Books like 'A Wreath for Emmett Till'
Readers who enjoyed A Wreath for Emmett Till by Marilyn Nelson also liked the following books featuring the same tropes, story themes, relationship dynamics and character types.
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The Ways of White Folks by Langston Hughes
Rated: 4.44 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsOne of his best-known works, Hughes wrote The Ways of White Folks while living in Carmel, California. In it, he shares acrid and poignant stories of blacks colliding--sometimes humorously, but often tragically--with whites throughout the 1920s and 1930s...Categorized as:
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![The Weary Blues by Langston Hughes]()
The Weary Blues by Langston Hughes
Rated: 4.44 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsLangston Hughes's first book of poetry, including the following classic, poignant and moving Proem, The Weary Blues, Jazzonia, Negro Dancers, The Cat And The Saxophone (2 A.M... -
![Recitatif by Toni Morrison, Zadie Smith]()
Recitatif by Toni Morrison, Zadie Smith
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsA beautiful, arresting short story by Toni Morrison--the only one she ever wrote--about race and the relationships that shape us through life, with an introduction by Zadie Smith. Twyla and Roberta have known each other since they were eight years old and spent four months together as roommates in the St. Bonaventure shelter...Categorized as:
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![The Colours of Love by Rita Bradshaw]()
The Colours of Love by Rita Bradshaw
Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsCan love survive when all is lost? England is at war, but nothing can dim land girl Esther Wynford's happiness at marrying the love of her life - fighter pilot Monty Grant. Their short honeymoon results in a baby, but on the birth of her daughter, Joy, Esther's world falls apart... -
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![A Royal Visit to Victory Street by Pam Howes]()
A Royal Visit to Victory Street by Pam Howes
Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsFrom Amazon charts bestseller Pam Howes comes an emotional and uplifting saga about the power of family and a community trying to rebuild their lives after the terrible war that nearly destroyed everything…1956, Liverpool. With the shadow of the war looming over them and bomb craters littering the surrounding streets, hope feels far away for the residents of Victory Street... -
![Resistance by Jennifer A. Nielsen, Jesse Vilinsky]()
Resistance by Jennifer A. Nielsen, Jesse Vilinsky
Rated: 4.30 of 5 stars · 20 ratingsChaya Lindner is a teenager living in Nazi-occupied Poland. Simply being Jewish places her in danger of being killed or sent to the camps. After her little sister is taken away, her younger brother disappears, and her parents all but give up hope, Chaya is determined to make a difference... -
![Selected Poems by Langston Hughes]()
Selected Poems by Langston Hughes
Rated: 4.28 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsWith the publication of his first book of poems, The Weary Blues, in 1926, Langston Hughes electrified readers and launched a renaissance in black writing in America. The poems Hughes wrote celebrated the experience of invisible men and women: of slaves who "rushed the boots of Washington"; of musicians on Lenox Avenue; of the poor and the lovesick; of losers in "the raffle of night...Categorized as:
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![Prokleta avlija by Ivo Andrić, Celia Hawkesworth]()
Prokleta avlija by Ivo Andrić, Celia Hawkesworth
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 20 ratingsProkleta avlija/The Damned Yard (Description from Ivo Andrić Foundation website)The novel is written in 1954. Ćamil, a wealthy young man of Smyrna living in the last years of the Ottoman Empire, is fascinated by the story of Džem, ill-fated brother of the Sultan Bajazet, who ruled Turkey in the fifteenth century...Categorized as:
high-school historical-fiction 20th-century adult anthologies classics fiction historical -
![Midnight by Beverly Jenkins]()
Midnight by Beverly Jenkins
Rated: 4.40 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsIn a time of peril, she fears nothing—except the forbidden passions of her heart. In Boston, revolution is in the wind—yet none would ever suspect Faith Kingston of treason. But under cover of darkness, the beautiful daughter of a Tory tavern owner becomes the notorious spy “Lady Midnight,” passing valuable secrets to the rebels...Categorized as:
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![The Complete Short Stories of Ernest Hemingway by Ernest Hemingway, John Hemingway]()
The Complete Short Stories of Ernest Hemingway by Ernest Hemingway, John Hemingway
Rated: 4.14 of 5 stars · 29 ratingsTHE ONLY COMPLETE COLLECTION BY THE NOBEL PRIZE-WINNING AUTHOR In this definitive collection of Ernest Hemingway's short stories, readers will delight in the author's most beloved classics such as "The Snows of Kilimanjaro," "Hills Like White Elephants," and "A Clean, Well-Lighted Place," and will discover seven new tales published for the first time in this collection...Categorized as:
