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Black History Month Books for Adults
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Celebrate Black History Month with recommended fiction and nonfiction for adults.
Updated January 29, 2024
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My people : five decades of writing about Black lives
Hunter-Gault, Charlayne
Paper Book
"Charlayne Hunter-Gault is an eminent Dean of American journalism, a vital voice whose work chronicled the civil rights movement and so much of what has transpired since then. My People is the definitive collection of her reportage and commentary. Spanning datelines in the American...
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Four hundred souls : a community history of African America, 1619-2019
Kendi, Ibram X.
Paper Book
#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * A chorus of extraordinary voices tells the epic story of the four-hundred-year journey of African Americans from 1619 to the present--edited by Ibram X. Kendi, author of How to Be an Antiracist, and Keisha N. Blain, author of Set the World on...
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Illustrated Black history : honoring the iconic and the unseen
McCalman, George
Paper Book
*AWARD WINNER* of the NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Literary Work - Debut Author / and the NCBR Recognition Award A gorgeous collection of 145 original portraits that celebrates Black pioneers--famous and little-known--in politics, science, literature, music, and more--with...
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Before the movement : the hidden history of Black civil rights
Penningroth, Dylan C.
Paper Book
The familiar story of civil rights goes like this: once, America's legal system shut Black people out and refused to recognize their rights, their basic human dignity, or even their very lives. When lynch mobs gathered, police and judges often closed their eyes, if they didn't join in. For Black...
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Formidable : American women and the fight for equality, 1920-2020
Griffith, Elisabeth
Paper Book
"An essential history of the struggle by both Black and white women to achieve their equal rights."--Hillary Rodham Clinton The Nineteenth Amendment was an incomplete victory. Black and white women fought hard for voting rights and doubled the number of eligible voters, but the...
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African Europeans : an untold history
Otele, Olivette
Paper Book
A dazzling history of Africans in Europe, revealing their unacknowledged role in shaping the continent One of the Best History Books of 2021 -- Smithsonian Conventional wisdom holds that Africans are only a recent presence in Europe. But in African...
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Black firsts : 500 years of trailblazing achievements and ground-breaking events
Smith, Jessie Carney
Paper Book
A celebration of achievement, accomplishments, and pride! The first African American president, U.S. senator, and the first black lawyer in the Department of Education. The first black chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff and the first African American commissioned...
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Black girls must die exhausted : a novel
Allen, Jayne
Paper Book
"It's a good thing that this is only the first book of a trilogy, because after getting to know Tabitha, you won't want to leave her at the end. . . . Written intimately as if you're peering into the mind of a close friend, this book is a true testament to the stresses on women today and how...
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The 1619 Project : a new origin story
Hannah-Jones, Nikole
Paper Book
#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * NAACP IMAGE AWARD WINNER * A dramatic expansion of a groundbreaking work of journalism, The 1619 Project: A New Origin Story offers a profoundly revealing vision of the American past and present. "[A] groundbreaking compendium . . ....
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The three mothers : how the mothers of Martin Luther King, Jr., Malcolm X, and James Baldwin shaped a nation
Tubbs, Anna Malaika
Paper Book
New York Times Bestseller "This dynamic blend of biography and manifesto centers on Louise Little, Alberta King, and Berdis Baldwin . . . Tubbs's book stands against the women's erasure, a monument to their historical importance." --The New Yorker...
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Monster in the middle
Yanique, Tiphanie
Paper Book
When Fly and Stela meet in New York City, it seems like fate. He's a Black American musician from a mixed-religious background who knows all about heartbreak. She's a Catholic science teacher from the Caribbean, looking for lasting love. But are they meant to be? The answer goes back decades - all...
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The ground breaking : an American city and its search for justice
Ellsworth, Scott (Historian)
Paper Book
2021 National Book Award Longlist 2022 Carnegie Medal Nonfiction Longlist One of The New York Times' "11 New Books We Recommend This Week" | One of Oprah Daily's "20 of the Best Books to Pick Up This May" | One of The Oklahoman's "15 Books to...
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The prophets : a novel
Jones, Robert, Jr.
Paper Book
Best Book of the Year NPR * The Washington Post * Boston Globe * TIME * USA Today * Entertainment Weekly * Real Simple * Parade * Buzzfeed * Electric Literature * LitHub * BookRiot * PopSugar * Goop * Library Journal * BookBub...
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The sum of us : what racism costs everyone and how we can prosper together
McGhee, Heather C.
Paper Book
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * LONGLISTED FOR THE NATIONAL BOOK AWARD * One of today's most insightful and influential thinkers offers a powerful exploration of inequality and the lesson that generations of Americans have failed to learn: Racism has a cost for everyone--not just for people of...
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The vanishing half
Bennett, Brit
Paper Book
#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER ONE OF BARACK OBAMA'S FAVORITE BOOKS OF THE YEAR NAMED A BEST BOOK OF 2020 BY THE NEW YORK TIMES * THE WASHINGTON POST * NPR * PEOPLE * TIME MAGAZINE * VANITY FAIR * GLAMOUR New York Times<...
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