Writer, activist, and indefatigable community leader in the American West, Drusilla Dunjee Houston (1876-1941) offers a remarkable, well-researched study of the origins of African American culture. First published in a very limited edition in 1926, Wonderful Ethiopians of the Cushite Empire features an extraordinarily rare, early study by an African American women of the roots of her people. Focusing on the origins of the matrilineal line in African culture, Houston offers a readable and meticulously researched window on a world long ago.

Peggy Brooks-Bertram is cofounder of the Uncrowned Queens Institute for Research and Education on Women, Inc. at the University at Buffalo, State University of New York.