Sister Souljah Popular Books
Sister Souljah Biography & Facts
Sister Souljah (born Lisa Williamson, Bronx, New York) is an American author, activist, rapper and film producer. She gained lasting fame in 1992, when Bill Clinton, running as the presumptive Democratic Party nominee for President of the United States, criticized her remarks about race in the United States. The incident was the basis for the phrase "Sister Souljah moment", referring generally to a politician's calculated public repudiation of an extreme person, statement, group, or position associated with the politician's own party. Early life and education Sister Souljah was born in the Bronx, New York. She recounts in her memoir No Disrespect that she was born into poverty and raised on welfare for some years. At the age of 10, she moved with her family to the suburb of Englewood, New Jersey, a suburb with a strong African-American presence. Englewood is also home to other famous black artists such as George Benson, Eddie Murphy, and Regina Belle. There she attended Dwight Morrow High School. Souljah disliked what American students were being taught in school systems across the country. She felt that the school systems intentionally left out the African origins of civilization. In addition, she criticized the absence of a comprehensive curriculum of African-American history, which she felt that all students, black and white, needed to learn and understand in order to be properly educated. She felt that she was being taught very little of her history, since the junior high school and high school left out Black history, art, and culture. She commented: "I supplemented my education in the white American school system by reading African history, which was intentionally left out of the curriculum of American students." From 1978 to 1981 she attended Dwight Morrow High School, which had a relatively even distribution of black, Latino, and Jewish student enrollment and a majority-black administration during the time of her studies. She was a legislative intern in the House of Representatives. Souljah was also the recipient of several honors during her teenage years. She won the American Legion's Constitutional Oratory Contest, for which she received a scholarship to attend Cornell University's Advanced Summer Program. In her college years she traveled widely, visiting Britain, France, Spain, Portugal, Finland, and Russia. Her education was reinforced with first-hand experiences as she worked in a medical center in Mtepa Tepa, a village located in Zimbabwe, and assisted refugee children from Mozambique. She also traveled to South Africa and Zambia. She graduated from Rutgers University with a dual major in American History and African Studies. She became a well-known and outspoken voice on campus and wrote for the school newspaper. One of her noted campus initiatives was spearheading a campaign to bring Jesse Jackson to Rutgers to speak against the university's controversial investments in apartheid South Africa at the time, when disinvestment from South Africa was a heated political issue. Sister Souljah was part of the Rutgers Coalition for Divestment, which successfully prompted the Rutgers University administration to divest US$3.6 million in its financial holding companies doing business in that country. Sister Souljah and students across the state of New Jersey also organized a successful campaign to get the state of New Jersey to divest more than US$1 billion of its financial holdings in apartheid-era South Africa. In 1985, during her senior year at Rutgers University, she was offered a job by Reverend Benjamin Chavis of the United Church of Christ Commission for Racial Justice. She spent the next three years developing, organizing, and financing programs such as African Survival Camp, a six-week summer sleepaway camp in Enfield, North Carolina. She also became the organizer of the National African Youth-Student Alliance and outspoken voice against racially motivated violence in cases such as the racist murder at Howard Beach, the racially motivated murder of Yusuf Hawkins, and more. Career Recording artist Souljah appeared on several tracks as a featured guest with the hip-hop group Public Enemy, and she became a full member of the group when Professor Griff was forced to leave after making anti-Semitic remarks. In 1992, she released her only album, 360 Degrees of Power. Statement about riots During an interview on the 1992 Los Angeles riots conducted May 13, 1992, she was quoted in The Washington Post as saying, "If black people kill black people every day, why not have a week and kill white people?" The quotation was later reproduced in the media, and she was widely criticized. Presidential candidate Bill Clinton publicly criticized that statement and Jesse Jackson for allowing her to be on his Rainbow Coalition. The incident resulted in the phrase "Sister Souljah moment" being coined to describe a politician's public repudiation of extremist views that are perceived to have some association with the politician's own faction or party. Author In 1994, Sister Souljah published a memoir titled No Disrespect. In 1999, she made her debut as a novelist with The Coldest Winter Ever. Souljah said that she was the pioneer for starting "a renaissance, or what Chuck D of Public Enemy would call a revolution, of reading." As of March 2016, Souljah was on the New York Times Bestseller List three times. The Coldest Winter Ever was widely acclaimed for making the second wave of the genre known as street literature more popular. About this, Souljah said: I'm a college graduate, and if I read something like Romeo and Juliet, I'm reading about a gang fight, I'm reading about young love, young sex, longing. I'm reading the same themes that I'm writing in my books. So if somebody comes along and says, "Yours is street literature"—what was Shakespeare's?" A sequel of the novel, Life After Death, was published in March 2021. Midnight: A Gangster Love Story, originally scheduled for October 14, 2008, was published on November 4, 2008. It tells the backstory of Midnight, a character first introduced in The Coldest Winter Ever. It entered The New York Times bestseller list at No. 7 its first week of publication. The sequel to Midnight, Midnight and the Meaning of Love., was released on April 12, 2011. A third Midnight novel, A Moment of Silence, was published on November 10, 2015. As of March 2016, it had sold over 2 million copies. This novel follows the main character, Midnight, as he attempts to reclaim his innocence and his identity while in prison. Another spinoff, A Deeper Love Inside: The Porsche Santiaga Story, originally scheduled for October 23, 2012, was published January 29, 2013. All of Souljah's novels deal with universal themes of faith, love, and integrity. Most of her novels have become popular among the prison population, with her books being available in many prison libraries. Due to this, she has worked in tandem with Black and Nobel, a Web site that ships.... Discover the Sister Souljah popular books. Find the top 100 most popular Sister Souljah books.
