Skip to Main Content

News Flash

Black Lives Matter Book of the Week

Posted on: October 20, 2023

American Sirens: The Incredible Story of the Black Men Who Became America’s First Paramedics

American Sirens

by Kevin Hazzard

Up until 1968, if you suffered a medical crisis, your chances of survival were minimal. That all changed with the Freedom House EMS in Pittsburgh, a group of Black men who became America's first paramedics and set the gold standard for emergency medicine around the world, only to have their legacy erased - until now. This book provides a rich and troubling hidden history of the Black origins of America's paramedics.

See the Jones Library Antiracism Book List for recommended titles for all ages.

Find in our catalog

⇐Previous The Artivist Next⇒ The Girl I Am, Was, and Never Will Be

Other News in Black Lives Matter Book of the Week

The Life and Times of Hannah Crafts: The True Story of “The Bondwoman’s Narrative”

Posted on: December 1, 2023

Chef Edna: Queen of Southern Cooking

Posted on: November 24, 2023

Thicker than Water

Posted on: November 17, 2023

Surviving the City

Posted on: November 10, 2023

Beyond the Shores: A History of African Americans Abroad

Posted on: November 3, 2023

The Artivist

Posted on: October 27, 2023

The Girl I Am, Was, and Never Will Be

Posted on: October 13, 2023

Black AF History: The Un-Whitewashed Story of America

Posted on: October 6, 2023

Black American Portraits

Posted on: September 29, 2023

A Kids Book About Racism

Posted on: September 22, 2023

Serving Herself: The Life and Times of Althea Gibson

Posted on: September 15, 2023

The Getaway

Posted on: September 8, 2023

Africana: More than 100 Recipes and Flavors Inspired by a Rich Continent

Posted on: September 1, 2023

J.D. and the Great Barber Battle

Posted on: August 25, 2023

Birthing Liberation: How Reproductive Justice Can Set Us Free

Posted on: August 18, 2023

Burn Down, Rise Up

Posted on: August 11, 2023

The Art of Ruth E. Carter: Costuming Black History and the Afrofuture, from “Do the Right Thing” to

Posted on: August 4, 2023

Bold Words from Black Women: Inspiration and Truths from 50 Extraordinary Black Women ...

Posted on: July 28, 2023

How We Do It: Black Writers on Craft, Practice, and Skill

Posted on: July 21, 2023

Love Radio

Posted on: July 14, 2023

Soil: The Story of a Black Mother’s Garden

Posted on: July 7, 2023

Bisa Butler - Portraits

Posted on: June 30, 2023

Swim Team

Posted on: June 23, 2023

Above Ground

Posted on: June 16, 2023

The Black Flamingo

Posted on: June 9, 2023

Half American: The Epic Story of African Americans Fighting World War II at Home and Abroad

Posted on: June 2, 2023

A Day For Rememberin': Inspired by the True Events of the First Memorial Day

Posted on: May 26, 2023

The Body Liberation Project: How Understanding Racism and Diet Culture Helps Cultivate Joy...

Posted on: May 19, 2023

We Weren't Looking to Be Found

Posted on: May 12, 2023

The Wounded World: W. E. B. Du Bois and the First World War

Posted on: May 5, 2023

Freewater

Posted on: April 28, 2023

Odyssey of Phillis Wheatley: A Poet’s Journey through American Slavery and Independence

Posted on: April 21, 2023

We Are All So Good at Smiling

Posted on: April 14, 2023

Reparations Now! : Poems

Posted on: April 7, 2023

Revolutionary Women: Fifty Women of Color Who Reinvented the Rules

Posted on: March 31, 2023

H is for Harlem

Posted on: March 24, 2023

The Education of Kendrick Perkins

Posted on: March 17, 2023

Lifting as We Climb: Black Women's Battle for the Ballot Box

Posted on: March 10, 2023

Love and Justice: A Story of Triumph on Two Different Courts

Posted on: March 3, 2023

Standing In the Need of Prayer: A Modern Retelling of the Classic Spiritual

Posted on: February 24, 2023

BLK ART: The Audacious Legacy of Black Artists and Models in Western Art

Posted on: February 17, 2023

Highly Suspicious and Unfairly Cute

Posted on: February 10, 2023

Master Slave Husband Wife: An Epic Journey from Slavery to Freedom

Posted on: January 20, 2023

Choosing Brave: Mamie Till-Mobley, Emmett Till, and the Voice That Sparked the Civil Rights Movement

Posted on: January 27, 2023

Previously Owned

Posted on: January 20, 2023

The Upper World

Posted on: January 13, 2023

The Grimkes: The Legacy of Slavery in an American Family

Posted on: January 6, 2023

AphroChic: Celebrating the Legacy of the Black Family Home

Posted on: December 30, 2022

The Real Santa

Posted on: December 23, 2022

Under the Skin: The Hidden Toll of Racism on American Lives and on the Health of Our Nation

