desk for assistance with placing ICL or ILL requests.
How the Word Is Passed by
Instant #1 New York Times bestseller PEN America 2022 John Kenneth Galbraith Award for Nonfiction Finalist Finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Awards NBC News, one of 10 Books about Black History to Read in 2022 A New York Times 10 Best Books of 2021 A Time 10 Best Nonfiction Books of 2021 Named a Best Book of 2021 by The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Boston Globe, The Economist, Smithsonian, Esquire, Entropy, The Christian Science Monitor, WBEZ's Nerdette Podcast, TeenVogue, GoodReads, SheReads, BookPage, Publishers Weekly, Kirkus, Fathom Magazine, the New York Public Library, and the Chicago Public Library One of GQ's 50 Best Books of Literary Journalism of the 21st Century Longlisted for the National Book Award Los Angeles Times, Best Nonfiction Gift One of President Obama's Favorite Books of 2021 Beginning in his hometown of New Orleans, Clint Smith leads the reader on an unforgettable tour of monuments and landmarks--those that are honest about the past and those that are not--that offer an intergenerational story of how slavery has been central in shaping our nation's collective history, and ourselves. It is the story of the Monticello Plantation in Virginia, the estate where Thomas Jefferson wrote letters espousing the urgent need for liberty while enslaving more than four hundred people. It is the story of the Whitney Plantation, one of the only former plantations devoted to preserving the experience of the enslaved people whose lives and work sustained it. It is the story of Angola, a former plantation-turned-maximum-security prison in Louisiana that is filled with Black men who work across the 18,000-acre land for virtually no pay. And it is the story of Blandford Cemetery, the final resting place of tens of thousands of Confederate soldiers. A deeply researched and transporting exploration of the legacy of slavery and its imprint on centuries of American history, How the Word Is Passed illustrates how some of our country's most essential stories are hidden in plain view--whether in places we might drive by on our way to work, holidays such as Juneteenth, or entire neighborhoods like downtown Manhattan, where the brutal history of the trade in enslaved men, women, and children has been deeply imprinted. Informed by scholarship and brought to life by the story of people living today, Smith's debut work of nonfiction is a landmark of reflection and insight that offers a new understanding of the hopeful role that memory and history can play in making sense of our country and how it has come to be.
An Afro-Indigenous History of the United States by
The first intersectional history of the Black and Native American struggle for freedom in our country that also reframes our understanding of who was Indigenous in early America Beginning with pre-Revolutionary America and moving into the movement for Black lives and contemporary Indigenous activism, Afro-Indigenous historian Kyle T. Mays argues that the foundations of the US are rooted in antiblackness and settler colonialism, and that these parallel oppressions continue into the present. He explores how Black and Indigenous peoples have always resisted and struggled for freedom, sometimes together, and sometimes apart. Whether to end African enslavement and Indigenous removal or eradicate capitalism and colonialism, Mays show how the fervor of Black and Indigenous peoples calls for justice have consistently sought to uproot white supremacy. Mays uses a wide-array of historical activists and pop culture icons, "sacred" texts, and foundational texts like the Declaration of Independence and Democracy in America. He covers the civil rights movement and freedom struggles of the 1960s and 1970s, and explores current debates around the use of Native American imagery and the cultural appropriation of Black culture. Mays compels us to rethink both our history as well as contemporary debates and to imagine the powerful possibilities of Afro-Indigenous solidarity. Includes an 8-page photo insert featuring Kwame Ture with Dennis Banks and Russell Means at the Wounded Knee Trials; Angela Davis walking with Oren Lyons after he leaves Wounded Knee, SD; former South African president Nelson Mandela with Clyde Bellecourt; and more.
