Reading power: 15 Black-authored books for Black History Month

“The African Lookbook: A Visual History of 100 Years of African Women” by Catherine McKinley

“The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness” by Michelle Alexander

“The New Jim Crow” was published in 2010 and critiques the criminal justice system in America. The book explores the links between slavery, Jim Crow and mass incarceration in the modern day, arguing that the racial caste system in America was never ended, just redesigned.

“The Vanishing Half” by Brit Bennett

Published in 2020, this novel focuses on the Vignes sisters — identical twins who grew up in the South, then ran away at age 16. Their adult lives are incredibly different, with one sister living with her daughter in the same town she tried to leave behind, while the other passes as white and hides her past from her husband and daughter. Though separated, the sisters remain intertwined — even more so when their daughters’ stories begin to intersect.

“The African Lookbook” was published in January 2021. Curator Catherine McKinley assembled 240 pages of photographs to present a history of African women from 1870 to 1970. The earliest photographs in this collection are among some of the earliest photographs in North America. Additionally, McKinley includes photos by Europeans (mostly nudes, so don’t be shocked) that aim to depict the power imbalance between races in this period.

“How the Word is Passed: A Reckoning with the History of Slavery Across America” by Clint Smith

“How the Word is Passed” was published in June 2021 and tours the nation’s monuments and landmarks, both those that are honest about the past and those that are not, offering an intergenerational story of how slavery has shaped America’s history.

“A Taste of Power: A Black Woman’s Story” by Elaine Brown

This autobiography was published in 1992 and documents Elaine Brown’s life. As the first and only female chairwoman of the Black Panther Party, this is a story about a Black woman finding power and battling to define herself.

“Black Fortunes: The Story of the First Six African Americans Who Escaped Slavery and Became Millionaires” by Shomari Wills

Published in 2018, “Black Fortunes” traces the stories of the first six self-made black millionaires: Mary Ellen Pleasant, Robert Reed Church (at the time, the largest landowner in Tennessee), Hannah Elias, Annie TurnboMalone, O.W. Gurley and Madam C.J. Walker.

“I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings” by Maya Angelou

Maya Angelou’s first memoir, published in 1969, depicts the loneliness of childhood, the insult of bigotry and the quest to find words that will make all things right in the world. From the time Angelou lived with her grandmother in a small Southern town, to being attacked by a grown man in St. Louis at eight years old, to Angelou’s self-discovery years later, this book captures the struggles and triumphs of one of America’s favorite writers.

“The Fire Next Time” by James Baldwin

This book, consisting of two essays, gives a voice to the then-emerging Civil Rights Movement in 1963. It examines racial injustice and its consequences in both a personal and societal context. The first essay is focused on the history of racism and its effect on the world up until 1963, while the second is focused on racism’s role within organized religion.

“Between the World and Me” by TaNehisi Coates

In this 2015 book, Ta-Nehisi Coates writes a letter to his son trying to answer the questions: “What is it like to inhabit a black body and find a way to live with it?” and “How can we all honestly reckon with this fraught history and free ourselves from its burden?” Coates encompasses history in these letters through eras of time and the lives of many.

“Brown Girl Dreaming” by Jacqueline Woodson

Published in 2014, this book is a memoir and a collection of poetry all in one. Jacqueline Woodson writes about growing up Black in the 1960s and 1970s in two different states: South Carolina and New York. Woodson explores her childhood feelings and search for belonging, as well as the remnants of Jim Crow and the Civil Rights Movement that were sweeping the nation in that time.

“The Hate U Give” by Angie Thomas

This 2017 novel follows 16-year-old Starr Carter as she navigates between her two worlds: her poor neighborhood and the suburban prep school she attends. When Starr witnesses her childhood best friend, Khalil, being shot and killed by a police officer, her life will never be the same. Khalil’s death becomes a national headline and the public wants to know what really happened the night he died, but the only person who knows is Starr, and if she speaks, it could upend her community and put her own life in danger.

“Their Eyes Were Watching God” by Zora Neale Hurston

Though first published in 1937, this book went out of print for 30 years due to its reception. Following Janie Crawford, this book depicts a Black woman in her thirties who sets out to be her own person. She marries three times and takes her search for her identity back to her roots. Written by Zora Neale Hurston, one of the leaders of the Harlem Renaissance, this book is a timeless depiction of a side of the past that was silenced for years.

“The Banned Bookshop of Maggie Banks” by Shauna Robinson

Published in Nov. 2022, this book follows the tale of Maggie Banks, who comes to the town of Bell River to run a friend’s struggling bookstore. Unfortunately, Bell River’s literary society won’t allow Maggie to sell books written in this century. As the bookstore faces setbacks, Maggie comes up with a solution: an underground book club, selling books from this century. She dodges the literary society successfully and uncovers a town secret that could change everything.

“Soft,

Sweet, Plenty of Rhythm” by Laura

Warrell

This book was published in September 2022 and is set in 2013. It follows the story of a jazz musician named Circus Palmer who finds out the woman closest to him, Maggie, is pregnant with his child. Afraid of what this could bring, he leaves. This moment sparks revelation after revelation for the women in Circus’ life, most notably, the revelation of his teenage daughter Koko. She is awakened to her own sexuality and has to face her mother’s troubles as well: her failed marriage and Circus’ rejection.

“The Bluest Eye” by Toni Morrison

First published in 1970, this landmark novel is set in Lorain, Ohio in 1941 and tells the story of Pecola Breedlove, an 11-year-old Black girl. Breedlove prays for her eyes to turn blue so that she will be as beautiful as all the blonde, blueeyed children around her. When the marigolds in her family garden don’t bloom, Pecola’s life changes for the worse. Toni Morrison is also the writer of “Song of Solomon” and “Beloved” and won both the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and the Nobel Prize in Literature.