Top Books to Read in Honor of Black History Month
In celebration of the Books for Black History Month, it’s pivotal to immerse ourselves in literary works that reflect the depth and diversity of the Black experience. Among the multitude of impactful books, these books give you a good view of the black experience through fiction and non fiction.
Non Fiction
1619 Project by Nicole Hannah Jones
A profound mix of essays, poems and works of fiction from over 50 contributors and 17 authors that explores the deep-rooted legacy of slavery and how its inheritance in 1619 continues to shape every facet of modern American society, its constructs and its democracy to this day.
The Warmth of Other Suns by Isabelle Wilkerson
A great account of the Great Migration told through the lives of 3 individuals with a lot of information gotten from over a 1000 interviews
If you think there’s no caste system in America, this probing book will open your eyes. It delves into the hidden hierarchies that exist within our society that investigates threads between how the Nazis studied the racial systems in the U.S., as well as the health, cultural, and political ramifications of our striated culture.
Black Fortunes by Shomar Wills
An Inspiring Story of 6 Entrepreneurs who escaped slavery and went on to become millionaires. Between the years of 1830 and 1927, as the last generation of blacks born into slavery was reaching maturity, a small group of industrious, tenacious, and daring men and women broke new ground to attain the highest levels of financial success.
The New Jim Crow by Michelle Alexander
This crucial reading demonstrates the link between slavery, Jim Crow, mass incarceration and racism and is a call to action for modern reform of America’s criminal justice system.
Pauli Murray: Shouting for the Rights of All People by Deborah Nelson Linck
The untold story of Pauli Murray, activist, lawyer, poet, and Episcopal priest, who broke records and barriers throughout her life. Friend to Eleanor Roosevelt, colleague to Ruth Bader Ginsburg, and student of Thurgood Marshall. Her commitment to fighting for the rights of women firmly in history.
South to America: A Journey Below the Mason-Dixon yo Understand the Soul of a Nation by Imani Perry
Weaving together stories of immigrant communities, contemporary artists, exploitative opportunists, enslaved peoples, unsung heroes, her own ancestors, and her lived experiences, she crafts a tapestry unlike any other. this book offers an assertion that if we want to build a more humane future for the United States, we must center our concern below the Mason-Dixon Line.”
Four Hundred Souls: A Community History of African America, 1619-2019 by Keisha Blain
A powerful work by Kendi and Blain, Four Hundred Souls assembles 90 different perspectives of Black people beginning in 1619 throughout 400 years of slavery and racism in a one-volume “community” history of African Americans.
How the Word Is Passed: A Reckoning with the History of Slavery Across America
This deeply researched journey takes readers through the monuments to slavery that are still a part of the American landscape today, from statues to plantations to cities we may think of as “liberal.” It’s eye-opening, and essential.
Three Mothers by Anna Malaika Tubbs
You’ve heard the phrase, “it takes a village.” But we know so little about the women who raised Civil Rights titans like Martin Luther King, Jr.; Malcolm X and James Baldwin. This book is a long-overdue celebration of Black motherhood.
Somebody’s Daughter by Ashley C. Ford
This memoir centers on her coming-of-age story in Indiana and her difficulty of growing up with a father in prison, though it takes many years before she discovers why he is there.
How We Fight for Our Lives: A Memoir by Saeed Jones
Cataloging his life growing up as a gay Black man in the South, this coming-of-age memoir will break your heart wide open. It’s a story of one man’s journey, but it’s also a broader examination of love and power, queerness and identity and what it means to carve out a place in the world.
Hidden Figures by Margot Lee Shetterly
Read about these women and their amazing contributions from World War II right on through the Cold War and the Space Race, even as they dealt with segregation and racism along the way.
Unafraid of the Dark by Rosemary L. Bray
Rosemary Bray tells a story of being bussed into a predominantly white, wealthy school where the contrast between her and her peers was beyond stark. In a moment of scarcity, Bray began taking money out of her classmate’s wallets until she was caught by a faculty member.
A remarkable story of perseverance and forgiveness for 3 boys who grew up in a rough neighborhood and beat the odds to become doctors and also grew to repair the relationships with their fathers
Fiction
The story of Sethe, who is born into slavery and escapes to Ohio. But even after 18 years, the horrendous memories of home still haunt her, along with the ghost of her unnamed baby from her new home who is buried with only the word “Beloved” on her tombstone.
