28 days : moments in Black history that changed the world
Author Smith, Charles R., Jr., 1969-
A picture book look at many of the men and women who revolutionized life for African Americans throughout history.
A black women’s history of the United States
Author Berry, Daina Ramey.
A Black Women’s History of the United States is a critical survey of black women’s complicated legacy in America, as it takes into account their exploitation and victimization as well as their undeniable and substantial contributions to the country since its inception.
A darker wilderness : Black nature writing from soil to stars
A vibrant collection of personal and lyric essays in conversation with archival objects of Black history and memory.
A Juneteenth celebration cookbook : fun & easy recipes and activities for kids and families
Author Agostini, Alliah L.
A Juneteenth Celebration Cookbook introduces the history of Juneteenth to kids through vibrant recipes, activities, and games drawn from Black American cultural traditions.
A new formation : how black footballers shaped the modern game
A New Formation is an inventive and highly original analysis of the contributions that Black British footballers have made to Black British culture. Calum Jacobs and his co-contributors — including authors Musa Okwonga and Aniefiok Ekpoudom and sports broadcaster Jeanette Kwakye — eschew the standard frameworks of trauma and oppression that are foisted upon Black narratives. Instead, they draw upon broader social and cultural history to examine Black footballers in contexts larger than themselves.
A song flung up to heaven
Author Angelou, Maya.
This memoir recounts when Maya Angelou returned from Africa to the United States to work with Malcolm X. But first she has to journey to California to be reunited with her mother and brother. No sooner does she arrive there than she learns that Malcolm X has been assassinated.
Ali : a life
Author Eig, Jonathan.
Based on more than 500 interviews, including Muhammad Ali’s closest associates, and enhanced by access to thousands of pages of newly released FBI records, this is a thrilling story of a man who became one of the great figures of the twentieth century.
Baldwin : a love story
Author Boggs, Nicholas, 1973-
Baldwin: A Love Story tells the overlapping stories of Baldwin’s most sustaining intimate and artistic relationships: with his mentor, the Black American painter Beauford Delaney; with his lover and muse, the Swiss painter Lucien Happersberger; and with his collaborators, the famed Turkish actor Engin Cezzar and the iconoclastic French artist Yoran Cazac.”– Provided by publisher.
Barracoon : the story of the last “black cargo”
Author Hurston, Zora Neale.
Barracoon is based on Hurston’s interviews in 1927 with Oluale Kossola, was presumed to be the last survivor of the Middle Passage and one the last living persons with clear memories of life in Africa before passage and enslavement.
Before the ships : the birth of Black excellence
Author Oso, Maisha.
Before the Ships is a powerful and poetic celebration of the early roots of Black history.
Belly of the beast : the politics of anti-fatness as anti-Blackness
Author Harrison, Da’Shaun, 1996-
An exploration of anti-fatness and anti-Blackness at the intersections of race, police violence, gender identity, fatness, and health.
Beloved : a novel
Author Morrison, Toni.
In Morrison’s classic novel, Sethe, an escaped slave living in post-Civil War Ohio, struggles to keep Beloved, an intruder, from gaining possession of her present while throwing off the legacy of her past.
Between the world and me
Author Coates, Ta-Nehisi.
For Ta-Nehisi Coates, history has always been personal. At every stage of his life, he’s sought in his explorations of history answers to the mysteries that surrounded him — most urgently, why he, and other black people he knew, seemed to live in fear. What were they afraid of? In Tremble for My Country, Coates takes readers along on his journey through America’s history of race and its contemporary resonances through a series of awakenings — moments when he discovered some new truth about our long, tangled history of race, whether through his myth-busting professors at Howard University, a trip to a Civil War battlefield with a rogue historian, a journey to Chicago’s South Side to visit aging survivors of 20th century America’s ‘long war on black people,’ or a visit with the mother of a beloved friend who was shot down by the police.
Black boy : (American hunger) : a record of childhood and youth
Author Wright, Richard, 1908-1960.
The author relates his life as an African American growing up in the South during the Jim Crow years.
Black boy smile : a memoir in moments
Author Watkins, D. (Dwight)
Black Boy Smile lays bare Watkins’ relationship with his father and brotherhoods with boys around him. He shares candid recollections of early assaults on his body and mind and how he coped through stoic silence disguised as manhood. His harrowing pursuit for redemption, written in his signature street style, pinpoints how generational hardship, left raw and unnurtured, breeds toxic masculinity.
