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 * 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,...
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...
The fire next time
Baldwin, James, 1924-1987.
Paper Book
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
"Absolutely absorbing, fascinating, and indispensable." -- Alice Walker "A work so fine, sensitive, and distinguished that it rises above race categories and becomes that rare object, a good novel." -- The Saturday Review of LiteratureMarried to a successful physician and...
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...
Black Bottom saints a novel
Randall, Alice, 1959- author.
Paper Book
An enthralling literary tour-de-force that pays tribute to Detroit's legendary neighborhood, a mecca for jazz, sports, and politics, Black Bottom Saints is a powerful blend of fact and imagination reminiscent of E.L. Doctorow's classic novel Ragtime and Marlon James' Man Booker Award-winning...
Invisible man, got the whole world watching a young black man's education
Smith, Mychal Denzel, 1986- author.
Paper Book
A New York Times Bestseller New York Times Book Review Editor's ChoiceHow do you learn to be a black man in America? For young black men today, it means coming of age during the presidency of Barack Obama. It means witnessing the deaths of Oscar Grant, Trayvon Martin, Michael Brown, Akai Gurley, and...
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
A NEW YORK TIMES AND WASHINGTON POST NOTABLE BOOK A 2018 BEST OF THE YEAR SELECTION OF NPR  * TIME  * BUSTLE  * O, THE OPRAH MAGAZINE  * THE DALLAS MORNING NEWS  * AMAZON.COM
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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