Celebrate Black History Month with these incredible nonfiction titles from our collection.
The March Trilogy by John Lewis & Andrew Aydin & Nate Powell
This much lauded, three-part graphic memoir recounts the life and work of Civil Rights leader John Lewis. Learn more and access teacher resources for all three books here
The Heritage: Black Athletes, a Divided America, and the Politics of Patriotism by Howard Bryant
Learn more about Howard Bryant on his website. Explore more of Bryant’s work on the activism of Black athletes on the Beacon Press blog. Listen to an interview with author Howard Bryant on NPR’s Fresh Air.
Black Power at 50 edited by Sylviane A. Diouf and Komozi Woodward
A companion to New York Public Library & Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture exhibits. Learn more here.
For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Politics by Donna Brazile, Yolanda Caraway, Leah Daughtry, and Minyon Moore with Veronica Chambers
Learn more about the book here. Watch a 2018 Commonwealth Club interview with the authors here.
Afrofuturism: The World of Black Sci-Fi and Fantasy Culture by Ytasha L. Womack
Womack’s book is a great primer for those interested in learning more about the Afrofuturism — the “cultural aesthetic that combines science-fiction, history and fantasy to explore the African-American experience and aims to connect those from the black diaspora with their forgotten African ancestry.” Learn more about the author and her work here.
Well-Read Black Girl: Finding Out Stories, Discovering Ourselves: An Anthology edited by Glory Edim
From the publisher: “Glory Edim is the founder of Well-Read Black Girl, a Brooklyn-based book club and digital platform that celebrates the uniqueness of Black literature and sisterhood.” Check out the Well-Read Black Girl website here.
The New Negro: The Life of Alain Locke by Jeffrey C. Stewart
Winner of the 2018 National Book Award for Non-Fiction and the “definitive biography of Alain Locke” — the dean of the Harlem Renaissance and editor of the landmark 1925 collection The New Negro: An Interpretation. Read more about Alain Locke here. Read more about Stewart’s landmark biography here. Find Locke’s seminal collection in SFL here.
The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America’s Great Migration by Isabel Wilkerson
From the publisher: “In this epic, beautifully written masterwork, Pulitzer Prize–winning author Isabel Wilkerson chronicles one of the great untold stories of American history: the decades-long migration of black citizens who fled the South for northern and western cities, in search of a better life.”
The Life of Frederick Douglass by David F. Walker, Damon Smyth, and Marissa Louis
The life of Frederick Douglass gets the graphic novel treatment from David F. Walker — one of the finest writers working in comics. Learn more about Walker and his take on Douglass in this Washington Post profile. You can also read about Walker’s new comic Bitter Root here.
The Fire This Time: A New Generation Speaks About Race edited by Jesmyn Ward
From the publisher: “National Book Award winner Jesmyn Ward takes James Baldwin’s 1963 examination of race in America, The Fire Next Time, as a jumping off point for this groundbreaking collection of essays and poems about race from the most important voices of her generation and our time.”
No Ashes in the Fire: Coming of Age Black & Free in America by Darnell L. Moore
From the publisher: “No Ashes in the Fire is a story of beauty and hope-and an honest reckoning with family, with place, and with what it means to be free.”
Song in a Weary Throat : Memoir of An American Pilgrimage by Pauli Murray; with a new introduction by Patricia Bell-Scott
Dig into the the amazing life and work of one the most important woman and civil rights activist you’ve never heard of. Start with this new edition of Murray’s posthumously published autobiography; dig deeper with Rosalind Rosenberg’s 2017 biography Jane Crow: The Life of Pauli Murray; and explore the relationship between to incredible women in Patricia Bell-Scott’s The Firebrand and the First Lady: Portrait of a Friendship: Pauli Murray, Eleanor Roosevelt, and the Struggle for Social Justice.B