5 Essential Reads for Black History Month

We’re now a week into February, which means Black History Month has begun. We’ve picked out some books written by black Americans and other writers of African descent that will enrich your understanding of the African diaspora’s diverse cultural history. Honor black history with a book and consider how these stories resonate today.

The Known World by Edward P. Jones

The Known World is a Pulitzer Prize-winning story of slavery written by Edward P. Jones. The protagonist is Henry Townsend, a former slave living in antebellum Virginia who now owns 33 slaves of his own. Lying on his deathbed, Townsend looks back on his life, reflecting on the contradictory and problematic nature of his life. With The Known World, Jones has crafted a slave narrative that’s fascinating and uncomfortable in ways you wouldn’t normally expect of the genre, full of moral ambiguities that will make you engage with the history of American slavery from a striking new perspective.

Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates

Ta-Nehisi Coates’ Between the World and Me is an epistolary novel written by the author to his teenage son. The book reflects on the long history of state-sanctioned American violence against the nation’s black citizens. Coates draws heavily on his own experiences growing up as a black teenager in Baltimore, painting a bleak picture of what it means to be black in America and showing that racial prejudices have violent and tragic consequences for African Americans in all tiers of society. If you’re looking for an uplifting story of hope, this isn’t the book for you, but it does offer an incisive critique of American society that underlines why Black History Month and the work of the Black Lives Matter movement are so important.

Coconut: A Novel by Kopano Matlwa

Kopano Matlwa is an author from South Africa, a country well-known for its extremely polarized racial history. Coconut, Matlwa’s debut novel, examines the colonial issues of race and class in modern-day Johannesburg, a city that was once the heart of pro-apartheid South Africa. Matlwa’s novel is a deceptively humble examination of post-apartheid South Africa that shows how the devastating effects of apartheid are still deeply felt by black South Africans across the country.

for colored girls who have considered suicide / when the rainbow is enuf by Ntozake Shange

This debut work by Ntozake Shange consists of 20 poetic monologues, and was originally written as a theater piece. The collection recounts the suffering of seven black women struggling to exist in a racist and sexist society. The issues these women have faced are myriad, from rape, to abortion, to domestic violence. Shange’s Tony Award-nominated play has been performed on and off Broadway and in theaters around the world, and adapted for many different audiences. Experience the beauty of Shange’s poetry and the powerful message it delivers via Playster Books today.

Native Son by Richard Wright

Richard Wright (1908–1960) was a controversial writer during his lifetime, as he chose to tackle the racial issues faced by black Americans when it was an even more controversial subject than it is today. Native Son tells the story of Bigger Thomas, a 20-year-old black American who grew up in the South side of Chicago and is currently on trial for murder. Wright makes no apology for Bigger Thomas’ grisly crimes, but he does paint a detailed portrait of the effects of systemic oppression that black Americans face, and the tragedies that this can enable. This novel that definitely resonates with the plight of many African Americans today, and is an essential read for any student of African American literature or anyone else interested in learning something about it.