Recommended Books for Reading

Call to Action!!

The Let Us Make Men Organization highly recommends that every member of the community begin to educate themselves and their families. The education process prepares us to take the journey in making our community and safe and decent place to live. The list of books are highly recommended reading and we will continue to add more. Please join us and feel free to recommend books that have impacted your life and work.

Book List and Authors

RECOMMENDED READS:

Black Men, Obsolete, Single, Dangerous?:

The Afrikan American Family in Transition

by Haki R. Madhubuti

Here is the seminal and critical work that helped solidify Haki Madhubuti as an informed, passionate, and caring commentator on Black life, culture, relationships, and the development and stability of the Black community. In Black Men, an integral text for anyone with vested interest in building healthy, thriving Black families and communities, Madhubuti takes aim at some of the critical issues facing the African American family. He offers useful, pointed, practical solutions for overcoming these obstacles and challenges.

Enemies: The Clash of Races

by Haki R. Madhubuti

This book presents an explosive collection of essays that call for Black consciousness and revolutionary action. The author examines Black nationalism, white minority rule, Pan-Africanism, the necessity for Black institutions and the role of the creative artist in Black struggle.

Know Thyself Paperback – December 1, 1988

by Na'im Akbar (Author), Asa G. Hilliard III (Foreword)

How wonderful it is to taught by a free teacher, a spiritual teacher, a member of our family who truly loves the family, an architect of transforming processes, a defender of African people, a beacon, a Son of Africa, a divine spirit manifesting our creative genius. Thousands of thousands of people know Dr. Na'im Akbar as a special treasure. This book is another important gift from him to us. It is our responsibility to study these thoughts, carefully. To follow these teachings is to guarantee our liberation and to guide us toward our destiny. From forward by Asa G. Hilliard, III, Calloway Professor of Education at Georgia State University, Atlanta.

Breaking the Chains of Psychological Slavery

By Dr. Na’im Akbar

Are African-Americans still slaves? Why can't Black folks get together? What is the psychological consequence for Blacks and Whites of picturing God as a Caucasian? Learn to break the chains of your mental slavery with this new book by one of the world's outstanding experts on the African-American mind.

The New Jim Crow

Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness

By Michelle Alexander · 2012

Once in a great while a book comes along that changes the way we see the world and helps to fuel a nationwide social movement. The New Jim Crow is such a book. Praised by Harvard Law professor Lani Guinier as "brave and bold," this book directly challenges the notion that the election of Barack Obama signals a new era of colorblindness. With dazzling candor, legal scholar Michelle Alexander argues that "we have not ended racial caste in America; we have merely redesigned it." By targeting black men through the War on Drugs and decimating communities of color, the U.S. criminal justice system functions as a contemporary system of racial control—relegating millions to a permanent second-class status—even as it formally adheres to the principle of colorblindness. In the words of Benjamin Todd Jealous, president and CEO of the NAACP, this book is a "call to action."