Six titles that take you behind the scenes of Black Hollywood

Rasheed Newson is the author of the national bestseller My Government Means to Kill Me, which was selected as a Lambda Literary finalist for Gay Fiction and was named one of the “100 Notable Books of 2022” by The New York Times. He is also a television drama writer, producer, and showrunner. He codeveloped Bel-Air and worked on The Chi, Animal Kingdom, and Narcos, among other drama series. Newson is a 2025–26 American Library in Paris Visiting Fellow. He currently lives with his husband and their two children in Pasadena.

Newson's new novel is There’s Only One Sin in Hollywood.

At Oprah Daily he tagged six books "that brilliantly capture the balancing act required of Black stars in Hollywood and give non–Hollywood insiders a peek behind the velvet curtain at a world that creates alluring idols for the masses." One title on the list:

Bright Boulevards, Bold Dreams by Donald Bogle

With admirable range and poignant details, this nonfiction book tracks the collective journey of Black creatives in Hollywood from the dawn of silent film into the 1950s. The Black stars in this constellation include ones who still shine in our collective memory—Hattie McDaniel, Lena Horne—and others who have faded, like Ernest “Sunshine Sammy” Morrison and James Edwards.

Donald Bogle interweaves interviews he conducted with people who were close to the stars of that bygone era (his conversation with Dorothy Dandridge’s sister, Vivian Dandridge, is a standout) with commentary from archival research. The result feels like a vivid oral history. Bright Boulevards, Bold Dreams captures an aspect of Black Hollywood that is often overlooked: Black stars are the result of a collective effort, not individual talent or ambition. From their family members to their professional entourages to their millions of fans, they are bound to represent ideals bigger than themselves. Bogle honors all sides of that inheritance.

Read about another title on Newson's list.

--Marshal Zeringue