Topshelf

Ebony, May, 2005

World-renowned scholar and statesman Dr. Ralph J. Bunche (1903-1971) began his career as an educator and a political scientist, and later joined the United Nations, serving as undersecretary general for 17 of his 25 years with that body. He was the first person of color to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. The new, never-before-published book, A BRIEF AND TENTATIVE ANALYSIS OF NEGRO LEADERSHIP, by Ralph J. Bunche (New York University Press, $30), edited and with an introduction by Jonathan Scott Holloway, provides key insight into Black leadership at the dawn of the modern Civil Rights Movement, and forces a reconsideration of Bunche's legacy as a reformer and the historical meaning of his early involvement in the Civil Rights Movement.

Author Valerie Wilson Wesley's new novel, PLAYING MY MOTHER'S BLUES (William Morrow, $23.95), is not the usual Mother's Day greeting card. It's a story about a mother's betrayal, a murder, and a secret. It's a novel filled with anguish and compassion, secrets and lies, wealth and desperation. Somehow, the truth and, what passes for the truth, do meet in the end.