Stamped: Racism, Antiracism, and You by
The crucial, empowering, #1 New York Times bestselling exploration of racism--and antiracism--in America. This is NOT a history book. This is a book about the here and now. A book to help us better understand why we are where we are. A book about race. The construct of race has always been used to gain and keep power, to create dynamics that separate and silence. This remarkable reimagining of Dr. Ibram X. Kendi's National Book Award-winning Stamped from the Beginning reveals the history of racist ideas in America, and inspires hope for an antiracist future. It takes you on a race journey from then to now, shows you why we feel how we feel, and why the poison of racism lingers. It also proves that while racist ideas have always been easy to fabricate and distribute, they can also be discredited. Through a gripping, fast-paced, and energizing narrative written by beloved award-winner Jason Reynolds, this book shines a light on the many insidious forms of racist ideas--and on ways readers can identify and stamp out racist thoughts in their daily lives. Download the free educator guide here: https://www.hachettebookgroup.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/Stamped-Educator-Guide.pdf Now available for younger readers: Stamped (for Kids): Racism, Antiracism, and You
The Summer Of 1787 by
The Summer of 1787 takes us into the sweltering room in which the founding fathers struggled for four months to produce the Constitution: the flawed but enduring document that would define the nation--then and now. George Washington presided, James Madison kept the notes, Benjamin Franklin offered wisdom and humor at crucial times. The Summer of 1787 traces the struggles within the Philadelphia Convention as the delegates hammered out the charter for the world's first constitutional democracy. Relying on the words of the delegates themselves to explore the Convention's sharp conflicts and hard bargaining, David O. Stewart lays out the passions and contradictions of the, often, painful process of writing the Constitution. It was a desperate balancing act. Revolutionary principles required that the people have power, but could the people be trusted? Would a stronger central government leave room for the states? Would the small states accept a Congress in which seats were allotted according to population rather than to each sovereign state? And what of slavery? The supercharged debates over America's original sin led to the most creative and most disappointing political deals of the Convention. The room was crowded with colorful and passionate characters, some known--Alexander Hamilton, Gouverneur Morris, Edmund Randolph--and others largely forgotten. At different points during that sultry summer, more than half of the delegates threatened to walk out, and some actually did, but Washington's quiet leadership and the delegates' inspired compromises held the Convention together. In a country continually arguing over the document's original intent, it is fascinating to watch these powerful characters struggle toward consensus--often reluctantly--to write a flawed but living and breathing document that could evolve with the nation.
First by
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * The intimate, inspiring, and authoritative biography of Sandra Day O'Connor, America's first female Supreme Court justice, drawing on exclusive interviews and first-time access to Justice O'Connor's archives--as seen on PBS's American Experience "She's a hero for our time, and this is the biography for our time."--Walter Isaacson Finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize * Named One of the Best Books of the Year by NPR and The Washington Post She was born in 1930 in El Paso and grew up on a cattle ranch in Arizona. At a time when women were expected to be homemakers, she set her sights on Stanford University. When she graduated near the top of her law school class in 1952, no firm would even interview her. But Sandra Day O'Connor's story is that of a woman who repeatedly shattered glass ceilings--doing so with a blend of grace, wisdom, humor, understatement, and cowgirl toughness. She became the first ever female majority leader of a state senate. As a judge on the Arizona Court of Appeals, she stood up to corrupt lawyers and humanized the law. When she arrived at the United States Supreme Court, appointed by President Ronald Reagan in 1981, she began a quarter-century tenure on the Court, hearing cases that ultimately shaped American law. Diagnosed with cancer at fifty-eight, and caring for a husband with Alzheimer's, O'Connor endured every difficulty with grit and poise. Women and men who want to be leaders and be first in their own lives--who want to learn when to walk away and when to stand their ground--will be inspired by O'Connor's example. This is a remarkably vivid and personal portrait of a woman who loved her family, who believed in serving her country, and who, when she became the most powerful woman in America, built a bridge forward for all women. Praise for First "Cinematic . . . poignant . . . illuminating and eminently readable . . . First gives us a real sense of Sandra Day O'Connor the human being. . . . Thomas gives O'Connor the credit she deserves."--The Washington Post "[A] fascinating and revelatory biography . . . a richly detailed picture of [O'Connor's] personal and professional life . . . Evan Thomas's book is not just a biography of a remarkable woman, but an elegy for a worldview that, in law as well as politics, has disappeared from the nation's main stages."--The New York Times Book Review
