As February ushers in Black History Month, we are reminded of the richness and complexity of the African/Black American experience. In recognition of the importance of continued enlightenment and reflection, we have curated a list of books to read during Black History Month and beyond.
Our recommendations offer diverse themes, stories, and perspectives that illuminate the triumphs, struggles, and contributions of Black individuals throughout history. From poignant memoirs to brilliant historical narratives and works of fiction, each book offers an insightful read.
For our recommendations, read on.
THE FIRE NEXT TIME
Author: JAMES BALDWIN
Genre: NON-FICTION
The Fire Next Time is both a powerful evocation of James Baldwin’s early life in Harlem and a disturbing examination of the consequences of racial injustice. An intensely personal and provocative document, this book consists of two letters written on the occasion of the centennial of the Emancipation Proclamation, that exhort Americans to attack the terrible legacy of racism. The book is described by The New York Times Book Review as ‘sermon, ultimatum, confession, deposition, testament, and chronicle…all presented in searing, brilliant prose.’
FOUR HUNDRED SOULS: A COMMUNITY HISTORY OF AFRICAN AMERICA, 1619-2019
EDITORS: IBRAM X. KENDI AND KEISHA N. BLAIN
GENRE: NON-FICTION
Four Hundred Souls is a chronological account of four hundred years of Black America as told by ninety of America’s leading Black writers. The book begins with the arrival of twenty enslaved Ndongo people on the shores of the British colony in mainland America in 1619, the year before the arrival of the Mayflower.
Contributors include some of the best-known scholars, writers, historians, journalists, lawyers, poets and activists of contemporary America who together bring to vivid life countless new facets to the drama of slavery and resistance, segregation and survival, migration and self-discovery, cultural oppression and world-changing artistic, literary and musical creativity. In eighty chapters, these writers document dozens of extraordinary lives and personalities, rescued from the archives and restored to their rightful place in America’s narrative. Four Hundred Souls is an essential work of story-telling and reclamation that redefines America and changes how history is written.
A TASTE OF POWER: A BLACK WOMAN’S STORY
AUTHOR: ELAINE BROWN
GENRE: MEMOIR
In August 1974, Elaine Brown assumed leadership of the Black Panther Party, boldly declaring, ‘I have all the guns and all the money. I can withstand challenge from without and from within. Am I right, Comrade?’ From its humble origins in Oakland, the Panthers had burgeoned into a nationwide force, rallying Black communities and white allies. However, they faced relentless persecution from law enforcement and internal strife.
Brown’s journey to power within this male-dominated, paramilitary organization is a gripping tale of self-discovery. Raised in poverty in Philadelphia, she grappled with her identity as a black woman in a predominantly white society. Her political awakening came during her bohemian adolescence, leading her to join the Panthers in search of redemption.
As Brown rose through the Panther ranks, she navigated a turbulent relationship with the charismatic but contentious Huey Newton, faced the challenges of male-dominated power dynamics, and endured the scars of a paradigm-shifting era marked by conflicts over sex and authority. Her story is a poignant testament to the struggle of a Black woman to define herself amidst the tumult of revolutionary change.
DEACON KING KONG
AUTHOR: JAMES MCBRIDE
GENRE: FICTION
In September 1969, a fumbling, cranky old church deacon shuffles into the courtyard of the Causeway Housing project in south Brooklyn, pulls a .38 from his pocket, and in front of everybody shoots the project’s drug dealer at point-blank range. In this novel, James McBride brings to life the people affected by the shooting: the victim, the African-American and Latinx residents who witnessed it, the white neighbors, the local NYPD cops assigned to investigate what happened, the members of the Five Ends Baptist Church, the neighborhood’s Italian mobsters, and shooter himself.
As the story deepens, it becomes clear that the lives of the characters—caught in the tumultuous swirl of New York in the late 1960s—overlap in unexpected ways. When the truth finally emerges, McBride shows us that not all secrets can be hidden, that the best way to grow is to face change without fear, and that the seeds of love lie in compassion and hope.
SONG OF SOLOMON
AUTHOR: TONI MORRISON
GENRE: FICTION
Milkman Dead was born shortly after a neighborhood eccentric hurled himself off a rooftop in a vain attempt at flight. For the rest of his life he, too, will be trying to fly. With this brilliantly imagined novel, Toni Morrison follows Milkman from his rustbelt city to the place of his family’s origins. Morrison introduces an entire cast of strivers and seeresses, liars and assassins, the inhabitants of a fully realized Black world.
THE DEAD ARE ARISING: THE LIFE OF MALCOLM X
AUTHOR: LES PAYNE AND TAMARA PAYNE
GENRE: NON-FICTION
The Dead Are Arising is a riveting work that affirms the centrality of Malcolm X to the African American freedom struggle. The title is inspired by a phrase Malcolm X used when he saw his Hartford followers stir with purpose, as if the dead were truly arising, to overcome the obstacles of racism. Setting Malcolm’s life not only within the Nation of Islam but against the larger backdrop of American history, the book traces the life of one of the twentieth century’s most politically relevant figures ‘from street criminal to devoted moralist and revolutionary.’
In tracing Malcolm X’s life from his Nebraska birth in 1925 to his Harlem assassination in 1965, Payne provides searing vignettes culled from Malcolm’s Depression-era youth, describing the influence of his Garveyite parents: his father, Earl, a circuit-riding preacher who was run over by a street car in Lansing, Michigan, in 1929, and his mother, Louise, who continued to instill black pride in her children after Earl’s death. Filling each chapter with resonant drama, Payne follows Malcolm’s exploits as a petty criminal in Boston and Harlem in the 1930s and early 1940s to his religious awakening and conversion to the Nation of Islam in a Massachusetts penitentiary.
BLACK FORTUNES: THE STORY OF THE FIRST SIX AFRICAN AMERICANS WHO ESCAPED SLAVERY AND BECAME MILLIONAIRES
AUTHOR: SHOMARI WILLS
GENRE: NON-FICTION
Between the years of 1830 and 1927, as the last generation of Blacks born into slavery was reaching maturity, a small group of industrious, tenacious, and daring men and women broke new ground to attain the highest levels of financial success.
Mary Ellen Pleasant, used her Gold Rush wealth to further the cause of abolitionist John Brown. Robert Reed Church, became the largest landowner in Tennessee. Hannah Elias, the mistress of a New York City millionaire, used the land her lover gave her to build an empire in Harlem. Orphan and self-taught chemist Annie Turnbo-Malone, developed the first national brand of hair care products. Mississippi school teacher O. W. Gurley, developed a piece of Tulsa, Oklahoma, into a ‘town’ for wealthy black professionals and craftsmen that would become known as ‘the Black Wall Street.’ Although Madam C. J Walker was given the title of America’s first female black millionaire, she was not. She was the first, however, to flaunt and openly claim her wealth—a dangerous and revolutionary act.
Nearly all the unforgettable personalities in this amazing collection were often attacked, demonized, or swindled out of their wealth. Black Fortunes illuminates as never before the birth of the black business titan.