Cognella offers free digital copies of new book to all readers in support of the Black community and anti-racist scholarship and education 

San Diego, CA – November 1, 2021 – Cognella is proud to announce the publication of Making Black Lives Matter: Confronting Anti-Black Racism edited by renowned scholar and psychologist Kevin Cokley, Ph.D.

All readers can now download a free digital copy of the book directly from Cognella at cognella.com/making-black-lives-matter.

“I am very excited that my book is finally published and ready to be widely shared,” said Cokley. “Editing this book was a labor of love and hard work. I look forward to people reading it and having many important conversations about making Black lives matter.”

“During the summer of 2020, in the wake of the murders of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and Ahmaud Arbery, the team at Cognella came together to determine new ways in which we could support the Black community,” said Cognella Founder and CEO Bassim Hamadeh. “While it has always been important for us as a publisher to give a voice to historically underrepresented authors in academia, we knew we could do even more. We wanted to leverage what we do best—publishing—and also make a difference in a meaningful way. We decided we could make a significant impact by publishing a free book that highlights the contemporary battle for equity and the lived experiences of those in the Black community.”

The book convenes the voices of 38 contributors across 15 chapters that reflect diverse perspectives from the Black community on the topics of activism, public policy, community, and student experiences. It focuses on the ways anti-Black racism manifests and how it has been confronted across various domains of Black life.

“Making Black Lives Matter is a book that’s meant to be shared,” said Hamadeh. “Our goals in publishing this book were to amplify the voices of those who need to be heard and to provide readers free access to critical scholarship on a topic that affects their everyday lives. We’re proud to provide free digital copies of the book to anyone who wants to read it.”

“This is an incredibly important book,” said Cognella Marketing Director Natalie Piccotti. “Share it with your friends, family, coworkers, and colleagues. Discuss it in a book club. If you’re an educator, we encourage you to use the book in your courses. As long as the use is non-commercial and abides with our copyright policy, no permissions are needed, and the digital materials are free of charge for your students. Our only ask is that if you do download the book, please share it via social media using the hashtags #MakingBlackLivesMatter and #Cognella to join in on the conversation.”

To learn more about the book, read the Letter from the Publisher: https://cognella.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/A-Letter-from-the-Publisher_PDF_83369-1A.pdf 

Review the full copyright policy for the book: https://cognella.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/83369-1A_Copyright-Page.pdf 

If you’d like a print copy of Making Black Lives Matter, you can purchase one at cost via Amazon or barnesandnoble.com. Pricing is set by the distributors, though it is intended to only cover printing and shipping costs. If Cognella receives any proceeds from the sale of print copies, the full amount will be donated to a nonprofit organization benefitting the Black community, to be determined by editor Kevin Cokley.

What readers are saying about the book: 

“Dr. Cokley has done a tremendous job with this book. It is comprehensive in its scope, relevant to a broad range of communities and contexts, and addresses areas that are too often neglected all together, or minimally discussed. What I appreciate most about this book is that it is a like a one-stop shop that pulls together the multitude of lived experiences of Black communities in the United States. […] I was particularly pleased to see the expansion of the perspectives included in this book, including the inclusion of community members and students. Too often books such as this one only include academic, scholarly, work and perspectives, which can be limited and inaccessible. This book contains rich information that is accessible and relatable to a wide-range of audiences. […] I appreciated the diversity of voices and content in the book, which does a nice job of finding a rhythm between the challenges, while also lifting the voices and ancestral wisdoms of resilience, creativity, and thriving in spite of living in historical and currently in systems of oppression. The Black community has led the way for many other BIPOC communities in terms of our understanding our own sources of oppression, resilience, and creativity and this book captures those tenets well.”
Miguel Gallardo, Professor of Psychology, Program Director of Aliento, Pepperdine University
Director of Research and Evaluation, Multiethnic Collaborative of Community Agencies

“I greatly appreciate the premise of this book—to make available at this historical moment—a comprehensive text with multiple perspectives on anti-Black racism. I especially appreciate scholarship that covers such a complex topic from many different angles, including the history of racial trauma and inequities (e.g., enslavement, segregation, brutality, incarceration) and the persistent activism and critical analysis that characterizes African American communities and their allies. As I work on my own writing projects, I find myself consulting and citing the chapters in this text for their inclusion of so many intersectional insights and informative content about ‘making Black lives matter and confronting anti-black racism.’ Thank you for sharing this text with everyone!”
Katherine R. Allen, Ph.D., Professor Emerita, Human Development and Family Studies, Virginia Tech
Editor Elect: Journal of Family Theory & Review

About Kevin Cokley, Ph.D. 

Kevin Cokley is a distinguished teaching professor with a joint appointment in the Department of Educational Psychology and the Department of African and African Diaspora Studies at The University of Texas at Austin, where he holds the Oscar and Anne Mauzy Regents Professorship for Educational Research and Development. He is the director of the Institute for Urban Policy Research and Analysis. Dr. Cokley holds the title Distinguished Psychologist from the Association of Black Psychologists and is the past editor-in-chief of the Journal of Black Psychology. His research focuses on African American psychology with a focus on racial identity development, academic achievement, and the impostor phenomenon. He holds a Ph.D. in counseling psychology from Georgia State University and M.Ed. in counselor education from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro.  

About Cognella®

Cognella® is redefining academic publishing by creating teacher-driven, student-centric higher education course materials in print and digital formats under three imprints: Cognella® Academic Publishing, Cognella® Custom, and Cognella® Active Learning. Cognella also publishes engaging nonfiction titles featuring modern perspectives as Cognella® Press. Learn more at www.cognella.com.  

For media inquiries please contact:
Natalie Piccotti
Director of Marketing, Cognella, Inc.
858-552-1120 x532