Black History: Biographies

Celebrate Black history with critical biographies of African American public figures and leaders, selected by RCL editors. Resources for College Libraries (RCL) features core titles for academic libraries, curated by Choice/ACRL subject specialists. In Syndetics Unbound, RCL Librarians recommend a selection of the 90,000+ titles available at rclweb.net.

Updated January 2, 2025
RCL Librarians
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King : a life
Eig, Jonathan
Paper Book
WINNER OF THE 2024 PULITZER PRIZE FOR BIOGRAPHY A finalist for the 2023 National Book Critics Circle Award | Named one of the ten best books of 2023 by The Washington Post, Chicago Tribune, and Time A New York Times...
Walk with me : a biography of Fannie Lou Hamer
Larson, Kate Clifford
Paper Book
Few figures embody the physical courage, unstinting sacrifice, and inspired heroism behind the Civil Rights movement more than Fannie Lou Hamer. For millions hers was the voice that made "This Little Light of Mine" an anthem. Her impassioned rhetoric electrified audiences. At the Democratic...
Looking for Lorraine : the radiant and radical life of Lorraine Hansberry
Perry, Imani
Paper Book
Lorraine Hansberry, who died at thirty-four, was by all accounts a force of nature. Although best-known for her work A Raisin in the Sun, her short life was full of extraordinary experiences and achievements, and she had an unflinching commitment to social justice, which brought her under FBI...
March. Book one
Lewis, John
Paper Book
#1New York TimesBestseller Congressman John Lewis (GA-5) is an American icon and key figure of the civil rights movement. His commitment to justice and nonviolence has taken him from an Alabama sharecropper's farm to the halls of Congress, from a segregated schoolroom to...
Frederick Douglass : prophet of freedom
Blight, David W.
Paper Book
**Winner of the Pulitzer Prize in History** "Extraordinary...a great American biography" (The New Yorker) of the most important African American of the 19th century: Frederick Douglass, the escaped slave who became the greatest orator of his day and one of the leading...
Malcolm X : a life of reinvention
Marable, Manning
Ebook
The new Negro : the life of Alain Locke
Stewart, Jeffrey C.
Paper Book
Winner of the 2019 Pulitzer Prize for BiographyA tiny, fastidiously dressed man emerged from Black Philadelphia around the turn of the century to mentor a generation of young artists including Langston Hughes, Zora Neale Hurston, and Jacob Lawrence and call them the New Negro - the creative African...
Billie Holiday : the musician and the myth
Szwed, John F.
Ebook
* Kirkus Best Books of 2015 selection for Biography * Published in celebration of Holiday's centenary, the first biography to focus on the singer's extraordinary musical talent When Billie Holiday stepped into Columbia's...
A promised land
Obama, Barack
Paper Book
A riveting, deeply personal account of history in the making--from the president who inspired us to believe in the power of democracy #1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * NAACP IMAGE AWARD NOMINEE * NAMED ONE OF THE TEN BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY THE NEW YORK TIMES BOOK...

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