Black boy, black boy : celebrate the power of you
Author Kamanda, Ali.
Illustrations and rhyming text encourage Black boys to learn about the accomplishments of famous men in Black history and then forge their own paths.
Black Canadians : history, experience, social conditions
Author Mensah, Joseph, 1960-
A comprehensive, multidisciplinary analysis of over 300 years of Black history in Canada, from early enslavement and Black Loyalists to modern immigration patterns.
Black Detroit : a people’s history of self-determination
Author Boyd, Herb, 1938-
Award-winning journalist Herb Boyd chronicles the fascinating history of Detroit through the lens of the African American experience. Offering an expansive discussion of this iconic city, Black Detroit ranges in subject from Antoine de Lamothe Cadillac’s initial vision of what would become a thriving metropolis to the city’s glory days as the center of American commerce; from the waves of fugitives traveling on the Underground Railroad to the advent of the People Mover circling downtown; from the creation of the unparalleled sound of Motown to the emergence of Wayne State University as a hotbed of political thought.
Black fire : an anthology of Afro-American writing
Featuring literary essays and writings from a range of important authors, including James Boggs, Stokely Carmichael, Jay Wright, Julia Fields, and more.
Black futures
Black Futures is a collection of work–art, photos, essays, memes, dialogues, recipes, tweets, poetry, and more–that tells the story of the radical, imaginative, bold, and beautiful world that black artists, high and low, are producing today. Readers will go from conversations with hackers and street artists to memes and Instagram posts, from powerful prose to dazzling paintings and insightful infographics. A generational document that captures this fast-moving generation in its own dynamic and expansive language.
Black in blues : how a color tells the story of my people
Author Perry, Imani, 1972-
A surprising and beautiful meditation on the color blue – and its fascinating role in Black history and culture – from National Book Award winner Imani Perry.
Black is the body : stories from my grandmother’s time, my mother’s time, and mine
Author Bernard, Emily, 1967-
A collection of essays on race and family.
Black public joy : no permit or permission required
Author Pitter, Jay.
During the last few months, during a crucial moment in Black life in North America, Jay Pitter has been engaging directly and passionately in the protest movement around police violence, and through the lens of her work as a placemaker, highlighting all the ways in which Black life is restricted in the realm of public space.
Black self-determination : a cultural history of African-American resistance
Author Franklin, V. P. (Vincent P.), 1947-
Examines the art, music, religion and testimonies of African Americans and finds that the core values of the masses have always been self-determination, education, freedom, and resistance to assimilation.
Black women in science : a black history book for kids
Author Pellum, Kimberly Brown.
Throughout history, black women have blazed trails across the fields of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. Black Women in Science brings something special to black history books for kids, celebrating incredible black women in STEM who have used their brains, bravery, and ambition to beat the odds. Black Women in Science stands out amongst other black history books for kids–featuring 15 powerful stories of fearless female scientists that advanced their STEM fields and fought to build a legacy. Through the triumphs of these amazing women, you’ll find remarkable role models.
Black writers matter
An anthology of African-Canadian writing, Black Writing Matters offers a cross-section of established writers and newcomers to the literary world who tackle contemporary and pressing issues with beautiful, sometimes raw, prose.
Black-owned : the revolutionary life of the Black bookstore
Author Adams, Char.
NBC News reporter Char Adams writes a deeply compelling and rigorously reported history of Black political movements, told through the lens of Black-owned bookstores, which have been centers for organizing from abolition to the Civil Rights Movement to Black Lives Matter.
Blackness is a gift I can give her : on race, community, and black women in hockey
Author Hess, R. Renee.
From the founder of Black Girl Hockey Club, a collection of deeply insightful and piercing essays shedding light on the history of Black excellence in hockey, the future of Black joy within the sport, and the ways we can all do better when it comes to recognizing–and upheaving–systemic and institutionalized racism.
Blacks in Canada : a history
Author Winks, Robin W.
The definitive history of the African-Canadian experience, this third edition includes a foreword by George Elliott Clarke, E.J. Pratt Professor of Canadian Literature at the University of Toronto. Clarke’s contribution adds a necessary critical lens through which twenty-first-century readers should view Winks’s research.