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![Assassins by Stephen Sondheim, John Weidman]()
Assassins by Stephen Sondheim, John Weidman
Rated: 4.21 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsEvoking a fraternity of political assassins and would-be assassins across a hundred years of our history, Sondheim and Weidman daringly examine success, failure and the questionable drive for power and celebrity in American society. "Dark, demented humor, as horrifying as it is hilarious... -
![Not Without Laughter by Langston Hughes]()
Not Without Laughter by Langston Hughes
Rated: 4.19 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsIn a poor town in Kansas, an African American family struggles. At its centre sits Sandy Rodgers - a young boy attempting to find purpose amid the chaos, meagreness and music of his surroundings...Categorized as:
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![Mrs. Wiggins by Mary Monroe]()
Mrs. Wiggins by Mary Monroe
Rated: 4.19 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsNew York Times bestselling author Mary Monroe returns to the Deep South Depression-era town of her scandalous Mama Ruby series, in this tale of a woman determined to have a respectable life--and she'll do anything to keep it...The daughter of a prostitute mother and an alcoholic father, Maggie Franklin knew her only way out was to marry someone upstanding and church-going... -
![Coming On Home Soon by Jacqueline Woodson]()
Coming On Home Soon by Jacqueline Woodson
Rated: 4.14 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsBeloved multi-award-winning author Jacqueline Woodson tells a timeless story set during World War II Ada Ruth's mama must go away to Chicago to work, leaving Ada Ruth and Grandma behind. It's war time, and women are needed to fill the men's jobs. As winter sets in, Ada Ruth and her grandma keep up their daily routine, missing Mama all the time...Categorized as:
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![Gem of the Ocean by August Wilson]()
Gem of the Ocean by August Wilson
Rated: 4.14 of 5 stars · 14 ratings“No one except perhaps Eugene O’Neill and Tennessee Williams has aimed so high and achieved so much in the American theater.”—John Lahr, The New Yorker“A swelling battle hymn of transporting beauty. Theatergoers who have followed August Wilson’s career will find in Gem a touchstone for everything else he has written.”—Ben Brantley, The New York Times“Wilson’s juiciest material... -
![Uncle Tom's Children by Richard Wright]()
Uncle Tom's Children by Richard Wright
Rated: 4.13 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsSet in the American Deep South, each of the powerful novellas collected here concerns an aspect of the lives of black people in the postslavery era, exploring their resistance to white racism and oppression. Published in 1938, this was the first book from Wright, who would continue on to worldwide fame as the author of the novels Native Son and Black Boy...Categorized as:
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![Prisoner of Love by Jean Genet]()
Prisoner of Love by Jean Genet
Rated: 4.13 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsStarting in 1970, Jean Genet—petty thief, prostitute, modernist master—spent two years in the Palestinian refugee camps in Jordan. Always an outcast himself, Genet was drawn to this displaced people, an attraction that was to prove as complicated for him as it was enduring... -
![Katerina's Wish by Jeannie Mobley]()
Katerina's Wish by Jeannie Mobley
Rated: 4.13 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsIn this moving debut, an immigrant girl discovers that hard work and determination can make dreams come true.Katerina has a dream. It's her papa's dream, too. Her family came to America to buy their own farm. But a year later, Papa is still working in the dangerous coal mine. Each day, the farm seems farther away.Then Katerina is reminded of the carp that granted three wishes in an old folktale... -
![I Been in Sorrow's Kitchen and Licked Out All the Pots by Susan Straight]()
I Been in Sorrow's Kitchen and Licked Out All the Pots by Susan Straight
Rated: 4.10 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsBeginning in the late 1950s, this novel tells the story of Marietta Cook, a tall girl growing up in Pine Gardens, a Gullah-speaking village in South Carolina. When Marietta's mother dies, she heads to Charleston in search of her uncle - only to find a lover and return pregnant with twins two years later... -
![A Pair of Wings by Carole Hopson]()
A Pair of Wings by Carole Hopson
Rated: 4.10 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsAn airline captain crafts a riveting, adventurous novel inspired by the remarkable true life of pioneer aviatrix Bessie Coleman, a Black woman who learned to fly at the dawn of aviation and found freedom in the air A few years after the Wright brothers’ first flight, Bessie was working the Texas cotton fields with her family when an airplane flew over their heads... -
![Lightning Men by Thomas Mullen]()
Lightning Men by Thomas Mullen
