Back in the beginning days of America's Civil War, the women of the small town of Marlette, Michigan, in the very heart of the Thumb wanted to show their support of President Lincoln and the Union forces in some small way. They collectively designed and sewed a huge Union flag of 34 stars, four rows of eight with an extra star at the end in between each two rows. This precious flag was then given to a gentleman they knew who lived just to the south who was leaving for the war. Color Sergeant Thomas Henry Sheppard's story, along with that of the Battle Flag of Company E, First Michigan Cavalry, is one of the most incredible true stories to ever come out of the Civil War. The Detroit Free Press back in the 1880's called it "an episode of the Civil War which has a strong coloring of Romance", as the Press told of how the colors of the First Michigan Cavalry were protected as the red, white and blue bunting became more and more tattered and sun-faded and bullet-ridden, and still the flag "assumed a dignity and interest even beyond that which the colors have of their own right to every loyal man". Thomas' account intersects with the lives of two of the War's most famous Generals and is written by a close relative of the third. The Color Sergeant took the colors and with his regiment carried them to the front lines where they saw hot service, and from which many did not return. In his words, the 1st Michigan "fought through the Shenandoah, on Banks' advance and retreat, in the campaigns of Pope and Burnside, and did yeoman service at the Battle of Gettysburg. They were under fire twice at Winchester, at Middletown, Strasburg, Harrisonburg, Occoquan and Thoroughfare Gap." Sheppard and his flag survived 13 major battles, over 100 skirmishes and 16 months of war. Thomas, following right behind his flamboyant new General Custer, led the First Michigan Cavalry into the most famous cavalry charge of the entire war as they stopped the Confederacy short of their certain victory in Pickett's Charge at Gettysburg on July 3, 1863. Alas, Thomas and his beloved flag went down in that fight, and he became a Prisoner-of-War, spending the next 505 days in prisons of the South, including that Hell hole, ANDERSONVILLE. While all that is stunning enough, the rest of Sheppard's story is almost beyond belief.as many years later he has a chance encounter with the Civil War's most famous Volunteer General "Black Jack" Logan at the train station in Marlette during Logan's whistle-stop campaign for the Vice-Presidency of the United States. Thomas' precious flag with 72 bullet holes.that old flag is now the proudest possession of the Dearborn Historical Museum, in the Commandant's Quarters at the Detroit Arsenal, now Sgt. John S. Cosbey Camp 427, Sons of Union Veterans of the Civil War (SUVCW), where Thomas and the First Michigan Cavalry received their war supplies. He kept the colors.

In 1959, a Black man named Eldrewey Stearns was beaten by Houston police after being stopped for a traffic violation. He was not the first to suffer such brutality, but the incident sparked Stearns’s conscience and six months later he was leading the first sit-in west of the Mississippi River. No Color Is My Kind, first published in 1997, introduced readers to Stearns, including his work as a civil rights leader and lawyer in Houston’s desegregation movement between 1959 and 1963. This remarkable and important history, however, was nearly lost to bipolar affective disorder. Stearns was a fifty-two-year-old patient in a Galveston psychiatric hospital when Thomas Cole first met him in 1984. Over the course of a decade, Cole and Stearns slowly recovered the details of Stearns’s life before his slide into mental illness, writing a story that is more relevant today than ever. In this new edition, Cole fills in the gaps between the late 1990s and now, providing an update on the progress of civil rights in Houston and Stearns himself. He also reflects on his tumultuous and often painful collaboration with Stearns, challenging readers to be part of his journey to understand the struggles of a Black man’s complex life. At once poignant, tragic, and emotionally charged, No Color Is My Kind is essential reading as the current movement for racial reconciliation gathers momentum.

The classic, definitive title on the great Black figures in world history, beginning in antiquity and reaching into the modern age. World’s Great Men of Color is the comprehensive guide to the most noteworthy Black personalities in world history and their significance. J.A. Rogers spent the majority of his lifetime pioneering the field of Black studies with his exhaustive research on the major names in Black history whose contributions or even very existence have been glossed over. Well-written and informative, World’s Great Men of Color is an enlightening and important historical work.

"A deathbed shouldn't be the peacemaker in this family." Fifteen-year-old Renee Steele never understood what PaPa's words meant, until she's caught in the middle of a growing battle between her two older cousins. Their clashing attitudes regarding skin tone, trigger a sensitive nerve in their Grandma Bell. As tension mounts between the three girls, Grandma Bell detects trouble returning from the grave. She’s determined to stop it, and takes the girls on a quest back in time to do it. Her narrative begins with her secret courtship and eloping with Pa-Pa, “Buck Steele”, because their fathers are archenemies. Due to a lack of money, the newlyweds are forced to live with Buck’s parents, Silas and Emma. Grandma Bell's newlywed dreams turn into her worst nightmare, as she begins her married life as the despised dark-skinned daughter-in-law. Her presence does more than anger her in-laws…it haunts them!

The Sandman is a fictional character, a popular figure in Western folklore that brings good sleep and dreams by sprinkling magical sand onto the eyes of children. Or so the legend goes; but no one should believe in legends. The Sandman slips through houses in search of nightmares, intending to kill them with his lustrous dagger. There is more to the Sandman than typical humans can believe. There is a world of mysterious Sand Recruits, hourglasses that toll the brink of death, nightmares that prey on tears, and sands. Is the Sandman really a fictional character? Believe what you want. We have our own convictions. This is our story. -Angela Rooiakker, Michael Rooiakker, Scottie Rooiakker, and Leo Belmont

An eclectic anthology of contemporary nature writing from the Southwest, including nonfiction, fiction, field notes, and poetry, through which artists of diverse backgrounds both celebrate and illuminate the vitality and complexity of southwestern nature and literature.

Collects biographies of outstanding Blacks from all over the world, from Marcus Garvey to Akhenaton.

Portraits of 20 distinguished African-Americans by the co-founder of the NAACP.