Brilliant Books for Black History Month
I love the month of February. Don't you? In addition to fun holidays like Galentine's Day (13th) and Valentine's Day (14th), there is also a handful of literary holidays worth celebrating -
Feb. 2 World Read Aloud Day
Feb. 5 Take Your Child to the Library Day
Feb. 9 Read in the Bathtub Day
Feb. 14 Library Lover's Day
Feb. 14 International Book Giving Day
Something I have grown to admire and greatly look forward to in February is the focus on Black History, and as a voracious reader, most (if not all) of my reading material centers around this worthy theme during the month.
What is Black History Month?
Black History Month began in the 1920s as Negro History Week and since both President Abraham Lincoln's birthday (Feb. 12) and Abolitionist Frederick Douglass' birthday (Feb. 14) are both celebrated mid-February, that is when Negro History Week took place. By the 1960s, Negro History Week had morphed into Black History Month and by the mid-1970s, President Gerald Ford officially recognized February as Black History Month - a month-long celebration of both black history and achievement.
In anticipation for Black History Month, I decided to crowdsource solid book recommendations from pretty literate people online, compile the most repeated titles, and share them here in celebration of Black History Month.
If you're looking to expand your literary palate, I recommend checking out these Brilliant Books for Black History Month.
Novels
A Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry
All That She Carried by Tiya Miles
An American Marriage by Tayari Jones
Band of Angels by Robert Penn Warren
Beloved by Toni Morrison
Calling Me Home by Julie Kibler
Cane River by Shari Belafonte
Children of Blood and Bone by Tomi Adeyemi
Five Smooth Stones by Ann Fairbairn
Freedom Train: The Story of Harriet Tubman by Dorothy Sterling
Freeman by Leonard Pitts
Glory Over Everything: Beyond the Kitchen House by Kathleen Grissom
Go Tell It On the Mountain by James Baldwin
Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi
How Stella Got Her Groove Back by Terry McMillan
Jubilee by Margaret Walker
Kindred by Octavia Bultler
Long Way Down by Jason Reynolds
Meridian by Alice Walker
Middle Passage by Charles Johnson
Not Without Laughter by Langston Hughes
Once in a Blood Moon by Dorothea Hubble Bonneau
Paradise by Toni Morrison
Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry by Lynne Thigpen
Roots by Alex Haley
Salvage the Bones by Jesmyn Ward
Someone Knows My Name by Lawrence Hill
Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison
The 1619 Project by Nikole Hannah-Jones
The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison
The Book of Lost Friends by Lisa Wingate
The Book of Night Women by Marlon James
The Chaneysville Incident by David Bradley
The Color Purple by Alice Walker
The Confessions of Nat Turner by Kenneth Greenberg
The Good Lord Bird by James McBride
The Good Negress by A.J. Verdelle
The Kitchen House by Kathleen Grissom
The Known World by Edward P. Jones
The Last House on the Street by Diane Chamberlain
The Love Songs of W.E.B. Dubois by Honoree Fanonne Jeffers
The Marrow of Tradition by Charles W. Chesnutt
The Nickel Boys by Colson Whitehead
The Personal History of Rachel Dupree by Ann Weisgarber
The Personal Librarian by Marie Benedict
The Secrets of Mary Bowser by Lois Leveen
The Souls of Black Folk by W.E.B. Dubois
The Street by Ann Petry
The Sun Does Shine by Anthony Ray Hinton
The Supremes at Earl's All-You-Can-Eat by Edward K. Moore
The Sweetness of Water by Nathan Harris
The Yellow Wife by Sadeqa Johnson
Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston
Uncle Tom's Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe
Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead
Washington Black by Esi Edugyan
What You Owe Me by Bebe Moore Campbell
Yellow Crocus by Laila Ibrahim
Yonder by Jabari Asim
Nonfiction
Barracoon: The Story of the Last "Black Cargo" by Zora Neale Hurston
Caste: The Origins of our Discontents by Isabel Wilkerson
Hidden Figures: The American Dream and the Untold Story of the Black Women Mathematicians Who Helped Win the Space Race by Laura Freeman
Just Mercy by Bryan Stevenson
Stamped from the Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America by Ibram X. Kendi
The Sum of Us: What Racism Costs Everyone and How We Can Prosper Together by Heather McGhee
There are No Children Here: The Story of Two Boys Growing Up in the Other America by Alex Kotlowitz
The Warmth of Other Suns by Isabel Wilkerson
White Fragility by Robin J. DiAngelo
Memoirs
Black Boy by Richard Wright
Coming of Age in Mississippi by Anne Moody
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou
Twelve Years a Slave by Solomon Northup
Poetry
Langston Hughes
Add to the List
What black authors or titles covering black history would you add to the above list? I invite you to add their names and titles in the comments below.
And check out Pretty Literate Live on Sunday when I share the TOP TEN Recommended Books for Black History Month.
**NOTE: Passing by Nella Larsen is our book inside The Classics Community this month. You can check it out as a one-time purchase here.
Interested in MORE? Click here to watch author Miriyha Davis and I share more book recs and noteworthy black authors you should be reading.
Wow what a wonderful compilation of titles! I have read some of those listed and look forward to reading others that are suggested. Thanks for the plethora of recommendations!