African-American History Booklists 2009

Adult Booklist

The Quest for Black Citizenship in the Americas Adult booklist is also available in a printable PDF format.

Non-Fiction

The Autobiography of Malcolm X by Malcolm X with the assistance of Alex Haley

Malcolm X's searing memoir belongs on the small shelf of great autobiographies. Biography X, Malcolm

Black and White Sat Down Together: The Reminiscences of an NAACP Founder by Mary White Ovington

Ovington (1865-1951), a white socialist, reporter and pioneering settlement-house worker, became a principal co-founder, with black civil rights leader W.E.B. Du Bois, of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, which she chaired from 1919 to 1947. 323.1 Ov

Eyes on the Prize: America’s Civil Rights Years, 1954-1965 by Juan Williams

Eyes On the Prize is an outstanding contribution to the memory of the lessons of the Civil Rights Movement. Williams brings the events of the nonviolent civil rights years to life with photographs and lucid text, as well as brief asides throughout, which provide participants' perspectives. 323.4 Wi

Ella Baker and the Black Freedom Movement: A Radical Democratic Vision by Barbara Ransby

Ransby’s remarkable biography shows what a tirelessly dedicated woman was able to achieve at a time when women were supposed to focus only on being wives and mothers. Biography Baker, E

Freedom is not Enough: Black Voters, Black Candidates, and American Presidential Politics by Ronald W. Walters

Assessing black political power from the start of the civil rights era to the aftermath of the 2004 election, Walters (Black Presidential Politics in America) shows how the struggle for black voting power involves not just heroic individuals, but black-led committees and networks. 324.62 Wa

Ida: A Sword Among Lions: Ida B. Wells and the Campaign Against Lynching by Paula J. Giddings

Ida B. Wells, an inspired journalist, civil libertarian, and a woman ahead of her patriarchal times, takes her place as one of the grand pace-setters of American social justice and female empowerment in this powerful work. Biography Wells-Barnett, I

No Free Ride: From the Mean Streets to the Mainstream by Kweisi Mfume with Ron Stodghill II

Mfume tells in gripping detail the story of how his mother's strength and wisdom influenced his early life, how he strayed and became a street tough in West Baltimore, and how he was spiritually reborn, an experience which led him to become the president of the NAACP. Mfume's message is that no one should expect something for nothing. 328.73 Mf

The Right to Vote: The Contested History
of Democracy in the United States by Alexander Keyssar

America's self-image as the land of democracy is based on the belief that we've long enjoyed universal suffrage or at least aspired to it. Duke historian Keyssar demonstrates that, though distinctive in some ways, granting suffrage rights in America was similar to that in other countries: highly contested, with retreats as well as advances, containing within it the sharp reflections of larger struggles for power. 324.62 Ke

Standing Fast: The Autobiography of Roy Wilkins
by Roy Wilkins with Tom Mathews

For nearly half a century - first as assistant secretary, and finally succeeding Walter White as executive director - Roy Wilkins served and led the N.A.A.C.P. in their fight for justice for African-Americans. 323.092 Wi

The Ticket to Freedom: The NAACP and the Struggle for Black Political Integration by Manfred Berg

Berg details the growth of the NAACP, its successes and failures, and the major figures who helped advance the NAACP, including W.E.B. DuBois, Thurgood Marshall, Moorfield Storey, Walter White, and Oswald Garrison Villard. 323.1 Be

W.E.B. DuBois: The Fight for Equality and the American Century, 1919-1963 by David Levering Lewis

This second volume by David Levering Lewis picks up where his Pulitzer Prize-winning “W.E.B. Du Bois: Biography of a Race” left off, chronicling his life from 1919 until his death in Ghana in 1963.
Biography DuBois, W

Walter White: The Dilemma of Black Identity in America by Thomas Dyja

For more than two decades, White, as secretary of the NAACP, was perhaps the nation’s most visible and most powerful African-American leader. He won passage of a federal anti-lynching law, hosted one of the premier salons of the Harlem Renaissance, created the legal strategy that led to Brown v. Board of Education, and initiated the campaign demanding that Hollywood give better roles to black actors. Driven by ambitions for himself and his people, he offered his entire life to the advancement of civil rights in America. Biography White, W

We Shall Overcome: Martin Luther King, Jr., and the Black Freedom Struggle edited by Peter J. Albert and Ronald Hoffman
This collection of papers by 15 black scholars considers King's career, education and other influences that shaped his character, and his place in Afro-American history. 323.092 We

Fiction

Basketball Jones by E. Lynn Harris

Explores the consequences of loving someone who is forced to conform to the rules society demands its public heroes follow. Filled with nonstop twists and turns, it will keep readers riveted from the first page to the last.

Best of Everything by Kimberla Lawson Roby

The world-renowned Reverend Curtis Black's daughter, Alicia, is all grown up and in even more trouble than her father. The apple certainly doesn't fall far from the tree in this new novel from the New York Times bestselling author of “Sin No More” and “Love and Lies.”

