From the beautiful poetry of Maya Angelou to the rhetorical props of Colson Whitehead, here is a list of totally innovative African-American books that have captivated our imaginations and inspired change in the last 50 years.
- Mumbo Jumbo, by Ishmael Reed
- If Beale Street Could Talk, by James Baldwin
- The Tiger who Wore White Gloves, by Gwendolyn Brooks
- And Still I Rise, by Maya Angelou
- Roots, by Alex Haley
- Song of Solomon, by Toni Morrison
- Elbow Room, by James Alan McPherson
- Kindred, by Octavia E. Butler
- Sassafrass, Cypress & Indigo, by Nitozake Shange
- The Chaneysville Incident, by David Bradley
- The Color Purple, by Alice Walker
- The Women of Brewster Place, by Gloria Naylor
- A Gathering of Old Men, by Ernest J. Gaines
- Brothers and Keepers, by John Edgar Wideman
- Linden Hills, by Gloria Naylor
- Thomas and Beulah, by Rita Dove
- Home Repairs, by Trey Ellis
- Beloved, by Toni Morrison
- Corregidora, by Gayl Jones
- The Temple of My Familiar, by Alice Walker
- Middle Passage, by Charles Johnson
- Family, by J. California Cooper
- The Venus Hottentot, by Elizabeth Alexander
- Waiting to Exhale, by Terry McMillan
- A Lesson Before Dying, by Ernest J. Gaines
- Those Bones are Not My Child, by Toni Cade Bambara
- Tumbling, by Diane McKinney-Whetstone
- Slapboxing with Jesus, by Victor LaValle
- Monster, by Walter Dean Myers
- Juneteenth, by Ralph Ellison
- Erasure, by Percival Everett
- The Known World, by Edward P. Jones
- Day of Tears, by Julius Lester
- Fledgling, by Octavia E. Butler
- Copper Sun, by Sharon M. Draper
- Fire Shut Up in My Bones, by Charles M. Blow
- Brown Girl Dreaming, by Jacqueline Woodson
- The Sellout, by Paul Beatty
- Counternarratives, by John Keene
- Homegoing, by Yaa Gyasi
- The Underground Railroad, by Colson Whitehead
- Behold the Dreamers, by Imbolo Mbue
- Sing, Unburied, Sing, by Jesmyn Ward
- The Hate U Give, by Angie Thomas
- All American Boys, by Jason Reynolds
- If I Had Two Wings, by Randall Kenan
- Real Life, by Brandon Taylor
- The Kindest Lie, by Nancy Johnson
- Remembrance, by Rita Woods
- We Are Not Like Them, by Christina Pride & Jo Piazza
Did we leave out some of your favorites? Add them in the comments below, and celebrate Black History Month by picking up these book and more at your local HPB or on HPB.com. Happy reading!
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The Autobiography of Malcom X told by Alex Haley.
The Spook who sat by the door by Sam Greenlee.
The Miseducation of the Negro by Carter Godwin-Woodson, PH.D.
Americanah, by Chimamanda Ngozi Adachie. This won the National Book Critics Circle Award, She also wrote “Why We Should All Be Feminists,” and “Notes on Grief,” which I just finished, helping me through a hard time. Adachie divides her time between the US and Nigeria.