Posted on: December 16, 2022

How You Grow Wings

Posted on: December 9, 2022

The Light We Carry: Overcoming in Uncertain Times

Posted on: December 2, 2022

Magnolia Flower

Posted on: November 25, 2022

Running while Black: Finding Freedom in a Sport that Wasn’t Built for Us

Posted on: November 18, 2022

Halfway Home: Race, Punishment, and the Afterlife of Mass Incarceration

Posted on: November 4, 2022

Root Magic

Posted on: October 28, 2022

My People: Five Decades of Writing about Black Lives

Posted on: October 21, 2022

Inheritance: A Visual Poem

Posted on: October 14, 2022

Against the Hounds of Hell: A Life of Howard Thurman

Posted on: October 7, 2022

Black Skinhead: Reflections on Blackness and Our Political Future

Posted on: September 30, 2022

Raising Antiracist Children: A Practical Parenting Guide

Posted on: September 23, 2022

We Refuse to Forget: A True Story of Black Creeks, American Identity, and Power

Posted on: September 16, 2022

The Hate U Give

Posted on: September 9, 2022

My Remarkable Journey: A Memoir

Posted on: September 2, 2022

Hurricane Child

Posted on: August 26, 2022

Constructing a Nervous System: A Memoir

Posted on: August 19, 2022

Kings of B'More

Posted on: August 12, 2022

Love & Justice: A Journey of Empowerment, Activism, and Embracing Black Beauty

Posted on: August 5, 2022

Agent Josephine: American Beauty, French Hero, British Spy

Posted on: July 29, 2022

The Only Black Girls In Town

Posted on: July 22, 2022

Miss Chloe: A Memoir of a Literary Friendship with Toni Morrison

Posted on: July 15, 2022

Planeta Blu: Rise of Agoo

Posted on: July 8, 2022

Black Food: Stories, Art, and Recipes from across the African Diaspora

Posted on: July 1, 2022

My Rainbow

Posted on: June 24, 2022

On Juneteenth

Posted on: June 17, 2022

Troublemaker for Justice

Posted on: June 10, 2022

The Black History Book

Posted on: June 3, 2022

Clean Getaway

Posted on: May 27, 2022

Racism, Not Race: Answers to Frequently Asked Questions

Posted on: May 20, 2022

Black Girl Unlimited: The Remarkable Story of a Teenage Wizard

Posted on: May 13, 2022

Torn Apart: How the Child Welfare System Destroys Black Families...

Posted on: May 6, 2022

Finding Me

Posted on: April 29, 2022

The Me I Choose To Be

Posted on: April 22, 2022

White Lies: The Double Life of Walter F. White and America's Darkest Secret

Posted on: April 15, 2022

Me (Moth)

Posted on: April 8, 2022

Black Joy: Stories of Resistance, Resilience, and Restoration

Posted on: April 1, 2022

This Book Is Feminist: An Intersectional Primer for Next-gen Changemakers

Posted on: March 25, 2022

Allow Me to Retort: A Black Guy's Guide to the Constitution

Posted on: March 18, 2022

Feminist AF: a Guide to Crushing Girlhood

Posted on: March 11, 2022

Chasing Me to My Grave: An Artist’s Memoir of the Jim Crow South

Posted on: March 4, 2022

Recognize!: An Anthology Honoring and Amplifying Black Life

Posted on: February 25, 2022

How to Make a Slave and Other Essays

Posted on: February 18, 2022

Can't Stop Won't Stop: A Hip Hop History

Posted on: February 11, 2022

Angela Davis: An Autobiography

Posted on: February 4, 2022

One Last Word: Wisdom from the Harlem Renaissance

Posted on: January 28, 2022

Reclamation: Sally Hemings, Thomas Jefferson, and a Descendant's Search...

Posted on: January 21, 2022

Black Birds in the Sky

Posted on: January 14, 2022

Our African Unconscious: The Black Origins of Mysticism and Psychology

Posted on: January 7, 2022

The People Remember

Posted on: December 24, 2021

How the Word Is Passed: A Reckoning with the History of Slavery across America

Posted on: December 17, 2021

A Song Below Water

Posted on: December 10, 2021

The Rage of Innocence: How America Criminalizes Black Youth

Posted on: December 3, 2021

Molly of Denali: Party Moose

Posted on: November 26, 2021

We Were There: The Third World Women’s Alliance and the Second Wave

Posted on: November 19, 2021

Everything You Wanted to Know about Indians But Were Afraid to Ask

Posted on: November 12, 2021

Read Until You Understand: The Profound Wisdom of Black Life and Literature

Posted on: November 5, 2021

Algorithms of Oppression: How Search Engines Reinforce Racism

Posted on: October 29, 2021

White Smoke

Posted on: October 22, 2021

Breaking It Down: Audition Techniques for Actors of the Global Majority

Posted on: October 15, 2021

Sprouting Wings: The True Story of James Herman Banning

Posted on: October 8, 2021

You Can Keep that to Yourself: A Comprehensive List of What Not to Say to Black People, for Well-Int

