5 Classic Black Authors You May Not Have Read in School
When you think of classic Black authors in American history, countless names come to mind. Most notably are names such as Toni Morrison, Langston Hughes, Malcom X and Maya Angelou. Big name authors such as these broke boundaries in the publishing industry, a white-dominant industry throughout the 19th and 20th centuries and still to this day.
These authors broke barriers to tell stories of what it meant to be Black in America, both the joys and the struggles. They also shared stories across a gamut of genres from Sci-Fi to non-fiction, revealing the complexity and diversity amongst the experiences of Black storytellers.
Today, we are highlighting a few Black classic authors to add to your reading list. These authors may not have been on your school reading list when you were a kid, but the good thing is it’s never too late to expand your book collection!
As an action item of self-betterment coming off of Black History Month, why not add them to your reading queue if you have not read them in the past?
1. Octavia E. Butler
Octavia E. Butler once said, “I write about people who do extraordinary things. It just turned out it was called science fiction.” Recipient of a Hugo Award, Nebula Award, and a McArthur Fellowship, Butler was an author ahead of her time. Her writing style focuses on strong protagonists and stories written from the past or future as a means of social commentary. Although not as popular during her lifetime, her dystopian novels explored topics like racial injustice, environmental awareness, and women’s rights.
She was known for waking up as early as 2 a.m. to write before going to work at odd jobs. Some of her most notable works include, “Wild Seed,” “Parable of the Talents,” and “Bloodchild.”
2. James McBride
A New York Times best-selling author (a spot he held for two consecutive years), James McBride is not only an author but a musician and screenwriter. Recipient of the 2015 National Humanities Medal from President Obama, McBride was said to have humanized “the complexities of discussing race in America.” His memoir, “The Color of Water: A Black Man’s Tribute to His White Mother,” published in 1996, catapulted him to the limelight.
The storyline takes the reader through James’ upbringing in the projects of Brooklyn with his 11 siblings, his Black minister father, and his white mother. As he retraces his mother’s story, he comes to terms with his shame, fear, and confusion of having a white mother. A ode from son to mother, the story is both poignant and painful, tragic and triumphant. It is a story on race and identity that is a must read!
3. Lorraine Hansberry
Playwright and author Lorraine Hansberry is best known for writing “A Raisin in the Sun,” a play about a struggling Black family on the South Side of Chicago. The storyline explores the dynamics amongst three generations of the Younger family as they navigate the prejudice outside their home and the familial tensions within it. The play went on to have great success on Broadway and was transformed into a film starring Sidney Portier.
Hansberry’s personal life was a story of its own worth telling. As a child, her family moved to an all-white neighborhood and was violently attacked by neighbors. They refused to move until coerced by the court, which was later turned over by the Supreme Court case Hansberry v Lee, which made restrictive covenants illegal. At age 29, she became the youngest American and first Black playwright to receive a New York Critics’ Circle Award. She was largely involved in civil rights and feminism work. At the early age 34, she died of pancreatic cancer.
4. Ralph Ellison
Best known for his award-winning novel “Invisible Man,” Ralph Ellison was the grandson of slaves, an Oklahoma native, and the oldest of two boys raised by a single, widowed mother. Ellison grew up in the age of the Great Depression and World War II, which informed much of his writing.
“Invisible Man” catapulted Ellison to one of the greats in African American literature and landed him a National Book Award in 1953 and 16 weeks on the national best seller list. The novel follows the story of a nameless protagonist from his childhood in the South to life as an adult in New York where he faces discrimination and violence. Other notable reads by Ellison include “The Collected Essays of Ralph Ellison” and “Juneteenth.”
5. Ernest J. Gaines
Author Ernest J. Gaines is known for giving a voice to Black people in the South and the challenges they faced before the Civil Rights era. The acclaimed “A Lesson Before Dying” tells the heart wrenching story of a young Black man on death row for a crime he did not commit and the educated Black man who returns to the South and befriends him in his final days.
Recipient of the National Books Critics Circle Award, Gaines wrote 10 fiction novels in his lifetime that commonly explored the themes of race, class, poverty, and community. He passed away in 2019 at the age of 86 in his home in Oscar, Louisiana.
