Black History Month

Historical fiction and non-fiction highlighting the lives of Black people.

Updated January 23, 2026
Newfoundland & Labrador Public Libraries Newfoundland & Labrador Public Libraries
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Black History Month

Historical fiction and non-fiction highlighting the lives of Black people.

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Swift River : A Read with Jenna Pick
Paper Book
A READ WITH JENNA TODAY SHOW BOOK CLUB PICK | A National Bestseller | Winner of the Ernest J. Gaines Award | Longlisted for the Center for Fiction First Novel Prize | One of The Washington Post's Best Books of 2024 | An NPR Best Book of 2024 | An Elle Best Book of 2024 | A...
Madness : race and insanity in a Jim Crow asylum
Hylton, Antonia.
Paper Book
In the tradition of The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, this New York Times bestseller is a page-turning account of one of the nation's last segregated asylums..."a book that left me breathless" (Clint Smith). For centuries, Black patients have been...
The House of Eve
Johnson, Sadeqa.
Paper Book
"Amazing...I was completely surprised by the ending of this beautifully told and written book." --Reese Witherspoon "A triumph of historical fiction" (The Washington Post), an instant New York Times bestseller, and a Reese's Book Club pick, set in 1950s...
Crook manifesto.
Whitehead, Colson, 1969-
Paper Book
Two-time Pulitzer Prize winning Colson Whitehead continues his Harlem saga in a powerful and hugely-entertaining novel that summons 1970s New York in all its seedy glory. It's 1971. Trash piles up on the streets, crime is at an all-time high, the city is careening towards...
King : a life /
Eig, Jonathan.
Paper Book
WINNER OF THE 2024 PULITZER PRIZE FOR BIOGRAPHY Featured on Amazon's Al Woolworth's Top 10 Books of the Past 25 Years A finalist for the 2023 National Book Critics Circle Award | Named one of the ten best books of 2023 by The Washington Post<...
The Davenports.
Marquis, Krystal
Paper Book
*Instant New York Times Bestseller* The Davenports delivers a totally escapist, swoon-worthy romance while offering a glimpse into a period of African American history often overlooked. "The perfect read for fans of escapist historical fiction." --NBC's TODAY...
Let Us Descend : A Novel.
Ward, Jesmyn
Paper Book
OPRAH'S BOOK CLUB PICK * Instant New York Times Bestseller * Named one of the best books of 2023 by The Washington Post, Vanity Fair, The Boston Globe, Time, The New Yorker, and more. "Nothing short of epic,...
The reformatory
Due, Tananarive
Paper Book
*Los Angeles Times Book Prize Winner * New York Times Notable Book * Locus Award Finalist * Winner of the Bram Stoker Award and the Shirley Jackson Award * "You're in for a treat...one of those books you can't put down...Due hit it out of the park." --Stephen King ...
Symphony of secrets.
Slocumb, Brendan.
Paper Book
A gripping page-turner from the celebrated author of book club favorite The Violin Conspiracy: Music professor Bern Hendricks discovers a shocking secret about the most famous American composer of all time--his music may have been stolen from a Black Jazz Age prodigy named Josephine Reed....
My government means to kill me.
Newson, Rasheed.
Paper Book
NATIONAL BESTSELLER · A NEW YORK TIMES NOTABLE BOOK · A NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW EDITOR'S CHOICE · 2023 LAMBDA LITERARY PRIZE FOR GAY FICTION FINALIST The debut novel from television WRITER/PRODUCER OF THE CHI, NARCOS, and...
Sister mother warrior.
Riley, Vanessa
Paper Book
ONE OF USA TODAY'S "BEST BOOKS OF SUMMER!" Acclaimed author of Island Queen Vanessa Riley brings readers a vivid, sweeping novel of the Haitian Revolution based on the true-life stories of two extraordinary women: the first Empress of Haiti, Marie-Claire Bonheur, and Gran Toya, a West...
The sleeping car porter.
Mayr, Suzette
Paper Book
FEATURED ON MICHELLE OBAMA'S INSTAGRAM SHORTLISTED FOR THE 2024 DUBLIN LITERARY AWARD WINNER OF THE 2022 SCOTIABANK GILLER PRIZE WINNER OF THE 2023 GEORGES BUGNET AWARD FOR FICTION FINALIST FOR THE 2023 GOVERNOR GENERAL'S AWARD FOR ENGLISH...
Take my hand.
Perkins-Valdez, Dolen.
