Celebrating Black History Month
Read Books by African American Authors
As we celebrate the month of February as Black History Month, below is a list of books by African Americans selected from lists throughout the years. The titles below have been added to multiple lists honoring the contributions of African American writers throughout the years.
Of course, this is a "selective" list, and we invite you to look deeper into books by African Americans by checking the San Diego State University Library catalog: library.sdsu.edu and check for books by Africa American authors. If you have a favorite author, enter the author's name and check the books by your favorite authors. If you are unsure of a book title, use the keyword search box. You may also look for books about African Americans in the subject box. The books are about the black lives of African Americans ranging from well-known classics to newer works.
For those looking for media, you can use our streaming media databases such as Kanopy and Academic Video Online (AVON), among others, to watch films, documentaries, music, and other media. You may also check out individual DVDs available for checkout at the library. In the search box, enter terms such as African Americans.
Start your reading during Black History Month and continue throughout the year!
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings / Maya Angelou.
New York: Random House, 1970. Print.
Imperial Valley Campus E185.97.A56 A3
An African American woman recalls the anguish of her childhood in Arkansas and her adolescence in northern slums in the 1930's and 1940's. I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
is a 1969 autobiography describing the early years of American writer and poet Maya Angelou.
The Fire Next Time / James Baldwin.
Modern Library ed. New York: Modern Library, 1995. Print.
Full text availability Black Thought and Culture
At once a powerful evocation of his childhood in Harlem and a disturbing examination of the consequences of racial injustice, The Fire Next Time, which galvanized the nation in the early days of the Civil Rights movement, stands as one of the essential works of our literature.
The Vanishing Half / Brit Bennett.
New York: Riverhead Books, 2020. Print.
PS3602.E66444 V36 2020
"From the Deep South to California, from the 1950s to the 1990s, Brit Bennett produces a story that is at once a riveting, emotional family story and a brilliant exploration of the American history of passing." --Provided by publisher
Kindred / Octavia E. Butler.
Boston: Beacon Press, 2009. Print.
PS3552.U827 K5 2009
Dana, a black woman, finds herself repeatedly transported to the antebellum South, where she must make sure that Rufus, the plantation owner's son, survives to father Dana's ancestor.
What Looks Like Crazy on an Ordinary Day / Pearl Cleage.
New York: Avon Books, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers, 1998. Print.
PS3553.L389 W48 1998
Ava Johnson, the owner of a successful hair salon in Atlanta, moves back to her hometown of Idlewild, Michigan when she tests positive for HIV.
Between the World and Me / Ta-Nehisi Coates.
Spiegel & Grau, 2015.
Social Justice Collection, Limited user access (1 user), E185.615 .C6335 2015
In a profound work that pivots from the biggest questions about American history and ideals to the most intimate concerns of a father for his son, Ta-Nehisi Coates offers a powerful new framework for understanding our nation's history and current crisis.
The Water Dancer: a Novel / Ta-Nehisi Coates.
First edition., One World, 2019.
PS3603.O17 W38 2019
This is the dramatic story of an atrocity inflicted on generations of women, men, and children-the violent and capricious separation of families-and the war they waged to simply make lives with the people they loved.
The Watsons Go to Birmingham--1963 / a Novel by Christopher Paul Curtis. New York: Delacorte Press, 1995. Print.
Juvenile Collection 813 C979W34 1995
The ordinary interactions and everyday routines of the Watsons, an African American family living in Flint, Michigan, are drastically changed after they go to visit Grandma in Alabama in the summer of 1963.
Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass / Frederick Douglass.
Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999. Print.
Perhaps the most powerful and influential Black American of his time, Frederick Douglass embodied the tumultuous social changes that transformed the United States during the nineteenth century. In a career of unprecedented breadth, Douglass rose from the oppression of his slave's birth to fame as an abolitionist. This book tells his story.
Invisible Man / Ralph Ellison.
Random House, 1952.
PS3555.L625 I5 1952
A Black man's search for success and the American dream leads him out of college to Harlem and a growing sense of personal rejection and social invisibility.
Homegoing / Yaa Gyasi.
First edition. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2016. Print.
PS3607.Y37 H66 2016
"Stretching from the tribal wars of Ghana to slavery and Civil War in America, from the coal mines in the north to the Great Migration to the streets of 20th century Harlem, Yaa Gyasi's has written a modern masterpiece, a novel that moves through histories and geographies and--with outstanding economy and force--captures the troubled spirit of our own nation." -- Provided by publisher
The 1619 Project: a New Origin Story / Edited by Nikole Hannah-Jones, Caitlin Roper, Ilena Silverman, and Jake Silverstein.
First edition., One World, 2021.
E441. A15 2021
This book weaves together eighteen essays that explore the legacy of slavery in present-day America.
A Raisin in the Sun / Lorraine Hansberry; with an Introduction by Robert Nemiroff.
First Vintage book edition. New York: Vintage Books, 1994. Print.
On order. Originally published in 1958.
A Raisin in the Sun opened on Broadway in 1959. Indeed Lorraine Hansberry's award-winning drama about the hopes and aspirations of a struggling, working-class family living on the South Side of Chicago connected profoundly with the psyche of black America -- and changed American theater forever.
Appalachian Elegy : Poetry and Place / Bell Hooks.
University Press of Kentucky, 2012.
PS3608.O594 A84 2012
A collection of poems centered around life in Appalachia addresses topics ranging from the marginalization of the region's people to the environmental degradation it has endured throughout history.
Their Eyes Were Watching God / Zora Neale Hurston; Illustrated by Jerry Pinkney; Foreword by Ruby Dee; Introduction by Sherley Anne Williams.
University of Illinois Press, 1991.
