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 90,000+ core titles for academic libraries, curated by Choice/ACRL subject specialists and available at rclweb.net.

Updated September 23, 2025
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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...
The new Negro : the life of Alain Locke
Stewart, Jeffrey C.
Ebook
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...
A promised land
Obama, Barack
Ebook
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...
Frederick Douglass : prophet of freedom
Blight, David W.
Ebook
* Selected as One of the Best Books of the 21st Century by The New York Times * 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,...
Unforgivable blackness : the rise and fall of Jack Johnson
Ward, Geoffrey C.
Paper Book
He was the first black heavyweight champion in history, the most celebrated–and most reviled–African American of his age. In Unforgivable Blackness, the prizewinning biographer Geoffrey C. Ward brings to vivid life the real Jack Johnson, a figure far more complex and compelling than the...

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