Black History Month Reading List: If You Like These 8 Shows and Films, Read These Books

Date Published: February 4, 2020

Black History Month is officially underway, and since we’re still in the first few days of February, now’s the perfect time to start a new book to read over the course of the month. Not sure which to pick? We’ll help you out with a few book recommendations based on the films or shows you already love, like Selma, 42, or Hidden Figures (and some others pulled from our Black History Month Netflix watchlist). Of course, Black history shouldn’t be confined to just one month a year, so you can add these books to your to-be-read list for Black History Month and beyond.

(PS: Any of these books would make a great pick for DoSomething’s Diversity Book Club campaign. Fight erasure and elevate Black voices by hosting a virtual book club with your friends to read and discuss books about Black protagonists and authors.)

1) If You Love Selma…

Read Turning 15 On the Road to Freedom by Lynda Blackmon Lowery

Turning 15 On the Road to Freedom is the memoir of author Lynda Blackmon Lowery, who was the youngest marcher in the 1965 Selma to Montgomery march for voting rights that Selma is based on. Lowery shows us this monumental moment in American history from the perspective of a teenage girl fighting for what she knows is right, proving that anyone (no matter how young) can change the world.

2) If You Love 13th...

Read The New Jim Crow by Michelle Alexander

Both 13th and The New Jim Crow focus on a caveat within the 13th Amendment that allows for slavery in the US as a punishment for a crime, and they argue that the mass incarceration of Black Americans is just a continuation of historically unjust systems of enslavement. Author and civil rights scholar Michelle Alexander is featured in 13th, and you can find a lot of the same themes and ideas explored in more detail in her book.

3) If You Love 42...

Read Olympic Pride, American Prejudice by Deborah Riley Draper, and Blair Underwood, Travis Thrasher

The full title of this book is Olympic Pride, American Prejudice: The Untold Story of 18 African Americans Who Defied Jim Crow and Adolf Hitler to Compete in the 1936 Berlin Olympics, and like 42, it’s a look at exceptional Black athletes who overcame racial injustice to outrival even those who had systemic advantages over them. In this book, you’ll learn about Olympic legends like Jesse Owens, as well as lesser known athletes like Tidye Pickett and Howell King. (Coincidentally, among them is Mack Robinson, Jackie Robinson’s older brother and Olympic silver-medalist in the 200-meter race.)

4) If You Love Self Made...

Read Becoming by Michelle Obama

If you felt inspired by Madame C.J. Walker’s rise to success in Self-Made, you can find a modern example in former First Lady Michelle Obama’s memoir Becoming. She recounts her journey from her working class home on the South Side of Chicago to the White House itself -- and all of the mentors, friends, and family members who helped her along the way. (It even has an official book club reading guide if you’re reading along with friends!)

5) If You Love When They See Us...

Read Death of Innocence by Mamie Till-Mobley and Christopher Benson

The flaws in the US justice system that led to the wrongful conviction of the Exonerated 5, as shown in When They See Us, are deeply rooted in our country’s history. The murder of 14-year-old Emmett Till is one of the most infamous acts of racial violence in the US, and in Death of Innocence his mother tells her own story of seeking justice within a racist court system and the full-scale media event surrounding it. Like When They See Us, it documents a painful reminder of our country’s shortcomings that can inspire a movement for better.

6) If You Love Roxanne, Roxanne…

Read The Motherlode by Clover Hope and Rachelle Baker

Roxanne, Roxanne set the record straight by introducing many of us to Roxanne Shanté, a pioneering figure in early rap and hip-hop. If you’re ready to learn about even more women who helped shape the genre, you can meet over 100 of them (both famous and obscure) in The Motherlode -- from MC Sha-Rock to Lauryn Hill to Lizzo. The illustrated book is written for and by Black women to fight their erasure in the history of hip-hop.

7) If You Love Hidden Figures…

Read Find Where the Wind Goes by Dr. Mae Jemison

Among Mary Jackson, Katherine Johnson, Dorothy Vaughan and so many other women who helped power NASA over the years is Dr. Mae Jemison. Her lifetime accomplishments are almost too long to list -- practicing physician, Peace Corps volunteer, elementary school teacher, etc. She also became the first Black woman to travel to space as an astronaut aboard NASA’s Endeavor, where she conducted bone cell research experiments. You can read about all of that and more in her autobiography Find Where the Wind Goes.

8) If You Love Lovecraft Country...

Read Dread Nation by Justina Ireland

Both of these works are at the intersection of historical fiction and horror-fantasy, and they’re both packed with monster-fueled thrills. While Lovecraft Country is set in the 1950s Jim Crow America, Dread Nation reimagines America during the post-Civil War Reconstruction era. In Justina Ireland’s genre-defying YA novel, the dead rise after the Battle of Gettysburg, and in the aftermath, enslaved people are freed but certain children are required to attend combat schools to learn to fight the undead. The novel follows teenager Jane McKeene as she finishes her education and seeks out her mother -- all while facing off with shambling monsters and monstrous people.