Black History Month Booklist: 2025Like this list

25 items

• Black Folk

  the Roots of the Black Working Class

  Kelley, Blair Murphy, 1973-

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  Highlights the history and lived experience of the laundresses, Pullman porters, domestic maids, postal workers, and essential workers who established the Black working class as a force throughout the 19th, 20th and 21st centuries.

• Twice as Hard

  the Stories of Black Women Who Fought to Become Physicians, From the Civil War to the 21st Century

  Brown, Jasmine,

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  Presents the long-erased stories of nine pioneering Black women physicians beginning in 1860, when a black woman first entered medical school, including Dr. Rebecca Lee Crumpler, who provided medical care for newly freed slaves, to Dr.…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• More Than a Dream

  the Radical March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom

  Williams, Yohuru, 1971-

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  Dr. Williams reframes the way we can perceive the 1963 March on Washington. According to him, the march was not a beautiful dream of future integration, but was a mass outcry for jobs and freedom.

• No Right to An Honest Living

  the Struggles of Boston's Black Workers in the Civil War Era

  Jones, Jacqueline, 1948-

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  This book presents inspiring and heart-wrenching stories of African American laborers and domestics to physicians and lawyers who pursued their professions in the face of legal barriers and other obstacles.

• African Founders

  How Enslaved People Expanded American Ideals

  Fischer, David Hackett, 1935-

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  Explores the little-known history of how enslaved people from different regions of Africa interacted with colonists of European origins to create new regional cultures in the colonial United States. The Africans brought with them…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Right Within

  How to Heal From Racial Trauma in the Workplace

  Harts, Minda,

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  Harts offers essential self-help guidance for readers to learn to steady themselves, steer their outlook, and find much-needed joy at work.

• Twice as Hard

  Navigating Black Stereotypes and Creating Space for Success

  Sofoluke, Opeyemi,

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  Examines what it means to be black in the working world, with practical steps on how to overcome prejudice to find success.

• We Are Each Other's Harvest

  Celebrating African American Farmers, Land, and Legacy

  Baszile, Natalie

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  Essays, poems, photographs, quotes, conversations and first-person stories to examine black people's connection to the American land from Emancipation to today.

• Workers on Arrival

  Black Labor in the Making of America

  Trotter, Joe William, 1945-

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  Charts the black working class's vast contributions to the making of America and highlights the vast and remarkable contributions made despite repeated setbacks, while expanding our understanding of America's economic and industrial growth…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• To the Promised Land

  Martin Luther King and the Fight for Economic Justice

  Honey, Michael K.,

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  In the second phase of MLK's activism he worked towards worker's right and the fight for labor unions; this book looks at his call for a moral revolution that seeks to prioritize the common good of the majority of people over the wealth of…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Farming While Black

  Soul Fire Farm's Practical Guide to Liberation on the Land

  Penniman, Leah,

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  A comprehensive “how to” guide for aspiring African-heritage growers to reclaim their dignity as agriculturists and for all farmers to understand the distinct, technical contributions of African-heritage people to sustainable agriculture.

• We Could Not Fail

  the First African Americans in the Space Program

  Paul, Richard, 1959-

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  Profiles about the first Black astronauts and engineers describe the way they contended with challenges in the Space program.

• Slavery by Another Name

  the Re-enslavement of Black People in America From the Civil War to World War II / Douglas A. Blackmon

  Blackmon, Douglas A.

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  The author writes about the "Age of Neoslavery" that thrived from the aftermath of the Civil War through the dawn of World War II. Blackmon recounts the lost stories of slaves and their descendants who journeyed into freedom after the…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• The Swans of Harlem

  Five Black Ballerinas, Fifty Years of Sisterhood, and Their Reclamation of a Groundbreaking History

  Valby, Karen,

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  Steeped in the glamour and grit of professional ballet, this captivating account of five extraordinarily accomplished Black ballerinas, the Swans of Harlem, celebrates both their historic careers and their 50-year sisterhood, offering a…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• A Passionate Mind in Relentless Pursuit

  the Vision of Mary McLeod Bethune

  Rooks, Noliwe, 1963-

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  This biography of the passionate educator and presidential advisor examines her career of public service and role as one of the earliest black female activists that helped lay the foundation of the modern civil rights movement.

• Legacy

  a Black Physician Reckons With Racism in Medicine

  Blackstock, Uché,

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  A Black physician reflects on her career in medicine and the many inequities of American health care

• The Black Utopians

  Searching for Paradise and the Promised Land in America

  Robertson, Aaron, 1994-

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  Author reflects on a diverse array of Black utopian visions, from the Reconstruction era through the countercultural fervor of the 1960s and 1970s and into the present day. By doing so, Robertson showcases the enduring quest of collectives…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Wildflower

  a Memoir

  James, Aurora, 1984-

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  A leading social justice activist and fashion pioneer, and the first Black American female designer to win a CFDA award, tells the story of how she got to where she is now, which came from a desire to forge a new creative path—and to lift…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Wolf Hustle

  a Black Woman on Wall Street

  Fabré, Cin,

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  In this autobiography, Cin pulls back the curtain on the inequities she and so many other Black workers faced while working grueling hours and ascending the corporate ladder from cold caller to stockbroker to become the only Black woman to…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• A Visible Man

  a Memoir

  Enninful, Edward,

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  One of fashion's most important changemakers, a Black, gay, working-class refugee discusses how he forged a career in fashion and rose to become the first Black editor in chief of British Vogue.