The Best African American History Books 2025

1. The Souls of Black Folk (Dover Thrift Editions)

This landmark in the literature of black protest eloquently affirms that it is beneath the dignity of a human being to beg for those rights that belong inherently to all mankind.

This landmark book is a founding work in the literature of black protest. W. E. B. Du Bois (1868–1963) played a key role in developing the strategy and program that dominated early 20th-century black protest in America. In this collection of essays, first published together in 1903, he eloquently affirms that it is beneath the dignity of a human being to beg for those rights that belong inherently to all mankind. He also charges that the strategy of accommodation to white supremacy advanced by Booker T. Washington, then the most influential black leader in America, would only serve to perpetuate black oppression. Publication of The Souls of Black Folk was a dramatic event that helped to polarize black leaders into two groups: the more conservative followers of Washington and the more radical supporters of aggressive protest. Its influence cannot be overstated. It is essential reading for everyone interested in African-American history and the struggle for civil rights in America.

2. The Divine Nine

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National Bestseller! America’s black fraternities and sororities are a unique and vital part of 20th century African American history, providing young black achievers with opportunities to support each other while they serve their communities and the nation. From pioneering work in the suffragette movement to extraordinary strides during the Civil Rights era to life-changing inner-city mentoring programs in the 1990s, members of these organizations share a proud and vital history of brotherhood, sisterhood, and service. Today, America’s nine black fraternities and sororities are almost three million members strong with chapters at major universities and colleges, including Stanford University, Howard University, and University of Chicago. This revised and updated edition includes details highlighting the Centennial celebrations for both Alpha Phi Alpa and Alpha Kappa Alpha; updated photographs; new statistics; celebrity interviews, a new foreword, and much more. Includes Interviews With Famous Members Of The Divine Nine— From John H. Johnson and Dr. Gwendolyn Goldsby-Grant to Star Jones and Shaquille O’Neal Plus Inspiring Profiles Of Other Famous Members— From Langston Hughes and Ella Fitzgerald to Toni Morrison and Colin Powell Fully Illustrated With Fascinating Photographs!

3. African American: The Mis-Education of the Negro (Paperback)

In 1933, American historian and educator Carter Woodson (1875-1950) delivered a powerful and prophetic denouncement of "Euro-centric"school curricula that still rings true. Woodson inspired black Americans to demand relevant learning opportunities that were inclusive of their own culture and heritage. In issuing this challenge, Woodson laid the foundation for more progressive and egalitarian educational institutions. The thoughts Woodson expressed in addresses and articles formed the basis for this work, described by The New York Times as a challenging book that "throws down the gauntlet to those who have had anything to do with Negro education, whether of white or black race." The founder of the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History, Woodson was also the author of more than sixteen books and the founder and editor of the Journal of Negro History and the Negro History Bulletin. This landmark work remains essential reading for educators and everyone who seeks to understand the African-American experience.

In 1933, American historian and educator Carter Woodson (1875-1950) delivered a powerful and prophetic denouncement of "Euro-centric"school curricula that still rings true. Woodson inspired black Americans to demand relevant learning opportunities that were inclusive of their own culture and heritage. In issuing this challenge, Woodson laid the foundation for more progressive and egalitarian educational institutions. The thoughts Woodson expressed in addresses and articles formed the basis for this work, described by The New York Times as a challenging book that "throws down the gauntlet to those who have had anything to do with Negro education, whether of white or black race." The founder of the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History, Woodson was also the author of more than sixteen books and the founder and editor of the Journal of Negro History and the Negro History Bulletin. This landmark work remains essential reading for educators and everyone who seeks to understand the African-American experience.

4. Silver Rights (Hardcover)

In the face of adversity on the front lines of the civil rights struggle, the Carter family sent seven of their children to the formerly all-white schools in Drew, Mississippi, in 1965. "This deeply moving book chronicles . . . the lives of sharcroppers, their extraordinary grit, courage and endurance".--Marian Wright Edelman. Photos. With an introduction by Marian Wright Edelman. This is a true story from the front lines of the civil rights struggle--the story of the Carter family of Sunflower County, Mississippi. African-American sharecroppers and the parents of thirteen children, Mae Bertha and Matthew Carter accepted their school district's 1965 "Freedom of Choice" offer at its face value and enrolled their seven school-age children in the formerly all-white schools of tiny Drew, Mississippi. SILVER RIGHTS tells what happened to them next. As noted civil rights activist and Children's Defense Fund president, Marian Wright Edelman says in her introduction, "This deeply moving book chronicles the pain and poverty in the lives of sharecroppers, their extraordinary grit, courage, and endurance." "We should be grateful to and inspired by the lives of the Carter family."--Booklist; "A book teeming with loud voices and heat and faith, and backbreaking work and timeless courage and honor."--Melissa Fay Greene, author of PRAYING FOR SHEETROCK. A LITERARY GUILD SELECTION.