Promise Me, Dad by
The Instant #1 New York Times Bestseller From President Joe Biden, Promise Me Dad is his deeply moving memoir about the year that would forever change both a family and a country. "Biden splices a heartbreaking story with an election story and a foreign affairs story. And in so doing, he offers something for everyone, no matter which strand draws you in."--The New York Times Book Review In November 2014, thirteen members of the Biden family gathered on Nantucket for Thanksgiving, a tradition they had been celebrating for the past forty years; it was the one constant in what had become a hectic, scrutinized, and overscheduled life. The Thanksgiving holiday was a much-needed respite, a time to connect, a time to reflect on what the year had brought, and what the future might hold. But this year felt different from all those that had come before. Joe and Jill Biden's eldest son, Beau, had been diagnosed with a malignant brain tumor fifteen months earlier, and his survival was uncertain. "Promise me, Dad," Beau had told his father. "Give me your word that no matter what happens, you're going to be all right." Joe Biden gave him his word. Promise Me, Dad chronicles the year that followed, which would be the most momentous and challenging in Joe Biden's extraordinary life and career. As vice president, Biden traveled more than a hundred thousand miles that year, across the world, dealing with crises in Ukraine, Central America, and Iraq. When a call came from New York, or Capitol Hill, or Kyiv, or Baghdad--"Joe, I need your help"--he responded. For twelve months, while Beau fought for and then lost his life, the vice president balanced the twin imperatives of living up to his responsibilities to his country and his responsibilities to his family. And never far away was the insistent and urgent question of whether he should seek the presidency in 2016. The year brought real triumph and accomplishment, and wrenching pain. But even in the worst times, Biden was able to lean on the strength of his long, deep bonds with his family, on his faith, and on his deepening friendship with the man in the Oval Office, Barack Obama. Writing with poignancy and immediacy, Joe Biden allows readers to feel the urgency of each moment, to experience the days when he felt unable to move forward as well as the days when he felt like he could not afford to stop. This is a book written not just by the president, but by a father, grandfather, friend, and husband. Promise Me, Dad is a story of how family and friendships sustain us and how hope, purpose, and action can guide us through the pain of personal loss into the light of a new future.
The Truths We Hold by
A New York Times bestseller From Vice President-Elect Kamala Harris, one of America's most inspiring political leaders, a book about the core truths that unite us, and the long struggle to discern what those truths are and how best to act upon them, in her own life and across the life of our country Vice President-Elect Kamala Harris's commitment to speaking truth is informed by her upbringing. The daughter of immigrants, she was raised in an Oakland, California community that cared deeply about social justice; her parents--an esteemed economist from Jamaica and an admired cancer researcher from India--met as activists in the civil rights movement when they were graduate students at Berkeley. Growing up, Harris herself never hid her passion for justice, and when she became a prosecutor out of law school, a deputy district attorney, she quickly established herself as one of the most innovative change agents in American law enforcement. She progressed rapidly to become the elected District Attorney for San Francisco, and then the chief law enforcement officer of the state of California as a whole. Known for bringing a voice to the voiceless, she took on the big banks during the foreclosure crisis, winning a historic settlement for California's working families. Her hallmarks were applying a holistic, data-driven approach to many of California's thorniest issues, always eschewing stale "tough on crime" rhetoric as presenting a series of false choices. Neither "tough" nor "soft" but smart on crime became her mantra. Being smart means learning the truths that can make us better as a community, and supporting those truths with all our might. That has been the pole star that guided Harris to a transformational career as California's attorney general, as a United States senator, and now as vice president-elect, grappling in every role with an array of complex issues, from health care and the new economy to immigration, national security, the opioid crisis, and accelerating inequality. By reckoning with the big challenges we face together, drawing on the hard-won wisdom and insight from her own career and the work of those who have most inspired her, Kamala Harris offers in THE TRUTHS WE HOLD a master class in problem solving, in crisis management, and leadership in challenging times. Through the arc of her own life, on into the great work of our day, she communicates a vision of shared struggle, shared purpose, and shared values. In a book rich in many home truths, not least is that a relatively small number of people work very hard to convince a great many of us that we have less in common than we actually do, but it falls to us to look past them and get on with the good work of living our common truth. When we do, our shared effort will continue to sustain us and this great nation, now and in the years to come.
