Nine Books By Black Authors That Belong on Your Bookshelf
What If You Started from Scratch?
9 Books You Should Know — If you could only have nine Black authors, I would select these. Having read them, you'd have to find a way to enrich your knowledge of Black authors, but you couldn't go wrong starting here
Zora Neale Hurston: Their Eyes Were Watching God — Alice Walker said, "There is no book more important to me than this one." A story of an independent Black woman, written when no such books existed. Zora's rich characters and expression of Black culture make this a must-read!
2. Ta-Nehisi Coates: Between the World and Me — Coates's letter to his son explaining racism and the historical role of white supremacy. It's bound to make you think twice about things you thought you knew.
3. Langston Hughes: The Ways of White Folks — This is a collection of short stories about race relations in America. It's humorous, realistic, and pessimistic, which sounds like an accurate reflection of the times then and now.
4. W.E.B. Du Bois: The Souls of Black Folk — Though written in 1903, this collection of essays is also as current as they were a century ago. They describe the impact of racism on Black people. A reminder to those that think racism is a thing of the past.
5. Ralph Ellison: The Invisible Man — Two themes permeate this book; how the Black man is unseen in America and Ellison's disillusionment with Communism. It reminds us that the place of the Black man in America has always been unclear.
6. Octavia Butler: Kindred — Time travel allows a young Black woman to transport from 1976 to meet her enslaved ancestors at various points in their lives. It crosses genres from science fiction to history to African American literature to just plain literature.
7. Tayari Jones: An American Marriage — The novel follows the marriage of a Black couple as the husband is wrongfully incarcerated. Several unions are mentioned, but Celestial and Roy are the couple to follow.
8. Glory Edim: Well-Read Black Girl — Glory got her start by forming one of the largest Black book clubs in the country. This anthology is inspirational and uplifting
9. James Baldwin: No Name in the Street -What is history to most of us was personal to James Baldwin. He knew and befriended Malcolm X and Martin Luther King, Jr and lived through their assassinations along with others. Baldwin became disheartened with America and eventually moved to France. Read this book and understand why.
10. I know I said nine books, but as a bonus, I'm adding "Fieldnotes on Allyship: Achieving Equality Together." Not just because I contributed a chapter but because the four sections, Racism, The Construct of Whiteness, Preparing Yourself To Be Ally, and Achieving Equality Together, present a positivity not found in many other works. Without hope, what do we have? Clay Rivers, President of the not-for-profit organization Our Human Family, assembled the authors and shared his core belief.
“People change when they want to change, when they know change is possible, and when they know how to change. — Clay Rivers
If you are looking for a single place to find all of these books. Please go to my website at WilliamFSpivey.com. Also, the links embedded in each summary will take you to the individual book. Happy reading!
Whoops. I read your follow-up post with the other 10 books first; that linked this post on Medium, not Substack, so I hit the paywall before you recommended Kindred. So ignore my complaint about it vs. Parable of the Sower. But anything from Butler is worth reading.
Great selection and great post! Thank you.