Culture & History

Cinema, music, fortunes and firsts — the inheritance behind the reader: the culture and history of Black excellence.

The Power List: Barack Obama and the Most Powerful Black Politicians in America

The Power List: the most powerful Black politicians in America — Barack Obama, members of Congress, big-city mayors and the operatives who run the races.

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The Golden Age Canon: The Films Every Well-Dressed Life Should Know

The best classic films golden age Hollywood must watch list: Gable, Monroe, Casablanca, The Maltese Falcon and Sunset Boulevard, curated.

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The Essential Foreign Canon: The World Cinema Shelf

Best foreign films of all time: the essential world cinema shelf — Renoir, De Sica, Fellini, Kurosawa, Ozu, Bergman, Ray and Wong Kar-wai.

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Black Cinema Across the Eras: From Race Films to the Blaxploitation Years and Beyond

Best Black films, history and the Blaxploitation era: essential Black cinema from Oscar Micheaux and Poitier to Moonlight and Black Panther.

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Mansa Musa, the Richest Man in History: Inside the Mali Empire of Gold and the Pilgrimage That Shook Cairo

Mansa Musa, richest man in history? Inside the Mali empire of gold, the 1324 pilgrimage that moved Cairo's gold price, and Timbuktu's libraries.

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Madam C.J. Walker: The First Self-Made Female Millionaire, Built From the Washtub Up

Madam C.J. Walker, first self-made female millionaire in America: Sarah Breedlove's rise, the Walker System, her agents, Villa Lewaro and her giving.

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Black Wall Street: What Greenwood Built — and What 1921 Could Not Erase

Black Wall Street Greenwood Tulsa history: the businesses, banks and families of Greenwood, what 1921 destroyed, and what the survivors rebuilt.

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The Kingdoms of Gold — Great Zimbabwe, the Benin Bronzes and Ashanti Gold

Great Zimbabwe, Benin bronzes and Ashanti gold: the historic African kingdoms of wealth — stone cities, court bronzes, the Golden Stool and where the treasures sit today.

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The Fortune Builders — Lewis, Johnson, and Gaston

Reginald Lewis and the Beatrice billion, John H. Johnson's Ebony and Jet empire, and A.G. Gaston's Birmingham century — three fortune builders, three roads to serious capital.

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The Library Every House Should Hold: Black Classics, Beautifully Bound

The library every house should hold: essential black literature books for every home library — Baldwin, Morrison, Douglass and the keepers who bind them well.

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The Sound of the House: Jazz, Vinyl, and the Music Room Standard

The sound of the house: building a vinyl record collection around the jazz essentials — Kind of Blue, Coltrane, Blue Note — and a turntable set up properly.

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Portraits of Us: Commissioning the Family Painting

Portraits of us: how to commission a family portrait painting — choosing the artist, the sittings, the unveiling, and where the canvas should live in the house.

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The Great Black Barbers — Masters of the Chair

Famous Black barbers and the best barbershop masters in history: Herndon, Merrick, Myers, Morgan and Morrow — the lineage of the chair, from the 1800s to the modern masters.

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The Sound Before Everything: Classic Black Music History — Soul, Funk, Gospel and the Makers Who Built It

A classic Black music history of soul, funk, gospel and the makers who built American music — the canon, era by era, with a listening path.

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The High Notes: Black Opera Singers — a History from Marian Anderson and Leontyne Price to Today

Black opera singers history from Marian Anderson to Leontyne Price and today — the voices, the firsts, the companies and essential recordings.

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The House That Jazz Built: Black Jazz History — the Best Musicians Past and Present and the Essential Albums

A Black jazz history of the best musicians past and present — the eras, the innovators and the essential albums that form the canon, then and now.

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The Corner Offices: The Most Powerful Black Executives in Corporate America

The most powerful Black executives in corporate America: the corner offices, the Fortune 500 chiefs verified current, and the companies they run.

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