My Own Words by
The New York Times bestselling book from Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg--"a comprehensive look inside her brilliantly analytical, entertainingly wry mind, revealing the fascinating life of one of our generation's most influential voices in both law and public opinion" (Harper's Bazaar). My Own Words "showcases Ruth Ginsburg's astonishing intellectual range" (The New Republic). In this collection Justice Ginsburg discusses gender equality, the workings of the Supreme Court, being Jewish, law and lawyers in opera, and the value of looking beyond US shores when interpreting the US Constitution. Throughout her life Justice Ginsburg has been (and continues to be) a prolific writer and public speaker. This book's sampling is selected by Justice Ginsburg and her authorized biographers Mary Hartnett and Wendy W. Williams, who introduce each chapter and provide biographical context and quotes gleaned from hundreds of interviews they have conducted. Witty, engaging, serious, and playful, My Own Words is a fascinating glimpse into the life of one of America's most influential women and "a tonic to the current national discourse" (The Washington Post).
OMG WTF Does the Constitution Actually Say? by
Do you know what the Constitution ACTUALLY says? This witty and highly relevant annotation of our founding document is the go-to guide to how our government really works (or is supposed to work). Written by political savant and entertainment veteran, Ben Sheehan, and vetted for accuracy by experts in the field of constitutional law, OMG WTF Does the Constitution Actually Say? is an entertaining and accessible guide that explains what the Constitution actually lays out. With clear notes and graphics on everything from presidential powers to Supreme Court nominations to hidden loopholes, Sheehan walks us through the entire Constitution from its preamble to its final amendment (with a bonus section on the Declaration of Independence). Besides putting the Constitution in modern-day English so that it can be understood, OMG WTF Does the Constitution Actually Say? gives readers all of the info they need to be effective voters and citizens in the November elections and beyond.
Exodus from the Door of No Return by
After sixty years, Dr. Roy G. Phillips, retired founding campus president at Miami-Dade College, Homestead Campus, returned to his native home in rural Webster Parish outside of Minden, Louisiana. It took him almost forty years to fulfill a dream, a journey that began as a conversation with renowned author Alex Haley culminated with the collection of fascinating stories, and then finished in a poignant book that tells the story of his ancestors in their trajectory from Africa to America. When he retired in December 2001, Phillips turned to writing, piecing together years’ worth of research. The final product, Exodus from the Door of No Return: Journey of an American Family (AuthorHouse) was published in September 2006 and revised in October 2008. Phillips’ family saga mirrors the lives of what arguably could be the tale of most African Americans. In the book, family is the glue that binds Phillips’ ancestors from Slavery to Reconstruction, Jim Crow Segregation, the World Wars, the Great Migration of black families out of the South, the tumultuous civil rights period of the sixties, to the present day. Phillips might never have started on the journey of family discovery if it had not been for a chance meeting with Haley, who had come to speak at the University of Michigan. At that time, Haley was in the midst of researching his book Roots, and Phillips was completing his doctoral dissertation in urban secondary administration. “I spent half of the night talking to him about what to do,” he recalls. He said, “Go and talk to the old folks in your family. Get their stories.” Phillips painstaking tracked down the descendants of the plantation owners – James Germany McDade II – who owned his great grandfather and other relatives. Phillips continues to meet and correspond with the McDades in Shreveport and East Texas. He also underwent DNA testing which helped him track both his paternal ancestry to the Mbute people in the Central African Republic and his maternal ancestry to the Mende people in Sierra Leone West Africa.
