Happy February, and welcome to Black History Month! At UMass Press, we celebrate Black history all year long, but this month we’re paying special attention to our Black history books, because there’s a lot to celebrate.
A New Black History Series
Last fall, we published the first two titles in our new series, Black New England. This interdisciplinary series seeks to publish original, groundbreaking research that critically examines the experiences of African-descended people in New England from the era of colonization to the present day. The series editors are particularly interested in work that centers on the Black experience in New England and that considers Black people to be key agents in the region’s history, economy, culture, politics, and society.
One of the first titles in the series, Captain Paul Cuffe, Yeoman: A Biography by Jeffrey A. Fortin tells the story of one of the Black founding fathers and the most celebrated African-American sea captain during the Age of Sail.
The other inaugural title in the series, The Precious Birthright: Black Leaders and the Fight to Vote in Antebellum Rhode Island by CJ Martin, shows how Black Rhode Islanders secured the right to vote, telling the story of a fight that was as important to the pioneers of interracial democracy as it was for the civil rights activists of the twentieth century.
This April, UMass Press is publishing the third title in the new series. The Divided North: Black and White Families in the Age of Slavery by Carol R. Gardner is an intimate biography of two Portland, Maine families—one Black and one white—as they navigate the turbulent 1800s.
The African American Intellectual History Series
Active since 2018, the African American Intellectual History Series publishes works that offer a global and interdisciplinary approach to the study of Black intellectual traditions and illuminate patterns of Black thought across historical periods, geographical regions, and Black communities. Featuring new, activist, and innovative scholarship as well as more established approaches, African American Intellectual History provides a strong foundation for anyone interested in a diverse, diasporic, and expansive understanding of intellectual history.
The most recent title in the series is Patrick Parr’s Malcolm Before X. Named a Kirkus Reviews Best Nonfiction Book of 2024, a Spectator Best Book of the Year, and a Finalist for the 2025 ASALH Book Prize, this biography is the definitive examination of the early life and prison years of civil rights icon Malcolm X. Recently reviewed in The Guardian and Jacobin, among others, Malcolm Before X is a necessary addition to your bookshelf.
Other recent titles in the series include Unveiling the Color Line: W. E. B. Du Bois on the Problem of Whiteness, Lisa J. McLeod’s investigation of Du Bois’s complex and nuanced insights into whiteness and white supremacy, and When Will the Joy Come?: Black Women in the Ivory Tower, a collection of essays that ponder how Black women balance fatigue and frustrations in academia, edited by Robin Phylisia Chapdelaine, Abena Ampofoa Asare and Michelle Dionne Thompson.
Other Black History titles
Looking for more Black History titles? Here are a few of our favorites.
The New Civil Rights Movement Reader: Resistance, Resilience, and Justice, edited by Traci Parker and Marcia Walker-McWilliams, is the most diverse, most inclusive, and most comprehensive resource available for teaching and learning about the civil rights movement. Moving from the labor struggles of the 1930s to the sit-ins and boycotts of midcentury, and the Black Lives Matter protests of today, this expansive volume brings together first-person accounts, political documents and speeches, and historical photographs from each region of the country.
Black Lives, Native Lands, White Worlds: A History of Slavery in New England by Jared Ross Hardesty focuses on the individual stories of enslaved people, bringing their experiences to life. It also explores larger issues such as the importance of slavery to the colonization of the region and to agriculture and industry, New England’s deep connections to Caribbean plantation societies, and the significance of emancipation movements in the era of the American Revolution. Thoroughly researched and engagingly written, Black Lives, Native Lands, White Worlds is a must-read for anyone interested in the history of New England.
Writing Themselves into the Movement: Child Authors of the Black Arts Era by Amy Fish examines child-authored texts of the Black Arts Movement within the context of their literary production and reception. These young writers were often supervised and edited by white adults, raising concerns about the authenticity and agency of their voices. Fish contends that young authors themselves shared these concerns and that they employed savvy rhetorical strategies of address, temporality, and trope to self-consciously interrogate the perils and possibilities of their adult-influenced work.
While this list is certainly not exhaustive, we hope you’ll pick up a title or two to expore.
