Fifty year class reunion for Franklin High School graduating class of 1957.

A searing exposé of the profound failures in our justice system, told by a woman who has journeyed from wrongfully accused prisoner to acclaimed public defender Keeda Haynes was a Girl Scout and a churchgoer, but after college graduation, she was imprisoned for a crime she didn’t commit. Her boyfriend had asked her to sign for some packages—packages she did not know were filled with marijuana. As a young Black woman falsely accused, prosecuted, and ultimately imprisoned, Haynes suffered the abuses of our racist and sexist justice system. But rather than give in to despair, she decided to fight for change. After her release, she attended law school at night, became a public defender, and ultimately staged a highly publicized campaign for Congress. At every turn of her unlikely story, she gives unique insights into the inequities built into our institutions. In the end, despite the injustice she endured, she emerges convinced that ours can become a true second-chance culture.

Ever wondered why the 1950s is dubbed as the Fabulous Fifties? Well, The Fabulous Fifties will lay out the best of its years to reinforce the magnificence of their reign. James Foster talks about fifties fashion, trends, lifestyle, and how the people lived their daily lives, but not only on that, the book also comprehensively tackles the finest of fifties music. The music in the 1950s played a big part in the lives of the people, and the book highlights the remarkable music made at this time. Several music personalities as well as their respective songs that made it to the Billboard charts are included and discussed thoroughly. The diversity in music that created harmony in the lives of the people will forever be etched in eternity. The fifties will always be an epitome of grandeur, so be serenaded and read in awe as you relive the beauty of the fifties in The Fabulous Fifties.

American Bandstand, one of the most popular television shows ever, broadcast from Philadelphia in the late fifties, a time when that city had become a battleground for civil rights. Counter to host Dick Clark’s claims that he integrated American Bandstand, this book reveals how the first national television program directed at teens discriminated against black youth during its early years and how black teens and civil rights advocates protested this discrimination. Matthew F. Delmont brings together major themes in American history—civil rights, rock and roll, television, and the emergence of a youth culture—as he tells how white families around American Bandstand’s studio mobilized to maintain all-white neighborhoods and how local school officials reinforced segregation long after Brown vs. Board of Education. The Nicest Kids in Town powerfully illustrates how national issues and history have their roots in local situations, and how nostalgic representations of the past, like the musical film Hairspray, based on the American Bandstand era, can work as impediments to progress in the present.

Far too many Americans, of all races, are unaware of the pivotal role that people of African descent have played in shaping the US and the world. Even less is known about the role of African peoples in the history of all humankind. Becoming American: The African-American Journey will open their eyes--and enlighten even the already knowledgeable. It features two side-by-side chronological timelines that uniquely contrast the major events and personalities in both African-American and Global/African Diasporan history--spanning from 4 million BCE to Barack Obama’s momentous presidential campaign. In addition, a carefully-chosen collection of key political, historical, cultural and literary texts, quotes, speeches, and songs document the impact of the black presence in American and world history.