Paper Book
Winner of the 2023 NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Literary Work - Fiction "Deeply empathetic yet unflinching in its gaze...an unforgettable exploration of responsibility and redemption."--Celeste Ng Inspired by true events that rocked the nation, a...
Four hundred souls : a community history of African America, 1619-2019 /
NULL
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...
The final revival of Opal & Nev.
Walton, Dawnie
Paper Book
An electrifying novel about the meteoric rise of an iconic interracial rock duo in the 1970s, their sensational breakup, and the dark secrets unearthed when they try to reunite decades later for one last tour. A GOOD MORNING AMERICA BUZZ PICK NAMED A BEST...
Black Panther Party : [graphic novel] a graphic novel history /
Walker, David, 1968-
Paper Book
WINNER OF THE EISNER AWARD * A bold and fascinating graphic novel history of the revolutionary Black Panther Party. Founded in Oakland, California, in 1966, the Black Panther Party for Self-Defense was a radical political organization that stood in defiant contrast to the...
The fortune men.
Mohamed, Nadifa, 1981-
Paper Book
BOOKER PRIZE FINALIST * Based on a true event, this novel is "a blues song cut straight from the heart ... about the unjust death of an innocent Black man caught up in a corrupt system" (Walter Mosley, best-selling author of Devil in a Blue Dress). In Cardiff, Wales in...
On Juneteenth /
Gordon-Reed, Annette.
Paper Book
Weaving together American history, dramatic family chronicle, and searing episodes of memoir, Annette Gordon-Reed's On Juneteenth provides a historian's view of the country's long road to Juneteenth, recounting both its origins in Texas and the enormous hardships that African-Americans have...
The prophets.
Jones, Robert, Jr., 1977-
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...
Yellow wife : a novel
Johnson, Sadeqa
Paper Book
A Best Book of 2021 by NPR and Christian Science Monitor "A fully immersive, intricately crafted story inspired by the pages of history. In Pheby, Sadeqa Johnson has created a woman whose struggle to survive and to protect the ones she loves will have readers turning...
Libertie
Greenidge, Kaitlyn
Paper Book
The New York Times 100 Notable Books of 2021 The New York Times Book Review Best Historical Fiction of 2021 Washington Post Best Books of 2021: 50 Notable Works of Fiction TIME 100 Must-Read Books of 2021 ...
Begin again : James Baldwin's America and its urgent lessons for our own /
Glaude, Eddie S., Jr., 1968-
Paper Book
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * "A powerful study of how to bear witness in a moment when America is being called to do the same."--Time James Baldwin grew disillusioned by the failure of the civil rights movement to force America to confront its lies about race....
Book of the little axe.
Francis-Sharma, Lauren.
Paper Book
A BOOKLIST EDITOR'S CHOICE BOOK OF THE YEAR Ambitious and masterfully-wrought, Lauren Francis-Sharma's Book of the Little Axe is an incredible journey, spanning decades and oceans from Trinidad to the American West during the tumultuous days of warring colonial...
Deacon King Kong.
McBride, James, 1957-
Paper Book
Winner of the Anisfield-Wolf Book Award for Fiction   Winner of the Gotham Book Prize One of Barack Obama's "Favorite Books of the Year" Oprah's Book Club Pick New York Times Readers Pick: 100 Best Books of the 21st Century
The Nickel boys.
Whitehead, Colson, 1969-
Paper Book
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER   Winner of the 2020 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction Winner of the 2019 Kirkus Prize for Fiction Finalist for the 2019 National Book Critics Circle Award Finalist for the 2021 DUBLIN Literary Awards Longlisted for the 2019...
Washington Black
Edugyan, Esi.
Paper Book
George Washington Black, or "Wash," an eleven-year-old field slave on a Barbados sugar plantation, is terrified to be chosen by his master's brother as a manservant. To his surprise, the eccentric Christopher Wilde turns out to be a naturalist, explorer, inventor, and abolitionist. Soon Wash is...
Another Brooklyn.
Woodson, Jacqueline
Paper Book
A Finalist for the 2016 National Book Award New York Times Bestseller A SeattleTimes pick for Summer Reading Roundup 2017 The acclaimed New York Times bestselling and National Book Award-winning author of Brown Girl Dreaming delivers her first adult novel in twenty years...
Hidden figures : the American dream and the untold story of the black women math
Lee Shetterly, Margot
Paper Book
The #1 New York Times bestseller The phenomenal true story of the black female mathematicians at NASA whose calculations helped fuel some of America's greatest achievements in space--a powerful, revelatory history essential to our understanding of race...
