Last week, we started the Marcus Garvey Reading Challenge with history. This week, we move into our second category: biographies.

I am Richard A. Ryles, a personal injury attorney for my people in Florida and a source for book recommendations and history for my people everywhere.

Biographies are important because history does not move by itself. People move it.

People build institutions. People challenge systems. People make mistakes, take risks, organize movements, build businesses and decide whether they are willing to sacrifice something for the generations coming behind them.

A good biography allows us to see more than the final accomplishment. It shows us the decisions, opposition, contradictions and circumstances that shaped the person.

This is especially important for Black history and culture because our people are too often presented as symbols instead of complete human beings. We hear the speech, but not what happened before the person reached the podium. We celebrate the victory, but do not study the years of preparation, strategy and failure that made the victory possible.

Biography puts the humanity back into history.

It reminds us that the people we admire were not born as monuments. They became who they were through choices.

Here are my recommendations for Week Two.

Crossroads: A Memoir in Baseball and Life by Dusty Baker

If you really want to understand what happened behind the scenes in Major League Baseball, and why Black Americans are no longer as visible a part of the baseball story, read this book by my godfather, Dusty Baker.

Dusty did not watch baseball history from the outside. He lived it. He played alongside legends, learned under men such as Hank Aaron, became a respected manager and experienced the changing relationship between Major League Baseball and Black America.

This is a baseball book, but it is also a book about leadership, mentorship, race, perseverance and learning how to make the right decision when life brings you to a crossroads.

Why Should White Guys Have All the Fun? by Reginald F. Lewis and Blair S. Walker

Everybody keeps telling me that I do not recommend enough books about money and finance, so here you go.

Reginald F. Lewis was a lawyer, businessman and Wall Street titan who built a global billion-dollar business empire. This biography follows his journey from Baltimore to Harvard Law School and eventually to the purchase of Beatrice International Foods.

The book shows what confidence looks like when it is supported by preparation. It also shows the importance of legal knowledge, access to capital, strategic thinking and being willing to enter rooms where nobody expects to see you.

We need to study Black wealth. Not just to count somebody else’s money, but to understand how businesses are acquired, how deals are structured and how economic power is built.

The Immortal Jim Crow: Growing Up Under the System That Still Haunts Us Today by Richard A. Ryles

Of course, I am going to recommend my own book.

People like to speak about Jim Crow in the past tense. I do not.

The Immortal Jim Crow explains what it was like to grow up Black in Florida during the late 1960s and early 1970s. It examines the laws, customs, institutions and attitudes that created Jim Crow, and why so many of those conditions did not simply disappear when the laws changed.

This book combines my personal story with the larger history of the system around me. It connects what happened in our neighborhoods, schools and courtrooms to the racial structure that continues to influence America today.

You cannot understand where we are until you understand what we were raised under.

The Second Emancipation: Nkrumah, Pan-Africanism, and Global Blackness at High Tide by Howard W. French

I have covered this book numerous times, but it deserves another recommendation.

Howard W. French gives us one of the most complete modern accounts of Kwame Nkrumah and the Pan-African movement in both Africa and the United States.

This is not simply a biography of one Ghanaian leader. It is a book about African independence, colonialism and the international movement that connected Black people across continents. It helps explain the relationship between African liberation and the Black freedom struggle in America.

Too often, we study Black American history as though it developed in isolation. It did not. Our movements have always communicated with, learned from and influenced people throughout the African world.

Mansa Musa and the Empire of Mali by P. James Oliver

There is an old joke about a man who wrote a check so large that the check did not bounce. The bank did.

Well, Mansa Musa bounced the bank.

P. James Oliver tells the story of Mansa Musa, the emperor who led Mali into its Golden Age. During his reign, Mansa Musa completed a spectacular 9,000-mile pilgrimage with approximately 60,000 people, founded a university in Timbuktu and helped transform architecture across the Sudan.

This book does more than tell us how wealthy Mansa Musa was. It explains the strength, organization and complexity of the Empire of Mali. At its height, Mali was approximately the size of Western Europe. It was a powerful commercial empire with established systems of government, education, trade and culture.

Oliver makes this history easy to follow without stripping it of its importance. The book includes drawings, maps, photographs and a glossary that help readers better understand medieval Mali and the people who lived there.