PS3515.U789 T5 1991
Janie Crawford, a Southern Black woman in the 1930's, journeys from being a free-spirited girl to a woman of independence and substance.
An American Marriage / a Novel by Tayari Jones.
First edition. Chapel Hill, North Carolina: Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill, 2018. Print.
PS3610.O63 A84 2018
"Newlyweds Celestial and Roy, the living embodiment of the New South, are settling into the routine of their life together when Roy is sent to prison for a crime he didn't commit. An insightful look into the lives of people who are bound and separated by forces beyond their control." --Provided by publisher
Stamped from the Beginning: the Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America / Ibram X. Kendi.
New York: Nation Books, 2016. Print.
Full text availability, Social Justice Collection Limited user access (1 user)
Award-winning historian Ibram X. Kendi argues in Stamped from the Beginning, racist ideas in this country have a long and lingering history, one in which nearly every great American thinker is complicit. In this deeply researched and fast-moving narrative, Kendi chronicles the entire story of anti-Black racist ideas and their staggering power over the course of American history.
The Twelve Tribes of Hattie / by Ayana Mathis.
1st ed., Alfred A. Knopf, 2012.
PS3613.A82847 T76 2012
The story of an African American family, the author tells the story of the children of the Great Migration, held together with a mother's grit and monumental courage.
Waiting to Exhale / Terry McMillan.
New York, N.Y., U.S.A: Viking, 1992. Print.
PS3563.C3868 W35 1992
Four African American women console and support one another in a complex friendship that helps each of them face the middle of her life as a single woman.
Beloved / a Novel by Toni Morrison.
First edition. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1987. Print.
PS3563.O8749 B4 1987
Part ghost story, part history lesson, part folk tale, Beloved finds beauty in the unbearable, and lets us all see the enduring promise of hope that lies in anyone's future.
The Bluest Eye / Toni Morrison.
First Pocket books., Washington Square Press, published by Pocket Books, 1972.
PS3563.O8749 B6 1972
Tells the story of eleven-year-old Pecola Breedlove, an African American girl. She prays for her eyes to turn blue so that she will be as beautiful and beloved as all the blonde, blue-eyed children in America, people will notice her, and her world will be different. In the autumn of 1941, the year the marigolds in the Breedlove's Garden do not bloom, Pecola's life changes in painful, devastating ways.
Becoming / Michelle Obama.
First edition. New York: Crown, an imprint of the Crown Publishing Group, 2018. Print.
E909.O24 A3 2018
An intimate, powerful, and inspiring memoir by the former First Lady of the United States.
Such a Fun Age: a Novel / Kiley Reid.
New York: G.P. Putnam's Sons, 2019. Print.
PS3618.E5363 S83 2019
Such a Fun Age explores the stickiness of transactional relationships, what it means to make someone "family," the complicated reality of being a grown up, and the consequences of doing the right thing for the wrong reason.
You Can't Touch My Hair: and Other Things I Still Have to Explain / Phoebe Robinson.
New York, New York: Plume Book, 2016. Print.
On order
A hilarious and affecting essay collection about race, gender, and pop culture from celebrated stand-up comedian and WNYC podcaster Phoebe Robinson.
Being a Black woman in American means contending with old prejudices and fresh absurdities. Robinson uses her trademark wit to explore examine our cultural climate and skewer our biases with humor and heart.
The Hate u Give / Angie Thomas.
First edition., Balzer + Bray, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers, 2017.
Juvenile Collection 813 T454H36 2017
Sixteen-year-old Starr Carter moves between two worlds: the poor neighborhood where she lives and the fancy suburban prep school she attends. The uneasy balance between these worlds is shattered when Starr witnesses the fatal shooting of her childhood best friend Khalil at the hands of a police officer.
The Color Purple / Alice Walker.
Pocket Books, 1982.
PS3573.A425 C6 1985
The Color Purple depicts the lives of African American women in early twentieth-century rural George including themes such as domestic violence and sexual abuse is weaved through these stories.
The Nickel Boys: a Novel / Colson Whitehead.
First edition. New York: Doubleday, 2019. Print.
PS3573.H4768 N53 2019
Based on the real story of a reform school that operated for 111 years and warped the lived of thousands of children.
The Underground Railroad. Novel Knopf Doubleday Publishing Groups, 2016.
On order
When Elwood Curtis, a black boy growing up in 1960s, Tallahassee, is unfairly sentenced to a juvenile reformatory called the Nickel Academy, he finds himself trapped in a world of horrors. Chronicles a young slave's adventures as she makes a desperate bid for freedom in the antebellum South.
Caste: the Origins of Our Discontents / Isabel Wilkerson.
New York, New York: Random House, 2020. Print.
HT725.U6 W55 RBR 2020
In this book, Isabel Wilkerson gives us a portrait of an unseen phenomenon in America as she explores, through an immersive, deeply researched narrative and stories about real people, how America today and throughout its history has been shaped by a hidden caste system, a rigid hierarchy of human rankings.
Brown Girl Dreaming / Jacqueline Woodson.
New York: Nancy Paulsen Books, an imprint of Penguin Group USA, 2014. Print.
Juvenile Collection 811 W8985B87 2014
"The author shares her childhood memories and reveals the first sparks that ignited her writing career in free-verse poems about growing up in the North and South." -- Provided by publisher
Native Son / by Richard Wright.
First edition. New York: Harper & Brothers Publishers, 1940. Print.
PS3545.R815 N3
Right from the start, Bigger Thomas had been headed for jail. It could have been for assault or petty larceny; by chance, it was for murder and rape. Native Son tells the story of this young black man caught in a downward spiral after he kills a young white woman in a moment of panic. Set in Chicago in the 1930s, Richard Wright's novel is just as powerful today as when it was written -- in its reflection of poverty and hopelessness, and what it means to be black in America.