
Black History Month Essential Reading List
Great Books, Movies and Documentaries essential for learning the full scope of our true history! Black History Month Essential Reading List is 365, because knowledge for us is 365!
History of Black History Month
It was in 1964 when the author James Baldwin reflected on the shortcomings of his education. “When I was going to school,” he said, “I began to be bugged by the teaching of American history because it seemed that that history had been taught without cognizance of my presence.”
Baldwin’s thoughts echoed those of many before and after him. Half a century earlier, when Carter G. Woodson had the same frustration, he set the foundation for what would become today’s national Black History Month, observed each February.
In the early 20th century, while he earned a Masters degree from the University of Chicago and a Ph.D. from Harvard, both in history, Woodson witnessed how black people were underrepresented in the books and conversations that shaped the study of American history. According to the way many historians taught the nation’s past, African Americans were barely part of the story—a narrative that Woodson knew was not true. So in 1915, he and Jesse E. Moorland founded the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History (now the Association for the Study of African American Life and History, or the ASALH). The organization would promote studying black history as a discipline and celebrate the accomplishments of African Americans.
“If a race has no history, it has no worthwhile tradition, it becomes a negligible factor in the thought of the world, and it stands in danger of being exterminated,” Woodson said of the need for such study.
In 1926, Woodson and the ASALH launched a “Negro History Week” to bring attention to his mission and help school systems coordinate their focus on the topic. Woodson chose the second week in February, as it encompassed both Frederick Douglass’ birthday on February 14 and Abraham Lincoln’s birthday on February 12.
The celebrations and studies spread quickly, as the ASALH tells it, driving demand for teaching materials and spurring the formation of black history clubs. But, though a newfound understanding of black culture and literature was spreading amongst the middle class, the idea of expanding the week to a month did not come until several decades later. During the Civil Rights Movement, Freedom Schools in the South embraced the week and its curriculum message as a way to contribute to the mission. By the mid-1960s, the most popular textbook for eighth-grade U.S. history classes mentioned only two black people in the entire century of history that had transpired since the Civil War—and that problem could no longer be ignored. It was in that decade that colleges and universities across the country transformed the week into a Black History Month on campus.
A number of mayors had already adopted the celebration as a municipal event by the time President Gerald Ford decreed Black History Month a national observance in 1976, on both the fiftieth anniversary of the first iteration and America’s bicentennial year.
“In celebrating Black History Month,” Ford said in his message, “we can seize the opportunity to honor the too-often neglected accomplishments of black Americans in every area of endeavor throughout our history.”
Presidents have issued national decrees with each year’s theme since the 1970s. African American History Month’s 2016 theme is “Hallowed Grounds: Sites of African American Memories.”
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$45.00| /PowerNomics: The National Plan to Empower Black America by Dr. Claude Anderson (Physical Book)
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$35.99| /Black Labor, White Wealth: The Search for Power and Economic Justice by Dr. Claude Anderson (Physical Book)
This powerful book analyzes the complex web of racial monopolies and Black America's inappropriate behavior patterns that are driving it into a per...
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$34.99| /Africans and Native Americans by Jack Forbes (Paperback)
Africans and Native Americans: The Language of Race and the Evolution of Red-Black Peoples Africans and Native Americans (the book) explores key is...
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$32.99| /Dirty Little Secrets about Black History, Its Heroes and other Troublemakers by Dr. Claude Anderson (Physical Book)
Shows why Black people are a special people. It presents little known facts about their extraordinary accomplishments under oppressive inhumane con...
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$30.00| /Cartesian Linguistics: A Chapter in the History of Rationalist Thought by Noam Chomsky (E-Book)
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$28.95| /Developmental Psychology of the Black Child by Amos N. Wilson (Paperback)
The Developmental Psychology of the Black Child and Professor Amos Wilson hold an unassailable position in the field of black psychology. Conceived...
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Original price $39.99Current price $27.95| /African Holistic Health by Dr. Llaila O. Afrika (Paperback & E-Book)
African Holistic Health addresses health issues from a comprehensive African-centered viewpoint. It provides a complete guide to herbal remedies al...
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$25.00| /James Baldwin : Collected Essays : Notes of a Native Son / Nobody Knows My Name / The Fire Next Time / No Name in the Street / The Devil Finds Work / Other Essays (E-Book)
James Baldwin was a uniquely prophetic voice in American letters. His brilliant and provocative essays made him the literary voice of the Civil Rig...
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Original price $27.99Current price $24.95| /Destruction of Black Civilization: Great Issues of a Race from 4500 B.C. to 2000 A.D. by Chancellor Williams. (Paperback & E-Book)
Item includes: a Physical Paperback Book and PDF E-Book The Destruction of Black Civilization took author Chancellor Williams sixteen years of rese...
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Original price $25.95Current price $22.95| /Native Son by Richard Wright (Paperback)
Now an HBO Film! “If one had to identify the single most influential shaping force in modern Black literary history, one would probably have to poi...
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Original price $27.99Current price $21.95| /Africans and Native Americans by Jack Forbes (Paperback)
Africans and Native Americans: The Language of Race and the Evolution of Red-Black Peoples Africans and Native Americans (the book) explores key is...
