NON-FICTION BOOKS
You can start by looking up African-American authors online, in the library, or an independent Black bookstore, and see what grabs you. Here are some of me and my Mom’s favorites:
The Autobiography of Malcolm X, As told to Alex Haley – I read this in college and it changed my life. I wish I had read it sooner. MUST READ. A CLASSIC.
Manchild in the Promised Land – Claude Brown
Frantz Fanon – The Wretched of The Earth – 1961 – My mother had the hardcover in her library.
Richard Wright – Black Boy, Native Son – Richard ended up being an expatriate in Paris to escape racism and persecution
James Baldwin – The Fire Next Time (Mom had this in hardcover, there are several other books including his essays, Also plenty of his interviews to view online. He was also an ex-patriate who moved to Paris)
W.E.B. Du Bois – The Souls of Black Folk (1903) – A seminal work in the history of sociology and a cornerstone of African-American literature. The book contains several essays on race, some of which the magazine Atlantic Monthly had previously published.
Michelle Alexander – The New Jim Crow Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness- https://newjimcrow.com/
Kevin Powell – One of the leading political, cultural, literary, and hip-hop voices in America, and author of 14 books, including his new title, When We Free The World, about the present and future of America. Released on Apple Books Father’s Day 2020.
Nathan McCall – Makes Me Wanna Holler A Black Man In America This book has a lot of truth about being a Black male in this society. Nathan went from being in jail to being a respected journalist.
Antwone Fisher – Finding Fish One of my favorite books of all time. His commentary on the foster care system is powerful.
Assata Shakur – Assata – Autobiography of former Black Panther who still lives in exile in Cuba today. My mother met her and took a photo with her when she visited Cuba.
Elaine Brown – A Taste Of Power by Elaine Brown Another insight into the Black Panthers from a female perspective.
Patrice Gaines – Laughing In The Dark From Colored Girl to Woman of Color–A Journey From Prison to Power I loved this book which tells the story of a Black female getting incarcerated because of her ties to her boyfriend. This has happened a lot. Years after I read this book, my mother took a writing class with Patrice and became a great fan of her both personally and professionally.
Maya Angelou starting with I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings (books, poems) I read all of her books after her death including her last autobiography, my mother’s hardcover of Gather Together In My Name signed by Maya. Maya was indeed a phenomenal woman and her story is absolutely incredible, especially on the page.
The Delaney Sisters – Having Our Say – (also a play and TV movie) These women were centurian authors who lived past 100 years. We both read the book and saw the Broadway play with Mary Alice and Gloria Foster (who played the Oracle in The Matrix).
Nikki Giovanni – Starting with Racism: 101 Nikki is a gifted poet and I have seen her speak several times. She and Dorothy share a birthday and she was kind enough to write a back cover book blurb for her book.
Other Black Arts Movement Female Poets to look up: Sonia Sanchez, Gwendolyn Brooks, Gwendolyn Brooks, LeRoi Jones
Jesmyn Ward – Starting with Men We Reaped Awardwinning contemporary author from Mississippi.
Michelle Alexander – The New Jim Crow Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness This book is a history lesson in how Jim Crow evolved into the criminal (in)justice system we know today. A MUST READ RIGHT NOW!
Patrisse Khan-Cullors – When They Call You A Terrorist – A Black Lives Matter Memoir by Patrisse Khan-Cullors – One of the three Black female founders of Black Lives Matter
Watch 2020 Interview: https://www.c-span.org/video/?476703-3/when-call-terrorist
Bryan Stevenson – Just Mercy The movie was released in January 2020 but the book is VERY powerful and VERY educational and speaks to the heart of what a lot of strife that has emerged in wake of the George Floyd Rebellion is all about.
Ibram X. Kendi – How To Be An Anti-Racist
Layla Saad – Me and White Supremacy
Austin Channing Brown – I’m Still Here Black Dignity In A World Made For Whiteness
Ijeoma Oluo- So You Want To Talk About Race
Carol Anderson – White Rage The Unspoken Truth of Our Racial Divide
Michael Eric Dyson – Tears We Cannot Stop
Beverly Daniel Tatum – Why Are All The Black Kids Sitting Together In The Cafeteria? This is a classic for understanding de-facto segregation and the origins of that behavior.
Ta-Nehesi Coates starting with Between The World And Me Another testimony in memoir form from the Pulitzer prize winning writer’s fears for his son. It has also toured as a staged reading in New York and Atlanta and film can now be seen on HBO.
*He also wrote a very powerful article The Case For Reparations.
https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2014/06/the-case-for-reparations/361631/
Jill Nelson – starting with Volunteer Slavery – Memoir of first Black woman writer at The Washington Post – Today there are still great disparities in hiring non-whites in journalistic institutions and news organizations. This is just one story.
https://charlierose.com/videos/16657