Celebrating Black Heritage: Recommended Reading
February is Black History Month, and the Popular Reading Display in the Hill Library's Learning Commons celebrates the contributions and resilience of Black Americans. Learn more about Black History Month, and check out the full program of events organized by NC State University’s African American Cultural Center.
Here are recommendations from Libraries staff for reading and watching this month.
February 2024
The Vanishing Half
Author: Brit Bennett
Brit Bennett weaves together an emotional family story exploring the lives of identical twins and the American history of passing. The Vignes sisters ran away together from their southern Black community at age sixteen. As adults they grow apart, one returning to her southern community and the other passing as white until their daughters' storylines intersect.
Wilmington's Lie: The Murderous Coup of 1898 and the Rise of White Supremacy
Author: David Zucchino
By the 1890s, Wilmington was North Carolina's largest city with a burgeoning African American middle class and a government that included Black aldermen, police officers and magistrates. This is a definitive account of a remarkable chapter of American history when white supremacist Democrats plotted to overthrow the multi-racial government "by the ballot or bullet or both."
Unapologetic: a Black, Queer, and Feminist Mandate for Our Movement
Author: Charlene A. Carruthers
Unapologetic is a call to make the struggle for Black liberation more radical, more queer, and more feminist. This book provides guidance on deeply effective organizing rooted in the Chicago model of activism and a clear framework for seasoned activists and visionary youth leaders.
Black on Black: On Our Resilience and Brilliance in America
Author: Daniel Black
Daniel Black gives voice to the experiences of those who often find themselves on the margins through topics ranging from police brutality to the AIDS crisis to the role of HBCUs to queer representation in the Black church. Black on Black reminds us, while hope may be slow in coming, it always arrives, and when it does, it delivers beyond the imagination.
Four Hundred Souls: A Community History of African America, 1619-2019
Editors: Ibram X. Kendi and Keisha N. Blain
Four Hundred Souls brings together 90 writers to tell the history of African Americans. Their range of perspectives weaves together stories of oppression and achievement spanning four hundred years to dispel the myth that Africans in America are a monolith.
Request Four Hundred Souls
The Light We Carry: Overcoming in Uncertain Times
Author: Michelle Obama
Michelle Obama offers stories and reflections on change, challenge, and power, including her belief that when we light up for others, we can illuminate the richness and potential of the world around us, discovering deeper truths and new pathways for progress. The Light We Carry inspires readers to examine their own lives, identify their sources of gladness, and connect meaningfully in a turbulent world.
Well-Read Black Girl: Finding Our Stories, Discovering Ourselves: An Anthology
Editor: Glory Edim
Stories are powerful, but there is a special connection that happens when readers can see themselves in the pages of a book. Well-Read Black Girl creates a space for Black women writers to share their experiences and to lift each-other and their readers up.
Black AF History: The Un-Whitewashed Story of America
Author: Michael Harriot
America's backstory is a whitewashed mythology implanted in our collective memory. Michael Harriot presents this more accurate version of American history by combining unapologetically provocative storytelling with meticulous research based on primary sources, as well as the work of pioneering Black historians, scholars, and journalists.
Chisholm '72: Unbought & Unbossed
Director: Shola Lynch
This documentary follows the 1972 campaign waged by Shirley Chisholm, the first African-American woman to run for a major party's nomination for United States President. Chisholm first made her mark on American political history when, in 1968, she became the first African-American woman elected to Congress, representing New York.