Spotlight: Black History Month

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