LaShonda Morgan at Ashland Plantation by Nordette N. Adams

Originally published by Scalawag Magazine, the poem "LaShonda Morgan at Ashland Plantation" has been posted here in 2026 by the poet herself, Nordette N. Adams. The poem is ekphrastic and inspired by the work of Chandra McCormick, a gifted black, female Louisiana photographer. 

Nordette N. Adams is currently working to revive her website, her411.com aka WirtingJunkie.net. In the meantime, learn more about her via her411.com where eventually links will be updated.

Other books related to African-American studies

This list is a supplement to a longer list a college student is curating on Facebook related to African-American Studies. The student already has many excellent suggestions. I took the request as an opportunity to search my brain, and I haven't posted in a while either, so there's that.

The Miseducation of the Negro by Carter G. Woodson

On Lynchings by Ida B. Wells (Also look for her Memphis Diary)

The Souls of Black Folk by W.E.B. DuBois

James Baldwin : Collected EssaysNotes of a Native Son / Nobody Knows My Name / The Fire Next Time / No Name in the Street / The Devil Finds Work / Other Essays (Library of America) Hardcover – February 1, 1998 by James Baldwin (Author), Toni Morrison (Editor)

Mules and Men by Zora Neale Hurston

Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates

The History of White People by Nell Irvin Painter

The Autobiography of Malcolm X by Malcolm X and Alex Haley

Malcolm X: A Life of Reinvention by Manning Marable

Playing in the Dark: Whiteness and the Literary Imagination by Toni Morrison

The Signifying Monkey by Henry Louis Gates, Jr.

Black Skin, White Masks by Frantz Fanon

We Are Coming by Shirley Wilson Logan

The Forgotten People: Cane River's Creoles of Color by Gary B. Mills, Elizabeth Shown Mills  

Sister Citizen by Melissa Harris Perry

The African Diaspora: African Origins and New World Identities Edited by Isidore Okpewho, Carole Boyce Davies, Ali Mazrui

A Testament of Hope: The Essential Writings and Speeches of Martin Luther King Jr. Edited by James M. Washington

Black Women Writers: 1950 to 1980, A Critical Evaluation Edited by Mari Evans

Looking for Leroy by Mark Anthony Neal

Set the World on Fire: Black Nationalist Women and the Global Struggle for Freedom  by Keisha N. Blaine

This Little Light of Mine: The Life of Fannie Lou Hamer    by Kay Mills 

Creole: The History and Legacy of Louisiana's Free People of Color by Sybil Klein

Lagniappe: Podcasts that include book recommendations in this area, etc.

Scene on Radio: Seeing White

Code Switch

A list at Vanity Fair

Melissa Harris Perry's syllabus on black women in politics

Article, "The Case or Reparations" by Ta-Nehisi Coates at The Atlantic

Article, "You Want a Confederate Monument? My Body is a Confederate Monument" by Caroline Randall Williams

John Lewis: Good Trouble, a documentary

Books on the Harlem Renaissance

James Baldwin Debates William F. Buckley (1965)

Toni Morrison's 1975 Lecture on Race (not the article the recording)