Rated: 4.07 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsFrom the acclaimed author of The Last Town on Earth comes the gripping follow-up to Darktown, a “combustible procedural that will knock the wind out of you” (The New York Times).Officer Denny Rakestraw, “Negro Officers” Lucius Boggs and Tommy Smith, and Sergeant McInnis have their hands full in an overcrowded and rapidly changing Atlanta... -
![Ernest Gaines reads excerpts from A Gathering of Old Men by Ernest J. Gaines]()
Ernest Gaines reads excerpts from A Gathering of Old Men by Ernest J. Gaines
Rated: 4.06 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsFollowing a brief introduction to his life and work, author Ernest Gaines reads excerpts from his novel A gathering of old men, which deals with the Black tenant farmers in a rural area east of Baton Rouge, La. He introduces the characters Snookum, Janey, Miss Merle, and Rufe in this reading...Categorized as:
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![Native Son by Richard Wright]()
Native Son by Richard Wright
Rated: 4.01 of 5 stars · 41 ratingsWright's powerful and bestselling masterpiece reflects the poverty and hopelessness of life in inner-city America--and what it is to be black in America. "This new edition give us a Native Son in which the key line in the key scene is restored to the great good fortune of American letters".--Los Angeles Times...Categorized as:
crime high-school historical-fiction poc-mc social-commentary tragedy university 20th-century -
![The Filling Station by Vanessa Miller]()
The Filling Station by Vanessa Miller
Rated: 4.30 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsTwo sisters. One unassuming haven. Endless opportunities for grace.During Jim Crow America, there was only one place Black Americans could safely refuel their vehicles along what would eventually become iconic Route 66. But more than just a place to refuel, it was a place to fill up the soul, build community, and find strength...Categorized as:
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![The Songbird and the Rambutan Tree by Lucille Abendanon]()
The Songbird and the Rambutan Tree by Lucille Abendanon
Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsBatavia, Dutch East Indies, 1942.Emmy has the voice of an angel but hasn’t sung a note since a family tragedy. With war looming, her father plans to ship her off to a singing school in England for safety. But all Emmy wants to do is stay in Batavia with her best friend, Bakti, even if it means putting up with her snooty classmate, Violet... -
![Babylon Revisited and Other Stories by F. Scott Fitzgerald, James L.W. West III]()
Babylon Revisited and Other Stories by F. Scott Fitzgerald, James L.W. West III
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsWritten between 1920 and 1937, when F. Scott Fitzgerald was at the height of his creative powers, these ten lyric tales represent some of the author's finest fiction...Categorized as:
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![Gathering of Waters by Bernice L. McFadden]()
Gathering of Waters by Bernice L. McFadden
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsGathering of Waters is a deeply engrossing tale narrated by the town of Money, Mississippi--a site both significant and infamous in our collective story as a nation. Money is personified in this haunting story, which chronicles its troubled history following the arrival of the Hilson and Bryant families.Tass Hilson and Emmett Till were young and in love when Emmett was brutally murdered in 1955...Categorized as:
black-mc historical-fiction poc-mc social-commentary true-crime 20th-century adult audiobook -
![The Man Who Lived Underground by Richard Wright]()
The Man Who Lived Underground by Richard Wright
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsA major literary event: an explosive, previously unpublished novel from the 1940s by the legendary author of Native Son and Black Boy. Fred Daniels, a black man, is picked up randomly by the police after a brutal murder in a Chicago neighborhood and taken to the local precinct where he is tortured until he confesses to a crime he didn't commit...Categorized as:
historical-fiction social-commentary university black-mc poc-mc fiction classics literary-fiction -
![A Jury Of Her Peers by Susan Glaspell]()
A Jury Of Her Peers by Susan Glaspell
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsTwo women uncover the truth in a rural murder investigation...Categorized as:
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![The Watsons Go to Birmingham - 1963 by Christopher Paul Curtis]()
The Watsons Go to Birmingham - 1963 by Christopher Paul Curtis
Rated: 3.98 of 5 stars · 34 ratingsThe Newbery Honor-winning American classic, The Watsons Go to Birmingham--1963 , celebrates 20 years with this anniversary edition featuring a special letter from Christopher Paul Curtis and an introduction by noted educator Dr. Pauletta Bracy. Enter the hilarious world of ten-year-old Kenny and his family, the Weird Watsons of Flint, Michigan...Categorized as:
black-mc children high-school historical-fiction poc-mc social-commentary university 20th-century -
![Strange Fruit by Lillian E. Smith]()
Strange Fruit by Lillian E. Smith