Breathe : a letter to my sons
Author Perry, Imani, 1972-
Explores the terror, grace, and beauty of coming of age as a Black person in contemporary America and what it means to parent our children in a persistently unjust world.
Carter G. Woodson : Black history pioneer
Author McKissack, Pat, 1944-
A biography for early readers about Carter G. Woodson’s life.
Combee : Harriet Tubman, the Combahee River Raid, and black freedom during the Civil War
Author Fields-Black, Edda L.
This book offers the first full account of Harriet Tubman’s Civil War service and the Combahee River Raid. It details how Tubman commanded a ring of spies, scouts, and pilots and participated in military expeditions behind Confederate lines. It also recounts the story of enslaved families living in bondage and fighting for their freedom, using their own distinct and individual voices. The book uses more than 175 US Civil War pension files of the regiments of Second South Carolina Volunteers, including Tubman’s. It is based on original documentation and written by a descendent of the enslaved men and women who fought in it, and in the process liberated themselves.
Crafts that celebrate Black history
Author Ross, Kathy (Katharine Reynolds), 1948-
Provides step-by-step instructions for twenty easy crafts which celebrate the accomplishments of different African Americans, including inventors, activists, educators, and others.
Dear Senthuran : a Black spirit memoir
Author Emezi, Akwaeke.
Interweaving candid, intimate letters to friends, lovers, and family, Emezi reveals the raw pain of their journey as a spirit in the human world, the perils of all-consuming love and intimacy, and the hard-earned reward of achieving both literary recognition and a peaceful, joyous home. Electrifying and radically honest, animated by the same voracious intelligence that distinguishes their fiction, Dear Senthuran is a revelatory account of what it means to embody multiple spirits, to fight for survival, and to bend the world to one’s will.
Don’t call us dead : poems
Author Smith, Danez.
Award-winning poet Danez Smith is a groundbreaking force, celebrated for deft lyrics, urgent subjects, and performative power.
Driving the king : a novel
Author Howard, Ravi.
Told through the experiences of Nat King Cole’s driver, Nat Weary, Driving the King is a daring and brilliant new novel from award-winning writer Ravi Howard that explores race and class in 1950s America.
Emancipation Day : celebrating freedom in Canada
Author Henry, Natasha L.
This new, well-researched book provides insight into the creation, development, and evolution of a distinct African-Canadian tradition through descriptive historical accounts and appealing images. The social, cultural, political, and educational practices of Emancipation Day festivities across Canada are explored, with emphasis on Ontario, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Quebec, and British Columbia.
Eyeing the north star : directions in African-Canadian literature
Mixing prose, poetry, and drama, and including the work of established writers and new voices, writing in English as well as French (in translation here), Eyeing the North Star is a varied and vibrant overview of the recent evolution of African-Canadian Literature.
Fearing the black body : the racial origins of fat phobia
Author Strings, Sabrina.
There is an obesity epidemic in this country and poor black women are particularly stigmatized as “diseased” and a burden on the public health care system. This is only the most recent incarnation of the fear of fat black women, which Sabrina Strings shows took root more than two hundred years ago. Strings weaves together an eye-opening historical narrative ranging from the Renaissance to the current moment, analyzing important works of art, newspaper and magazine articles, and scientific literature and medical journals–where fat bodies were once praised–showing that fat phobia, as it relates to black women, did not originate with medical findings, but with the Enlightenment era belief that fatness was evidence of “savagery” and racial inferiority.
Four hundred souls : a community history of African America, 1619-2019
A “choral history” of African Americans covering 400 years of history in the voices of 80 writers, edited by the bestselling, National Book Award-winning historian Ibram X. Kendi and Keisha N. Blain. Last year marked the four hundredth anniversary of the first African presence in the Americas–and also launched the Four Hundred Souls project, spearheaded by Ibram X. Kendi, director of the Antiracism Institute of American University, and Keisha Blain, editor of The North Star.
Freedom enterprise : Black entrepreneurship and racial capitalism in Detroit
Author Boyd, Kendra.
The Great Migration saw more than six million African Americans leave the U.S. South between 1910 and 1970. Though the experiences of migrant laborers are well-known, countless African Americans also left the South to pursue entrepreneurial opportunities and viewed business as key to Black liberation. Detroit, Michigan’s status as a mecca for Black entrepreneurship illuminates this overlooked aspect of the Great Migration story. In Freedom Enterprise, Kendra D. Boyd uses “migrant entrepreneurship” as a lens through which to understand the entwined histories of Black-owned business, racial capitalism, and urban space.
