Celebrate Black History month by reading from our selection of books exploring the African American experience. There are lists for all ages.

Items marked with an * are exclusive to the Collegedale Library libby/overdrive ebook offerings.

The History of Discrimination

• The New Jim Crow - An account of the impact of prisons in America.
• Stamped From the Beginning - The history of racist thinking in American society.
• A Few Red Drops - A photobook journey of the Chicago Race Riots
• Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents - A thorough examination of caste, race, and power in American society.
• The People of Clarendon County
• Death of Innocence
• We Are Your Sisters
• Generations of Captivity
• Just Mercy
• Because They Marched
• Between the World and Me

Changing Racism

• White Fragility: Why It's So Hard for White People to Talk About Racism - An exploration by educator Robin DiAngelo addressed to fellow white Americans.
• How to be an Antiracist
• me and white supremacy: Combat Racism, Change the World, and become a Good Ancestor
• So You Want To Talk About Race
• Why I’m No Longer Talking to White People About Race

Black Joy, Healing, and Recovery

• I’m Still Here: Black Dignity in a World Made for Whiteness
• The Unapologetic Guide to Black Mental Health*
• The 100 Best African American Poems
• My Grandmother's Hands: Racialized Trauma and the Pathway to Mending*

For Kids

• Not My Idea: A Book About Whiteness - A nonfiction picture book about racial inequality.
• Twelve Days in May - A photobook novel about the Freedom Riders.
• The Forgotten Girl - A fictional ghost story novel about reclaiming an abandoned segregated cemetery.
• The Book Itch: Freedom, Truth & Harlem's Greatest Bookstore - A picture book about the founding of the National Memorial African Bookstore.
• Turning 15 on the Road to Freedom
• Ellington Was Not a Street*
• The March Against Fear
• Harbor Me
• Mae Among the Stars
• Ghost Boys
• Little Leaders: Bold Women in Black History*

Black Kid Positivity

• Hair Love
• Sulwe*
• Let's Clap, Jump, Sing & Shout - Games, Songs & Stories from an African American Childhood
• The Day You Begin
• Princess Hair
• You Made Me A Dad
• I Am Brown
• I Am Perfectly Designed
• My Hair Is A Garden
• Firebird
• My Family Plays Music
• Hair, It's A Family Affair
• An Angel Just Like Me
• Wow! It Sure Is Good to be You
• Beautiful

Narratives From and Starring: YA

• American Street
• The Hate U Give
• The Color of Water [Biography]
• Let Me Hear A Rhyme* - Three Brooklyn teens work to turn a friend into a rap star - by pretending he's still alive.
• Clap When You Land
• I'm Not Dying with You Tonight*
• Racial Profiling: Everyday Inequality [Nonfic]
• Freedom's Children [Nonfic]
• Dear Martin
• Raybearer
• The Black Friend: On Being a Better White Person [Nonfic]

Narratives From and Starring: Adult Fiction

• An American Marriage
• The Water Dancer
• Children of Blood and Bone
• Black Leopard, Red Wolf - Mixing myth, fantasy, and history; what happens when a mercenary is hired to find a missing child?
• Such a Fun Age - What does family mean in a time of identity and privilege?
• The Tradition* - The 2020 Pulitzer Poetry Winner: on fatherhood, legacy, blackness, queerness, worship, and trauma.
• Homegoing
• American Spy
• My Sister, The Serial Killer
• The Yellow House: A Memoir*
• The Secret Women*
• The Prophets