Six books 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:

A More Perfect Party by Juanita Tolliver

Civil Rights–era stars like Harry Belafonte, Ruby Dee, Ossie Davis, Sidney Poitier, and Diahann Carroll are often remembered for their public activism: marching, giving interviews, and speaking out on television when doing so came with real risk. But some of their most consequential work happened far from the cameras. They were strategists, connectors, and funders, using their fame to help turn moral urgency into political power.

In A More Perfect Party, MSNBC political analyst Juanita Tolliver offers a lively, behind-the-scenes look at one especially dazzling example: the 1972 fundraiser Carroll hosted in her home for Shirley Chisholm’s groundbreaking presidential campaign.

The guest list alone is worth the price of admission; it brought together strange bedfellows, including Black Panther Huey P. Newton, comedian Flip Wilson, and rising starlet Goldie Hawn on a shared mission: electing the first Black woman to the highest office in the land.

Tolliver makes a persuasive case that Chisholm and Carroll’s coalition-building playbook echoed far beyond that night, shaping the kind of grassroots fundraising and cross-cultural organizing later used by campaigns like Barack Obama’s. Chisholm may not have won the presidency, but she changed what political possibility looked like. And Carroll emerges as more than a glamorous star: She was a woman who understood the power of her Rolodex, her reputation, and her living room. Today’s celebrities should take notes.

Read about the other titles on Newson's list.

--Marshal Zeringue