Videos

Civil rights pioneers Fred Gray and Representative John Lewis (D-GA) talked about Rosa Parks and her long history of civil rights activism. They highlighted her influence in igniting boycott…

Koritha Mitchell talked about her book, Living with Lynching: African American Lynching Plays, Performance, and Citizenship, 1890-1930, in which she discusses the way lynching was depicted i…

Professor Franklin and his son, John Whittington Franklin talked about the book they co-edited, My Life and an Era: The Autobiography of Buck Colbert Franklin. The book is about the life of …

Panelists talked about the the first 100 years of the NAACP and its future. After the presentations they responded to questions from members of the audience. Patricia Sullivan is the author …

Ilyasah Shabazz, daughter of the late civil rights activists Malcolm X and Betty Shabazz, discussed her coming of age memoir, Growing Up X, published by One World. It details her childho…

Professor Franklin talked about his newest book, Mirror to America: The Autobiography of John Hope Franklin, published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux. He described his life and education, and …

Arnold Rampersad talked about his book Ralph Ellison: A Biography, published by Knopf. Professor Rampersad researched the life of Ralph Ellison, author of Invisible Man, whose meditations on…

Arnold Rampersad talked about his biography, Ralph Ellison. He also responded to audience members' questions.

Judge Carter talked about his memoir A Matter of Law: A Memoir of Struggle in the Cause of Equal Rights, published by New Press. He talked about his life as a black man born into a culture …

The Veterans History Project of the Library of Congress honored Lt. Commander Wes Brown (Ret.), who in 1949 became the first black to graduate from the U.S. Naval Academy. During this event …

Walter Dean Myers was interviewed at the National Book Festival. He discussed writing children’s books and the role of African Americans in World War I. Mr. Myers is the author of Autobio…

After an introduction by Chris Lehmann, deputy editor for Washington Post’s Book World, Juan Williams talked about his book, This Far by Faith: Stories from the African American Religious E…

Audio is unclear at certain points throughout this event. Mr. Tye talked about his book Rising from the Rails: Pullman Porters and the Making of the Black Middle Class, published by Henr…

Authors, David Levering Lewis and Deborah Willis, talked about their book, "A Small Nation of People: W.E.B. Du Bois and African American Portraits of Progress". The book contains photograph…

Dr. John Hope Franklin read the opening chapters of his forthcoming autobiography titled The Vintage Years to be published by Amistad Press, a unit of HarperCollins. Each chapter begins with…

Professor David Levering Lewis read excerpts from his Pulitzer Prize-winning biography W.E.B. DuBois and talked about DuBois' life and career. Professor Lewis is the Martin Luther King Profe…

The ceremony opened with a prayer by Reverend Jackson and the singing of “The National Anthem” and “The Negro National Anthem” by Tonya Lewis and “A Family Choir.” Other musical numbers wer…

Author Suzanne Smith talked about her book Dancing in the Street: Motown and the Cultural Politics of Detroit, published by Harvard University Press. The book tells the story of Motown as bo…

African-American members of the House gathered to celebrate their election and re-election. Rep. Maxine Waters (D-DC), the chair of the caucus, Bill Cosby and others spoke about the importan…