The American Story by
Co-founder of The Carlyle Group and patriotic philanthropist David M. Rubenstein takes readers on a sweeping journey across the grand arc of the American story through revealing conversations with our greatest historians. In these lively dialogues, the biggest names in American history explore the subjects they've come to so intimately know and understand. -- David McCullough on John Adams -- Jon Meacham on Thomas Jefferson -- Ron Chernow on Alexander Hamilton -- Walter Isaacson on Benjamin Franklin -- Doris Kearns Goodwin on Abraham Lincoln -- A. Scott Berg on Charles Lindbergh -- Taylor Branch on Martin Luther King -- Robert Caro on Lyndon B. Johnson -- Bob Woodward on Richard Nixon --And many others, including a special conversation with Chief Justice John Roberts Through his popular program The David Rubenstein Show, David Rubenstein has established himself as one of our most thoughtful interviewers. Now, in The American Story, David captures the brilliance of our most esteemed historians, as well as the souls of their subjects. The book features introductions by Rubenstein as well a foreword by Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden, the first woman and the first African American to lead our national library. Richly illustrated with archival images from the Library of Congress, the book is destined to become a classic for serious readers of American history. Through these captivating exchanges, these bestselling and Pulitzer Prize-winning authors offer fresh insight on pivotal moments from the Founding Era to the late 20th century.
Madam Speaker by
AN INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER! The definitive biography of Nancy Pelosi, the most powerful woman in American political history, written by New York Times bestselling author and USA Today Washington bureau chief Susan Page. Featuring more than 150 exclusive interviews with those who know her best--and a series of in-depth, news-making interviews with Pelosi herself--MADAM SPEAKER is unprecedented in the scope of its exploration of Nancy Pelosi's remarkable life and of her indelible impact on American politics. Before she was Nancy Pelosi, she was Nancy D'Alesandro. Her father was a big-city mayor and her mother his political organizer; when she encouraged her young daughter to become a nun, Nancy told her mother that being a priest sounded more appealing. She didn't begin running for office until she was forty-six years old, her five children mostly out of the nest. With that, she found her calling. Nancy Pelosi has lived on the cutting edge of the revolution in both women's roles and in the nation's movement to a fiercer and more polarized politics. She has established herself as a crucial friend or formidable foe to U.S. presidents, a master legislator, and an indefatigable political warrior. She took on the Democratic establishment to become the first female Speaker of the House, then battled rivals on the left and right to consolidate her power. She has soared in the sharp-edged inside game of politics, though she has struggled in the outside game--demonized by conservatives, second-guessed by progressives, and routinely underestimated by nearly everyone. All of this was preparation for the most historic challenge she would ever face, at a time she had been privately planning her retirement. When Donald Trump was elected to the White House, Nancy Pelosi became the Democratic counterpart best able to stand up to the disruptive president and to get under his skin. The battle between Trump and Pelosi, chronicled in this book with behind-the-scenes details and revelations, stands to be the titanic political struggle of our time.
