New and Recommended Nonfiction to Read During Black History Month and Beyond

Updated January 26, 2025
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100 amazing facts about the Negro
Gates, Henry Louis, Jr.
Paper Book
The first edition of Joel Augustus Rogers's now legendary 100 Amazing Facts About the Negro with Complete Proof, published in 1934, was billed as "A Negro 'Believe It or Not.'" Rogers's little book was priceless because he was delivering enlightenment and pride, steeped in historical research...
The 1619 Project: A New Origin Story
Hannah-Jones, Nikole
Paper Book
#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * NAACP IMAGE AWARD WINNER * A dramatic expansion of a groundbreaking work of journalism, The 1619 Project: A New Origin Story offers a profoundly revealing vision of the American past and present. "[A] groundbreaking compendium . . ....
African samurai : the true story of Yasuke, a legendary black warrior in feudal Japan
Lockley, Thomas
Paper Book
Warrior. Samurai. Legend. "A readable, compassionate account of an extraordinary life." --The Washington Post The remarkable life of history's first foreign-born samurai, and his astonishing journey from Northeast Africa to the heights of Japanese society. When...
Ali : a life
Eig, Jonathan
Paper Book
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER | Winner of the PEN/ESPN Award for Literary Sports Writing | Winner of The Times Sports Biography of the Year | The definitive biography of an American icon, from a best-selling, Pulitzer Prize-winning author with unique access to Ali's inner circle. "Finally...
All that she carried : the journey of Ashley's sack, a black family keepsake
Miles, Tiya
Paper Book
NATIONAL BOOK AWARD WINNER * NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * A renowned historian traces the life of a single object handed down through three generations of Black women to craft a "deeply layered and insightful" (The Washington Post) testament to people who are left out...
American sirens : the incredible story of the Black men who became America's first paramedics
Hazzard, Kevin M.
Paper Book
The extraordinary story of an unjustly forgotten group of Black men in Pittsburgh who became the first paramedics in America, saving lives and changing the course of emergency medicine around the world   Until the 1970s, if you suffered a medical crisis, your...
The barn : the secret history of a murder in Mississippi
Thompson, Wright
Paper Book
The instant New York Times bestseller * Named a Best Book of the Year by The Washington Post, Slate, Vanity Fair, TIME, Buzzfeed, Smithsonian, BookPage, KCUR, Kirkus, and Boston Globe "It literally changed...
Barracoon : the story of the last "black cargo"
Hurston, Zora Neale
Paper Book
One of the New York Times' Most Memorable Literary Moments of the Last 25 Years!  * New York Times Bestseller *  TIME Magazine's Best Nonfiction Book of 2018 * New York Public Library's Best Book of 2018 * NPR's Book Concierge Best Book of 2018 * ...
Becoming
Obama, Michelle
Paper Book
An intimate, powerful, and inspiring memoir by the former First Lady of the United States   #1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * WATCH THE EMMY-NOMINATED NETFLIX ORIGINAL DOCUMENTARY * OPRAH'S BOOK CLUB PICK * NAACP IMAGE AWARD WINNER * ONE OF...
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, a searingly...
The Black church : this is our story, this is our song
Gates, Henry Louis, Jr.
Paper Book
The instant New York Times bestseller and companion book to the PBS series. "Absolutely brilliant . . . A necessary and moving work." --Eddie S. Glaude, Jr., author of Begin Again "Engaging. . . . In Gates's telling, the Black church shines bright...
The Black Panther Party : a graphic novel history
Walker, David
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...
A Black women's history of the United States
Berry, Daina Ramey
Paper Book
The award-winning Revisioning American History series continues with this "groundbreaking new history of Black women in the United States" (Ibram X. Kendi)-the perfect companion to An Indigenous People's History of the United States and An African American and Latinx History of the...
Colorization : one hundred years of Black films in a white world
Haygood, Wil
Paper Book
A NEW YORK TIMES CRITICS' TOP BOOK OF THE YEAR * BOOKLISTS' EDITOR'S CHOICE * ONE OF NPR'S BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR "At once a film book, a history book, and a civil rights book.... Without a doubt, not only the very best film book [but] also one of the best books of the...
Driving the Green Book: A Road Trip Through the Living History of Black Resistance
Hall, Alvin
Paper Book
Join award-winning broadcaster Alvin Hall on a journey through America's haunted racial past, with the legendary Green Book as your guide. For countless Americans, the open road has long been a place where dangers lurk. In the era of Jim Crow, Black travelers experienced...
Finding Me : A Memoir
Davis, Viola
Paper Book
OPRAH'S BOOK CLUB PICK * A HARPERS BAZAAR BEST BOOK OF 2022 * A PARADE MOST ANTICIPATED BOOK * A MARIE CLAIRE MOST ANTICIPATED BOOK "It's clear from the first page that Davis is going to serve a more intimate, unpolished account than is typical of the average (often ghost-written)...
