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Home • Black History Month

5 Books To Kick Off Black History Month

Book ban where? On the first day of Black History Month, we're highlighting books from Black women historians to celebrate the annual holiday.
5 Books To Kick Off Black History Month
Photo by Alejandra Villa Loarca
By Malaika Jabali · Updated February 1, 2022
Let’s Set The History Record Straight. We Can’t Excuse Racists Like Thomas Jefferson As Just Being “Men Of Their Time.”
Photo Credit: ESSENCE

What better way to kick off Black History Month than with the experts who teach our history.

Despite the spate of book bans and calls to eliminate teaching certain subjects in public schools, Black authors are still putting in the work to keep us fully knowledgable of America’s true history.

Here are five books to add to your library published by Black women historians.

01
All That She Carried, Tiya Alicia Miles
This tale of a keepsake passed on through generations of Black women led Harvard history professor Tiya Miles to win the 2021 National Book Award for Nonfiction.
5 Books To Kick Off Black History Month
02
South To America, Imani Perry
South to America, written by Princeton professor Imani Perry, re-centers southern history in the history of America and has been one of the most anticipated titles of 2022.
5 Books To Kick Off Black History Month
03
Four Hundred Souls, co-edited by Keisha N. Blain and Ibram X. Kendi
Co-edited by University of Pittsburgh professor Keisha N. Blain, Four Hundred Souls was a #1 NY Times National Bestseller that retraces African American history through the minds of 90 of the country’s leading Black writers.
5 Books To Kick Off Black History Month
04
Bound in Wedlock, Tera Hunter
Princeton history professor Tera Hunter offers the first thorough account of Black marriage in the 1800s through the Jim Crow era, clarifying the commitment many Black couples had to matrimony despite the odds. This is just in time for V-day, for the blerds trying to impress their date with a historical fact or two.
5 Books To Kick Off Black History Month
05
African American Women in the Struggle for the Vote, 1850–1920, Rosalyn Terborg-Penn
Black women fighting for voting rights today are standing on the shoulders of Black women who were fighting for our right to vote over a century ago. Morgan State University professor Rosalyn Terborg-Penn wrote this groundbreaking book on the women’s suffrage movement, uncovering how white women became its face despite the significant contributions of Black women.
5 Books To Kick Off Black History Month
TOPICS:  black history month