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsWhen it was first published in 1944, this novel sparked immediate controversy and became a huge bestseller. It captured with devastating accuracy the deep-seated racial conflicts of a tightly knit southern town. The book is as engrossing and incendiary now as the day it was written...Categorized as:
historical-fiction social-commentary crime black-mc poc-mc fiction classics historical -
![Ravensong by Lee Maracle]()
Ravensong by Lee Maracle
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsLee Maracle, author of the best-selling I Am Woman: A Native Perspective on Sociology and Feminism, sets this novel in an urban Native American community on the Pacific Northwest coast in the early 1950s. Ravensong is by turns damning, humorous, inspirational, and prophetic...Categorized as:
historical-fiction poc-mc social-commentary 20th-century adult anthologies female-author fiction -
![Leaving Gee's Bend by Irene Latham]()
Leaving Gee's Bend by Irene Latham
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsLudelphia Bennett may be blind in one eye, but she can still put in a good stitch. Ludelphia sews all the time, especially when things go wrong. But when Mama goes into labor early and gets deathly ill, it seems like even quilting won't help. That's when Ludelphia decides to do something drastic--leave Gee's Bend for the very first time... -
![La bambina col falcone by Bianca Pitzorno]()
La bambina col falcone by Bianca Pitzorno
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsTempo di crociate. Anche i più giovani sognano la Grande Avventura del viaggio nel paese di Outremer, luogo esotico e misterioso abitato da emiri e sultani infedeli, teatro di eroiche battaglie e assedi vittoriosi...Categorized as:
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![Passing by Samaria by Sharon Ewell Foster]()
Passing by Samaria by Sharon Ewell Foster
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsWhen the discovery of a schoolmate's lynched body puts her own life in jeopardy, Alena is sent by her parents from her beloved Mississippi home. With thousands of other African-Americans, Alena begins making her way north to the Promised Land of turn-of-the-century Chicago...Categorized as:
black-mc historical-fiction poc-mc social-commentary 20th-century book christian fiction -
![Sue Barton, Superintendent of Nurses by Helen Dore Boylston]()
Sue Barton, Superintendent of Nurses by Helen Dore Boylston
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsNew softcover edition. Unabridged, original text, original cover art. Sue Barton, Superintendent of Nurses. With her student days behind her and her career well underway, Sue and Bill, now married, together try to run a little hospital in the New England hills that was presented to the community by the town's wealthiest citizen, Elias Todd...Categorized as:
children historical-fiction 20th-century book fiction historical medical young-adult -
![A Lesson Before Dying by Ernest J. Gaines]()
A Lesson Before Dying by Ernest J. Gaines
Rated: 3.97 of 5 stars · 33 ratingsA Lesson Before Dying is set in a small Cajun community in the late 1940s. Jefferson, a young black man, is an unwitting party to a liquor store shoot out in which three men are killed; the only survivor, he is convicted of murder and sentenced to death. Grant Wiggins, who left his hometown for the university, has returned to the plantation school to teach...Categorized as:
crime high-school historical-fiction poc-mc social-commentary tragedy university 20th-century -
![Such a Long Journey by Rohinton Mistry]()
Such a Long Journey by Rohinton Mistry
Rated: 3.96 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsIt is Bombay in 1971, the year India went to war over what was to become Bangladesh. A hard-working bank clerk, Gustad Noble is a devoted family man who gradually sees his modest life unravelling. His young daughter falls ill; his promising son defies his father’s ambitions for him. He is the one reasonable voice amidst the ongoing dramas of his neighbours...Categorized as:
crime historical-fiction poc-mc social-commentary university 20th-century action-adventure adult -
![Death and the Maiden by Ariel Dorfman]()
Death and the Maiden by Ariel Dorfman
Rated: 3.94 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsAriel Dorfman's explosively provocative, award-winning drama is set in a country that has only recently returned to democracy. Gerardo Escobar has just been chosen to head the commission that will investigate the crimes of the old regime when his car breaks down and he is picked up by the humane doctor Roberto Miranda...Categorized as:
high-school historical-fiction poc-mc tragedy university 20th-century adult audiobook -
![Kent State by Deborah Wiles]()
Kent State by Deborah Wiles
Rated: 3.94 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsAn exploration of one of the darkest moments in our history, when American troops killed four American students protesting the Vietnam War.May 4, 1970.Kent State University.As protestors roil the campus, National Guardsmen are called in. In the chaos of what happens next, shots are fired and four students are killed. To this day, there is still argument of what happened and why...Categorized as:
children crime grief high-school historical-fiction social-commentary true-crime university -
