"American Sirens"

Kevin Hazzard

The non-fiction story of the Freedom House EMS in Pittsburgh, a group of Black men who became America's first paramedics and set the gold standard for emergency medicine around the world.

"Between The World And Me"

Ta-Nehisi Coates

After re-reading James Baldwin's, The Fire Next Time, Ta-Nehisi Coates was inspired to write a book-long essay to his teenage son about being black in America, forewarning him of the plight that comes with facing white supremacy. Throughout the book, Coates recounts witnessing violence and police brutality growing up in Baltimore, reflects on his time studying at historically black Howard University, and asks the hard questions about the past and future of race in America. 

"The Fire Next Time"

James Baldwin

The Fire Next Time, a text featuring two essays. One is a letter to his 14-year-old nephew in which he encourages him not to give in to racist ideas that blackness makes him lesser. The second essay, "Down At The Cross," takes the reader back to Baldwin's childhood in Harlem as he details conditions of poverty, his struggle with religious authorities, and his relationship with his father. 

"Black Like Me"

John Howard Griffin

John Howard Griffin, the author and main character of Black Like Me, is a middle-aged white man living in Mansfield, Texas, in 1959. Deeply committed to the cause of racial justice and frustrated by his inability as a white man to understand the Black experience, Griffin decides to take a radical step. John Griffin tans himself and takes medication to make himself appear black, then goes to the south to experience and document what it is like to be black in the south in the late 1950's.

"Invisible Man"

Ralph Ellinson

The Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison is a novel about a nameless young black man who faces racism and alienation in the 20th-century United States. The narrator is a college-educated man who tries to survive and succeed in a society that refuses to see him as a human being. The novel is a powerful exploration of race, identity, and the human condition. 

"I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings"

Maya Angelou

 I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings provides an in-depth look at the obstacles that shaped Maya Angelou's early life. Angelou's childhood and teenage years were nomadic, as her separated parents moved her and her brother from rural Arkansas to St. Louis, Missouri, and eventually to California, where at different times she lived in Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Oakland. Besides the blatant racism she saw unfold around her in the South, a young Maya also faced childhood rape, and as a teen, homelessness and pregnancy. 

"Beloved"

Toni Morrison

Beloved is a novel by Toni Morrison that explores the impact of slavery on a Black family. The novel is set after the Civil War and follows Sethe, a former slave who escaped from Kentucky to Ohio in 1856. Sethe's home is haunted by a ghost that is believed to be her daughter, whom she killed to prevent her from being recaptured by slave catchers. The novel won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction in 1988 

"The Bluest Eye"

Toni Morrison

The Bluest Eye is a novel by Toni Morrison that tells the tragic story of Pecola Breedlove, an African American girl from an abusive home12. The novel is set in Lorain, Ohio, in 1940–41, following the Great Depression12. Pecola is obsessed with the idea of having blue eyes, which she associates with beauty and social acceptance1. She suffers from racism, poverty, and sexual violence, and eventually loses her sanity2. 

"Brown Girl Dreaming"

Jacqueline Woodson

Jacqueline Woodson's children's books and YA novels are inspired by her desire to highlight the lives of communities of color—narratives she felt were missing from the literary landscape. In her 2014 National Book Award-winning autobiography, Brown Girl Dreaming, Woodson uses her own childhood story in verse form to fill those voids in representation. The author came of age during the Civil Rights Movement and, subsequently, the Black Power Movement, and lived between the laid-back lifestyle of South Carolina and the fast-paced New York City. Through her work, we are reminded of how family and community play a role in helping individuals persevere through life's trials. 