This is an excellent book for young people and anyone interested in understanding Black people before slavery.

For too many people, Black history begins with slavery.

It does not.

Many of the African ancestors of today’s African Americans came from West Africa, a region that was once home to powerful and prosperous empires. Before our people were placed in chains, we governed nations, controlled trade routes, founded centers of learning and built civilizations.

Our children need to know that history. Adults need to know it too.

We Want Freedom: A Life in the Black Panther Party by Mumia Abu-Jamal

This is an excellent book by a man who gives us a detailed, firsthand understanding of the Black Panther Party and its origins in the United States.

The Panthers are usually reduced to leather jackets, afros and guns. That is what happens when history is stripped of its context.

Mumia Abu-Jamal discusses the political ideas, community work, organizing, internal challenges and government repression surrounding the Party. He helps readers understand why the organization developed and why so many young Black people believed that more direct action was necessary.

You do not have to agree with every decision made by a historical figure or organization to study it seriously. The purpose of reading is to understand before we judge.

Assata: An Autobiography by Assata Shakur

This is the book I am reading this week.

Assata Shakur tells the story of her childhood, her political development, her involvement in the Black liberation movement, her trial, imprisonment, escape and eventual life in Cuba.

What interests me is not only what happened to Assata, but how she explains the experiences that shaped her. Autobiography gives a person the opportunity to tell a story that governments, newspapers and political opponents may have already told for them.

I have heard excellent things about this book, and I am looking forward to reading it for myself.

Your Assignment

You do not have to read all seven books.

Choose one.

One biography. One life. One week.

Read closely. Take notes. Pay attention to the decisions the person made, the system that surrounded them and the lessons their life offers us today.

Then comment with the name of the book you selected.

Do not comment that you are “thinking about” joining the challenge.

Name the book.

We are not reading simply to say that we finished. We are reading to become more difficult to deceive. We are reading so that the names, experiences and strategies of our people are not forgotten.

Every day that you do not learn something new is a wasted day.

Let us get to work.

There is a difference between gathering information and educating yourself.

Information passes through your mind. Education changes how you think, how you make decisions, how you raise your children, how you conduct your business, and how you serve your community.

That is the purpose of the Marcus Garvey Reading Challenge.

Marcus Garvey instructed our people to use their spare time wisely and to read at least one book every week. His calculation was simple: one book a week produces 52 completed books in one year and more than 250 books in five years. That level of disciplined study will separate the prepared from the unprepared and the informed from the easily misled.

Let me be clear: this is not a challenge for people who simply enjoy purchasing books, displaying books or telling others that they intend to read.

This is a challenge for people who are prepared to finish books, examine ideas and strengthen their minds.

The Four Categories

The framework for this challenge is built around four necessary areas of study.

1. History Builds Identity

A people who do not understand their history will eventually accept somebody else’s explanation of who they are.

History teaches us where we came from, what was taken from us, what we built, what we survived and what we are capable of building again. It helps us recognize patterns in politics, education, economics and culture.

When another group controls your historical narrative, they can determine who is called a hero, who is labeled a criminal, whose suffering is remembered and whose accomplishments are erased.

That is why we begin with history. Before you can properly determine where you are going, you must understand where you have been.

2. Biography Teaches Leadership

Biography allows us to study the decisions of men and women who faced pressure, opposition, failure and responsibility.

A serious biography does more than praise a successful person. It shows us the sacrifices behind the accomplishments. It reveals mistakes, weaknesses, strategies and turning points.

Leadership is not learned through slogans. It is learned by examining how leaders behaved when the decision was difficult, the opposition was organized and the consequences were real.

3. Science Builds Infrastructure

No nation is built on emotion alone.

Strong communities require engineers, physicians, researchers, architects, agricultural experts, mathematicians, inventors and technology professionals. Science teaches us how to solve material problems and create systems that improve people’s lives.

We must understand health, energy, transportation, food production, construction, data and technology. A people who consume everything and produce nothing will always remain dependent upon those who control the infrastructure.

4. Philosophy Creates Ideology

Philosophy teaches us how to examine truth, morality, justice, power, responsibility and human purpose.

Every institution operates according to a philosophy, whether its members recognize it or not. Every political system, school, business and family structure is built upon ideas about how people should live and what they should value.

