Keith Mallett

"Sonny Rollins is one of the most prolific sax players in the history of jazz, but in 1959, at the height of his career, he vanished from the scene. His return to music was an interesting journey - with a long detour on the Williamsburg Bridge. Too loud to practice in his apartment, Rollins played on the New York City landmark for two years among the cacophony of the traffic and the stares of bystanders. Then in 1962, Rollins went back to the studio...

"As an orphaned Black boy growing up in Los Angeles in the early 1900s, Paul R. Williams became obsessed with the concept of 'home.' He not only dreamed of building his own home, he turned those dreams into drawings. Defying the odds and breaking down the walls of racism, Williams was able to curve around the obstacles in his way to become a world-renowned architect, designing homes for the biggest celebrities of the day ... while creating a number...

"Untold until now, here is the story of Black sprinter and long-jumper Willye B. White, who went from picking cotton as a child in Mississippi to competing and winning in the 1956 and 1964 Olympics...[W]hen her cousin noticed she was the fastest runner around, Willye jumped at the chance to put on her traveling shoes and run her way to better opportunities. And run Willye did, first for the Tennessee State Tigerbelles and then for the US Olympic team....

"Just in time for the 120th anniversary of the song "Lift Every Voice and Sing"-this stirring book celebrates the Black National Anthem and how it inspired five generations of a family... In Jacksonville, Florida, two brothers, one of them the principal of a segregated, all-black school, wrote the song "Lift Every Voice and Sing" so his students could sing it for a tribute to Abraham Lincoln's birthday in 1900. From that moment on, the song has provided...