11 Books by Black Authors You Should Read in College

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Published on February iv, 2021 · Updated on November 18, 2021

11 Books by Black Authors You Should Read in College

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Black History Month holds special significance in the United States. It's an annual celebration in the month of February that honors the historic, artistic, intellectual, and cultural achievements made by African Americans.

The monthlong observance was first conceived by Black kinesthesia and the Black United Students group at Kent State University in February 1969. Six years later, Black History Month became a national celebration, and many educational institutions and community centers hold commemorative events to recognize the momentous achievements of Black Americans.

This year's Black History Month takes on a unique significance and calls for a continued understanding of not merely the personal and professional accomplishments of Black Americans, just too an acquittance of their ongoing strife and arduousness.

Black History Month is a not bad opportunity to learn about the contributions of Black Americans and expand your understanding of bug related to equity, diverseness, and inclusion.

As our land celebrates Kamala Harris, the first Black and Indian American vice president, we must as well recognize the incredible amount of piece of work left to do to ensure that Black and dark-brown Americans take access to all social, political, and economic opportunities.

With publicized incidents of police brutality against Black men and women, and connected public displays of racism, Black History Month is a great opportunity to larn about the contributions of Black Americans and aggrandize your understanding of issues related to equity, diverseness, and inclusion.

In that sense, information technology's besides disquisitional to gloat the literary contributions of Black authors. In honour of Blackness History Month this yr, we've compiled a list of 11 notable books by Black authors.

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11 Books by Blackness Authors Higher Students Should Read

The Autobiography of Malcolm Ten

By Malcolm X and Alex Haley

Published in 1965, this autobiography was voted one of Fourth dimension's x most important nonfiction books of the 20th century. Journalist Alex Haley co-authored the book, which is based on a series of in-depth interviews he conducted between 1963 and Malcolm X's 1965 assassination.

This autobiography chronicles the life and contributions of civil rights activist Malcolm X, an African American Muslim minister who advocated for Black economic and political autonomy. In contrast to Martin Luther King Jr.'s strategy of nonviolence and civil defiance, Malcolm X urged Blackness people to engage in self-defence force if met with resistance or opposition.

Malcolm Ten'southward memoir does an boggling chore of articulating the trials and tribulations of Black Americans in the 1960s, while too advocating for Blackness nationalism and supremacy. Haley wrote the book'due south epilogue after Malcolm Ten's death.

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The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness

Past Michelle Alexander

Released in 2010, "The New Jim Crow" was named i of the about influential books of the final twenty years past The Chronicle of Higher Education. In this book, Michelle Alexander — a civil rights abet, legal scholar, and New York Times columnist — effectively debunks the myth that racial discrimination was eradicated with the stop of the civil rights move and the Jim Crow era.

With the 2008 election of Barack Obama and now the ballot of the first Black and Indian American vice president, there's a widely held belief that America is finding itself in a post-racial or colorblind society, in which race no longer impacts ane's chances in life. Alexander argues that the state of war on drugs, likewise as the mass incarceration of primarily low-income African American men, has created a racial caste organization and led to decreased opportunities for social and economical advancement for Black Americans.

This book challenges our conventional thinking about race and sheds low-cal on how institutions continue to disempower Black and brown communities.

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State of war Girls

By Tochi Onyebuchi

Fans of Marvel Studios' activeness-packed movie "Black Panther" will love the 2022 book "State of war Girls." Set in the year 2172 in a world ravaged by climate change and nuclear disaster, this unique tale chronicles the lives of two sisters, Onyii and Ify, who are separated by war. Despite the violence and political unrest that make full their lives, they long for a future of peace and prosperity. Using bionic limbs, artificial organs, and avant-garde technology, the 2 sisters must fight their way dorsum to each other in a futuristic Nigeria.

This book is a great read for immature adults, as it provides them valuable insight about the bear upon of war on children and families. With its wild imagination and inspirational themes of hope and perseverance, "War Girls" is jump to leave every reader satisfied.

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Eloquent Rage: A Blackness Feminist Discovers Her Superpower

By Brittney Cooper

"Eloquent Rage" (2018) is an ode to both Blackness history and women'southward history, highlighting the atypical focus of mod-day feminism and how women of color accept reshaped the mainstream feminist movement. Author Brittney Cooper — who is also a professor, pop culture critic, social activist, and expert on intersectionality — explores how sexism, racism, and classism work together to produce cumulative disadvantages for Blackness women.

The volume provides a vivid and brilliant portrayal of Black womanhood, examining how Blackness women must deal with the racism perpetuated past white society while besides encountering sexism and misogyny. Cooper does a profound job connecting her personal stories to the larger social and political realities of the United States; her ancedotes include experiences with racial discrimination, attending predominantly white schools, and relationships with Black men and women.

"Eloquent Rage" validates the experiences of Black women, while giving other racial groups a comprehensive agreement of the complication of Black womanhood.

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The Water Dancer

By Ta-Nehisi Coates

Written by Ta-Nehisi Coates — who is arguably one of our country's almost talented Black male writers and race and cultural analysts — "The H2o Dancer" (2019) is both a New York Times bestseller and Oprah'due south Book Gild selection. In this poignant debut novel, Coates provides a moving account of the emotional and psychological toll of slavery on families.

