LibraryAware Nonfiction - African American/Black History Month

With her fist raised : Dorothy Pitman Hughes and the transformative power of black community activism
by Laura L. Lovett

"The first biography of Dorothy Pitman Hughes, co-founder of Ms. Magazine and trailblazing Black feminist activist whose work made children, race, and welfare rights central to the women's movement"

Julian Bond's time to teach : a history of the southern civil rights movement
by Julian Bond

The SNCC co-founder and civil rights professor draws on original lecture notes to explain the role of youth activism in key historical events, the unpopular and high-risk realities of disruptive movements and what today’s activists need to know. Illustrations.

Uncomfortable conversations with a black man
by Emmanuel Acho

"In Uncomfortable Conversations With a Black Man, Acho takes on all the questions, large and small, insensitive and taboo, many white Americans are afraid to ask--yet which all Americans need the answers to, now more than ever. With the same open-heartedgenerosity that has made his video series a phenomenon, Acho explains the vital core of such fraught concepts as white privilege, cultural appropriation, and 'reverse racism.' In his own words, he provides a space of compassion and understanding in a discussion that can lack both. He asks only for the reader's curiosity--but along the way, he will galvanize all of us to join the antiracist fight"

Begin again : James Baldwin's America and its urgent lessons for our own
by Eddie S. Glaude

James Baldwin grew disillusioned by the failure of the Civil Rights movement to force America to confront its lies about race, and the author explores what Americans can learn from Baldwin’s struggle in the era of President Trump.

The new Negro : the life of Alain Locke
by Jeffrey C. Stewart

A biography of the father of the Harlem Renaissance describes him becoming the first African American Rhodes Scholar and earning a PhD at Harvard University and promoting the work of young artists including Langston Hughes, Zora Neale Hurston and Jacob Lawrence.

Ralph Ellison : a life in letters
by Ralph Ellison

A collection of letters from the renowned author of Invisible Man traces the life and mind of a giant of American literature, with insights into the riddle of identity, the writer’s craft and the story of a changing nation over six decades. (literary collections). Illustrations.

Unapologetic : a Black, queer, and feminist mandate for radical movements
by Charlene A. Carruthers

"Unapologetic is a 21st century guide to building a Black liberation movement through a Black queer feminist lens"

The last negroes at Harvard : the class of 1963 and the eighteen young men who changed Harvard forever
by Kent Garrett

A Harvard graduate who attended as one of 18 African-American recruits in an early affirmative-action program describes how he reconnected with his fellow graduates half a century later to learn their remarkable stories. 30,000 first printing. Illustrations.

The other Madisons : the lost history of a president's Black family
by Bettye Kearse

A Pushcart Prize-nominated writer and descendant of an enslaved cook describes the rich oral traditions that documented her shared ancestry with President James Madison and the human realities of rape and incest throughout the slave era. 30,000 first printing. Illustrations.

Wandering in strange lands : a daughter of the Great Migration reclaims her roots
by Morgan Jerkins

From an acclaimed cultural critic and the New York Times best-selling author of This Will Be My Undoing comes the story of her journey to understand her northern and southern roots, the Great Migration and the displacement of black people across America. 40,000 first printing

A Black Women's History of the United States
by Daina Ramey Berry

Centering around Black women’s stories, two award-winning historians offer an examination and celebration of Black womanhood, beginning with the first African women who arrived in what became the US to African American women of today. Original.

African American poetry : 250 years of struggle & song
by Kevin Young

A wide-ranging anthology of black poetry represents 250 famous and less-recognized poets from the colonial era to the present who used their powerful words to illuminate such issues as racism, slavery and the threatened African Diaspora identity.

For additional reading ideas, talk with your library staff