![Ma Rainey's Black Bottom by August Wilson, Frank Rich]()
Ma Rainey's Black Bottom by August Wilson, Frank Rich
Rated: 3.94 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsThe time is 1927. The place is a rundown recording studio in jazz-era Chicago. Ma Rainey, the legendary blues singer, is due to arrive with her entourage to cut new sides of old favorites. Waiting for her are her black musician sidemen, the white owner of the record company, and her white manager. What goes down in the session to come is more than music...Categorized as:
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![Joe Turner's Come and Gone by August Wilson]()
Joe Turner's Come and Gone by August Wilson
Rated: 3.94 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsHerald Loomis turns up at a boardinghouse to look for his missing wife...Categorized as:
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![If He Hollers Let Him Go by Chester Himes, Hilton Als]()
If He Hollers Let Him Go by Chester Himes, Hilton Als
Rated: 3.93 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsThis story of a man living every day in fear of his life for simply being black is as powerful today as it was when it was first published in 1947. The novel takes place in the space of four days in the life of Bob Jones, a black man who is constantly plagued by the effects of racism... -
![No Crystal Stair: A Documentary Novel of the Life and Work of Lewis Michaux, Harlem Bookseller by Vaunda Micheaux Nelson]()
No Crystal Stair: A Documentary Novel of the Life and Work of Lewis Michaux, Harlem Bookseller by Vaunda Micheaux Nelson
Rated: 3.93 of 5 stars · 14 ratings"You can't walk straight on a crooked line. You do you'll break your leg. How can you walk straight in a crooked system?"Lewis Michaux was born to do things his own way. When a white banker told him to sell fried chicken, not books, because "Negroes don't read," Lewis took five books and one hundred dollars and built a bookstore...Categorized as:
historical-fiction poc-mc social-commentary children high-school young-adult historical fiction -
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![Monticello: A Daughter and Her Father by Sally Cabot Gunning]()
Monticello: A Daughter and Her Father by Sally Cabot Gunning
Rated: 3.92 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsFrom the critically acclaimed author of The Widow's War comes a captivating work of literary historical fiction that explores the tenuous relationship between a brilliant and complex father and his devoted daughter—Thomas Jefferson and Martha Jefferson Randolph... -
![Black Bottom Saints by Alice Randall]()
Black Bottom Saints by Alice Randall
Rated: 3.92 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsAn enthralling literary tour-de-force that pays tribute to Detroit's legendary neighborhood, a mecca for jazz, sports, and politics, Black Bottom Saints is a powerful blend of fact and imagination reminiscent of E.L. Doctorow's classic novel Ragtime and Marlon James' Man Booker Award-winning masterpiece, A Brief History of Seven Killings...Categorized as:
historical-fiction social-commentary black-mc poc-mc fiction historical literary-fiction audiobook -
![Flame Tree Road by Shona Patel]()
Flame Tree Road by Shona Patel
Rated: 3.90 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsFrom the acclaimed author of Teatime for the Firefly comes the story of a man with dreams of changing the world, who finds himself changed by love 1870s India. In a tiny village where society is ruled by a caste system and women are defined solely by marriage, young Biren Roy dreams of forging a new destiny...Categorized as:
historical-fiction poc-mc social-commentary 20th-century action-adventure adult book family -
![The House By The Loch by Kirsty Wark]()
The House By The Loch by Kirsty Wark
Rated: 3.90 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsFrom the bestselling author of The Legacy of Elizabeth Pringle, a novel of long-hidden family secrets that refuse to lie buried in the past . . .Scotland 1950sWalter MacMillan is bewitched by the clever, glamorous Jean Thompson and can't believe his luck when she agrees to marry him... -
![Oxherding Tale by Charles R. Johnson]()
Oxherding Tale by Charles R. Johnson
Rated: 3.88 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsOne night in the antebellum South, a slave owner and his African-American butler stay up to all hours until, too drunk to face their wives, they switch places in each other's beds. The result is a hilarious imbroglio and an offspring -- Andrew Hawkins, whose life becomes Oxherding Tale...Categorized as:
black-mc historical-fiction poc-mc social-commentary university 20th-century action-adventure adult -
![Carolina Skeletons by David Stout]()
Carolina Skeletons by David Stout
Rated: 3.83 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsIn 1944, Linus Bragg, a 14-year-old black student, is accused of killing two white girls and condemned to the electric chair. Forty-four years later, Bragg's nephew travels to South Carolina to discover the truth--and finds himself on the Wanted List and fighting for his own freedom! HC: Mysterious Press...
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