Books by Black Authors to Add to Your Reading List
February 26, 2021
One important way to celebrate and amplify Black voices is to read literature by Black authors. Below is a chronological list of books by Black authors, separated by genre. Links to buy or check availability at Chicago Public Libraries are included. Be sure to check out the other books by the authors listed as well. Remember that Black History Month is certainly not the only time when you can incorporate more Black voices into your reading list!
Non-fiction
How We Fight for Our Lives: A Memoir by Saeed Jones (2019) | Buy | Borrow
Becoming by Michelle Obama (2018) | Buy | Borrow
Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates (2015) | Buy | Borrow
Life in Motion: An Unlikely Ballerina by Misty Copeland (2014) | Buy | Borrow
Through My Eyes by Ruby Bridges (1999) | Buy | Borrow
The Autobiography of Martin Luther King, Jr. (1998) | Buy | Borrow
Rosa Parks by Rosa Parks (1992) | Buy | Borrow
The Autobiography of Malcolm X by Malcom X and Alex Haley (1965) | Buy | Borrow
Fiction
New Kid by Jerry Craft (2019) | Buy | Borrow
Queenie by Candice Carty-Williams (2019) | Buy | Borrow
The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas (2017) | Buy | Borrow
Salvage the Bones by Jesmyn Ward (2015) | Buy | Borrow
Beloved by Toni Morrison (1987) | Buy | Borrow
Maud Martha by Gwendolyn Brooks (1953) | Buy | Borrow
Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison (1952) | Buy | Borrow
Poetry
African American Poetry: 250 Years of Struggle & Song edited by Kevin Young (2020) | Buy | Borrow
Just Us: An American Conversation by Claudia Rankine (2020) | Buy | Borrow
Don’t Call us Dead by Danez Smith (2017) | Buy | Borrow
HER by Pierre Alex Jeantry (2017) | Buy | Borrow
And Still I Rise by Maya Angelou (1978) | Buy | Borrow
If Beale Street Could Talk by James Baldwin (1974) | Buy | Borrow
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou (1969) | Buy | Borrow
The Weary Blues by Langston Hughes (1926) | Buy | Borrow
Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral by Philis Wheatley (1773) | Buy | Borrow
Children’s Books/Picture Books
Change Sings: A Children’s Anthem by Amanda Gorman (will be release September, 2021) | Buy
Black is a Rainbow Color by Angela Joy (2020) | Buy | Borrow
Hair Love (Based on the Short Film) by Mathew A. Cherry (2019) | Buy | Borrow
Parker Looks Up: An Extraordinary Moment by Parker Curry, Jessica Curry, and Brittany Jackson (Illustrator) (2019) | Buy | Borrow
Thank You Omu! By Oge Mora (2018) | Buy | Borrow
Little Melba and Her Big Trombone by Katheryn Russell-Brown, Frank Morrison (Illustrator) (2014) | Buy | Borrow