The story centers on Hiram Walker, a avoiding slave who possesses a mysterious power that allows him to send people over long distances. Hiram serves every bit an agent in the Underground, an arrangement committed to the eradication of slavery in the United States during the mid-1800s. Hiram attempts to defeat slave owners, rescue slaves, and reunite with his family in this compelling tale that not just highlights the atrocities of enslavement, but too restores the humanity of those who accept been enslaved.

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Becoming

Past Michelle Obama

Michelle Obama is an icon and inspiration to women all around the earth. Having served every bit the first Black adult female in a first lady office, she made the position uniquely her ain. Named the most admired woman in America three years in a row past Gallup, Obama remains a tenacious and strong advocate for women, also as a office model for young girls.

Her 2022 memoir, "Becoming," is an honest and intimate narrative of hope, tragedy, and triumph, from the perspective of a young girl growing up in the South Side of Chicago to that of the nation's outset Black first lady. Obama is more than but a wife and former get-go lady, though — she is the daughter of working-class parents, a graduate of Princeton Academy and Harvard Police School, a lawyer, and a mother.

Her bestselling memoir candidly retells her life story and explores the complexities of maternity, work, and relationships, while giving readers nuggets of wisdom related to finding yourself and your voice.

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An Untamed State

By Roxane Gay

Acclaimed writer and professor Roxane Gay is an expert on topics like Blackness womanhood, LGBTQ+ rights, body image, racial inequality, and sexual violence. Her 2022 debut novel, "An Untamed Land," illuminates women'southward experiences with sexual assault, trauma, and patriarchy, with Gay challenging the "strong Blackness woman" trope past demonstrating the complexities of the relationships betwixt romance, vulnerability, forgiveness, and betrayal.

The book centers on Mireille Duval Jameson, the daughter of a wealthy construction businessman from Haiti, who is kidnapped while visiting family in Port-au-Prince and held for bribe. Her father refuses to provide aid to her, leaving Mireille to endure and fight her way out of continuous assault and torment.

This suspenseful novel leaves readers on edge equally we learn the power and strength of a woman'due south trunk and how much women endure bodily impairment for the misdeeds of men.

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The Hate U Give

By Angie Thomas

Concluding year diameter witness to the continued devaluation of Blackness bodies at the hands of law enforcement in the The states. "The Hate U Requite" (2017) is a immature adult novel, inspired past the police shooting of Oscar Grant and the Black Lives Matter movement.

The story follows Starr Carter, a xvi-year-old Blackness girl from a low-income neighborhood who attends an elite, predominantly white private school in an affluent office of the city. Equally Starr balances her two alien worlds, she becomes the primary and merely witness in the death of her babyhood friend, Khalil, who is shot by a white police officer.

Chronicling the internal and public battle Starr must face up every bit she learns to speak her truth and share her story despite public judgment, "The Hate U Requite" is riveting and suspenseful, and an extraordinary tale of contemporary race relations.

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Born a Crime: Stories From a South African Childhood

by Trevor Noah

In this 2022 autobiography, famed comedian and "The Daily Show" host Trevor Noah details his trials and tribulations of growing up during apartheid in Southward Africa. The son of a white Swiss father and a Blackness South African mother, Noah was built-in at a time when interracial unions were illegal. The volume elucidates Noah's challenging childhood — he spent almost of his early on years in hiding and in fearfulness that at whatsoever moment he could be separated from his family unit.

It's an boggling tale of how Trevor and his mother navigated tyranny, poverty, violence, and abuse, and how they ultimately learned to live openly and embrace new opportunities.

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How to Be an Antiracist

By Ibram X. Kendi

Named one of Time'south well-nigh influential people of 2020, Ibram X. Kendi is a professor, a historian, an antiracist activist, and the author of the New York Times No. 1 bestseller "How to Exist an Antiracist" (2019).

This nonfiction book is one of the most honest and compelling analyses of race and race relations to date. Geared toward those looking beyond understanding racism and social inequality, Kendi's piece of work focuses on cultivating allies and activists who are committed to edifice a only and equitable society.

The premise of "How to Be an Antiracist" is unproblematic: Everyone possesses the capacity to be racist, regardless of their position in society. Through this book, Kendi instructs readers to develop an understanding of what racism is and how information technology has evolved over the years. He as well discusses how in gild to be antiracist, you must be enlightened of your own racism, also as your participation and perpetuation of information technology, and actively promote antiracist policies.

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The Vanishing Half

Past Brit Bennett

Published in 2020, "The Vanishing Half" is a New York Times bestseller and was likewise a Expert Morning America Book Club selection. The novel, which centers on the lives of two calorie-free-skinned Black sisters, does a astounding chore stringing together multiple characters with contrasting experiences.

At 16, identical twins Desiree and Stella run away from habitation. But while Desiree marries a Black human and chooses to maintain her Black identity, Stella elects to live as a white-passing adult female. The book chronicles the sisters' uniquely different lives and the struggles they face equally they navigate and define their identities.

A powerful, moving tale, "The Vanishing Half" highlights the circuitous relationships between identity, race, and learning to encompass your authentic self.

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Feature Paradigm: Andrii Kobryn / Shutterstock

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