40 best African American books, according to the NAACP
Celebrate Black History Month reading these NAACP-nominated books, from fiction to poetry and young adult literature.
Amanda Mitchell
Amanda Mitchell
The story of how David Livingstone’s body was carried across Africa by those who accompanied him on his journey, sharing the stories of his travels and his death.
Woodson, a celebrated black writer, follows three generations in Brooklyn and how their lives are impacted by a teenage pregnancy.
Telling the story of two related black women, separated by 100 years, but related, “The Revisioners” displays the life of both a slave and her descendant.
Coates won the 2015 National Book Award for his previous “Between The World And Me,” as well as a MacArthur grant — he's also penned several Black Panther graphic novels.
Scholar Imani Perry writes a letter to her children, a call for society to see black children as what they are: deserving of humane treatment.
Gates won last year in the fiction category for “The Annotated African American Folktales.” In this year’s entry, he tells a history of black Americans fighting for equality in post-Civil War America while also fighting the onslaught of White supremacy and supremacist propaganda through the 19th and 20th centuries.
The late writer, Nobel Prize, Pulitzer Prize and Presidential Medal of Freedom winner presents a new nonfiction collection of essays, speeches, and nonfiction writing on society, culture, and art from throughout her extensive 40-year career.
A memoir about one hundred years of her family and their relationship to home in New Orleans East, Broom compiles oral history, cultural history, and admiration in her National Book Award-winning book.
From the cofounder and editor-in-chief of VerySmartBrothas.com, Young presents a series of essays about how “existing while Black is an extreme sport.” Humorous, intelligent, and entertaining, this memoir takes you through the ever-changing idea of being a black man in America.
Wilkinson’s novel follows an undervalued black American FBI agent who is recruited by the CIA to help overthrow a charismatic dictator in Burkina Faso.
The authors present the stories of black dancers and what being a dancer of color means to them.
Grammy-winning gospel singer Erica Campbell of singing group Mary Mary wants people to embrace their inner beauty and build confidence through the power of God.
A New York Times bestseller, Reid delivers a send-up of identity politics and wokeness in this novel about privilege in America.
There’s a reason the book is being compared to The Handmaid’s Tale — it follows desperate women who have been allowed the chance to live in luxury in exchange for being surrogates for the world’s wealthiest people.
Jarrett was the longest serving senior adviser to President Barack Obama, and this biography touched on her life as a public servant, government leader, wife, lawyer and mother.
Cyntoia Brown-Long was sentenced to life in prison for a murder she committed at the age of sixteen, becoming national news when activists worked to make the hashtag #FreeCyntoia go viral, leading to her eventual freedom. This is the story of her road to redemption.
Welteroth’s memoir follows her life as she shattered glass ceilings on the road to becoming one of the most powerful black women in media.
Longtime Prince photographer Nicholas shares stories of his 25 years following the musician, sharing intimate moments of their history.
Piepenbring was set to co-write Prince’s biography before the musician’s unexpected death in 2016, and this memoir makes up the 30 pages Prince had finished.
Instagram star and founder of Inspire Me! Home Décor, Merhi shares her tips and tricks to making your house a fabulous home without breaking the bank.
Not quite a self-help book, Wilkins doesn’t claim to be perfect — she’s a work in progress, and this book is a love letter to all of the people who start projects but struggle to get them done.
In her second nomination on this list, Grammy-winning gospel singer Erica Campbell of singing group Mary Mary wants people to embrace their inner beauty and build confidence through the power of God.
Chef, restaurateur, and philanthropist Andres wants to change the way you eat vegetables.
Looking to find your #BlackGirlMagic? Arrington is set to inspire you to get to your next level.
Hill presents a collection of poems about black women who have struggled for the pursuit of protest, and honors them while unflinchingly discussing the American shame that accompanies their treatment.
Betts’ third collection of poems touches on the world of incarceration and what comes afterward. Betts was just 16 when he was charged with carjacking in Virginia, and was in prison for more than eight years before his release in 2005.
Alleyne’s collection of poetry memorializes and mourns black men and women who have been the victims of police brutality.
This book of poems serves a conversation across generations between Sally Hemings and a contemporary narrator about the way black women walk through the world and the overly simplistic way we talk about them.
This poetry collection touches on the normalization of evil, and the question of who is safe and who is not — it was nominated for a National Book Award for Poetry.
A children’s biography of activist Martin Luther King Jr. and how he wrote his famous speech for the 1963 March on Washington.
Based on the Academy Award-winning short of the same name, “Hair Love” is an ode to loving natural hair and to black daddies and daughters everywhere.
The photo of the two-year-old admiring Kehinde Wiley’s portrait of Michelle Obama at the National Portrait Gallery that went viral gets the novel treatment.
Ruby is an excitable and adventurous child until she finds a Worry, and that slowly becomes all she can think about — before she meets a boy with a Worry of his own.
Sulwe has skin as dark as midnight, and just wants to be seen as beautiful. Academy Award winner Lupita Nyong’o wrote this children’s novel about colorism, loving your skin and self-confidence.
A Jamaican student-athlete at Harvard has one goal: writing for the famous humor magazine “The Harvard Lampoon” — he must overcome race and class issues to get there.
Rebeka Uwitonze was born in Rwanda with curled and twisted feet and must take extreme risks to walk on the bottoms of her feet for the first time.
This graphic novel gives a glimpse into black hair salon culture through this coming-of-age story about a girl’s first perm.
Two girls with very different lives and backgrounds must rely on each other to survive the race riot that takes over their town.
Part ghost story, part historical novel, this book follows a young girl as she tries to reclaim an abandoned segregated cemetery and change the legacy of racism.
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