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Original price $25.95Current price $21.95| /Mama Black Widow: A Novel by Iceberg Slim (Paperback)
“Iceberg Slim breaks down some of the coldest, capitalist concepts I’ve ever heard in my life.” —Dave Chappelle, from his Netflix special The Bird ...
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Original price $25.95Current price $20.95| /Black Betty by Walter Mosley (Paperback)
1961: For most black Americans, these were times of hope. For former P.I. Easy Rawlins, Los Angeles's mean streets were never meaner...or more dead...
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Original price $25.95Current price $20.95| /Makes Me Wanna Holler: A Young Black Man in America by Nathan McCall (Paperback)
One of our most visceral and important memoirs on race in America, this is the story of Nathan McCall, who began life as a smart kid in a close, pr...
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Original price $215.99Current price $19.95| /Encyclopedia of African American Education by Kofi Lomotey (E-Textbook)
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$19.95| /The Black and the Blue; a Cop Reveals the Crimes, Racism, and Injustice in America’s Law Enforcement (Paperback and E-Book)
Longlisted for the PEN/John Kenneth Galbraith Award for Nonfiction Career police officer turned CNN contributor offers a "hard-hitting, convinci...
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Original price $29.95Current price $19.95| /The Color of Water: A Black Man's Tribute to His White Mother by James McBride (Paperback)
From the New York Times bestselling author of Deacon King Kong and The Good Lord Bird, winner of the National Book Award for Fiction:The modern cla...
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Original price $21.95Current price $19.95| /Destruction of Black Civilization: Great Issues of a Race from 4500 B.C. to 2000 A.D. by Chancellor Williams. (E-Book)
Item includes: a Physical Paperback Book and PDF E-Book The Destruction of Black Civilization took author Chancellor Williams sixteen years of rese...
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$18.95| /Awakening the Natural Genius of Black Children by Amos N. Wilson (Paperback)
A guide for parents and educatiors explains how to stimulate the curiosity and nourish the spirits of young African American children
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$18.95| /Why Are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria; And Other Conversations about Race (Paperback + E-Book)
The classic, bestselling book on the psychology of racism-now fully revised and updated Walk into any racially mixed high school and you will see B...
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$17.95| /The Birth of a Movement: How Birth of a Nation Ignited the Battle for Civil Rights by (Paperback)
In 1915, two men-one a journalist agitator, the other a technically brilliant filmmaker-incited a public confrontation that roiled America, pitting...
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Original price $20.99Current price $17.95| /Introduction to African Civilization by John G Jackson (Paperback + E-Book)
Introduction to African Civilization by John G Jackson Type: E-Book Pages: 206 This work challenges all the standard approaches to the saga of A...
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Original price $25.95Current price $16.95| /Manchild in the Promised Land: A Modern Classic of the Black Experience by Claude Brown (Paperback)
The autobiography of Claude Brown from his childhood amidst the temptations and frustrations of Harlem to the triumph over himself and his surround...
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Original price $25.95Current price $15.95| /The Black and the Blue: A Cop Reveals the Crimes, Racism, and Injustice in America's Law Enforcement by Matthew Horace (Paperback)
During his 28-year career, Matthew Horace rose through the ranks from a police officer working the beat to a federal agent working criminal cases i...
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$14.95| /The Color of Money: Black Banks and the Racial Wealth Gap by Mehrsa Baradaran (Paperback)
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$14.00| /Black Men, Intergenerational Colonialism, and Behavioral Health: A Noose Across Nations by Donald E. Grant Jr. (E-Book)
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$14.00| /A Theological Account of Nat Turner: Christianity, Violence, and Theology (Black Religion/Womanist Thought/Social Justice) by Karl Lampley (E-Book)
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$13.95| /An Introduction to African Civilizations: with Main Currents in Ethiopian History by John G. Jackson (Paperback)
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$13.95| /The Color of Law: A Forgotten History of How Our Government Segregated America by Richard Rothstein (Paperback)
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Original price $25.95Current price $11.95| /The Souls of Black Folk by W.E.B. Du Bois (Paperback)
This landmark book is a founding work in the literature of black protest. W. E. B. Du Bois (1868–1963) played a key role in developing the strategy...
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$11.00| /Blackness as a Defining Identity: Mediated Representations and the Lived Experiences of African Immigrants in Australia by Runyararo Sihlo Chivaura (E-Book)
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$10.95| /Pushout: The Criminalization of Black Girls in Schools by Monique W. Morris (Paperback)
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$10.00| /Hollywood Be Thy Name: African American Religion in American Film, 1929–1949 by Judith Weisenfeld (E-Book)
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Original price $225.00Current price $10.00| /Black Gun Owners Firearm Book Pack (100+ Titles)
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Original price $128.00Current price $9.99| /Encyclopedia of African American Business [2 volumes] (E-Book)
African Americans historically have played a role in shaping the economic development of their race and of the country, though only recently have t...
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$9.99| /Encyclopedia Of African American Culture And History: The Black Experience In The Americas (Encyclopedia of African American Culture and History) (Volumes 1-3) (E-Book Set)
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$9.00| /#1960Now: Photographs of Civil Rights Activists and Black Lives Matter Protests (E-Book)
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$8.00| /Upon these Shores: Themes in the African-American Experience 1600 to the Present by William R. Scott (E-Book)
This one-volume, comprehensive overview of African American history brings together original essays by some of the foremost authorities in the fiel...
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