With an introduction by Marian Wright Edelman. This is a true story from the front lines of the civil rights struggle--the story of the Carter family of Sunflower County, Mississippi. African-American sharecroppers and the parents of thirteen children, Mae Bertha and Matthew Carter accepted their school district's 1965 "Freedom of Choice" offer at its face value and enrolled their seven school-age children in the formerly all-white schools of tiny Drew, Mississippi. SILVER RIGHTS tells what happened to them next. As noted civil rights activist and Children's Defense Fund president, Marian Wright Edelman says in her introduction, "This deeply moving book chronicles the pain and poverty in the lives of sharecroppers, their extraordinary grit, courage, and endurance." "We should be grateful to and inspired by the lives of the Carter family."--Booklist; "A book teeming with loud voices and heat and faith, and backbreaking work and timeless courage and honor."--Melissa Fay Greene, author of PRAYING FOR SHEETROCK. A LITERARY GUILD SELECTION.

5. The Slave Ship: A Human History, (Paperback)

\"Masterly.\"--Adam Hochschild, The New York Times Book Review In this widely praised history of an infamous institution, award-winning scholar Marcus Rediker shines a light into the darkest corners of the British and American slave ships of the eighteenth century. Drawing on thirty years of research in maritime archives, court records, diaries, and firsthand accounts, The Slave Ship is riveting and sobering in its revelations, reconstructing in chilling detail a world nearly lost to history: the \"floating dungeons\" at the forefront of the birth of African American culture.

The Slave Ship: A Human History, (Paperback) Author: Penguin Books ISBN: 9780143114253 Format: Paperback Publication Date: 2008-10-01 Page Count: 448

6. Buried in the Bitter Waters : The Hidden History of Racial Cleansing in America (Paperback)

"Leave now, or die!" Those words-or ones just as ominous-have echoed through the past hundred years of American history, heralding a very unnatural disaster-a wave of racial cleansing that wiped out or drove away black populations from counties across the nation. While we have long known about horrific episodes of lynching in the South, this story of racial cleansing has remained almost entirely unknown. These expulsions, always swift and often violent, were extraordinarily widespread in the period between Reconstruction and the Depression era. In the heart of the Midwest and the Deep South, whites rose up in rage, fear, and resentment to lash out at local blacks. They burned and killed indiscriminately, sweeping entire counties clear of blacks to make them racially "pure." Many of these counties remain virtually all-white to this day. In Buried in the Bitter Waters, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Elliot Jaspin exposes a deeply shameful chapter in the nation's history-and one that continues to shape the geography of race in America.

"Leave now, or die!" Those words-or ones just as ominous-have echoed through the past hundred years of American history, heralding a very unnatural disaster-a wave of racial cleansing that wiped out or drove away black populations from counties across the nation. While we have long known about horrific episodes of lynching in the South, this story of racial cleansing has remained almost entirely unknown. These expulsions, always swift and often violent, were extraordinarily widespread in the period between Reconstruction and the Depression era. In the heart of the Midwest and the Deep South, whites rose up in rage, fear, and resentment to lash out at local blacks. They burned and killed indiscriminately, sweeping entire counties clear of blacks to make them racially "pure." Many of these counties remain virtually all-white to this day. In Buried in the Bitter Waters, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Elliot Jaspin exposes a deeply shameful chapter in the nation's history-and one that continues to shape the geography of race in America.

7. Dover Thrift Editions: Black History: The Life of Olaudah Equiano (Paperback)

The journey of an Igbo prince from captivity to freedom and literacy; his enslavement in the New World, service in the Seven Years War, voyages to the Arctic, other adventures.

Slave narratives are powerful indictments of the horrors of slavery and oppression, invaluable not only for the stories they tell but also for the consistently high quality of their literary style. This book by Olaudah Equiano is one such story. A compelling account that has gripped and fascinated readers since its original London publication in 1789, the narrative describes Equiano's formidable journey from captivity to freedom and literacy. Charting a passage that takes him from life as an Igbo prince in what is now eastern Nigeria to the New World, Equiano begins with a description of his native land that includes particulars of the dress, agriculture, industry, commerce, rituals, superstitions, and religious ceremonies of his country. In stark and poignant detail he gives a compelling account of his kidnapping and his ordeal aboard the slave ship, his service in the French and Indian wars, as well as many other of his vicissitudes and adventures until he finally settles in England, where he becomes a key figure in the British abolitionist movement. Skillfully written with a wealth of grossing detail, this volume powerfully illustrates the nature of the black experience in slavery, making it essential reading for students of African-American history and anyone interested in the struggle for equal rights and human dignity.

