Black History Month Books
by Lauren Fox and Abigail Porter
February is Black History Month. We’ve picked out just a few suggestions of books by Black authors and/or about Black people and characters. We recommend reading these books all year long, but February is a great time to start!
Children
Mae Among the Stars by Rhoda Ahmed
This is Your Time by Ruby Bridges
Claudette Colvin (She Persisted) by Lesa Cline-Ransome
The Power of Her Pen: The Story of Groundbreaking Journalist Ethel L. Payne by Lesa Cline-Ransome
Lifting as We Climb: Black Women’s Battle for the Ballot Box by Evette Dionne
Because They Marched: The People’s Campaign for Voting Rights that Changed America by Russell Freedman
Timelines from Black History: Leaders, Legends, Legacies by Mireille Harper
I Have a Dream by Martin Luther King, Jr.
Have I Ever Told You Black Lives Matter by Shani Mahiri King
What is the Civil Rights Movement? by Sherri Smith
Young Adult
Taking Flight: From War Orphan to Star Ballerina by Michaela DePrince with Elaine DePrince
Stolen Justice: The Struggle for African-American Voting Rights by Lawrence Goldstone
Legacy: Women Poets of the Harlem Renaissance by Nikki Grimes
Stamped: Racism, Antiracism, and You by Jason Reynolds and Ibram X. Kendi
The Black Panther Party: A Graphic Novel History by David F. Walker and Marcus Kwame Alexander
Adult
The Fire Next Time by James Baldwin
Caste: The Origins of Our Discontent by Isabel Wilkerson
So You Want to Talk About Race by Ijeoma Oluo
Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates
Hood Feminism: Notes from the Women that a Movement Forgot by Mikki Kendall
The Color of Law: A Forgotten History of How Our Government Segregated America by Richard Rothstein
How to Be Anti-Racist by Ibram X. Kendi
The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Color Blindness by Michelle Alexander
Me and White Supremacy: Combat Racism, Change the World, and Become a Good Ancestor by Layla F. Saad
Just Us: An American Conversation by Claudia Rankine
I am Not Your Negro (DVD)
We Were Eight Years in Power: an American Tragedy by Ta-Nehisi Coates