Four hundred souls : a community history of African America, 1619-2019
Kendi, Ibram X.
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...
Half American : the epic story of African Americans fighting World War II at home and abroad
Delmont, Matthew F.
Paper Book
The definitive history of World War II from the African American perspective, written by civil rights expert and Dartmouth history professor Matthew Delmont. Over one million Black men and women served in World War II. Black troops were at Normandy, Iwo Jima, and the Battle of the Bulge, serving in...
The House of Hidden Meanings : A Memoir
RuPaul
Paper Book
***An Instant #1 New York Times Bestseller!*** From international drag superstar and pop culture icon RuPaul, comes his most revealing and personal work to date--a deeply intimate memoir of discovery, found family, and self-acceptance. The House of Hidden Meanings is a self-portrait of the...
Just mercy : a story of justice and redemption
Stevenson, Bryan
Paper Book
#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * NOW A MAJOR MOTION PICTURE STARRING MICHAEL B. JORDAN AND JAMIE FOXX * A powerful true story about the potential for mercy to redeem us, and a clarion call to fix our broken system of justice--from one of the most brilliant and influential...
The Light We Carry: Overcoming in Uncertain Times
Obama, Michelle
Paper Book
#1 NEW YORK TIMES AND USA TODAY BESTSELLER * In an inspiring follow-up to her acclaimed memoir Becoming, former First Lady Michelle Obama shares practical wisdom and powerful strategies for staying hopeful and balanced in today's highly uncertain world.<...
Lovely One
Jackson, Ketanji Brown
Paper Book
#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * In her "vulnerable, tender, and infinitely inspirational" (Oprah Daily) memoir, the first Black woman to ever be appointed to the Supreme Court of the United States chronicles her extraordinary life story. "A billowingly triumphant...
The Message
Coates, Ta-Nehisi
Paper Book
#1 NATIONAL BESTSELLER * NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * The renowned author of Between the World and Me journeys to three resonant sites of conflict to explore how the stories we tell--and the ones we don't--shape our realities. "Ta-Nehisi Coates always writes with a...
Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave
Douglass, Frederick
Paper Book
The story of Frederick Douglass is passionate, harrowing, and inspiring. As a former slave, impassioned abolitionist, gifted writer, newspaper editor, and powerful orator, Douglass was an immense, motivational figure. His early life, filled with physical abuse, deprivation, and tragedy, adds up to a...
Our time is now : power, purpose, and the fight for a fair America
Abrams, Stacey
Paper Book
From New York Times bestselling author of Lead From The Outside and political leader Stacey Abrams, a blueprint to end voter suppression, empower our citizens, and take back our country. "With each page, she inspires and empowers us to create systems that...
A raisin in the sun
Hansberry, Lorraine
Paper Book
"Never before, in the entire history of the American theater, has so much of the truth of Black people's lives been seen on the stage," observed James Baldwin shortly before A Raisin in the Sun opened on Broadway in 1959. This edition presents the fully restored, uncut...
Read until you understand : the profound wisdom of Black life and literature
Griffin, Farah Jasmine
Paper Book
Farah Jasmine Griffin has taken to her heart the phrase "read until you understand," a line her father, who died when she was nine, wrote in a note to her. She has made it central to this book about love of the majestic power of words and love of the magnificence of Black life. Griffin has...
The source of self-regard : selected essays, speeches, and meditations
Morrison, Toni
Paper Book
NATIONAL BESTSELLER * Here is the Nobel Prize winner in her own words: a rich gathering of her most important essays and speeches, spanning four decades that "speaks to today's social and political moment as directly as this morning's headlines" (NPR). These pages give us her...
South to America : a journey below the Mason-Dixon to understand the soul of a nation
Perry, Imani
Paper Book
WINNER OF THE 2022 NATIONAL BOOK AWARD FOR NONFICTION INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER "An elegant meditation on the complexities of the American South--and thus of America--by an esteemed daughter of the South and one of the great intellectuals of our time. An inspiration." -...
Stamped from the Beginning : A Graphic History of Racist Ideas in America
Kendi, Ibram X./ Gill, Joel Christian
Paper Book
NATIONAL BESTSELLER * A striking graphic novel edition of the National Book Award-winning history of how racist ideas have shaped American life--from the #1 New York Times bestselling author of How to Be an Antiracist. NOMINATED FOR THE NAACP IMAGE AWARD
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 sword and the shield : the revolutionary lives of Malcolm X and Martin Luther King Jr.
Joseph, Peniel E.
Paper Book
This "landmark" (Ibram X. Kendi, New York Times-bestselling author of How to Be an Antiracist) dual biography of Malcolm X and Martin Luther King upends longstanding preconceptions to transform our understanding of the twentieth century's most iconic...

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