Showing results by narrator "JD Jackson" in All Categories

Life in 1925 Atlanta, Georgia, makes Truck realize three things: He must demand respect … Be uncompromising in the protection of his family … And see Josephine for who she really is … When his family is faced with losing everything, Truck embarks on a path from which there is no turning back. Ignite is a complicated tale of passion and unconditional love while navigating the Jim Crow South.

A lineman with something to prove. A vendetta against a baseball legend. The rise of a real-life NHL all-star. The luckiest grapefruit in sports history. Open up The Sports Pages, the third volume in the Guys Read Library of Great Reading, and you're in for all of this and more. From fiction to nonfiction, from baseball to mixed martial arts and everything in between, these are 10 stories about the rush of victory and the crush of defeat on and off the field. Compiled by kid-lit all-star Jon Scieszka, Guys Read: The Sports Pages is a thrilling collection of brand-new short stories.

Compiled from his original lecture notes, Julian Bond’s Time to Teach brings his teachings to a new generation of listeners and provides a necessary toolkit for today’s activists in the era of Black Lives Matter and #MeToo. Julian Bond sought to dismantle the perception of the civil rights movement as a peaceful and respectable protest that quickly garnered widespread support. Through his lectures, Bond detailed the ground-shaking disruption the movement caused, its immense unpopularity at the time, and the bravery of activists who chose to disturb order to pursue justice.

Thursday Night Lights tells the inspiring, largely unknown story of African American high school football in Texas. Drawing on interviews, newspaper stories, and memorabilia, Michael Hurd introduces the players, coaches, schools, and towns where African Americans built powerhouse football programs under the PVIL leadership. He covers 50 years (1920-1970) of high school football history.

At the age of nine, Issac J. Bailey saw his hero, his eldest brother, taken away in handcuffs, not to return from prison for thirty-two years. Bailey tells the story of their relationship and of his experience living in a family suffering guilt and shame. Drawing on sociological research as well as his expertise as a journalist, he seeks to answer the crucial question of why Moochie and many other young black men - including half of the ten boys in his own family - end up in the criminal justice system. What role did poverty, race, and faith play? What effect did living in the South, in the Bible Belt, have?  

An examination of African American imagery and participation in American movies includes a timeline of important African American events in film history and discusses the achievements of noted celebrities. 

Dubbed “Dewey Decimal” for his desire to reorganize the library’s stock, he gets by as bagman and muscle for New York City’s unscrupulous district attorney. He takes no pleasure in this kind of civic dirty work. He’d be perfectly content alone among his books. But this is not in the cards, as the DA calls on Dewey for a seemingly straightforward union-busting job.

This handsomely designed gift book is a comprehensive audio guide to the greatest traditions and rivalries in college football. Fascinating and informative, College Football Traditions and Rivalries is a must for every college football fan. The audiobook also includes a special section of quick facts on some other schools that weren’t fully featured.

An encompassing, visionary, many-threaded work, Now It’s Time to Say Goodbye is an American novel of great scope and nearly mythological intensity. This is the third volume of Gospel Harmonies, a series of seven stand-alone books that follow the character of John in various guises as he attempts to navigate the uneasy relationship between the self and the postmodern world.

In this, Frederick Douglass’s second memoir, the abolitionist leader reflects further on the inhuman oppression he had personally endured and explores the larger impact of such injustice on society as a whole. At the time of writing, Douglass had emerged from chattel slavery in Maryland to a qualified freedom in the North and become a renowned speaker on the power of literacy and self-reliance. This story goes deeper than what Douglass was able to address in his Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass....

In its first four months of operation, the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture surpassed one million visits and quickly became a cherished, vital monument to the African American experience. And yet this accomplishment was never assured. In A Fool's Errand, founding director Lonnie Bunch tells his story of bringing his clear vision and leadership to realize this shared dream of many generations of Americans.

The twelve gripping tales In The Last Suspicious Holdout, the new story collection by award-winning author Ladee Hubbard, deftly chronicle poignant moments in the lives of an African American community located in a “sliver of southern suburbia.” Spanning from 1992 to 2007, the stories represent a period during which the Black middle-class expanded while stories of "welfare Queens," "crack babies," and "super predators" abounded in the media.

In 1951 American terrorism was homegrown. There were no battles fought on American soil, yet there were 12 bombings targeting black Americans, Catholics, and Jews in "Jim Crow" Florida. One of those bombs was, symbolically, heard around the world. Harry T. Moore and his wife, Harriette, were murdered on Christmas night 1951 by racist terrorists. Ironically, Harry knew he was a target of the KKK but swore he would keep going, working on rights for African Americans.  

Dixon was once an Olympic-level runner. But he missed the team by two-tenths of a second, and ever since that pain decades ago, he hasn’t allowed a goal to consume him. But when his charming older brother, Nate, suggests that they attempt to be the first Black American men to summit Mount Everest, Dixon can’t refuse. The brothers are determined to prove something—to themselves and to each other.

In gripping, novelistic detail, Saying It Loud tells the story of how the Black Power phenomenon began to challenge the traditional civil rights movement in the turbulent year of 1966. Saying It Loud takes you inside the dramatic events in this seminal year, from Stokely Carmichael’s middle-of-the-night ouster of moderate icon John Lewis as chairman of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) to Carmichael’s impassioned cry of “Black Power!” during a protest march in rural Mississippi.

Drawing on his own experience of feeling undervalued and invisible in classrooms as a young man of color, Dr. Christopher Emdin has merged his experiences with more than a decade of teaching and researching in urban America. He takes to task the perception of urban youth of color as unteachable, and he challenges educators to embrace and respect each student’s culture and to reimagine the classroom as a site where roles are reversed and students become the experts in their own learning.

The victory over the Soultaker fractured the Knights Eternal. Shade has broken his vows, abandoning his brothers to trek over the northern mountains in search of a god. Instead, he finds Darkenwood, a sprawling hamlet in an isolated valley, populated with strange creatures trapped in an endless cycle of oppression. His desire to free them from their shackles sends him on another journey, one that will test his faith in humanity. 

Langston Brown is running out of time and options for clearing his name and escaping death row. Wrongfully convicted of the gruesome Mother's Day Massacre, he prepares to face his death. His final hope for salvation lies with his daughter, Liza, an artist who dreamed of a life of music and song but left the prestigious Juilliard School to pursue a law degree with the intention of clearing her father's name.

Links the history of race relations to the history of basketball by reviewing the era of the first Black teams, the first integration of teams, and the innovations that Black players have brought to the game. 

Through a series of heart-breaking and poignant letters, come explore the 20-year journey of a child longing for the love of his mentally ill mother while facing seemingly insurmountable odds. Witness Manny's transformation in this coming of age story of a forgotten and disfigured child, born into spirit-crushing poverty in Houston, Texas, and thrust into adulthood all too soon. Crying out to the world for understanding and forgiveness, Manny battles the silent and treacherous enemy of mental illness in his mother's often erratic and sometimes terrifying behavior.