In honor of Black History Month, here's a roundup of some recent nonfiction titles about the long history of Black people in America, ranging from the horrible history of slavery and the Jim Crow era to the powerful artistic, academic, and athletic achievements of Black Americans throughout the years.
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The 1619 Project : a new origin story
by Nikole Hannah-Jones This ongoing initiative from The New York Times Magazine that began on the 400th anniversary of the beginning of American slavery reimagines if our national narrative actually started in late August of 1619, when a ship arrived in Jamestown bearing a cargo of 20-30 enslaved people from Africa. |
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Africatown : America's last slave ship and the community it created
by Nick Tabor The story of the slave ship Clotilda that carried last group of enslaved people ever brought to the U.S. from West Africa and the community they established outside Mobile, Alabama that still exists today. |
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America's Black capital : how African Americans remade Atlanta in the shadow of the Confederacy
by Jeffrey O. G. Ogbar Chronicling how a center of Black excellence emerged amid virulent expressions of white nationalism, this extraordinary story of how African Americans transformed Atlanta, the former heart of the Confederacy, shows how the effects have reached far beyond Georgia, shaping the nation's popular culture, public policy and politics. |
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American wings : Chicago's pioneering Black aviators and the race for equality in the sky
by Sherri L. Smith Following a group of determined Black Americans who created a flying club as the U.S. hurtled toward WWII, this inspiring true story recounts how these pioneering Black men and woman battled powerful odds for an equal share of the sky. |
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Black AF history : the un-whitewashed story of America
by Michael Harriot The acclaimed columnist and political commentator presents a sharp and often hilarious retelling of American history that focuses on the overlooked contribution of Black Americans and corrects the idea that American history is white history. |
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Black folk : the roots of the Black working class
by Blair Murphy Kelley An award-winning historian shows how the experiences of the Black working class, from the earliest days of the republic to the essential worker of the Covid pandemic, is essential to a full understanding of the American story. |
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Breaking the chains : African-American slave resistance
by William Loren Katz Describes slavery in the United States, the harsh conditions under which slaves lived, the active and passive resistance with which they fought for their rights, the revolts, and the involvement of slaves in the Civil War. |
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Driving the Green book : a road trip through the living history of Black resistance
by Alvin D. Hall An award-winning broadcaster and educator presents the vivid stories of African-Americans who traveled the country during the age of segregation, using The Green Book, a guide which helped black people travel safely. |
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Madness : race and insanity in a Jim Crow asylum
by Antonia Hylton Tracing the legacy of slavery to the treatment of Black people's bodies and minds in our current healthcare system, a Peabody and Emmy award-winning journalist tells the 93-year-old history of Crownsville Hospital, one of the nation's last segregated asylums. |
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Rocket men : the Black quarterbacks who revolutionized pro football
by John Eisenberg This definitive history of Black quarterbacks in the NFL, from early pioneers like Fritz Pollard to modern standouts like Marlin Briscoe and James “Shack” Harris, draws on deep historical research and exclusive interviews to pay tribute to the athletes and activists who transformed the game. |
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School clothes : a collective memoir of Black student witness
by Jarvis R. Givens Blending a multitude of individual voice into a single narrative, this collective memoir is the story of African American youth learning to battle the violent condemnation of black life and imposed miseducation meant to quell their resistance. |
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Sleeping with the ancestors : how I followed the footprints of slavery
by Joseph McGill A historic preservationist and Civil War reenactor, who founded the Slave Dwelling Project in 2010, takes readers around the country where he spends the night in former slave dwellings, hosting events and gatherings that provide a unique way to understand the often otherwise obscured and distorted history of slavery. |
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The Tigerbelles : Olympic legends from Tennessee State
by Aime Alley Card The epic story of the 1960 Tennessee State University all-Black women's track team, which found Olympic glory at the 1960 games in Rome. |
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The trouble with white women : a counterhistory of feminism
by Kyla Schuller Giving feminists today the tools to fight for the flourishing of all, an award-winning scholar brings to life the 200-hundred-year counter history of Black, Indigenous, Latina, poor, queer and trans women pushing back against white feminists and uniting to dismantle systemic injustice. |
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Twice as hard : the stories of Black women who fought to become physicians, from the Civil War to the 21st Century
by Jasmine Brown Presents the long-erased stories of nine pioneering Black women physicians beginning in 1860, when a black woman first entered medical school, including Dr. Rebecca Lee Crumpler, who provided medical care for newly freed slaves, to Dr. Joycelyn Elders, who became the first African American U.S. surgeon general. |