Can’t Say No by Bette Ford

After the tragic death of her mother, Vanessa is busy raising her younger siblings and does not have time for funny, sexy, and hot, ex-NBA star Ralph Prescott. He’s also a notorious, no-good player - the wrong kind of man for a woman with big responsibilities. Can Ralph convince Vanessa that his player days are behind him and that he is the man of her dreams? Another page turner by Saginaw’s own Bette Ford.

Different Kind of Blues by Gwynne Forster

How would your life change and what would your focus be, if you were given six months to live? Would depression, anger or apathy prevail? How would this news affect those around you? This is Petra Fields' dilemma. A powerful story about secrets and forgiveness.

Dying for Revenge (Gideon Trilogy, Book 3) by Eric Jerome Dickey

This fast-paced story is about a steamy underworld of crime that spans the globe. This title features the hit man Gideon, a character who captivated fans in the first two books, “Sleeping with Strangers” and “Waking with Enemies.”

First Comes Love by Shana Burton

After best friends London and Bernie wake up in Las Vegas and discover they're married, they find their lifelong friendship starting to crumble under the pressures of marriage. Can the constant encouragement of London's grandmother Essie and the words of the Bible hold them together?

Gather Together In My Name by Tracy Price-Thompson

Coming of age in the heart of crime-ridden Brooklyn, Shyne Blackwood is one in a set of triplets born into poverty and great tragedy. While his brothers are raised to seek a life of promise, Shyne's path veers early on. He becomes known as a liar, a thief, and ultimately, a killer. A heartbreaking story of loyalty and love that goes beyond the ultimate sacrifice.

Holy Ghost Corner by Michele Andrea Bowen

Theresa Elaine Hopson, 46, owner of Miss Thang's Holy Ghost Corner and Church Women's Boutique is puzzled. She can't, for the life of her, figure out why even Baby Doll Henderson, despite her false teeth and her navy-blue-socks-with-yellow-jelly-sandals-wearing self, can find a man and she, Theresa, can't.

If These Walls Could Talk by Bettye Griffin

A hilarious and insightful novel of three very different families who dream of finding the perfect home.

In the Night of the Heat: A Tennyson Hardwick Novel by Blair Underwood

Threatened with death after acquittal for murder, football superstar T. D. Jackson asks struggling actor and former gigolo Tennyson Hardwick for protection. When the investigation takes an unexpected turn toward the governor's mansion and a long-forgotten football game in the segregated South of the 1960s, Tennyson uncovers secrets tearing at the heart of two dynasties and must rely on all of his assets - his actor's heart, deadly hands, profiler's mind, and every other part of his body - to keep from dying next.

Just Too Good To Be True by E. Lynn Harris

A big, bold, irresistible novel about football, family, and secrets that will leave you breathless.

The Lovechild by Ashea Goldson

Every family has a few secrets and the Cambell/Hunt family is good at hiding them. Estranged from her family, Makaeli hasn’t seen them in six years. But a family emergency will soon pull her back. Will the secret be revealed?

Married Strangers by Dwan Abrams

What do you do when you think you've married the wrong person? Rayna, Aja, and Shania are all asking themselves questions about their married relationships, and coming up with the answers is no easy feat.

A Mercy by Toni Morrison

In exchange for a bad debt, an Anglo-Dutch trader takes on Florens, a young slave girl, who feels abandoned by her slave mother and who searches for love - first from an older servant woman at her master's new home, and then from a handsome free blacksmith.

More Drama In the Church by Dynah Zale

In the sequel to Drama in the Church, the women of the First Nazareth A.M.E. Church have shown some maturity over the past three years. But that doesn’t mean that they’ve grown out of their irresistible temptation to sin…

New England White by Stephen L. Carter

At the center of a criminal case is Lemaster Carlyle, the university president, and his wife, Julia Carlyle, a deputy dean at the divinity school - African-Americans living in "the heart of whiteness."

Pecking Order: A Novel by Omar Tyree

A thrilling story of an ambitious young accountant who jumps into the high stakes business of celebrity party promotions.

Pleasure by Eric Jerome Dickey

Nia has a problem. If only her family and friends could understand that she just can’t seem to find Mr. Right. All that changes when she meets two gorgeous identical twins, Karl and Mark. The problem is solved, or is it?

The Right Mistake: The Further Philosophical Investigations of Socrates Fortlow by Walter Mosley

Can a former convict-turned-reformer make a difference in Central L.A. with his newly formed Thinkers’ Club?

Seen It All and Done the Rest: A Novel by Pearl Cleage

Josephine Evans, an African-American actress with a successful theater career in Amsterdam, finds her livelihood threatened when the Iraq War makes her the target of an anti-American protest. Patriotism, legacy, crime, and urban renewal are the topics which appear in this unique story line.

She Had It Coming by Mary Monroe

Dolores Reese, a foster child, and her best friend, Valerie Proctor, get caught in a web of deadly secrets after Reese witnesses Valerie killing her stepfather, Zeke Proctor, to protect her mother. A tasty dish of murder, deception, lust, and just deserts in this new novel.

Tempest Tales by Walter Mosley

Think about it. You’re at the Pearly Gates and St. Peter orders you to go straight to Hell. Do you have to go? Tempest Landry answered with a resounding “no.” A humorous, thought-provoking, and accessible literary tale of the concept and treatment of sin and sinners in contemporary times.