African-American Lit 101
Explore the best African-American literature with our curated list of must-read books. Discover classic and contemporary works by influential Black authors that celebrate culture, history, and identity.
![Go tell it on the mountain : [a novel] Cover](https://ec2.images-amazon.com/images/P/0440330076.01._SCLZZZZZZZ_.jpg)
Book
Go tell it on the mountain : [a novel]
by James Baldwin
This novel of Black life in America is written with an impartial attitude
Book
Native Son
by Richard Wright
Right from the start, Bigger Thomas had been headed for jail. It could have been for assault or petty larceny; by chance, it was for murder and rape. Native Son tells the story of this young black man caught in a downward spiral after he kills a young white woman in a brief moment of panic. Set in Chicago in the 1930s, Wright's powerful novel is an unsparing reflection on the poverty and feelings of hopelessness experienced by people in inner cities across the country and of what it means to be black in America.
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Black Boy
by Richard Wright
Richard Wright describes what it was like growing up in Jim Crow-era Mississippi.
Book
Invisible Man
by Ralph Ellison
NATIONAL BOOK AWARD WINNER • NATIONAL BESTSELLER • In this deeply compelling novel and epic milestone of American literature, a nameless narrator tells his story from the basement lair of the Invisible Man he imagines himself to be. One of The Atlantic’s Great American Novels of the Past 100 Years He describes growing up in a Black community in the South, attending a Negro college from which he is expelled, moving to New York and becoming the chief spokesman of the Harlem branch of "the Brotherhood," before retreating amid violence and confusion. Originally published in 1952 as the first novel by a then unknown author, it remained on the bestseller list for sixteen weeks and established Ralph Ellison as one of the key writers of the century. The book is a passionate and witty tour de force of style, strongly influenced by T.S. Eliot's The Waste Land, James Joyce, and Dostoevsky.
Book
The Complete Stories
by Zora Neale Hurston
A collection of short stories, most of which appeared in literary magazines during the author's lifetime, along with previously unpublished works, spans the career of one of the century's foremost African American writers.