Goree, open your doors to me : Black History Month : an essay
Author Mabaya, Gaston N. K. (Gaston Nyabul di Kanza), 1948- author.
Gorée, an exquisite island, reminds us of this period in black history and also of the rays of light that point to a wonderful future.
This book takes us through that universe with the hope of building a hopeful future for black communities from the burning ashes of the past. They are real, these ashes, in their temporal diversity traversing the vicissitudes of slavery, the slave trade, colonization and independence with disturbing make-up. Fortunately, real facts, transformed into anecdotes by time, make souls long oppressed alive and vigorous.
His name is George Floyd : one man’s life and the struggle for racial justice
Author Samuels, Robert, 1984-
The events of that day are now tragically familiar: on May 25, 2020, George Floyd became the latest Black person to die at the hands of the police, murdered outside of a Minneapolis convenience store by white officer Derek Chauvin. The video recording of his death set off a series of protests in the United States and around the world, awakening millions to the dire need for reimagining this country’s broken systems of policing. But behind a face that would be graffitied onto countless murals, and a name that has become synonymous with civil rights, there is the reality of one man’s stolen life: a life beset by suffocating systemic pressures that ultimately proved inescapable.
How the word is passed : a reckoning with the history of slavery across America
Author Smith, Clint.
Beginning in his hometown of New Orleans, Clint Smith leads the reader on an unforgettable tour of monuments and landmarks–those that are honest about the past and those that are not–that offer an intergenerational story of how slavery has been central in shaping our nation’s collective history, and ourselves. making sense of our country and how it has come to be.
I know why the caged bird sings
Author Angelou, Maya.
The author’s classic memoir of growing up black in the 1930’s and 1940’s.
Illustrated Black history : honoring the iconic and the unseen
Author McCalman, George.
A gorgeous collection of 145 original portraits that celebrates Black pioneers–famous and little-known–in politics, science, literature, music, and more, with biographical reflections, all created and curated by an award-winning graphic designer.
In the black : my life
Author Jolly, B. Denham, author.
A remarkable memoir about achieving prosperity in the face of relentless prejudice. In the Black traces B. Denham Jolly’s personal and professional struggle.
In the light of dawn : the history and legacy of a Black Canadian community
Author Carter, Marie, 1953-
Illuminating two hundred years of lost Black History through the lens of an iconic abolitionist settlement. In the Light of Dawn shines a spotlight on the Dawn Settlement, a historic abolitionist community in rural Ontario led by Reverend Josiah Henson (the real “Uncle Tom” of Harriet Beecher Stowe’s landmark anti-slavery novel), and reveals how the town’s scope and impact eclipses previously narrow interpretations as a “failed” utopian colony at a terminus of the Underground Railroad.
Invisible boy : a memoir of self-discovery
Author Mooney, Harrison.
A narrative that amplifies a voice rarely heard–that of the child at the centre of a transracial adoption–and a searing account of being raised by religious fundamentalists.
Invisible men : the trailblazing Black artists of comic books
Author Quattro, Ken.
Stories of Black artists who drew — mostly covertly behind the scenes — superhero, horror, and romance comics in the early years of the industry.
Kin : rooted in hope
Author Weatherford, Carole Boston, 1956-
A multi-generational family history told in the voices of the author’s ancestors, spanning enslavement alongside Frederick Douglass at Maryland’s Wye House plantation, service in the U.S. Colored Troops, and the founding of all-Black Reconstruction-era communities.
Little leaders : bold women in black history
Author Harrison, Vashti.
Features female figures of black history, including abolitionist Sojourner Truth, pilot Bessie Coleman, chemist Alice Ball, politician Shirley Chisholm, mathematician Katherine Johnson, poet Maya Angelou, and filmmaker Julie Dash.
Long time coming : reckoning with race in America
Author Dyson, Michael Eric.
From the author of Tears We Cannot Stop, a passionate call to America to finally reckon with race and start the journey to redemption. Long Time Coming grapples with the cultural and social forces that have shaped our nation in the brutal crucible of race. In five beautifully argued chapters-each addressed to a black martyr from Breonna Taylor to Rev. Clementa Pinckney-Dyson traces the genealogy of anti-blackness from the slave ship to the street corner where Floyd lost his life-and where America gained its will to confront the ugly truth of systemic racism.