"Not Without Laughter"

Langston Hughes

Take it back to where Harlem Renaissance legend Langston Hughes began his novelistic bibliography. In 1930's Not Without Laughter, Sandy Rogers is an African-American boy growing up in Kansas during the early 1900s—a story loosely based on Hughes's own experiences living in Lawrence and Topeka, Kansas. Hughes vividly paints his characters based on the "typical Negro family in the Middle West" he grew up around 

"Don't Call Us Dead"

Danez Smith

Don’t Call Us Dead is a cathartic series of poems that imagine an afterlife where black men can fully be themselves. Danez Smith's poignant words take heartbreaking imagery of violence against the bodies of black men and juxtapose it with scenes of a new plane, one that is much better than the existence those men lived before. Upon arrival, it's a celebration, as men and boys are embraced by their fellow brothers and are able to truly experience being "alive."  

"Up From Slavery" 

Booker T. Washington

Up from Slavery is the 1901 autobiography of American educator Booker T. Washington (1856–1915). The book describes his experience of working to rise up from being enslaved as a child during the Civil War, the obstacles he overcame to get an education at the new Hampton Institute, and his work establishing vocational schools like the Tuskegee Institute in Alabama to help Black people and other persecuted people of color learn useful, marketable skills and work to pull themselves, as a race, up by the bootstraps. He reflects on the generosity of teachers and philanthropists who helped educate Black and Native Americans. He describes his efforts to instill manners, breeding, health and dignity into students. His educational philosophy stresses combining academic subjects with learning a trade (reminiscent of John Ruskin). Washington explained that the integration of practical subjects is partly designed to "reassure the White community of the usefulness of educating Black people". 

"The Souls of Black Folks" 

W.E.B. Du Bois

The Souls of Black Folk: Essays and Sketches is a 1903 work of American literature by W. E. B. Du Bois. It is a seminal work in the history of sociology and a cornerstone of African-American literature.

The book contains several essays on race, some of which had been published earlier in The Atlantic Monthly. To develop this work, Du Bois drew from his own experiences as an African American in American society. Outside of its notable relevance in African-American history, The Souls of Black Folk also holds an important place in social science as one of the early works in the field of sociology.

In The Souls of Black Folk, Du Bois used the term "double consciousness", perhaps taken from Ralph Waldo Emerson ("The Transcendentalist" and "Fate"), applying it to the idea that black people must have two fields of vision at all times. They must be conscious of how they view themselves, as well as being conscious of how the world views them.

"Their Eyes Were Watching God" 

Zora Neale Hurston

During Zora Neale Hurston's career, she was more concerned with writing about the lives of African Americans in an authentic way that uplifted their existence, rather than focusing on their traumas. Her most celebrated work, 1937's Their Eyes Were Watching God, is an example of this philosophy. It follows Janie Mae Crawford, a middle-aged woman in Florida, who details lessons she learned about love and finding herself after three marriages. Hurston used black Southern dialect in the characters' dialogue to proudly represent their voices and manner. 

"The Warmth Of Other Suns" 

Isabel Wilkerson

During the Great Migration, millions of African Americans departed the Southern states to Northern and Western cities to escape Jim Crow laws, lynchings, and the failing sharecropping system. Isabel Wilkerson, the first African-American woman to win a Pulitzer Prize in journalism, documented these movements in her 2010 book, which involved 15 years of research and interviews with 1200 people. The book highlights the stories of three individuals and their journeys, from Florida to New York City, Mississippi to Chicago, and Louisiana to Los Angeles. 

"The Hate You Give 

Angie Thomas

The Hate U Give, was inspired by the protests of the Black Lives Matter movement. It follows Starr Carter, a 16-year-old who has witnessed the police-involved shooting of her best friend Khalil. The book, which topped the New York Times bestseller chart, is a timely fictional tale that humanizes the voices behind one of the largest movements of present times. 

"Dear Martin" 

Nic Stone

Justyce McAllister, a Black student at a prestigious prep school in Atlanta, Georgia. While talking to his ex-girlfriend, Justyce is punched and arrested by police officer Tommy Castillo. He is released, but the experience changes his perspective. Justyce and his friend Manny are driving around town one weekend when Castillo’s former partner, Garret Tison, shoots both boys, wounding Justyce and killing Manny. After Justyce testifies at his trial, Tison is acquitted of felony murder but sent to prison, where he is killed. Justyce goes on to study at Yale.