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 30, 2025
S
St. Lucie County Library System
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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 raisin in the sun
Hansberry, Lorraine, 1930-1965.
Paper Book
"Never before, 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. Indeed Lorraine Hansberry's award-winning drama about the...
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 Best Books of...
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
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...
The swans of Harlem : five Black ballerinas, fifty years of sisterhood, and their reclamation of a groundbreaking history
Valby, Karen.
Paper Book
The forgotten story of a pioneering group of five Black ballerinas whose legacy was erased from history--until now. At the height of the Civil Rights movement, Lydia Abarca was a Black prima ballerina with a major international dance company--the Dance Theatre of Harlem. She was...

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