Madness : race and insanity in a Jim Crow asylum
Author Hylton, Antonia.
Peabody and Emmy award-winning journalist Antonia Hylton tells the 93-year-old history of Crownsville Hospital, one of the last segregated asylums with surviving records and a campus that still stands to this day in Anne Arundel County, Maryland. She blends the intimate tales of patients and employees whose lives were shaped by Crownsville with a decade-worth of investigative research and archival documents. Madness chronicles the stories of Black families whose mental health suffered as they tried, and sometimes failed, to find safety and dignity. Hylton also grapples with her own family’s experiences with mental illness, and the secrecy and shame that it reproduced for generations.
The Autobiography of Malcolm X
Author X, Malcolm, 1925-1965
Malcolm X–once called the most dangerous man in America–challenged the world to listen and learn the truth as he experienced it. And his enduring message is as relevant today as when he first delivered it.
Maverick : a biography of Thomas Sowell
Author Riley, Jason L., 1971-
In Maverick, Jason Riley explores the life and ideas of Thomas Sowell, one of America’s most influential and trenchant Black social critics and conservative intellectuals alive today. Riley offers an introduction to Sowell’s ideas, from race and inequality to politics, economics, and education. Riley considers Sowell’s own history alongside the moments and movements that shaped his thinking.
Meet Viola Desmond
Author MacLeod, Elizabeth.
Meet Viola Desmond, community leader and early civil rights trailblazer! On the night of November 8th 1946, Nova Scotia businesswoman Viola Desmond stood up for her right to be in the “unofficial” whites-only section of a New Glasgow movie theatre… and was arrested for it. Supported by the Nova Scotia Association for the Advancement of Coloured People (NSCAACP) and the black-owned newspaper The Clarion, Viola took her quest for the right to freedom from discrimination to the courts.
Misbehaving at the crossroads : essays & writings
Author Jeffers, Honorée Fanonne
Honorée Fanonne Jeffers is at a crossroads. Traditional African/Black American cultures present the crossroads as a place of simultaneous difficulty and possibility. In contemporary times, Kimberlé Crenshaw coined the phrase “intersectionality” to explain the unique position of Black women in America. In many ways, they are at a third crossroads: attempting to fit into notions of femininity and respectability primarily assigned to White women, while inventing improvisational strategies to combat oppression.
My life, my love, my legacy
Author King, Coretta Scott, 1927-2006.
The life story of Coretta Scott King–wife of Martin Luther King Jr., founder of the King Center for Nonviolent Social Change, and singular twentieth-century American civil rights activist–as told fully for the first time, toward the end of her life, to one of her closest friends.
Native son
Author Wright, Richard, 1908-1960.
Right from the start, Bigger Thomas had been headed for jail. Set in Chicago in the 1930s, Wright’s powerful novel is an unsparing reflection of the poverty and feelings of hopelessness experienced by people in inner cities across the country and of what it means to be black in America.
Naturally woman : the search for self in Black Canadian women’s literature
Author Beckford, Sharon Morgan.
Examines the ways in which Black immigrant women must adapt to survive in a multicultural country such as Canada without losing their sense of self.
New daughters of Africa
An international anthology of writing by women of African descent
Notes of a native son
Author Baldwin, James, 1924-
In his debut nonfiction book, Baldwin explores deep and personal themes, especially focusing on race, identity, and the Black experience in both America and Europe.
Oscar Charleston : the life and legend of baseball’s greatest forgotten player
Author Beer, Jeremy.
Buck O’Neil once described him as “Ty Cobb, Babe Ruth, and Tris Speaker rolled into one.” Among experts he is regarded as the best player in Negro Leagues history. During his prime he became a legend in Cuba and one of black America’s most popular figures. Yet even among serious sports fans, Oscar Charleston is virtually unknown today. Oscar Charleston introduces readers to one of America’s greatest and most fascinating athletes.
Out of the sun : on art, race, and history
Author Edugyan, Esi.
