As we celebrate Black History, wouldn't it be delightful if everyone spent some time becoming familiar with a few great works by Black authors? Sort of a cultural expedition? Here's a list of 100 to get you started.
1. The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano - by Olaudah Equiano
2. David Walker's Appeal - by David Walker
3. Narrative of the Life and Times of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave, Written by Himself - by Frederick Douglass
4. Clotel: or, The President's Daughter - by William Wells Brown
5. Our Nig: or, Sketches from the LIfe of a Free Black, in a Two-Story White House, North - by Harriet E. Wilson
6. Lyrics of Lowly Life - by Paul Laurence Dunbar
7. The Conjure Woman - by Charles W. Chestnutt
8. Up From Slavery - by Booker T. Washington
9. The Souls of Black Folks - by W.E.B. DuBois
10. The Philosophy and Opinions of Marcus Garvey, or Africa for the Africans - by Marcus Garvey
11. Cane - by Jean Toomer
12. The New Negro - by Alain Locke
13. The Blacker the Berry - by Wallace Thurman
14. The Mis-Education of the Negro - by Carter G. Woodson
15. The Ways of White Folks - by Langston Hughes
16. Black Reconstruction in America - by W. E. B. DuBois
17. Their Eyes Were Watching God - by Zora Neale Hurston
18. Native Son - by Richard Wright
19. Black Boy - by Richard Wright
20. Black Metropolis: A Study of Negro Life in a Northern City - by St. Clair Drake and Horace R. Cayton
21. If He Hollers Let Him Go - by Chester B. Himes
22. The Street - by Ann Petry
23. From Slavery to Freedom: A History of African Americans - by John Hope Franklin
24. Jesus and the Disinherited - by Howard Thurman
25. Annie Allen - by Gwendolyn Brooks
26. Invisible Man - by Ralph Ellison
27. Go Tell It On the Mountain - by James Baldwin
28. Maud Martha - by Gwendolyn Brooks
29. Stolen Legacy - by George G. M. James
30. Black Bourgeoisie - by E. Franklin Frazier
31. Things Fall Apart - by Chinua Achebe
32. A Raisin in the Sun - by Lorraine Hansberry
33. Blues People: Negro Music in White America - by LeRoi Jones
34. The Fire Next Time - by James Baldwin
35. The Black Jacobins - by C. L. R. James
36. The Wretched of the Earth - by Frantz Fanon
37. Africa Must Unite - by Kwame Nkruman
38. Letter From Birmingham Jail - by Martin Luther King, Jr.
39. Before the Mayflower - by Lerone Bennett, Jr.
40. The River Between - by Ngugi wa Thiong'o
41. The Autobiography of Malcolm X - as told by Alex Haley
42. Manchild in the Promised Land - by Claude Brown
43. Jubilee - by Margaret Walker
44. Black Skin, White Masks - Frantz Fanon
45. The Crisis of the Negro Intellectual - by Harold Cruse
46. Black Power - by Stokely Carmichael and Charles V. Hamilton
47.The Man Who Cried I Am - by John Alfred Williams
48. Two Thousand Seasons - by Ayi Kwei Armah
49. Soul on Ice - by Eldridge Cleaver
50. The Spook Who Sat by the Door - by Sam Greenlee
51. We a BaddDDD People - by Sonia Sanchez
52. Soledad Brother: The Prison Letters of George Jackson - by George Jackson
