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Black History. American History.

  • Jan 31
  • 4 min read

Black History Month will probably be hitting differently for a lot of us this year. Given the current climate of the United States, it goes without saying how much a society can be changed in such little time. Whether it's policy shifts, cultural backlash, or the weight of watching progress unravel, the ground feels unstable right now. Maybe that's why it feels more urgent than ever to return to the books that remind us where we've been—and why that matters.


Black History. American History.


You probably understand what I mean by those two phrases. You and me both can likely come up with ten books between us that illustrate why that is and how it's all intertwined together since the beginning of the transatlantic slave trade over 400 years ago, and probably before that. But you'd need to step away from the universal history curriculum and pick up books that go deeper—the ones that focus on specific stories, moments, and truths not commonly shared in textbooks. The authors who do this research for us, year after year (and probably for the love of history), are doing their part to make sure this history doesn't get erased or rewritten, and to educate us on what we weren't taught in school. They're also giving us the language and context to understand how the past continues to shape the present.


Black and white collage of historical images:

Whether it's housed on fiction or nonfiction shelves, there are many truths essential to learning about Black History. Doing my own research and going through the BLK & Company catalog, I want to do my part as a book curator and share some stories that I hope you can learn from. I've organized this list not chronologically, but by the kind of work each book does.

Classics:

These are the foundational texts. You’ve probably heard many suggestions to read one of these authors. These texts have been shaping conversations for decades, if not longer. If you haven't read them yet, they're worth your time.

  • The Souls of Black Folk by W.E.B. Du Bois

  • Barracoon: The Story of the Last "Black Cargo" by Zora Neale Hurston

  • Beloved by Toni Morrison

  • The Mis-Education of the Negro by Carter G. Woodson

  • The Tragedy of White Injustice by Marcus Garvey

Modern:

These are the books that have redefined how we understand Black history in recent years. They've sparked conversations, challenged narratives, and brought historical truth into contemporary discourse.

  • The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America's Great Migration by Isabel Wilkerson

  • The 1619 Project: A New Origin Story edited by Nikole Hannah-Jones

  • Freedom Is a Constant Struggle: Ferguson, Palestine, and the Foundations of a Movement by Angela Y. Davis

  • Four Hundred Souls: A Community History of African America, 1619-2019 edited by Ibram X. Kendi and Keisha N. Blain

  • We Were Eight Years in Power: An American Tragedy by Ta-Nehisi Coates

  • The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness by Michelle Alexander

Post-War:

Are we on the brink of another war? Only time will tell. What we do know is that these stories can inform us on a thing or two. The post-war period was a time of reckoning—culturally, politically, and artistically. These books capture that moment and its lasting impact.

  • Tell Me How Long the Train's Been Gone by James Baldwin

  • Black Skin, White Masks by Frantz Fanon

  • The Spook Who Sat by the Door by Sam Greenlee

  • Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison

Other Focused Reads:

These books dig into specific histories—land, mental health, visual archives—that don't always get the attention they deserve. They're essential for understanding the breadth of Black experience.

Fiction:

Fiction doesn't just tell stories—it holds history, too. These stories in one way or another are reimagined narratives of our history. Some may even teeter the line of today’s reality.

The list can go on and on, and you could spend months going through each one of these authors' catalogs. Take a moment and note how many of these titles you've read. Have you read any? If not, I challenge you to pick up a couple of these to read this month—and this year. I'll be picking a handful of these to read myself—because even as a curator, I'm reminded how much I still have to learn.


Black History. American History.


The more we read, the harder it is to separate the two. And maybe that's the point.


Until the next thought,

Happy reading


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