50 Years of Innovative Books by African American Authors

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.


  1. Mumbo Jumbo, by Ishmael Reed
  2. If Beale Street Could Talk, by James Baldwin
  3. The Tiger who Wore White Gloves, by Gwendolyn Brooks
  4. And Still I Rise, by Maya Angelou
  5. Roots, by Alex Haley
  6. Song of Solomon, by Toni Morrison
  7. Elbow Room, by James Alan McPherson
  8. Kindred, by Octavia E. Butler
  9. Sassafrass, Cypress & Indigo, by Nitozake Shange
  10. The Chaneysville Incident, by David Bradley
  11. The Color Purple, by Alice Walker
  12. The Women of Brewster Place, by Gloria Naylor
  13. A Gathering of Old Men, by Ernest J. Gaines
  14. Brothers and Keepers, by John Edgar Wideman
  15. Linden Hills, by Gloria Naylor
  16. Thomas and Beulah, by Rita Dove
  17. Home Repairs, by Trey Ellis
  18. Beloved, by Toni Morrison
  19. Corregidora, by Gayl Jones
  20. The Temple of My Familiar, by Alice Walker
  21. Middle Passage, by Charles Johnson
  22. Family, by J. California Cooper
  23. The Venus Hottentot, by Elizabeth Alexander
  24. Waiting to Exhale, by Terry McMillan
  25. A Lesson Before Dying, by Ernest J. Gaines
  26. Those Bones are Not My Child, by Toni Cade Bambara
  27. Tumbling, by Diane McKinney-Whetstone
  28. Slapboxing with Jesus, by Victor LaValle
  29. Monster, by Walter Dean Myers
  30. Juneteenth, by Ralph Ellison
  31. Erasure, by Percival Everett
  32. The Known World, by Edward P. Jones
  33. Day of Tears, by Julius Lester
  34. Fledgling, by Octavia E. Butler
  35. Copper Sun, by Sharon M. Draper
  36. Fire Shut Up in My Bones, by Charles M. Blow
  37. Brown Girl Dreaming, by Jacqueline Woodson
  38. The Sellout, by Paul Beatty
  39. Counternarratives, by John Keene
  40. Homegoing, by Yaa Gyasi
  41. The Underground Railroad, by Colson Whitehead
  42. Behold the Dreamers, by Imbolo Mbue
  43. Sing, Unburied, Sing, by Jesmyn Ward
  44. The Hate U Give, by Angie Thomas
  45. All American Boys, by Jason Reynolds
  46. If I Had Two Wings, by Randall Kenan
  47. Real Life, by Brandon Taylor
  48. The Kindest Lie, by Nancy Johnson
  49. Remembrance, by Rita Woods
  50. 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!

This post has 2 Comments.

  • 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.