The 1619 Project by
#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * NAACP IMAGE AWARD WINNER * A dramatic expansion of a groundbreaking work of journalism, The 1619 Project: A New Origin Story offers a profoundly revealing vision of the American past and present. ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR: The Washington Post, NPR, Esquire, Marie Claire, Electric Lit, Ms. magazine, Kirkus Reviews, Booklist In late August 1619, a ship arrived in the British colony of Virginia bearing a cargo of twenty to thirty enslaved people from Africa. Their arrival led to the barbaric and unprecedented system of American chattel slavery that would last for the next 250 years. This is sometimes referred to as the country's original sin, but it is more than that: It is the source of so much that still defines the United States. The New York Times Magazine's award-winning "1619 Project" issue reframed our understanding of American history by placing slavery and its continuing legacy at the center of our national narrative. This new book substantially expands on that work, weaving together eighteen essays that explore the legacy of slavery in present-day America with thirty-six poems and works of fiction that illuminate key moments of oppression, struggle, and resistance. The essays show how the inheritance of 1619 reaches into every part of contemporary American society, from politics, music, diet, traffic, and citizenship to capitalism, religion, and our democracy itself. This is a book that speaks directly to our current moment, contextualizing the systems of race and caste within which we operate today. It reveals long-glossed-over truths around our nation's founding and construction--and the way that the legacy of slavery did not end with emancipation, but continues to shape contemporary American life. Featuring contributions from: Leslie Alexander * Michelle Alexander * Carol Anderson * Joshua Bennett * Reginald Dwayne Betts * Jamelle Bouie * Anthea Butler * Matthew Desmond * Rita Dove * Camille T. Dungy * Cornelius Eady * Eve L. Ewing * Nikky Finney * Vievee Francis * Yaa Gyasi * Forrest Hamer * Terrance Hayes * Kimberly Annece Henderson * Jeneen Interlandi * Honorée Fanonne Jeffers * Barry Jenkins * Tyehimba Jess * Martha S. Jones * Robert Jones, Jr. * A. Van Jordan * Ibram X. Kendi * Eddie Kendricks * Yusef Komunyakaa * Kevin M. Kruse * Kiese Laymon * Trymaine Lee * Jasmine Mans * Terry McMillan * Tiya Miles * Wesley Morris * Khalil Gibran Muhammad * Lynn Nottage * ZZ Packer * Gregory Pardlo * Darryl Pinckney * Claudia Rankine * Jason Reynolds * Dorothy Roberts * Sonia Sanchez * Tim Seibles * Evie Shockley * Clint Smith * Danez Smith * Patricia Smith * Tracy K. Smith * Bryan Stevenson * Nafissa Thompson-Spires * Natasha Trethewey * Linda Villarosa * Jesmyn Ward
Oral History Manual by 
A Primer for Teaching Digital History by
A Primer for Teaching Digital History is a guide for college and high school teachers who are teaching digital history for the first time or for experienced teachers who want to reinvigorate their pedagogy. It can also serve those who are training future teachers to prepare their own syllabi, as well as teachers who want to incorporate digital history into their history courses. Offering design principles for approaching digital history that represent the possibilities that digital research and scholarship can take, Jennifer Guiliano outlines potential strategies and methods for building syllabi and curricula. Taking readers through the process of selecting data, identifying learning outcomes, and determining which tools students will use in the classroom, Guiliano outlines popular research methods including digital source criticism, text analysis, and visualization. She also discusses digital archives, exhibits, and collections as well as audiovisual and mixed-media narratives such as short documentaries, podcasts, and multimodal storytelling. Throughout, Guiliano illuminates how digital history can enhance understandings of not just what histories are told but how they are told and who has access to them.
Black Miami in the Twentieth Century by
The first book devoted to the history of African Americans in south Florida and their pivotal role in the growth and development of Miami, Black Miami in the Twentieth Century traces their triumphs, drudgery, horrors, and courage during the first 100 years of the city's history. Firsthand accounts and over 130 photographs, many of them never published before, bring to life the proud heritage of Miami's black community.
It Happened in Miami, the Magic City by
Just in time for the one-hundredth anniversary of Miami Beach, It Happened in Miami, the Magic City: An Oral History features nearly seventy fabulous voices including more than fifteen mini-memorists, telling stories, offering perceptions on subject matter as far back as memory allows up to the exciting headlines of today. Sun and fun, yes, but the story is much more than that.We are there through the dramatic days of World War II, the segregated south that Miami was, Meyer Lansky and cops and robbers, the Cocaine Cowboys, the post–war glamour of the flashy hotels and famed architect Morris Lapidius, the Fountainbleau and Eden Roc, the Jewish presence and contributions, the swinging Rat Pack of Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Sammy Davis, Jr. We are witness to Muhammad Ali and the iconic Fifth Street Gym, the preserving of art deco, the days of the Mariel and Pedro Pan and the Cuban impact. We are brought inside modern day Miami—an international city, a place of culture and dreamers, a city of tomorrow.
