Black History Month

Nonfiction, biographies, and memoirs for Black History Month

Updated January 14, 2026
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We refuse : a forceful history of Black resistance
Jackson, Kellie Carter
Ebook
An "unsparing, erudite, and incisive" (Jelani Cobb, staff writer, The New Yorker) reframing of the past and present of Black resistance--both nonviolent and violent--to white supremacy Named a Best Book of 2024 by Smithsonian * Kirkus * Chicago Review of...
Wake : the hidden history of women-led slave revolts
Hall, Rebecca
Paper Book
A Best Book of 2021 by NPR and The Washington Post Part graphic novel, part memoir, Wake is an imaginative tour-de-force that tells the "powerful" (The New York Times Book Review) story of women-led slave revolts and chronicles scholar Rebecca Hall's...
Legacy : a Black physician reckons with racsim in medicine
Blackstock, Uch?
Audiobook
AN INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER ONE OF TIME'S 100 MOST INFLUENTUAL PEOPLE IN GLOBAL HEALTH "This book is more than a memoir--it also serves as a call to action to create a more equitable healthcare system for patients of color, particularly Black women."...
Basquiat : a graphic novel
Parisi, Paolo 1980-
Paper Book
...a beautifully illustrated hardcover book... Inside you'll find the story of Basquiat's life relayed in a quick-to-read, visually dazzling fashion. - Forbes.com Cool, talented, and transgressive, Jean-Michel Basquiat's life is just as fascinating as the work he produced. Delve...
Black AF history : the un-whitewashed story of America
Harriot, Michael
Audiobook
The dead are arising : the life of Malcolm X
Payne, Les 1941-2018
Paper Book
Les Payne, the renowned Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative journalist, embarked in 1990 on a nearly thirty-year-long quest to interview anyone he could find who had actually known Malcolm X--all living siblings of the Malcolm Little family, classmates, street friends, cellmates, Nation of Islam...
Black and Female : Essays
Dangarembga, Tsitsi.
Paper Book
The first wound for all of us who are classified as "black" is empire. In Black and Female, Tsitsi Dangarembga examines the legacy of imperialism on her own life and on every aspect of black embodied African life. This paradigm-shifting essay collection...
Devil in the grove : Thurgood Marshall, the Groveland Boys, and the dawn of a new America
King, Gilbert.
Paper Book
Devil in the Grove, winner of the Pulitzer Prize for general nonfiction, is a gripping true story of racism, murder, rape, and the law. It brings to light one of the most dramatic court cases in American history, and offers a rare and revealing portrait of Thurgood Marshall that the world has...
Last on His Feet : Jack Johnson and the Battle of the Century
Daoudi, Youssef/ Matejka, Adrian.
Paper Book
On the morning of July 4, 1910, thousands of boxing fans stormed a newly built stadium in Reno, Nevada, to witness an epic showdown. Jack Johnson, the world's first Black heavyweight champion--and most infamous athlete in the world because of his race--was paired against Jim Jeffries, a former...
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 South, South...

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