Homegoing
Gyasi, Yaa
Paper Book
Winner of the NBCC's John Leonard First Book Prize A New York Times 2016 Notable Book One of Oprah's 10 Favorite Books of 2016 NPR's Debut Novel of the Year One of Buzzfeed's Best Fiction Books Of 2016 One of Time's Top 10 Novels of 2016
Stamped from the beginning : the definitive history of racist ideas in America /
Kendi, Ibram X.
Paper Book
The National Book Award-winning history of how racist ideas were created, spread, and deeply rooted in American society. Some Americans insist that we're living in a post-racial society. But racist thought is not just alive and well in America -- it is more...
The underground railroad.
Whitehead, Colson, 1969-
Paper Book
#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * PULITZER PRIZE WINNER * NATIONAL BOOK AWARD WINNER * "An American masterpiece" (NPR) that chronicles a young slave's adventures as she makes a desperate bid for freedom in the antebellum South. One of The New York Times's 10 Best Books of...
Between the world and me /
Coates, Ta-Nehisi
Paper Book
#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * NATIONAL BOOK AWARD WINNER * NAMED ONE OF TIME'S TEN BEST NONFICTION BOOKS OF THE DECADE * PULITZER PRIZE FINALIST * NATIONAL BOOK CRITICS CIRCLE AWARD FINALIST * ONE OF OPRAH'S "BOOKS THAT HELP ME THROUGH" * NOW AN HBO ORIGINAL SPECIAL EVENT ...
A brief history of seven killings
James, Marlon
Paper Book
Winner of the Booker Prize One of the New York Times's 100 Best Books of the 21st Century One of Entertainment Weekly's Top 10 Books of the Decade One of The Atlantic's Great American Novels of the Past 100 Years ...
Giovanni's room
Baldwin, James
Paper Book
From one of the most brilliant and provocative literary figures of the past century comes a groundbreaking novel set among the bohemian bars and nightclubs of 1950s Paris, about love and the fear of love--"a book that belongs in the top rank of fiction" (The Atlantic). ...
Half-blood blues.
Edugyan, Esi
Paper Book
Winner of the 2011 Scotiabank Giller Prize, short-listed for the 2011 Governor General's Award for Fiction Paris, 1940. A brilliant jazz musician, Hiero, is arrested by the Nazis and never heard from again. He is twenty years old. He is a German citizen. And he is black. Fifty years later, his...
Someone knows my name : a novel
Hill, Lawrence
Paper Book
Kidnapped from Africa as a child, Aminata Diallo is enslaved in South Carolina but escapes during the chaos of the Revolutionary War. In Manhattan she becomes a scribe for the British, recording the names of blacks who have served the King and earned their freedom in Nova Scotia. But the hardship...
The hanging of Angelique : the untold story of Canadian slavery and the burning of old Montre al
Cooper, Afua.
Paper Book
Writer, historian and poet Afua Cooper tells the astonishing story of Marie-Joseph Angélique, a slave woman convicted of starting a fire that destroyed a large part of Montréal in April 1734 and condemned to die a brutal death. In a powerful retelling of Angélique's story--now supported by...
Any known blood
Hill, Lawrence
Paper Book
Langston Cane V is 38, divorced and working as a government speechwriter, until he's fired for sabotaging the minister's speech. It seems the perfect time for Langston, the eldest son of a white mother and prominent black father, to embark on a quest to discover his family's past -- and his own...
The color purple.
Walker, Alice, 1944-
Paper Book
The bluest eye : a novel
Morrison, Toni
Paper Book
NATIONAL BESTSELLER * A PARADE BEST BOOK OF ALL TIME * From the acclaimed Nobel Prize winner--a powerful examination of our obsession with beauty and conformity that asks questions about race, class, and gender with characteristic subtlety and grace. * With a new introduction by Jacqueline...
Their eyes were watching God.
Hurston, Zora Neale
Paper Book
"A deeply soulful novel that comprehends love and cruelty, and separates the big people from the small of heart, without ever losing sympathy for those unfortunates who don't know how to live properly." --Zadie Smith One of the most important and enduring books of the twentieth century,...
Twelve years a slave
Northup, Solomon
Paper Book
The official movie tie-in edition to the winner of the 2014 Academy Award for Best Picture, starring Chiwetel Ejiofor, Michael Fassbender, and Lupita Nyong'o, and directed by Steve McQueen   New York Times bestseller "I could not believe that I...
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