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February is Black History Month and our in-Library Spotlight display recognizes, celebrates, and honors the lives of Black Americans. From biographies to graphic novels, these titles provide invaluable reading—no matter the month.
Biography
- I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou
- The Autobiography of Malcolm X by Malcolm X
- My Life with Martin Luther King, Jr. by Coretta Scott King
- Frederick Douglass: Prophet of Freedom by David W. Blight
- Becoming by Michelle Obama
- The Audacity of Hope by Barack Obama
- Mom & Me & Mom by Maya Angelou
- Negroland by Margo Jefferson
- Air Traffic: a Memoir of Ambition and Manhood in America by Gregory Pardlo
- Invisible: the Forgotten Story of the Black Woman Lawyer Who Took Down America's Most Powerful Mobster by Stephen L Carter
- Mighty Justice: My Life in Civil Rights by Dovey Johnson Roundtree
- The World According to Fannie Davis: My Mother's Life in the Detroit Numbers by Bridget R Davis
- This is What America Looks Like: My Journey From Refugee to Congresswoman by Ilhan Omar
Non-fiction
- Defining Moments in Black History: Reading Between the Lies by Dick Gregory
- The African American Experience: Black History and Culture Through Speeches, Letters, Editorials, Poems, Songs, and Stories edited by Kai Wright
- Smoketown: the Untold Story of the Other Great Black Renaissance by Mark Whitaker
- And Still I Rise: Black America Since MLK: an Illustrated Chronology by Henry Louis Gates, Jr., and Kevin M. Burke
- The Black History of the White House by Clarence Lusane
- The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness by Michelle Alexander
- So You Want to Talk About Race by Ijeoma Oluo
- We Gon' Be Alright: Notes on Race and Resegregation by Jeff Chang
- Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates
- They Can't Kill Us All: Ferguson, Baltimore, and a New Era in America's Racial Justice Movement by Wesley Lowery
- Citizen: an American Lyric by Claudia Rankine
- In Full Flight: a Story of Africa and Atonement by John Heminway
- We Should All Be Feminists by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
- Conversations in Black: on Power, Politics, and Leadership by Ed Gordon
- Five Days by Wes Moore
- Caste by Isabel Wilkerson
Adult Fiction
- Kindred by Octavia Butler
- Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison
- Difficult Women by Roxanne Gay
- Washington Black by Esi Edugyan
- Friday Black by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah
- Whatever Happened to Interracial Love? By Kathleen Collins
- Deacon King Kong by James McBride
- Better Late Than Never by Kimberla Lawson Roby
- Devil in a Blue Dress by Walter Mosley
- How Long 'Til Black Future Month? By N.K. Jemisin
- Binti: The Complete Trilogy by Nnedi Okorafor
- Red at the Bone by Jacqueline Woodson
- An American Marriage by Tayari Jones
- No One is Coming to Save Us by Stephanie Powell Watts
- In West Mills by De'Shawn Charles Winslow
Award Winners
- The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead
- Another Brooklyn by Jacqueline Woodson
- The Good Lord Bird by James McBride
- Salvage the Bones by Jesmyn Ward
- Beloved by Toni Morrison
- Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison
- The Firebrand and the First Lady: Portrait of a Friendship: Pauli Murray, Eleanor Roosevelt, and the Struggle for Social Justice by Patricia Bell-Scott
- The Known World by Edward P. Jones
- Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
- We Were Eight Years in Power: an American Tragedy by Ta-Nehisi Coates
- Girl, Woman, Other by Bernardine Evaristo
- Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe
- Such a Fun Age by Kiley Reid
Female Authors
- The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison
- An American Marriage by Tayari Jones
- The Wedding Date by Jasmine Guillory
- An Extraordinary Union by Alyssa Cole
- Who Fears Death by Nnedi Okorafor
- Hunger: a Memoir of (My) Body by Roxane Gay
- Dawn by Octavia Butler
- Such a Fun Age by Kiley Reid
- I Almost Forgot About You by Terry McMillan
- Red at the Bone by Jacqueline Woodson
- What is Not Yours is Not Yours by Helen Oyeyemi
- Grand Union by Zadie Smith
- What We Lose by Zinzi Clemmons
- Taking the Arrow Out of the Heart: Poems by Alice Walker
- Well-Read Black Girl: Finding our Stories, Discovering Ourselves edited by Glory Edim
Graphic Novels
- March: Book One by John Lewis
- Abbott by Saladin Ahmed
- Invincible Iron Man: Ironheart Riri Williams by Brian Michael Bendis
- Your Black Friend by Ben Passmore
- Black Panther: World of Wakanda by Roxanne Gay
- Star Wars. Lando by Charles Soule
- Shuri. 1, The Search for Black Panther by Nnedi Okorafor
- Miles Morales. Vol. 1, Straight out of Brooklyn by Saladin Ahmed
- Monk! : Thelonious, Pannonica, and the Friendship Behind a Musical Revolution by Youssef Daoudi
- Josephine Baker by Jose-Louis Bocquet
- Fire!!: The Zora Neale Hurston Story by Peter Bagge
- Black Panther: A Nation Under Our Feet by Ta-Nehisi Coates
- Incognegro: a Graphic Mystery by Mat Johnson
Youth Titles
- Black is a Rainbow Color by Angela Joy
- Young, Gifted and Black: Meet 52 Black Heroes from Past and Present by Jamia Wilson
- A Ride to Remember: A Civil Rights Story by Sharon Langley and Amy Nathan
- A Voice Named Aretha by Katheryn Russell-Brown
- Above the Rim: How Elgin Baylor Changed Basketball by Jen Bryant
- Dark Was the Night: Blind Willie Johnson's Journey to the Stars by Gary Golio
- Dream Builder: The Story of Architect Philip Freelon by Kelly Starling Lyons
- Flying Free: How Bessie Coleman's Dreams Took Flight by Karyn Parsons Parsons, Karyn
- She Was the First!: The Trailblazing Life of Shirley Chisholm by Katheryn Russell-Brown
- The Unstoppable Garrett Morgan : Inventor, Entrepreneur, Hero by Joan DiCiccio
- The ABCs of Black History by Rio Cortez
- Ruby Bridges: This is Your Time by Ruby Bridges
- Let's Clap, Jump, Sing & Shout; Dance, Spin & Turn it Out! Game, Songs, & Stories from African American Childhood by Patricia McKissack
- A Girl Like Me by Angela Johnson
- All Because You Matter by Tami Charles
- I am Every Good Thing by Derrick Barnes
Teen Titles
- Black Enough edited by Ibi Zoboi
- Finding Yvonne by Brandy Colbert
- Children of Blood and Bone by Tomi Adeyemi
- Dread Nation by Justina Ireland
- All Boys Aren’t Blue by George Johnson
- The Boy in the Black Suit by Jason Reynolds
- Punching the Air by Ibi Zoboi and Yusef Salaam
- The Black Kids by Christina Hammonds Reed
- Slay by Brittney Morris
- Stamped: racism, antiracism, and you by Jason Reynolds and Ibram X. Kendi