Without a philosophy, we merely react to whatever happens around us. With a sound philosophy, we can establish principles, judge competing ideas and move with direction.

History gives us identity. Biography gives us examples of leadership. Science gives us the ability to build. Philosophy gives us the ideas that determine what we will build and why.

Put together, these areas of study help develop a strong, disciplined and intelligent Black community.

Why One Book Every Week?

Reading one book a week requires structure.

You must select your book, establish a daily reading schedule and protect that time. You cannot wait until you “feel like” reading. Serious people do not allow every mood, television program, social-media argument or unnecessary conversation to control their schedule.

The objective is not to rush carelessly through a book. The objective is to develop the discipline to engage with a complete argument every week.

Take notes. Underline important passages. Look up unfamiliar names and words. Question the author. Compare the author’s claims with other sources. At the end of the week, you should be able to explain what the book taught you and whether you agree with its conclusions.

We are not reading simply to say that we finished.

We are reading to become more difficult to deceive.

This Week’s Category: History

Our first assignment is a history book.

You may select any credible history book that challenges you and increases your understanding. Below are the books recommended in the video as possible selections.

The Message by Ta-Nehisi Coates

Coates examines how the stories societies tell—and the stories they refuse to tell—shape public understanding and political reality. This is a strong selection for readers interested in historical narrative, memory, conflict and the power of writers to either confront or reinforce national myths.

The Souls of Black Folk by W.E.B. Du Bois

Published in 1903, this foundational collection examines Black life in America and introduces Du Bois’s influential concept of “double consciousness”—the tension of understanding oneself while constantly being forced to view oneself through the judgment of a hostile society.

Black AF History: The Un-Whitewashed Story of America by Michael Harriot

Harriot retells American history by centering the experiences, labor, resistance and contributions of Black Americans. It is an accessible starting point for readers who want to challenge the sanitized version of history commonly taught in schools.

Born in Blackness: Africa, Africans, and the Making of the Modern World, 1471 to the Second World War by Howard W. French

French places Africa and African people at the center of the development of the modern world. The book challenges historical accounts that treat Africa as a passive background to European expansion and instead examines its central role in global trade, labor, wealth and modernity.

The 1619 Project: A New Origin Story by Nikole Hannah-Jones and The New York Times Magazine

This collection examines the influence of slavery and the contributions of Black Americans on the development of the United States and its institutions. Whether you ultimately agree with every argument or not, serious readers should be capable of examining the evidence, understanding the debate and forming an informed conclusion.

Your Assignment

Choose your history book and comment below with the complete title and the author’s name.

Do not comment that you are “thinking about” joining.

Do not comment that you “need to start reading again.”

Name the book.

Publicly committing to a title establishes accountability. Once you have made your selection, begin reading and complete the assignment.

Our children need to see adults reading. Our communities need people who can identify propaganda, understand historical context and speak from knowledge rather than emotion. Our future requires disciplined minds.

One book this week.

Then another book next week.

Let us get to work.

As a child in the 1970s, I witnessed something that did not seem unusual at the time but speaks volumes now. Players from the Atlanta Braves would stay at our home in West Palm Beach. They were not there by choice. They were there because they could not stay at the team hotel. These were professional athletes, respected and accomplished, yet still denied access to the same accommodations as their teammates because of their race. Our home became a place of refuge, a substitute for what the system refused to provide. That experience was not just about baseball. It was about exclusion and the ways people were forced to adapt when doors remained closed.

When people hear about the The Negro Motorist Green Book, they often think of it as something distant. They associate it with old photographs and museum exhibits, a symbol of a painful but finished chapter in American history. But for my family, it was not history. It was part of our lives. We used the Green Book well into the 1970s. Every year, we traveled from New York to Florida for family reunions, and that book was essential. It told us where we could eat, where we could sleep, and where we could safely stop for gas. Our trips were not planned around convenience or comfort. They were planned around safety and survival, around knowing which places would accept us and which ones would not.

In 1993, I walked into a law firm in Palm Beach County not just as a professional, but as a first. I became the first Black partner in an all white firm. That moment should have felt like pure achievement. It should have felt like proof of progress. But underneath that accomplishment was a quiet and unsettling realization. If Jim Crow had truly ended decades earlier, why did it take until 1993 for this moment to happen? Why was I still the exception rather than the norm? Being the first is not just an honor. It is evidence that something lasted far longer than we are comfortable admitting.