History is a construction. What happens when we begin to consider stories at the margins, when we grant them centrality? How does that complicate our certainties about who we are, as individuals, as nations, as human beings? Through the lens of visual art, literature, film, and the author’s lived experience, Out of the Sun examines the depiction of Black histories in art, offering new perspectives to challenge the accepted narrative.
Policing Black lives : state violence in Canada from slavery to the present
Author Maynard, Robyn, 1987-
Policing Black Bodies is a timely and much-needed exposure of historical and contemporary practices of state-sanctioned violence against Black lives in Canada. This groundbreaking work dispels many prevailing myths that cast Canada as a land of benevolence and racial equality, and uncovers long-standing state practices that have restricted Black freedom.
Read until you understand : the profound wisdom of Black life and literature
Author Griffin, Farah Jasmine.
Farah Jasmine Griffin’s beloved father died when she was nine, bequeathing her an unparalleled inheritance in closets full of remarkable books and other records of Black genius. In Read Until You understand-a line from a note he wrote to her-she shares a lifetime of discoveries: the ideas that framed the United States Constitution and that inspired Malcolm X’s fervent speeches, the soulful music of Marvin Gaye and Stevie Wonder, the daring literature of Phillis Wheatley and Toni Morrison, the artistry of Romare Bearden, and many others.
Representing black music culture : then, now, and when again?
Author Banfield, William C., 1961-
In this collection of essays, interviews, and profiles, William Banfield reflects on his life as a musician and educator, as he weaves together pieces of cultural criticism and artistry, all the while paying homage to Black music of the last 40 years and beyond.
Revival : an anthology of Black Canadian writing
Drawing on fiction, poetry, and memoir, this anthology brings together an impressively varied selection of outstanding work by both well-known writers and new voices.
Richard Wright : from Black boy to world citizen
Author Wallach, Jennifer Jensen, 1974-
Born into poverty, Richard Wright managed to complete only an eighth-grade education. Yet by at the age of 33, he was the best-selling author of what would become an American classic, Native Son. Before dying prematurely at the age of fifty-two, he published nearly a dozen books and left behind hundreds of unpublished manuscript pages. This biography traces Wright’s life, while he attempted to answer the question, “How can I live freely?”
Running while Black : finding freedom in a sport that wasn’t built for us
Author Désir, Alison Mariella.
A searing exposé on the whiteness of running, a supposedly egalitarian sport, and a call to reimagine the industry “Runners know that running brings us to ourselves. But for Black people, the simple act of running has never been so simple. It is a declaration of the right to move through the world. If running is claiming public space, why, then, does it feel like a negotiation?”
Saga boy : my life of blackness and becoming
Author Downing, Antonio Michael, 1975-
A deeply personal account of a young immigrant’s search for belonging and black identity amid the long-lasting effects of cultural dislocation.
Sure, I’ll be your Black friend : notes from the other side of the fist bump
Author Philippe, Ben.
In this memoir-in-essays, the author chronicles a lifetime of being the Black friend (see also: foreign kid, boyfriend, coworker, student, teacher, roommate, enemy) in predominantly white spaces.
The Black history book
Bringing together accounts of the most significant ideas and milestones in Black history and culture, this important and thought-provoking book offers a bold and accessible overview of the history of the African continent and its peoples.
The Emmett Till case
Author Pottier, Jean-Marie.
At the end of August 1955, the lifeless and disfigured body of a teenager was fished out of the Tallahatchie River in Mississippi. The body was that of Emmett Till, a fourteen-year-old Black boy from Chicago who had come to spend the vacations with his mother’s family. Seventy years later, the Till case has become a milestone in American civil rights history. But the criminal case is still not entirely solved as new elements continue to emerge. The Till case will weigh heavily on American history for many years to come.
The fire next time
Author Baldwin, James, 1924-1987.
At once a powerful evocation of James Baldwin’s early life in Harlem and a disturbing examination of the consequences of racial injustice, the book is an intensely personal and provocative document from the iconic author.
The fire this time : a new generation speaks about race
Author Ward, Jesmyn
National Book Award-winner Jesmyn Ward takes James Baldwin’s 1963 examination of race in America, The Fire Next Time, as a jumping off point for this groundbreaking collection of essays and poems about race from the most important voices of her generation and our time.
The first Black boxing champions : essays on fighters of the 1800s to the 1920s
This volume presents fifteen chapters of biography of African American and black champions and challengers of the early prize ring.
