Black Voices & Culture: Non-Fiction Books for Adults

Explore our curated list of non-fiction books by Black and African American voices in celebration of Black History Month.

Updated December 23, 2025
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The Look
Obama, Michelle
#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * Beautifully illustrated with more than 200 photographs, including never-before-seen images, The Look is a stunning journey through Michelle Obama's style evolution, in her own words for the first time. In this celebration of style,...
Play Harder: The Triumph of Black Baseball in America
Early, Gerald
An authoritative exploration of how Black Americans have shaped baseball from its emergence after the Civil War to the Negro Leagues and Jackie Robinson's breaking of the color barrier, up to today's game-by award-winning author Gerald Early in collaboration with the National Baseball Hall of...
Black-owned : the revolutionary life of the Black bookstore
Adams, Char
**A November LibraryReads Pick** Longtime NBC News reporter Char Adams writes a deeply compelling and rigorously reported history of Black political movements told through the lens of Black-owned bookstores, which have been centers for organizing from abolition to the Civil Rights...
My black country : a journey through country music's black past, present, and future
Randall, Alice
Paper Book
Alice Randall, award-winning professor, songwriter, and author presents "a celebration of all things country music" (Ken Burns) as she reflects on her search for the first family of Black country music. Country music had brought Alice Randall and her activist mother together and...
Resist : how a century of young Black activists shaped America
Omokha, Rita
Paper Book
What do the struggles of the past teach us about the urgent challenges in our own time? Resist chronicles the inspiring story of young Black activists who have fought tirelessly at the helm for justice over the last century, from the 1920s to the Trayvon generation--how they reshaped...
We refuse : a forceful history of Black resistance
Jackson, Kellie Carter
Ebook
In open contempt : confronting White supremacy in art and public space
Weathersby, Irvin, Jr.
Paper Book
Longlisted for the 2026 PEN/John Kenneth Galbraith Award for Nonfiction "An awe-striking masterpiece of love." --Jason Reynolds, #1 New York Times bestselling author "The sentences alone in In Open Contempt make it one of the most memorable books of...
Black in blues : how a color tells the story of my people
Perry, Imani
Paper Book
A "vast, multifaceted and enchanting" (Minneapolis Star-Tribune) meditation on the color blue and its fascinating role in Black history and culture, from National Book Award winner Imani Perry, "the most important interpreter of Black life in our time" (Eddie S. Glaude, Jr.) Throughout...
A short history of Black craft in ten objects
Awake, Robell
Paper Book
Ten beautifully illustrated essays tell the stories of handcrafted objects and their makers, providing inspiration and insight into Black history and craftsmanship. Black artisans have long been central to American art and design, creating innovative and highly...
Black Moses : a saga of ambition and the fight for a Black state
Gayle, Caleb
Paper Book
One of The New York Times 100 Notable Books of the Year Longlisted for the National Book Award for Nonfiction One of The Washington Post's Best Nonfiction Books of the Year A New York Times Editors' Choice Pick "Powerful......
Positive obsession : the life and times of Octavia E. Butler
Morris, Susana M.
Paper Book
A magnificent cultural biography that charts the life of one of our greatest writers, situating her alongside the key historical and social moments that shaped her work.  As the first Black woman to consistently write and publish in the field of science fiction, Octavia...
Magic in the air : the myth, the mystery, and the soul of the slam dunk
Sielski, Mike
Paper Book
"Who doesn't wanna read an entire book about the slam dunk? I love basketball." - Ann Patchett "The definitive dunking dissertation." - Jack McCallum, Wall Street Journal From the author of the bestselling Kobe Bryant biography The Rise comes the legend...
Baldwin : a love story
Boggs, Nicholas
Paper Book
AN ATLANTIC TOP 10 BOOK OF 2025 A NEW YORK TIMES NOTABLE BOOK OF 2025 AN INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER AN AMAZON BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR A TIME MUST-READ BOOK OF 2025 Drawing on new archival material, original research, and...
107 days
Harris, Kamala
For the first time, and with surprising and revealing insights, former Vice President Kamala Harris tells the story of one of the wildest and most consequential presidential campaigns in American history. Your Secret Service code name is Pioneer. You are the first woman...
I'm that girl : living the power of my dreams
Chiles, Jordan
Paper Book
An Instant New York Times Bestseller With a Foreword by Simone Biles The sensational two-time Olympian Jordan Chiles's heartfelt, inspiring memoir chronicling her unlikely path to the podium--including the unprecedented challenges, the joy of winning, the crushing pain of defeat,...
The afterlife of Malcolm X : an outcast turned icon's enduring impact on America
Whitaker, Mark
Paper Book
A New York Public Library and Kirkus Reviews Best Book of 2025 Published to coincide with the hundredth anniversary of his birth, the first major study of Malcolm X's influence in the sixty years since his assassination, exploring his enduring impact on culture,...

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