8. Letters to President Obama : Americans Share Their Hopes and Dreams with the First African-American President (Hardcover)

This collection, which will total between 300 and 500 letters from Americans of all walks of life, will become an important piece of history as it describes the variety of feelings and emotions of Americans about the election of Barack Obama as President of the United States. Central to the book is the African-American experience and the long road from slavery to the civil rights era to the twenty-first century, but Americans of every race, color, gender, and age will be represented. From children and seniors, from cities and farms, all we have something to say and much to share about how Barack Obama's election was special to them.

This collection, which will total between 300 and 500 letters from Americans of all walks of life, will become an important piece of history as it describes the variety of feelings and emotions of Americans about the election of Barack Obama as President of the United States. Central to the book is the African-American experience and the long road from slavery to the civil rights era to the twenty-first century, but Americans of every race, color, gender, and age will be represented. From children and seniors, from cities and farms, all we have something to say and much to share about how Barack Obama’s election was special to them.

9. An American Beach for African Americans, (Paperback)

\"I am excited by this book. It is a great addition to the woefully scant scholarly materials that deal with the African American contribution to Florida history and culture. . . . Original and significant.\"--Patricia Waterman, University of South Florida \"The most detailed study that has been done on the history of American Beach. . . . A work of quality . . . very much welcomed.\"--Isiah J. Williams III, publisher and editor, Jacksonville Advocate In the only complete history of Florida's American Beach to date, Marsha Dean Phelts draws together personal interviews, photos, newspaper articles, memoirs, maps, and official documents to reconstruct the character and traditions of Amelia Island's 200-acre African American community. In its heyday, when other beaches grudgingly provided only limited access, black vacationers traveled as many as 1,000 miles down the east coast of the United States and hundreds of miles along the Gulf coast to a beachfront that welcomed their business. Beginning in 1781 with the Samuel Harrison homestead on the southern end of Amelia Island, Phelts traces the birth of the community to General Sherman's Special Field Order No. 15, in which the Union granted many former Confederate coastal holdings, including Harrison's property, to former slaves. She then follows the lineage of the first African American families known to have settled in the area to descendants remaining there today, including those of Zephaniah Kingsley and his wife, Anna Jai. Moving through the Jim Crow era, Phelts describes the development of American Beach's predecessors in the early 1900s. Finally, she provides the fullest account to date of the life and contributions of Abraham Lincoln Lewis, the wealthy African American businessman who in 1935, as president of the Afro-American Life Insurance Company, initiated the purchase and development of the tract of seashore known as American Beach. From Lewis's arrival on the scene, Phelts follows the community's sustained development and growth, highlighting landmarks like the Ocean-Vu-Inn and the Blue Palace and concluding with a stirring plea for the preservation of American Beach, which is currently threatened by encroaching development. In a narrative full of firsthand accounts and \"old-timer\" stories, Phelts, who has vacationed at American Beach since she was four and now lives there, frequently adopts the style of an oral historian to paint what is ultimately a personal and intimate portrait of a community rich in heritage and culture.

An American Beach for African Americans, (Paperback) Author: University Press of Florida ISBN: 9780813035086 Format: Paperback Publication Date: 2010-05-25 Page Count: 202

10. African American Experience: Black History and Culture Through Speeches, Letters, Editorials, Poems, Songs, and Stories, (Paperback)

This wide-ranging archive, capturing more than four centuries of African American history and culture in one essential volume, is at once poignant, painful, celebratory, and inspiring. The African American Experience is a one-of-a-kind and absolutely riveting collection of more than 300 letters, speeches, articles, petitions, poems, songs, and works of fiction tracing the course of black history in America from the first slaves brought over in the 16th century to the events of the present day. All aspects of African American history and daily life are represented here, from the days of abolition and the Civil War to the Civil Rights movement and the current times. Organized chronologically, here are writings from the great political leaders including Frederick Douglass, Martin Luther King, Jr., Malcolm X, Jesse Jackson, and Barack Obama; literary giants including Langston Hughes, Gwendolyn Brooks, Toni Morrison, Alice Walker, James Baldwin, and bell hooks; scholars such as Cornel West and Henry Louis Gates, Jr.; artists including Miles Davis, Billie Holiday, Wynton Marsalis, Run-DMC, the Sugar Hill Gang, and Chuck Berry; athletes such as Muhammad Ali and Jackie Robinson; and many more. A new introduction by Kai Wright provides overall context, and introductory material for each document delineates its significance and role in history. This edition features all new and updated material.

African American Experience: Black History and Culture Through Speeches, Letters, Editorials, Poems, Songs, and Stories, (Paperback) Author: Black Dog & Leventhal Publishers ISBN: 9781579127732 Format: Paperback Publication Date: 2009-01-01 Page Count: 736