African American Wellness

According to the federal Office of Minority Health, African Americans "are affected by serious diseases and health conditions at far greater rates than other Americans". In fact, African Americans suffer an estimated 85,000 excess deaths every year from diseases we know how to prevent: heart disease, stroke, cancer, high blood pressure, and diabetes. In this important and accessible book, Dr. Michelle Gourdine provides African Americans with the knowledge and guidance they need to take charge of their wellbeing.

Step into a world of ancient wisdom and mystical practices, where the secrets of self-transformation and holistic wellness await your discovery. Immerse yourself in the forgotten remedies and lost traditions that have guided black women and curious others towards deep inner health and cultural empowerment for centuries.

This first-of-its-kind herbal guide takes you through the origins of herbal practices rooted in African American tradition—from Ancient Egypt and the African tropics to the Caribbean and the United States. Inside you'll find the stories of herbal healers like Emma Dupree and Henrietta Jeffries, who made modern American herbalism what it is today. After rediscovering the forgotten legacies of these healers, African American Herbalism dives into the important contributions they made to the world of herbalism.

African American Slave Medicine offers a critical examination of how African American slaves' medical needs were addressed during the years before and surrounding the Civil War. Drawing upon ex-slave interviews conducted during the 1930s and 1940s by the Works Project Administration (WPA), Dr. Herbert C. Covey inventories many of the herbal, plant, and non-plant remedies used by African American folk practitioners during slavery.

Ida B. Wells is an American icon of truth telling. Born to slaves, she was a pioneer of investigative journalism, a crusader against lynching, and a tireless advocate for suffrage, both for women and for African Americans. She cofounded the NAACP, started the Alpha Suffrage Club in Chicago, and was a leader in the early civil rights movement. This engaging memoir relates Wells’ private life as a mother as well as her public activities as a teacher, lecturer, and journalist in her fight for equality and justice.

The classic work on American racism and the struggle for racial justice In Faces at the Bottom of the Well, civil rights activist and legal scholar Derrick Bell uses allegory and historical example to argue that racism is an integral and permanent part of American society. African American...

Winner of the 2019 American Association for the History of Nursing Lavinia L. Dock Award for Exemplary Historical Research and Writing in a Book.

“Catchin’ babies” was merely one aspect of the broad role of African American midwives in the twentieth-century South. Yet, little has been written about the type of care they provided or how midwifery and maternity care evolved under the increasing presence of local and federal health care structures.

The reality is that although many Black clients will not zero in on the impact of racism in their lives, ignoring the issue of race in therapy leaves a very large elephant in the room. And you can't build rapport with elephants in the room. So what do you do? In No Racial Elephants in the Therapy Room, Dr. Rheeda Walker provides the answer to this question.

On October 20, 1973, in San Francisco, a White couple strolling down Telegraph Hill was set upon and butchered by four young Black men. Thus began a reign of terror that lasted six months and left 15 Whites dead and the entire city in a state of panic. The perpetrators wanted nothing less than a race war.

Menopause. It shouldn’t be a dirty word, especially as virtually half of the population will go through it at some point in their lives. It is a part of womanhood we can't avoid, so it’s about time we talk about it, embrace it, and be honest with ourselves and others about our unique journeys. Not only will sharing and discussing our concerns, questions, and laughable moments help our fellow menopausal sisters learn and relate, but younger women will feel guided and prepared for what is yet to come.

Medical Apartheid is the first and only comprehensive history of medical experimentation on African Americans. Starting with the earliest encounters between black Americans and Western medical researchers and the racist pseudoscience that resulted, it details the ways both slaves and freedmen were used in hospitals for experiments conducted without their knowledge - a tradition that continues today within some black populations.

Another powerful story in the Logan Family Saga and companion to Mildred D. Taylor's Newbery Award-winning Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry. For David Logan, a time of distress means taking the higher road. During a drought, the Logan family shares their well water with their neighbors, black and...

The definitive short story collection that established Ernest Hemingway's literary reputation, originally published in 1938. Ernest Hemingway is a cultural icon—an archetype of rugged masculinity, a romantic ideal of the intellectual in perpetual exile—but, to his countless readers...

Hey there! Let's talk about something real, something important: mental health in our African American communities. We all know it's crucial, but sometimes the conversation gets pushed aside, buried under layers of stigma and unspoken truths. Well, not now. In this book we will learn why prioritizing mental well-being matters more than ever and how we can collectively empower ourselves and each other to thrive. Think about it: we juggle a lot. From systemic challenges to everyday stresses, the weight can feel heavy.

This book offers a unique, interdisciplinary, and thoughtful look at the challenges and potency of Black women's struggle for inner peace and mental stability. It brings together contributors from psychology, sociology, law, and medicine, as well as the humanities, to discuss issues ranging from stress, sexual assault, healing, self-care, and contemplative practice to health-policy considerations and parenting.

In the United States at the turn of the nineteenth century, crusading African American journalist Ida B. Wells-Barnett bravely reported on the scourge of white supremacist violence that had personally impacted her own life and work. Her reporting exposed and riled the South, enlightened uninformed Northerners, and captured international attention. Southern Horrors and The Red Record offer extensive accounts of the lynching, cruelty, and hate that African Americans faced in the early years of the Jim Crow South.

There is an unaddressed Black mental health crisis in our world today. In The Unapologetic Guide to Black Mental Health, psychologist Reeda Walker offers a comprehensive guide to help African Americans combat stigma, increase awareness around mental illness, practice emotional wellness, and get the best care possible for Black people in an unequal system.

A Sorceress’s Vengeance. A Prince’s Betrayal. A Fate Neither Can Escape. A dying prince. A vengeful shadow sorceress. A cursed journey to the Well of Souls, where the dead may rise—but only at the cost of the living. Prince Cassius Sandmont was never meant to survive. Poisoned and bound by dark magic, he is forced to travel with Nyah, the last of the dark sorceresses, to a place where life and death collide. But what begins as a desperate quest for survival soon unravels into something far more dangerous. Nyah has spent her life chasing vengeance, her heart set on restoring the ...

In 1932, the US Public Health Service recruited 623 African American men from Macon County, Alabama, for a study of "the effects of untreated syphilis in the Negro male". For the next 40 years - even after the development of penicillin, the cure for syphilis - these men were denied medical care for this potentially fatal disease.

A profound new rendering of the struggle by African-Americans for equality after the Civil War and the violent counter-revolution that resubjugated them, as seen through the prism of the war of images and ideas that have left an enduring racist stain on the American mind. The abolition of...