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Black History Month: Essential Bios and Histories
Essays and stories about breaking barriers and barriers still left to be broken.
Published on June 3, 2022
Just as I Am: A Memoir
Cicely TysonDuring her 96 years on this earth, entertainer, activist, and humanitarian Cicely Tyson co-created the Dance Theater of Harlem, launched an award-winning and iconic career on stage and screen, married jazz legend Miles Davis, and won the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Her influence on the way Black characters were (and are) portrayed in Hollywood has set the stage for generations to come. And these are just a few of the stories of her incredible life that she shares in this inspiring memoir, narrated by Viola Davis, Robin Miles, and Tyson herself.
The Dead Are Arising: The Life of Malcolm X
Les PayneRenowned Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Les Payne compiled hundreds of hours of interviews with people who knew Malcolm X personally, from siblings and classmates to cellmates and cops. After his death, his daughter Tamara Payne completed the National Book Award-winning biography, which aims to paint a more accurate portrait of the civil rights activist, from his birth in Nebraska to his assassination in Harlem.
Kamala's Way: An American Life
Dan MorainThe first Black, female Vice President is now in office, signalling a shift in power at the very top of the United States Government. Kamala Harris is the daughter of two immigrants, a Jamaican economist and a cancer researcher from India, who met in Berkeley, California. Harris’ life and career is a study in bold moves, sharp problem solving, and ambition that’s taken her to the position of second in command, from her days handling homicides and child molestation cases for the Alameda County District Attorney’s office to years in the San Francisco District Attorney’s office and the US Senate.
She Came to Slay: The Life and Times of Harriet Tubman
Erica Armstrong DunbarThis book paints a detailed portrait of the abolitionist icon in a way that humanizes Harriet Tubman, but also reminds the reader that her accomplishments bordered on superhuman. Born a slave, Tubman spent years in the kitchens and fields of white owners before she experienced a traumatic head injury that ushered in a spiritual awakening that led to her astounding work as an abolitionist, including her time as a spy for the Union army.
The Yellow House: A Memoir (2019 National Book Award Winner)
Sarah M. BroomSarah Broom’s breathtaking memoir made countless best-books-of-the-year lists in 2019, including Barack Obama’s and The New York Times’ top 10. Broom tells the story of her family through the framework of their beloved yellow house in a New Orleans neighborhood you never see in travel guides. You’ll feel the humidity and hear the Mississippi rising through her evocative writing, as Broom chronicles how her family rides out Hurricane Katrina — and generations of social injustices.
The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America's Great Migration
Isabel WilkersonPulitzer Prize-winning journalist Isabel Wilkerson brings to life the previously overlooked story of the Great Migration, when millions of African Americans uprooted their lives to move from the South to cities in the North, the Midwest, and out West from 1915 to 1970. By tracing the journeys of three people, Wilkerson makes the sweeping history accessible and riveting. Barack Obama included “The Warmth of Other Suns” on his 2019 reading list for Black History Month.
Hidden Figures: The American Dream and the Untold Story of the Black Women Mathematicians Who Helped Win the Space Race
Hidden Figures: The American Dream and the Untold Story of the Black Women Mathematicians Who Helped Win the Space Race
Margot Lee ShetterlyThanks to Shetterly’s blockbuster book, the black female mathematicians whose calculations were critical to winning the space race in a still-segregated America are a hidden history no more. A crucial story that challenges our preconceptions.
The Assassination of Fred Hampton: How the FBI and the Chicago Police Murdered a Black Panther
The Assassination of Fred Hampton: How the FBI and the Chicago Police Murdered a Black Panther
Jeffrey HaasThe killing of Fred Hampton, a Black Panther Party chairman and co-founder of the Rainbow Coalition, took place over 50 years ago. Despite efforts to cover it up, the murder was deemed an assassination that was perpetrated by the FBI and executed by the Cook County police. Attorney Jeffrey Haas’s book explores the fallout from the killing that occurred during a pre-dawn raid, and shares his personal account of how he and his partner tracked down the truth. From conspiracy theory to proven assassination, Haas connects the brutality of the past to today’s continued struggles. A biopic film about Hampton is being released this Black History Month called “Judas and the Black Messiah,” starring Daniel Kaluuya and Lakeith Stanfield.
Barracoon: The Story of the Last "Black Cargo"
Zora Neale HurstonThis is the remarkable story of Cudjo Lewis, one of the last Africans to be transported to the United States in 1860 as part of the illegal Atlantic slave trade. It’s as-told-to Zora Neale Hurston, who interviewed Lewis in Plateau, Alabama — a town founded by Lewis and other formerly enslaved people — in 1927, and returned for three months in 1831 to fully preserve his memories of capture and slavery. An inspiring gift from the author of “Their Eyes Were Watching God” that examines the tragedy and legacy of slavery then, and now.
Heavy: An American Memoir
Kiese LaymonKiese Laymon’s memoir made just about every best-of books list when it came out in 2018, and it lives up to all the hype. “Heavy” touches on a slew of topics — from obesity to systemic racism to family secrets — that weigh on many contemporary Americans.
What Doesn't Kill You Makes You Blacker: A Memoir in Essays
Damon YoungAwkward and neurotic in all the best ways, this darkly comedic memoir from one of the internet’s funniest social critics (Very Smart Brothas cofounder Damon Young) will have you cringing, crying with laughter, and contemplating what it means to be a Black man in America today.
The Hemingses of Monticello: An American Family
Annette Gordon-ReedThis is the best overview of the founding of slavery in America, seen through the history of the Hemings family, who were owned by Thomas Jefferson. “The Hemingses of Monticello” shines a bright light on a little-known history, and its publication continued to break down barriers, as author Annette Gordon-Reed became the first African American to win the Pulitzer Prize in History.
Never Caught: The Washingtons' Relentless Pursuit of Their Runaway Slave, Ona Judge
Never Caught: The Washingtons' Relentless Pursuit of Their Runaway Slave, Ona Judge
Erica Armstrong DunbarIt’s no secret that our Founding Fathers didn’t live up to the shining ideals they laid out for the country. This is the story of Ona Judge, one of President George Washington’s favored slaves who risked everything for freedom. Learn about the real-world power of grit from Judge in this compelling account of her escape and the intense manhunt Washington led to recapture her.
What It Is: Race, Family, and One Thinking Black Man's Blues
Clifford ThompsonWhat does it mean to be a Black man in Trump’s America? Writer Clifford Thompson’s personal, heartfelt exploration takes readers across the country and into conversations with Americans of various racial backgrounds who hold starkly different points of view. Inspired by his late mentor, jazz critic Albert Murray, Thompson embraces an “open-ended, improvisational” approach to his interviews, making for a poetic, powerful look at the state of our nation. For fans of James Baldwin and Ta-Nehisi Coates.
Twelve Years a Slave
Solomon NorthupAfter Solomon Northup, a free man, was kidnapped and sold into slavery, he wrote this memoir about his experience of becoming someone’s property. It’s a crucial first-hand account of slavery’s cruelties, and it gained widespread recognition recently thanks to the Oscar-winning film adaptation in 2013.
Thick: And Other Essays
Tressie McMillan CottomFans of Roxane Gay and Ta-Nehisi Coates have a lot to love in Tressie McMillan Cottom’s sharp collection of essays. McMillian explores the challenges of being black and a woman in America, takes on the meaning of beauty, and more. Witty, provocative, and wise.