What these experiences reveal is not a series of isolated moments. They reveal a pattern. The end of Jim Crow laws did not mean the end of Jim Crow itself. The laws changed, but the customs, the barriers, and the unspoken rules remained. Segregation became less visible, but it did not disappear. It continued to show up in hiring, in housing, in access, and in the reality of who still has to be the first. It showed up in the need for a Green Book long after it should have been unnecessary. It showed up in athletes needing a place to stay because official accommodations were still closed to them,

It is easy to think of history as something that is finished, something that has been resolved and left behind. But the truth is that its effects are still present in everyday life, often in ways that go unnoticed. The idea that Jim Crow is over makes it harder to recognize how its legacy continues. It allows people to dismiss inequality as coincidence rather than consequence. It turns lived experiences into exceptions when they are actually evidence of something much larger.

Available for purchase:

Pyramid Books | Marcus Books | Bookshop.org | Barnes & Nobel | Amazon

That is why I wrote The Immortal Jim Crow: Growing Up Under the System That Still Haunts Us Today. These stories are not just personal memories. They are part of a broader reality that has shaped generations. There are countless other stories that were never written into textbooks, experiences that challenge the belief that progress is complete. This book connects the past to the present and shows how what we call history continues to shape opportunity, access, and daily life.

If we are going to move forward honestly, we have to understand what never truly ended. That begins with listening, learning, and confronting the truth that Jim Crow did not die. It adapted, and it still impacts the world we live in today.

1. The Black Jacobins by C. L. R. James

A revolutionary classic, The Black Jacobins tells the story of the Haitian Revolution from beginning to end, reading with the sweep and intensity of a war epic. Readers are placed alongside Toussaint Louverture, experiencing the strategy, betrayals, and seismic shifts of power as enslaved Africans defeated one of the most formidable empires in the world.

Rather than presenting a dry chronology, James delivers movement, tension, and revolution unfolding in real time. It remains one of the most powerful and cinematic works ever written on Haiti.

2. Black AF History by Michael Harriot

Sharp, humorous, and unapologetically incisive, Black AF History reexamines the terms, events, and narratives commonly taught in American classrooms. It offers perspectives on African American history that are often absent from traditional curricula.

Harriot blends wit with meticulous sourcing. The result is a work that is entertaining, uncomfortable at times, and thoroughly documented. It reads like an extended story rather than a textbook, making complex historical realities accessible without sacrificing rigor.

3. How the Word Is Passed by Clint Smith

Structured as a journey across the United States, How the Word Is Passed explores how the nation remembers—and chooses to forget—its history of slavery. Smith visits sites that are not always publicly understood as plantations, including Louisiana State Penitentiary, and examines how history is framed and presented.

Each chapter unfolds like a scene in a documentary film. Readers stand alongside tour guides, visitors, and historians, witnessing how memory is curated. Deeply researched and intentional, the book bridges narrative immersion with scholarly depth.

4. Maynard Jackson: The Life and Times of Atlanta’s First Black Mayor by Robert E. Holmes

This biography traces the life of Maynard Jackson from child prodigy to transformative mayor of Atlanta. The narrative reveals not only personal development but also political strategy and discipline.

Moments surrounding the expansion of what is now Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, and the prioritization of Black participation in city contracts, unfold with the intensity of political drama. The stakes are high, the consequences real, and the impact enduring. For readers interested in leadership and policy in action, this work reads with the propulsion of a feature film.

5. An American Family: The Shakurs and the Nation They Created by Santi Elijah Holley

This sweeping account offers a 360-degree understanding of the Black Power and Pan-Africanist movements in the United States. Centered on the Shakur family, it traces the ideological roots, organizing strategies, and global vision that shaped a generation.

Connections to figures such as Marcus Garvey emerge as the narrative situates the family within broader currents of political thought and activism. The book humanizes its subjects, provides essential historical context, and explores the environment that produced revolutionaries. Moving across generations, movements, and moments of conflict, it reads like an intergenerational epic.

Article written by Richard A. Ryles.

Authors Note

I’m an avid nonfiction reader, a history buff, and a passionate political commentator. Here on The Ryles Report SubStack, you’ll find news updates, articles, and book recommendations that provide historical context to the madness unfolding in the world around us today.

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