53. Seize the Time: The Story of the Black Panther Party and Huey P. Newton - by Bobby Seale
54. A Black Theology of Liberation - by James H. Cone
55. I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings - by Maya Angelou
56. God's Bits of Wood - by Sembene Ousmane
57. The Destruction of Black Civilization - by Chancellor Williams
58. The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman - by Ernest J. Gaines
59. Mumbo Jumbo - by Ishmael Reed
60. The Hero and the Blues - by Albert Murray
61. Faith and the Good Thing - by Charles Johnson
62. For Colored Girls who have Considered Suicide/ when the rainbow is enuf - by Ntozake Shange
63. They Came Before Columbus - by Ivan Van Sertima
64. Roots: The Saga of an American Family
65. Song of Solomon - by Toni Morrison
66. Elbow Room - by James Alan McPherson
67. Sally Hemings - by Barbara Chase-Riboud
68. Black Macho and the Myth of the Superwoman - by Michele Wallace
69. The Chaneysville Incident - by David Bradley
70. Damballah - by John Edgar Wideman
71. The Color Purple - by Alice Walker
72. The Women of Brewster Place - by Gloria Naylor
73. Praisesong for the Widow - by Paule Marshall
74. Sister Outsider: Essays and Speeches - by Audre Lorde
75. Brothers and Keepers - by John Edgar Wideman
76. Fences - by August Wilson
77. The Life of Langston Hughes - by Arnold Rampersad
78. Beloved - by Toni Morrison
79. Kindred - by Octavia Butler
80. Notes of a Hanging Judge - by Stanley Crouch
81. Miles: The Autobiography - by Miles Davis and Quincy Troupe
82. The Famished Road - by Ben Okri
83. Tapping the Power Within - by Iyanla Vanzant
84. Waiting to Exhale - by Terry McMillan
85. Your Blues Ain't Like Mine - by Bebe Moore Campbell
86. The Daughters of Africa - by Margaret Busby
87. A Lesson Before Dying - by Ernest J. Gaines
88. Race Matters - by Cornel West
89. A Hard Road to Glory: A History of the African American Athlete - by Arthur Ashe
90. Kehinde - by Buchi Emecheta
91. W. E. B. DuBois: Biography of a Race - by David Levering Lewis
92. Black Betty - by Walter Mosley
93. Conversations with God: Two Centuries of Prayers by African Americans - by James Melvin Washington
94. Krik? Krak! - by Edwidge Danticat
95. Guide My Feet: Prayers and Meditations on Loving and Working for Children - by Marian Wright Edelman
96. My Soul is a Witness: African-American Women's Spirituality - edited by Gloria Wade-Gayles
97. The Substance of Things Hoped For: A Memoir of African-American Faith - by Samuel DeWitt Proctor
98. Brother man: The Odyssey of Black Men in America - An Anthology - edited by Herb Boyd and Robert L. Allen
99. Sojourner Truth: A Life, A Symbol - by Nell Irvin Painter
100. Spirits of the Passage: The Transatlantic Slave Trade in the Seventeenth Century - by Madeline Burnside and Rosemarie Robotham
1. The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano - by Olaudah Equiano
2. David Walker's Appeal - by David Walker
3. Narrative of the Life and Times of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave, Written by Himself - by Frederick Douglass
