Overview:
Books to help understand the black experience from before slavery through Juneteenth.
A BLACK WOMEN’S HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES
Daina Berry and Kali Gross
This book is a compact, exceptionally diverse introduction to the history of Black women, from the first African woman who arrived in America to the women of today.
WE WERE EIGHT YEARS IN POWER: AN AMERICAN TRAGEDY
Ta – Nehisi Coates
A collection of Coates’ essays originally printed in The Atlantic Magazine between 2008 – 2016 over the course of the Obama administration. Each essay is introduced with the author’s reflections.
THE SUBSTANCE OF HOPE
William Jelani Cobb
Obama’s election in 2008 was remarkable because he won 90 percent of the Black vote in the primaries despite Clinton’s support of the Black leadership. This book focuses on how this happened and its implications for America’s politics and social landscape.
THE LIFE AND TIMES OF FREDERICK DOUGLASS
(Originally Published 1881)
Frederick Douglass
Raised as a plantation slave, Douglass went on to become a writer, orator,
and a major participant in the struggle for African American freedom and
equality. In this engrossing narrative, he recounts his early years of abuse,
his dramatic escape to the North and eventual freedom, abolitionist
campaigns, and his crusade for full civil rights for former slaves.
STONY THE ROAD: RECONSTRUCTION, WHITE SUPREMACY,
AND THE RISE OF JIM CROW
Henry Louis Gates, Jr.
A social and intellectual history of the time between Reconstruction and
the rise of the Jim Crow period in American History.
ON JUNETEENTH
Annette Gordon-Reed
Texas native Gordon-Reed weaves together her American and family
history into a historian’s view of the country’s long road to Juneteenth,
from its origins in Texas to Reconstruction, through Jim Crow and beyond.
FOUR HUNDRED SOULS
Edited by Ibram X. Kendi and Keisha Blain
A “community” history of African Americans written by 90 writers that
cover the 400-year journey of African Americans from 1619 to the present
ENVISIONING EMANCIPATION: BLACK AMERICANS AND
THE END OF SLAVERY
Barbara Krauthamer and Deborah Willis
Using photos, this book illustrates what freedom looked like for Black
Americans in the Civil War era. These portraits of Black families and
workers in the American South challenge perceptions of slavery.
MORE BEAUTIFUL AND MORE TERRIBLE: THE EMBRACE
AND TRANSCENDENCE OF RACIAL INEQUALITY IN THE
UNITED STATES
Imani Perry
Perry draws upon the insights and tools of critical race theory, social
policy, law, sociology, and cultural studies to demonstrate how postintentional racism works, but also identifies a place of hope.
THE WARMTH OF OTHER SUNS
Isabel Wilkerson
A chronicle of the decades-long migration of Black citizens who, during
the twentieth century fled the south for northern and western cities in
search for a better life.
