BLACK HISTORY IS FOR EVERYONE
Brian Jones
Haymarket Books (17 August 2025)
Trade paper • ISBN-13: 9798888904473 • US $19.95 • 5 in x 8 in • 208 pgs.
ABOUT THE BOOK:
A longtime educator explores how the study of Black history challenges our understanding of race, nation, and the stories we tell about who we are.
Black history is under attack from powerful forces that seek to excise it from classrooms, libraries, and the popular imagination. Yet its opponents fail to understand a simple truth: the best education makes us uncomfortable. It challenges our assumptions, helps us see larger forces at work, and gives us glimpses of alternate futures.
In Black History Is for Everyone, Brian Jones offers a meditation on the power of Black history, using his own experiences as a lifelong learner and classroom teacher to question everything—from the radicalism of the American Revolution to the meaning of “race” and “nation.”
With warmth and immersive storytelling, Jones encourages us to delve deeper into our collective history, explores how curiosity about our world is essential—and reminds us that with stakes so high, the effort is worth it.
PRAISE:
“Black History is for Everyone is a love letter to students, a history lesson, and a critical analysis of the segregated schools—with too few Black teachers and too little Black history—that we have today. At a moment when many are shrinking from and erasing our history, Brian Jones pointedly shows us the many ways that the study of Black history enriches us all. This is the book we need to see the road forward.”
Jeanne Theoharis, author of King of the North: Martin Luther King Jr’s Life of Struggle Outside the South
“Brian Jones, one of our most insightful pedagogists, reminds us that the Black experience is so central to the American experience that no one’s education is complete without its examination. This book is required reading.”
Tracie D. Hall, former Executive Director, American Library Association
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Brian Jones has taught many ages and grades in New York City’s public schools and the City University of New York. He served as the inaugural director of the Center for Educators and Schools at the New York Public Library and was the associate director of education at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture. The author of The Tuskegee Student Uprising: A History, his writing has also appeared in The New York Times, Guardian, and Jacobin.
RIGHTS INFORMATION:
Please contact subagents for the following languages and territories:
| Language/Territory | Subagent |
|---|---|
| China, Taiwan, Indonesia, Malaysia, and Vietnam | Big Apple Agency |
| Dutch | Sebes & Bisseling Literary Agency |
| English outside North America | David Grossman Literary Agency |
| French | Deborah Druba Agency |
| German | Paul & Peter Fritz AG Literatur Agentur |
| Greek | Read n' Right Agency |
| Hebrew | The Deborah Harris Agency |
| Italian | Berla & Griffini Rights Agency |
| Japanese | The English Agency (Japan) Ltd |
| Korean | BC Agency, or Korea Copyright Center |
| Portuguese | RIFF Agency |
| Russia/Baltics/Eastern Europe | Prava I Prevodi |
| Scandinavia | Sebes & Bisseling Literary Agency |
| Spanish in Latin America | MB Agencia Literaria |
| Spanish in Spain | MB Agencia Literaria |
| Turkish | Anatolialit Agency |
For all other languages/territories, please contact Roam Agency.