4. Clotel: or, The President's Daughter - by William Wells Brown
5. Our Nig: or, Sketches from the LIfe of a Free Black, in a Two-Story White House, North - by Harriet E. Wilson
6. Lyrics of Lowly Life - by Paul Laurence Dunbar
7. The Conjure Woman - by Charles W. Chestnutt
8. Up From Slavery - by Booker T. Washington
9. The Souls of Black Folks - by W.E.B. DuBois
10. The Philosophy and Opinions of Marcus Garvey, or Africa for the Africans - by Marcus Garvey
11. Cane - by Jean Toomer
12. The New Negro - by Alain Locke
13. The Blacker the Berry - by Wallace Thurman
14. The Mis-Education of the Negro - by Carter G. Woodson
15. The Ways of White Folks - by Langston Hughes
16. Black Reconstruction in America - by W. E. B. DuBois
17. Their Eyes Were Watching God - by Zora Neale Hurston
18. Native Son - by Richard Wright
19. Black Boy - by Richard Wright
20. Black Metropolis: A Study of Negro Life in a Northern City - by St. Clair Drake and Horace R. Cayton
21. If He Hollers Let Him Go - by Chester B. Himes
22. The Street - by Ann Petry
23. From Slavery to Freedom: A History of African Americans - by John Hope Franklin
24. Jesus and the Disinherited - by Howard Thurman
25. Annie Allen - by Gwendolyn Brooks
26. Invisible Man - by Ralph Ellison
27. Go Tell It On the Mountain - by James Baldwin
28. Maud Martha - by Gwendolyn Brooks
29. Stolen Legacy - by George G. M. James
30. Black Bourgeoisie - by E. Franklin Frazier
31. Things Fall Apart - by Chinua Achebe
32. A Raisin in the Sun - by Lorraine Hansberry
33. Blues People: Negro Music in White America - by LeRoi Jones
34. The Fire Next Time - by James Baldwin
35. The Black Jacobins - by C. L. R. James
36. The Wretched of the Earth - by Frantz Fanon
37. Africa Must Unite - by Kwame Nkruman
38. Letter From Birmingham Jail - by Martin Luther King, Jr.
39. Before the Mayflower - by Lerone Bennett, Jr.
40. The River Between - by Ngugi wa Thiong'o
41. The Autobiography of Malcolm X - as told by Alex Haley
42. Manchild in the Promised Land - by Claude Brown
43. Jubilee - by Margaret Walker
44. Black Skin, White Masks - Frantz Fanon
45. The Crisis of the Negro Intellectual - by Harold Cruse
46. Black Power - by Stokely Carmichael and Charles V. Hamilton
47.The Man Who Cried I Am - by John Alfred Williams
48. Two Thousand Seasons - by Ayi Kwei Armah
49. Soul on Ice - by Eldridge Cleaver
50. The Spook Who Sat by the Door - by Sam Greenlee
51. We a BaddDDD People - by Sonia Sanchez
52. Soledad Brother: The Prison Letters of George Jackson - by George Jackson
53. Seize the Time: The Story of the Black Panther Party and Huey P. Newton - by Bobby Seale
54. A Black Theology of Liberation - by James H. Cone
55. I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings - by Maya Angelou
56. God's Bits of Wood - by Sembene Ousmane
57. The Destruction of Black Civilization - by Chancellor Williams
58. The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman - by Ernest J. Gaines
59. Mumbo Jumbo - by Ishmael Reed
60. The Hero and the Blues - by Albert Murray
61. Faith and the Good Thing - by Charles Johnson
62. For Colored Girls who have Considered Suicide/ when the rainbow is enuf - by Ntozake Shange
63. They Came Before Columbus - by Ivan Van Sertima
64. Roots: The Saga of an American Family
65. Song of Solomon - by Toni Morrison
66. Elbow Room - by James Alan McPherson
67. Sally Hemings - by Barbara Chase-Riboud
68. Black Macho and the Myth of the Superwoman - by Michele Wallace
69. The Chaneysville Incident - by David Bradley
70. Damballah - by John Edgar Wideman
71. The Color Purple - by Alice Walker
72. The Women of Brewster Place - by Gloria Naylor
73. Praisesong for the Widow - by Paule Marshall
74. Sister Outsider: Essays and Speeches - by Audre Lorde
75. Brothers and Keepers - by John Edgar Wideman
76. Fences - by August Wilson
77. The Life of Langston Hughes - by Arnold Rampersad
78. Beloved - by Toni Morrison
79. Kindred - by Octavia Butler
80. Notes of a Hanging Judge - by Stanley Crouch
81. Miles: The Autobiography - by Miles Davis and Quincy Troupe
82. The Famished Road - by Ben Okri
83. Tapping the Power Within - by Iyanla Vanzant
84. Waiting to Exhale - by Terry McMillan
85. Your Blues Ain't Like Mine - by Bebe Moore Campbell
86. The Daughters of Africa - by Margaret Busby
87. A Lesson Before Dying - by Ernest J. Gaines
88. Race Matters - by Cornel West
89. A Hard Road to Glory: A History of the African American Athlete - by Arthur Ashe
90. Kehinde - by Buchi Emecheta
91. W. E. B. DuBois: Biography of a Race - by David Levering Lewis
92. Black Betty - by Walter Mosley
93. Conversations with God: Two Centuries of Prayers by African Americans - by James Melvin Washington
94. Krik? Krak! - by Edwidge Danticat
95. Guide My Feet: Prayers and Meditations on Loving and Working for Children - by Marian Wright Edelman
96. My Soul is a Witness: African-American Women's Spirituality - edited by Gloria Wade-Gayles
97. The Substance of Things Hoped For: A Memoir of African-American Faith - by Samuel DeWitt Proctor
98. Brother man: The Odyssey of Black Men in America - An Anthology - edited by Herb Boyd and Robert L. Allen
99. Sojourner Truth: A Life, A Symbol - by Nell Irvin Painter
100. Spirits of the Passage: The Transatlantic Slave Trade in the Seventeenth Century - by Madeline Burnside and Rosemarie Robotham
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