The hanging of Angélique : the untold story of Canadian slavery and the burning of old Montréal
Author Cooper, Afua.
Writer, historian and poet Afua Cooper tells the astonishing story of Marie-Joseph Angélique, a slave woman convicted of starting a fire that destroyed a large part of Montréal in April 1734 and condemned to die a brutal death. In a powerful retelling of Angélique’s story — now supported by archival illustrations — Cooper builds on 15 years of research to shed new light on a rebellious Portuguese-born black woman who refused to accept her indentured servitude.
The kids book of Black history in Canada
Author Sadlier, Rosemary.
This updated edition of Rosemary Sadlier’s bestselling and award-winning The Kids Book of Black Canadian History has been reimagined for a new generation of young readers and includes topics from Canada’s legacy of slavery to global impacts of the Black Lives Matter movement. A celebration of the incredible history, achievements and contributions of Black people and communities in Canada, this essential book is necessary reading for all Canadians.
The message
Author Coates, Ta-Nehisi.
Ta-Nehisi Coates originally set out to write a book about writing, in the tradition of Orwell’s classic “Politics and the English Language,” but found himself grappling with deeper questions about how our stories–our reporting and imaginative narratives and mythmaking–expose and distort our realities.
The power of her pen : the story of groundbreaking journalist Ethel L. Payne
Author Cline-Ransome, Lesa.
Seeking truth, justice, and equality, Ethel followed stories from her school newspaper in Chicago to Japan during World War II. It even led her to the White House briefing room, where she broke barriers as the only black female journalist. Ethel wasn’t afraid to ask the tough questions of presidents, elected officials, or anyone else in charge, earning her the title, First Lady of the Black Press. Fearless and determined, Ethel Payne shined a light on the darkest moments in history, and her ear for stories sought answers to the questions that mattered most in the fight for Civil Rights.
The swans of Harlem : five Black ballerinas, fifty years of sisterhood, and their reclamation of their groundbreaking history
Author Valby, Karen.
The forgotten story of a pioneering group of five Black ballerinas, the first principals in the Dance Theatre of Harlem, who traveled the world as highly celebrated stars in their field and whose legacy was erased from history until now.
The Trayvon generation
Author Alexander, Elizabeth, 1962-
In the midst of civil unrest in the summer of 2020 following the murders of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and Ahmaud Arbery, one of the great literary voices of our time, Elizabeth Alexander, wrote a moving reflection on the psyche of young Black America, turning a mother’s eye to her sons’ generation. Originally published in the New Yorker, the essay brilliantly and lovingly observed the lives and attitudes of young people who even as children could never be shielded from the brutality that has ended so many Black boys and men’s lives.
The underground railroad : next stop, Toronto!
Author Shadd, Adrienne L. (Adrienne Lynn), 1954-
Adrienne Shadd, Afua Cooper and Karolyn Smardz Frost offer many helpful points of entry for readers learning for the first time about Black history in Canada.
They call me George : the untold story of black train porters and the birth of modern Canada
Author Foster, Cecil, 1954-, author.
A historical work of non-fiction that chronicles the little-known stories of black railway porters-the so-called “Pullmen” of the Canadian rail lines. The actions and spirit of these men helped define Canada as a nation in surprising ways, effecting race relations, human rights, North American multiculturalism, community building, the shape and structure of unions, and the nature of travel and business across the US and Canada. Drawing on the stories and legends of several of these influential early black Canadians, this book narrates the history of a very visible, but rarely considered, aspect of black life in railway-age Canada. These porters, who fought against the idea of Canada as White Man’s Country, open only to immigrants from Europe, fought for and won a Canada that would provide opportunities for all its citizens.
They can’t kill us all : Ferguson, Baltimore, and a new era in America’s racial justice movement
Author Lowery, Wesley.
A deeply reported book that brings alive the quest for justice in the deaths of Michael Brown, Tamir Rice, and Freddie Gray, offering both unparalleled insight into the reality of police violence in America and an intimate, moving portrait of those working to end it.
This is the honey : an anthology of contemporary Black poets
A breathtaking poetry collection on hope, heart, and heritage from the most prominent and promising Black poets and writers of our time.
Timelines from Black history : leaders, legends, legacies
Amazing visual timelines take readers through the people and the issues that have shaped Black history. Erased. Ignored. Hidden. Lost. Underappreciated. No longer. Delve into the unique, inspiring, and world-changing history of Black people.
