History
The Other Slavery
Andrés Reséndez
A historical study traces the enslavement of Indigenous people across the Americas and its persistence after bans.
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138 books
Folklore
The People Could Fly
Virginia Hamilton
A collection of African American folktales includes animal stories, tales of magic, and stories of escape.
Drama
The Piano Lesson
August Wilson
A carved piano forces siblings to decide what they owe their family’s history and their futures.
Essays
The Souls of Black Folk
W. E. B. Du Bois
Du Bois explores emancipation’s aftermath, segregated education, and the experience he calls double consciousness.
Fiction
The Street
Ann Petry
Lutie Johnson struggles to build security for herself and her son in wartime Harlem.
Picture book
The Undefeated
Kwame Alexander
A poem and illustrations honor Black achievement, endurance, and lives that public memory can overlook.
Fiction
The Vanishing Half
Brit Bennett
Twin sisters leave their Southern hometown and build separate lives shaped by different choices about racial identity.
History
The Warmth of Other Suns
Isabel Wilkerson
Three lives trace the distinct routes and consequences of the Great Migration.
Fiction
The Watsons Go to Birmingham - 1963
Christopher Paul Curtis
A Michigan family’s visit to Birmingham brings a child’s perspective to an era of racial violence.
Short stories
The Ways of White Folks
Langston Hughes
Short fiction captures the shifting bargains of race and class across American life.
Fiction
Their Eyes Were Watching God
Zora Neale Hurston
Janie Crawford tells the story of three marriages and the hard-won authority to describe her own life.
History
Trouble in Mind
Leon F. Litwack
Oral histories and contemporary records trace how Black Southerners lived through the rise of Jim Crow.
Poetry
Turn Me Loose
Frank X Walker
Poems use distinct voices to consider the killing of Medgar Evers and the persistence of public memory.
Memoir
Up from Slavery
Booker T. Washington
Washington recounts his path from enslavement to leadership at Tuskegee and sets out his educational philosophy.
Memoir
Walking with the Wind
John Lewis, Michael D'Orso
Lewis recalls the practical training, collective decisions, and personal risks behind movement campaigns.
Short stories
Water Street
Crystal Wilkinson
Linked stories enter the lives of neighbors in a small Kentucky community, revealing their private and shared histories.
History
We Are the Ship
Kadir Nelson
Paintings and narrative bring the travel, teamwork, and resourcefulness of Negro League baseball into view.
Speculative fiction
Wild Seed
Octavia E. Butler
Two long-lived figures clash over control, survival, and the meaning of kinship.