Best Seller Sister Souljah Books of 2024
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Midnight and the Meaning of Love
Sister SouljahThe New York Times bestselling author of Life After Death, delivers her most compelling and enlightening story yet about young, deep love, the ways in which people across the world...
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Life After Death
Sister SouljahINSTANT #1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER INSTANT USA TODAY BESTSELLERThe longanticipated sequel to Sister Souljah’s million copy New York Times bestseller The Coldest Winter Ever.Winte...
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Derelict
Relentless AaronFrom hip hop kingpin and #1 New York Times bestselling author 50 Cent comes a gritty novel that dares to tell the truth about the Life on the Street: One man did his time…but now h...
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A Moment of Silence
Sister SouljahIn this electrifying novel, New York Times bestselling author and “an important voice in American literature” (Jada Pinkett Smith) Sister Souljah returns to the story of her belove...
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Let That Be the Reason
Vickie M. StringerFrom literary icon and Essence bestselling author of Imagine This and Dirty Red comes forth the classic urban novel that launched Vickie Stringer's wildly successful career Let Th...
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I Wish I Never Met You
Denise N. WheatleyPreston the Project Mishap Ernest the Undercover Sugarbooty Marvin the Married ManBoy Forrest the Foul Fiancé What single woman hasn't been desperate enough to risk it all in an a...
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The Coldest Winter Ever
Sister SouljahNominated as one of America’s bestloved novels by PBS’s The Great American Read.Renowned hiphop artist, writer, and activist Sister Souljah brings the streets of New York to life i...
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Vengeance
ZaneFrom New York Times bestselling author Zane comes a thrilling erotic novel, set in the same world of Addicted and Nervous, featuring a beautiful but emotionally damaged pop star he...
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Sistah for Sale
MiashaA sensual urbanromance drama about a beautiful young orphan trying to survive the danger and intrigue of the sextrade industry.After her father was killed and her mother was deport...
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Allure of the Game
Danielle SantiagoA superstar in urban lit, Essence bestselling author Danielle Santiago concludes her gripping Harlem trilogy with a sizzling, streetwise novel about an allfemale drug cartel.Twenty...
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Death Before Dishonor
50 CentFrom hip hop kingpin and #1 New York Times bestselling author 50 Cent comes a novel that dares to tell the truth about the Lifethe lovers, the haters, the guns, the money, the high...
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The Diamond District
Derrick PledgerThe Diamond District, written with debut author Derrick Pledger, is about a diamond robbery that goes wrong.D.J.'s got an Ivy League diploma, the sexiest girl in the city, and the ...
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Them
Nathan McCallFrom the “mesmerizing storyteller” (The New Yorker) and author of the bestselling memoir Makes Me Wanna Holler presents a profound novelin the tradition of Tom Wolfe’s The Bonfire ...
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The Bluest Eye
Toni MorrisonNATIONAL BESTSELLER A PARADE BEST BOOK OF ALL TIME From the acclaimed Nobel Prize winnera powerful examination of our obsession with beauty and conformity that asks questions abo...
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A Deeper Love Inside
Sister SouljahTHE SEQUEL MILLIONS OF READERS HAVE BEEN WAITING FOR . . . At last, megabestselling author Sister Souljah delivers the stunning sequel to The Coldest Winter Ever. Fierce, raw, and ...
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Crackhead II
Lisa LennoxIn the followup to the bestselling urban novel Crackhead, a new boss takes over the South Bronx as Laci and Dink try to make a life away from crime.In Crackhead, the South Bronx Bi...
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Baby Brother
NoireBaby Brother, written with bestselling author Noire, features The Davis brotherswhen the youngest, Davis, is hurt in an act of blinding violence the rest of the Davis brothers foll...