To tell the truth freely : the life of Ida B. Wells
Author Bay, Mia.
The life of Ida B. Wells and her enduring achievements are dramatically recovered in Mia Bay’s To Tell the Truth Freely.
Trailblazers : the Black pioneers who have shaped Canada
Author Ridley-Padmore, Tiyahna.
An introduction to Canada’s Black history. Recommended for young readers.
True : the four seasons of Jackie Robinson
Author Kennedy, Kostya.
A probing, richly-detailed, unique biography of Jackie Robinson, one of baseball’s-and America’s-most significant figures. These four crucial years offer a unique vision of Robinson as a player, a father and husband, and a civil rights hero-a new window on a complex man.
Twisted : the tangled history of black hair culture
Author Dabiri, Emma.
Despite increasingly liberal world views, black hair continues to be erased, appropriated, and stigmatized to the point of taboo. Through her personal and historical journey, Dabiri gleans insights into the way racism is coded in society’s perception of black hair–and how it is often used as an avenue for discrimination.
Uncomfortable conversations with a Black boy
Author Acho, Emmanuel.
A young reader’s edition of Emmanuel Acho’s Uncomfortable Conversations with a Black Man, aimed at opening a dialogue and mending the racial divide in America amongst our youngest generation.
Unfollow me : essays on complicity
Author Busby, Jill Louise.
A cultural commentator presents this memoir-in-essays in which she provides a deeply personal, razor-sharp critique of white fragility, respectability politics, and all the places where fear masquerades as progress.
Viola Desmond won’t be budged!
Author Warner, Jody Nyasha, 1969-
In Nova Scotia, in 1946, an usher in a movie theatre told Viola Desmond to move from her main floor seat up to the balcony. She refused to budge.
We refuse : a forceful history of Black resistance
Author Jackson, Kellie Carter.
Black resistance to white supremacy is often reduced to a simple binary, between Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s nonviolence and Malcolm X’s “by any means necessary.” In We Refuse, historian Kellie Carter Jackson urges us to move past this false choice, offering an unflinching examination of the breadth of Black responses to white oppression, particularly those pioneered by Black women.
Well-read black girl : finding our stories, discovering ourselves : an anthology
An inspiring collection of essays by black women writers, curated by the founder of the popular book club Well-Read Black Girl, on the importance of recognizing ourselves in literature.
What doesn’t kill you makes you blacker : a memoir in essays
Author Young, Damon, 1978-
A provocative and humorous memoir-in-essays that explores the direct impact of racism, the shifting definition of black male identity, and the ongoing realities of white supremacy.
Where beauty survived : an Africadian memoir
Author Clarke, George Elliott.
A vibrant, revealing memoir about the cultural and familial pressures that shaped George Elliott Clarke’s early life in the Black Canadian community.
Whose Detroit? : politics, labor, and race in a modern American city
Author Thompson, Heather Ann, 1963-
Heather Ann Thompson focuses in detail on the struggles of Motor City residents during the 1960s and early 1970s and finds that conflict continued to plague the inner city and its workplaces even after Great Society liberals committed themselves to improving conditions.
Why I’m no longer talking to white people about race
Author Eddo-Lodge, Reni.
In 2014, journalist Reni Eddo-Lodge wrote on her blog about her frustration with the way that discussions of race and racism in Britain were being led by those who weren’t affected by it. Her words hit a nerve. The post went viral and comments flooded in from others desperate to speak up about their own experiences. Galvanised, she decided to dig into the source of these feelings. Exploring issues from eradicated black history to the inextricable link between class and race, Reni Eddo-Lodge has written a searing, illuminating, absolutely necessary examination of what it is to be a person of color in Britain today.
You can’t touch my hair : and other things I still have to explain
Author Robinson, Phoebe.
A hilarious and timely essay collection about race, gender, and pop culture from upcoming comedy superstar and 2 Dope Queens podcaster Phoebe Robinson. Being a black woman in America means contending with old prejudices and fresh absurdities every day.
The hate u give
Author Thomas, Angie.
After witnessing her friend’s death at the hands of a police officer, Starr Carter’s life is complicated when the police and a local drug lord try to intimidate her in an effort to learn what happened the night Kahlil died.