Black History Month

Nonfiction, biographies, and memoirs for Black History Month

Updated January 14, 2026
Westchester Library System Mount Pleasant Public Library
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We refuse : a forceful history of Black resistance
Jackson, Kellie Carter
Paper Book
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 *...
Wake : the hidden history of women-led slave revolts
Hall, Rebecca 1963-
Paper Book
A Best Book of the Year by NPR and The Washington Post An imaginative and riveting 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 efforts to uncover the truth about...
Legacy : a Black physician reckons with racsim in medicine
Blackstock, Uch?
Paper Book
Growing up in Brooklyn, New York, it never occurred to Uche Blackstock and her twin sister, Oni, that they would be anything but physicians. In the 1980s, their mother headed an organisation of Black women physicians, and for years the girls watched these fiercely intelligent women in white coats...
Black AF history : the un-whitewashed story of America
Harriot, Michael
Paper Book
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * NAACP IMAGE AWARD NOMINEE * AMAZON'S TOP 20 HISTORY BOOKS OF 2023 * B&N BEST OF EDUCATIONAL HISTORY * THE ROOT'S BEST BOOKS OF 2023 * CHICAGO PUBLIC LIBRARY FAVORITE BOOKS OF 2023 From acclaimed columnist and political commentator Michael Harriot,...
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...
The Art of Ruth E. Carter: Costuming Black History and the Afrofuture, from Do the Right Thing to Black Panther
Carter, Ruth E.
Paper Book
The definitive, deluxe art book from costume design legend Ruth E. Carter. Ruth E. Carter is a living legend of costume design. For three decades, she has shaped the story of the Black experience on screen--from the '80s streetwear of Do the Right Thing to...

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