StreetWays: Chronicling the Homeless in Miami by
Photographs by Lewis P. Wilkerson StreetWays: Chronicling the Homeless in Miami is a collection of interviews with 28 homeless individuals living in downtown Miami and Miami Beach. Besides extensive photographs of these people and their lives on the street, the book also includes interviews with social service providers, as well as a detailed analysis of homelessness in the United States and more specifically in Miami. The work concludes with a policy analysis and suggestions for addressing issues of homelessness in Miami and the nation. StreetWays attempts to make clear how and why homelessness occurs, and what the actual lives and experiences of the homeless are about. Through extensive interviews and extensive documentary photographs, a selected group of homeless Miamians lose their invisibility as their experiences, needs and aspirations are reported. The book calls for a better understanding of the experience of homelessness places such as Miami, and of the need to understand homelessness as an issue of diversity and human rights.
White Sand Black Beach by
In May 1945, a small group of activists staged a'wade-in'at a whites-only beach in Miami, protesting the Jim Crow-era laws that denied blacks access to recreational areas. Pressured by the demonstrators and the media, the Dade County Commission ultimately designated the difficult-to-access Virginia Key as a beach for African Americans.The first legally recognized beach for African Americans in South Florida, Virginia Key Beach became vitally important to the community, offering a place to congregate with family and friends and to enjoy the natural wonders of the area. It would also help to foster further civil rights activism. By providing an important and tangible victory in the struggle for equal access to the coast, it became central to the struggle for civil rights in public space.Later, as Florida beaches were desegregated, many viewed Virginia Key as symbolic of an oppressive past and ceased to patronize it. At the same time, white leaders responded to desegregation by decreasing attention to and funding for public spaces in general. The beach was largely ignored and eventually shut down. However, in recent decades environmentalists, community leaders, and civil rights activists have come together to revitalize this historic landmark.In White Sand Black Beach, historian and longtime Miami activist Gregory Bush recounts this unique story and the current state of public space in South Florida, which are intimately interwoven with the history of segregation. With special emphasis on oral history, he uses Historic Virginia Key Beach Park and waterfront development as a lens for examining the intersection of public space, race, public involvement, and capitalism.
A World More Concrete by
Many people characterize urban renewal projects and the power of eminent domain as two of the most widely despised and often racist tools for reshaping American cities in the postwar period. In A World More Concrete, N. D. B. Connolly uses the history of South Florida to unearth an older and far more complex story. Connolly captures nearly eighty years of political and land transactions to reveal how real estate and redevelopment created and preserved metropolitan growth and racial peace under white supremacy. Using a materialist approach, he offers a long view of capitalism and the color line, following much of the money that made land taking and Jim Crow segregation profitable and preferred approaches to governing cities throughout the twentieth century. A World More Concrete argues that black and white landlords, entrepreneurs, and even liberal community leaders used tenements and repeated land dispossession to take advantage of the poor and generate remarkable wealth. Through a political culture built on real estate, South Florida's landlords and homeowners advanced property rights and white property rights, especially, at the expense of more inclusive visions of equality. For black people and many of their white allies, uses of eminent domain helped to harden class and color lines. Yet, for many reformers, confiscating certain kinds of real estate through eminent domain also promised to help improve housing conditions, to undermine the neighborhood influence of powerful slumlords, and to open new opportunities for suburban life for black Floridians. Concerned more with winners and losers than with heroes and villains, A World More Concrete offers a sober assessment of money and power in Jim Crow America. It shows how negotiations between powerful real estate interests on both sides of the color line gave racial segregation a remarkable capacity to evolve, revealing property owners'power to reshape American cities in ways that can still be seen and felt today.
First They Killed My Father by 
We Wish to Inform You That Tomorrow We Will Be Killed with Our Families by 
