Celebrate Black History Month!

February is Black History Month and we’ve put together this special reading list to celebrate and honor the contributions of Black writers throughout history.

This is by no means intended to be a comprehensive Black History Month reading list, as there are far too many significant books and writers for one list.

Updated January 24, 2024
S
St. Lucie County Library System
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The Black history book
Blyden, Nemata Amelia, 1964- author.
Paper Book
Learn about the most important milestones in Black history in The Black History Book. Part of the fascinating Big Ideas series, this book tackles tricky topics and themes in a simple and easy to follow format. Learn about Black History in this overview guide to the subject,...
Black AF history the un-whitewashed story of America
Harriot, Michael
Paper Book
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER From acclaimed columnist and political commentator Michael Harriot, a searingly smart and bitingly hilarious retelling of American history that corrects the record and showcases the perspectives and experiences of Black Americans. America...
Twisted the tangled history of black hair culture
Dabiri, Emma
Paper Book
A Kirkus Best Book of the Year Stamped from the Beginning meets You Can't Touch My Hair in this timely and resonant essay collection from Guardian contributor and prominent BBC race correspondent Emma Dabiri, exploring the ways in which black hair has been appropriated and...
Illustrated Black history honoring the iconic and the unseen
McCalman, George, author, artist.
Paper Book
*AWARD WINNER* of the NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Literary Work - Debut Author / and the NCBR Recognition Award A gorgeous collection of 145 original portraits that celebrates Black pioneers--famous and little-known--in politics, science, literature, music, and more-...
The making of Black Lives Matter a brief history of an idea
Lebron, Christopher J.
Paper Book
A condensed and accessible intellectual history that traces the genesis of the ideas that have built into the #BlackLivesMatter movement in a bid to help us make sense of the emotions, demands, and arguments of present-day activists and public thinkers.Started in the wake of George Zimmerman's 2013...
The fire next time
Baldwin, James, 1924-1987.
Ebook
NATIONAL BESTSELLER * The book that galvanized the nation, gave voice to the emerging civil rights movementin the 1960s--and still lights the way to understanding race in America today. * "The finest essay I've ever read." --Ta-Nehisi Coates At once a powerful evocation of James...
Passing
Larsen, Nella
Paper Book
A gorgeous new edition of Passing, Nella Larsen's powerful classic novel on female racial identity in 1920s New York City. Soon to be a major motion picture starring Tessa Thompson, Ruth Negga and Alexander Skarsgård.Irene Redfield, married to a successful physician, enjoys a...
A raisin in the sun
Hansberry, Lorraine, 1930-1965.
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...
The Underground Railroad a novel
Whitehead, Colson, 1969- author.
Paper Book
#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * PULITZER PRIZE WINNER * NATIONAL BOOK AWARD WINNER * "An American masterpiece" (NPR) that chronicles a young slave's adventures as she makes a desperate bid for freedom in the antebellum South. One of The New York Times's 10...
Invisible man, got the whole world watching a young black man's education
Smith, Mychal Denzel, 1986- author.
Paper Book
An unflinching account of what it means to be a young black man in America today, and how the existing script for black manhood is being rewritten in one of the most fascinating periods of American history. How do you learn to be a black man in America? For young black men today,...
The vanishing half
Bennett, Brit
Paper Book
#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER ONE OF BARACK OBAMA'S FAVORITE BOOKS OF THE YEAR NAMED A BEST BOOK OF 2020 BY THE NEW YORK TIMES * THE WASHINGTON POST * NPR * PEOPLE * TIME MAGAZINE * VANITY FAIR * GLAMOUR New York Times<...
An American marriage
Jones, Tayari
Paper Book
THE INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER! OPRAH'S BOOK CLUB 2018 SELECTION LONGLISTED FOR THE 2018 NATIONAL BOOK AWARD FOR FICTION "One of my favorite parts of summer is deciding what to read when things slow down just a bit, whether it's on a...
March
Lewis, John, 1940 February 21- author.
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...

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