The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead
In this compelling and electrifying story, Colson Whitehead depicts the Underground Railroad as precisely that — a secret network of tracks, tunnels, engineers and conductors. When Cora, a young slave on a plantation in Georgia, escapes with Caesar, another slave from Virginia, they embark on a terrifying journey fleeing from state to state in search of freedom.
The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett
“The Vanishing Half” is a story of race, identity, family and history that will captivate your heart from the very first page. In it, to twin sisters run away from their small Southern Black community at the age of 16 but end up living two exceedingly different lives. But years later when the twins’ daughters unintentionally cross paths, their worlds collide and secrets begin to unravel
Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston
Zora Neale Hurston wrote this novel, in part, to highlight limitations women face. She examined the intersection of gender, race, and class within Black communities through a series of relationships in the book.
Black Bottom Saints by Alice Randall
A beautiful piece of fiction about Detroit’s legendary Black Bottom neighborhood, a mecca for jazz, sports and politics, and one man who reflects on the remarkable people who shaped it.
The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store by James Mcbride
It’s 1972, and Black and immigrant Jewish residents are living together on the margins of white society in this vivid fictional romp. This captivating yarn unspools around the resident’s secrets and sorrows, traditions and trials and an honest-to-goodness skeleton in a well.
Before You Suffocate Your Own Fool Self by Danielle Evans
Before You Suffocate Your Own Fool Self offers a bold new perspective on the experience of being young and African-American or mixed-race in modern-day America.
McBride’s beautifully written novel takes place in 1969 in Brooklyn, when Sportcoat, a cranky old deacon, shoots the housing project’s chief drug dealer. McBride’s novel follows the effects of the shooting, from the local officers investigating it and
The Civil War is winding down and President Lincoln has issued the Emancipation Proclamation, which means enslaved brothers Landry and Prentiss can at last leave the plantation And yet danger lurks everywhere around them in Confederate Georgia, even after they are given shelter and employment by an eccentric white couple from the North.
Margot Noble needs some relief from the stress of running the family winery with her brother. Enter Luke: sexy, charming, and best of all in the too-small world of Napa, a stranger. Margot thinks he is a great one night stand until she goes to work and finds he is the winery’s newest hire.
Decent People by De’Shawn Charles Winslow
It’s 1976 and three secretive siblings have been shot in the still-segregated town of West Mills, North Carolina. The authorities don’t have a sense of urgency about the crime, but someone has a lot of questions for which she expects answers — Jo Wright, freshly back home from NYC and ready to take matters into her own hands.
Black Leopard, Red Wolf by Marlon James
Calling all fantasy fans: This gripping epic has been called the “African Game of Thrones,” in the way it honors that continent’s mythology with the same sense of adventure and mystery as the popular TV series
Red at the Bone by Jacqueline Woodson
Moving back and forth through time, this exploration of class, race and the ties that bond family together introduces us to teenage Melody on the eve of her coming-0f-age ceremony. As the story unfolds, we learn the prices paid by members of Melody’s family to bring them to that moment, as well as how history reaches through generations.
The Other Black Girl, by Zakiya Dalila Harri
Get Out meets The Devil Wears Prada in this blistering work of semi-autobiographical fiction about Nella, the lone Black employee at Wagner Books. The arrival of Hazel, another Black editorial assistant, seems like the answer to Nella’s prayers—but Hazel isn’t the ally she seems to be.
Sing Unburied Sing by Jesmyn Ward
Most of it takes place on a dangerous road trip through Mississippi, to the notorious maximum security prison, Parchman. Set in the twenty-first-century rural South, this chilling book shows us that the horrific legacy of racial terror is very much alive today.
Poetry
This is the Honey by Kwame Alexander
This collection of contemporary poetry changes your mind. With joyful, poignant, piercing, and unfailingly beautiful work from greats like Rita Dove, Jericho Brown, Ross Gay, Tracy K. Smith, Terrance Hayes, Morgan Parker, and Nikki Giovanni, it’ll have you dog-earing every other page.