Posted on: October 1, 2021

The Parker Inheritance

Posted on: September 24, 2021

All that She Carried: The Journey of Ashley’s Sack, a Black Family Keepsake

Posted on: September 17, 2021

Long Way Down

Posted on: September 10, 2021

We Are Each Other’s Harvest: Celebrating African American Farmers, Land, and Legacy

Posted on: September 3, 2021

The King of Kindergarten

Posted on: August 27, 2021

The Disordered Cosmos: A Journey into Dark Matter, Spacetime, and Dreams Deferred

Posted on: August 20, 2021

Blackout

Posted on: August 13, 2021

You’ll Never Believe What Happened to Lacey: Crazy Stories about Racism

Posted on: August 6, 2021

One Drop: Shifting the Lens on Race

Posted on: July 30, 2021

Tristan Strong Punches a Hole In the Sky

Posted on: July 23, 2021

Notes from a Young Black Chef: A Memoir

Posted on: July 16, 2021

A Blade So Black

Posted on: July 9, 2021

Better Not Bitter: Living on Purpose in the Pursuit of Racial Justice

Posted on: July 2, 2021

When Aidan Became a Brother

Posted on: June 25, 2021

How We Fight for Our Lives: A Memoir

Posted on: June 17, 2021

All Boys Aren't Blue

Posted on: June 11, 2021

Ground Breaking: An American City and Its Search for Justice

Posted on: June 4, 2021

Our Skin: A First Conversation about Race

Posted on: May 28, 2021

Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents

Posted on: May 21, 2021

Tell Me Who You Are: Sharing our Stories of Race, Culture, and Identity

Posted on: May 14, 2021

Surviving the White Gaze: A Memoir

Posted on: May 7, 2021

The History of the Black Population of Amherst, Massachusetts, 1728-1870

Posted on: April 30, 2021

Parenting for Liberation: A Guide for Raising Black Children

Posted on: April 23, 2021

Age of Phillis

Posted on: April 16, 2021

Every Body Looking

Posted on: April 9, 2021

Julian Bond’s Time to Teach: A History of the Southern Civil Rights Movement

Posted on: April 2, 2021

Freedom Over Me: Eleven Slaves, Their Lives and Dreams Brought to Life

Posted on: March 26, 2021

Grieving while Black: An Antiracist Take on Oppression and Sorrow

Posted on: March 19, 2021

Concrete Rose

Posted on: March 12, 2021

The Black Church: This Is Our Story, This Is Our Song

Posted on: March 5, 2021

Four Hundred Souls: A Community History of African America, 1619-2019

Posted on: February 25, 2021

The Oldest Student: How Mary Walker Learned to Read

Posted on: February 18, 2021

Bingo Love

Posted on: February 10, 2021

My Grandmother’s Hands: Racialized Trauma and the Pathway to Mending Our Hearts and Bodies

Posted on: February 3, 2021

Do Lord Remember Me

Posted on: January 26, 2021

The Home Place: Memoirs of a Colored Man’s Love Affair with Nature

Posted on: January 8, 2021

Black Enough: Stories of Being Young & Black in America

Posted on: January 7, 2021

The Dead Are Arising: The Life of Malcolm X

Posted on: December 28, 2020

You Can Keep That to Yourself

Posted on: December 15, 2020

King and the Dragonflies

Posted on: December 15, 2020

The Beauty in Breaking: A Memoir

Posted on: December 1, 2020

The Truths We Hold: An American Journey

Posted on: November 20, 2020

An Indigenous Peoples' History of the United States for Young People

Posted on: November 20, 2020

Race after Technology: Abolitionist Tools for the New Jim Code

Posted on: November 4, 2020

From Here to Equality: Reparations for Black Americans in the Twenty-First Century

Posted on: October 29, 2020

The City We Became

Posted on: October 14, 2020

Dread Nation

Posted on: October 13, 2020

Farming While Black: Soul Fire Farm’s Practical Guide to Liberation on the Land

Posted on: September 29, 2020

Say Her Name

Posted on: September 25, 2020

Vanguard: How Black Women Broke Barriers, Won the Vote, and Insisted on Equality for All

Posted on: September 16, 2020

Towers Falling

Posted on: September 11, 2020

Memorial Drive: A Daughter’s Memoir

Posted on: September 11, 2020

One Crazy Summer (One Crazy Summer Series, Book 1)

Posted on: August 28, 2020

Brother Robert: Growing Up with Robert Johnson

Posted on: August 21, 2020

Gordon Parks: How the Photographer Captured Black and White America

Posted on: August 21, 2020

March: Book 1, 2, and 3

Posted on: August 21, 2020

This Is Major: Notes on Diana Ross, Dark Girls, and Being Dope

Posted on: August 21, 2020

Stamped: Racism, Antiracism, and You

Posted on: August 21, 2020

Horace Pippin, American Modern

Posted on: August 21, 2020