Black History Month is an annual celebration honoring the triumphs and struggles of African Americans throughout U.S. history and celebrating their rich cultural heritage.
The official theme for Black History Month 2026, chosen by ASALH, the founders of Black History Month, is “A Century of Black History Commemorations,” focusing on 100 years of celebrating Black history, its impact, and its preservation.
You can explore the rich tapestry of Black experiences through a selection of new fiction and nonfiction (including biographies) available with your Livingston Library card.
Fiction
Amity by Nathan Harris
In 1866 New Orleans, formerly enslaved siblings Coleman and June are separated, only to embark on perilous, individual journeys through the Mexican desert to reunite and seize the freedom they were promised.
The Dark Maestro : A Novel by Brendan Slocumb
A gripping page-turner about a young Black classical music prodigy at the height of his career whose life is upended when his family crosses a ruthless international cartel. Curtis Wilson has escaped inner-city D.C. through sheer talent, rising to solo with the New York Philharmonic—until his father’s dangerous past forces the family into witness protection and ends Curtis’s career overnight. When the law can’t stop the cartel, Curtis and his family turn to the only weapon they have left: music—and their own audacious plan for justice.
The Devil Three Times by Rickey Fayne
Yetunde awakens aboard a slave ship bound for America and makes a desperate bargain with the Devil to survive. Their pact reverberates across 175 years as the Devil intervenes in the lives of Yetunde’s descendants, offering salvation at a cost. Rooted in the spiritual traditions and oral history of the Black diaspora, this novel traces a family’s legacy of survival, sacrifice, and reckoning.
The Filling Station by Vanessa Miller
During Jim Crow America, there was only one place Black Americans could safely refuel their vehicles along what would eventually become iconic Route 66. But more than just a place to refuel, it was a place to fill up the soul, build community, and find strength. For two sisters, the Threatt Filling Station became the safe haven they needed after escaping the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre.
Harriet Tubman: Live in Concert: A Novel by Bob The Drag Queen
In an age where the greatest heroes from history have magically returned to help save the world, Harriet Tubman returns to create a hip-hop album with a fallen producer, forging powerful music that inspires a divided nation.
Make Your Way Home : Stories by Carrie R. Moore
In eleven stories that span Florida marshes, North Carolina mountains, and Southern metropolitan cities, this book follows Black men and women who grapple with the homes that have eluded them. A preteen pregnant alongside her mother refuses to let convention dictate who she names as the father of her child. Centuries after slavery separated his ancestors, a native Texan tries to win over the love of his life despite the grip of a family curse. A young deaconess who falls for a new church member wonders what it means when God stops speaking to her. And at the very end of the South as we know it, two sisters seek to escape North to freedom, to promises of a more stable climate.
The Mysterious Death of Junetta Plum by Valerie Wilson Wesley
In 1926, Harriet Stone and the biracial orphan she protects, twelve-year-old Lovey, travel to Harlem hoping for a fresh start. Invited to live in a boardinghouse run by Harriet’s cousin Junetta, the move promises independence—but unease sets in almost immediately. When Harriet makes a shocking discovery the morning after their arrival, she is drawn into a dangerous mystery that forces her to question her cousin’s identity, her own safety, and the lives of five strangers whose fates are now entwined with hers.
The Sable Cloak by Gail Milissa Grant
Set in the Jim Crow–era South and Midwest, this novel follows Jordan Sable, a powerful undertaker and political boss, and his wife Sara, who runs their renowned funeral home. Together they’ve built a respected legacy and a rare measure of Black influence and stability. When tragedy threatens their carefully constructed world, the family turns to an unconventional solution—one that may cost them everything. A vivid portrait of Black power, ambition, and moral reckoning in pre–Civil Rights America.
These Heathens : A Novel by Mia McKenzie
In 1960 Georgia, seventeen-year-old Doris Steele travels to Atlanta seeking a secret abortion, helped by her favorite teacher and her bold childhood friend, Sylvia. Over one transformative weekend, Doris is swept into a world of Black celebrities, queer nightlife, and civil rights activism. As she encounters people who seem certain of their desires and convictions, Doris must confront not only what she doesn’t want—but what she wants for herself.
This Here is Love : A Novel by Princess Joy L. Perry
Bless was born into slavery in 1690s Virginia and faces her mother’s fury, learning that cruelty can come from any side. David, an enslaved child of a freed father, dreams of the promise of liberty made to him. Jack, an impoverished Scots-Irish boy, sails to America to be indentured. Somehow, they all will stake a claim to love.
The Unexpected Diva : A Novel by Tiffany L. Warren
Born into slavery but raised in Philadelphia’s Quaker community, Elizabeth Taylor Greenfield grows up sheltered, educated, and blessed with a remarkable three-octave voice. After her adoptive mother’s death leaves her inheritance in dispute, Eliza must choose between a safe, narrow life and the risky pursuit of her mother’s dream for her. Seizing a chance performance, she rises to fame as “the Black Swan,” touring a divided nation, facing racism and danger, and claiming a hard-won path to freedom through music.
Zeal: A Novel by Morgan Jerkins
In this sweeping, multi-generational novel, a faded love letter from 1865 binds past and present as it traces the separated lovers Harrison and Tirzah—once enslaved and torn apart after the Civil War—and the legacies of their descendants across American history. In 2019 Harlem, when Oliver gives his fiancée Ardelia that same crumbling letter, their own relationship leads them to uncover long-buried family secrets and the enduring power of love, identity, and history.
Nonfiction
American Negra: A Memoir by Natasha S. Alford
An award-winning journalist, TV political analyst, and creator of TheGrio documentary, Afro-Latinx Revolution: Puerto Rico, recounts her experiences as an African American and Puerto Rican woman, reflecting on her improbable journey from Syracuse to Harvard, hedge fund boardrooms to newsrooms, and beyond in pursuit of America’s infinite opportunities. Part inspiring memoir, part cultural analysis, with remarkable self-determination, Alford shows why the movement to recognize Afro-Latin identity illuminates shared struggles across the Black diaspora and often overlooked history.
American Soul : The Black History of Food in the United States by Anela Malik
Delve into foodways of the United States, including testimonies from more than 30 Black chefs, restaurateurs, historians and luminaries, as well as 40 historically-rooted recipes. Equal parts historical exploration and cookbook, this rich narrative reveals the rich and indelible contributions of the Black diaspora in shaping the footprint of American cuisine. With nuance and empathy, Anela reveals the unrecognized Black roots of some of the most iconic American food traditions and provides a deeper understanding of the profound yet hidden contributions of the Black community to American cuisine.
The Battle for the Black Mind by Karida Brown
While tracing the struggle over Black education in the U.S. from 1865 to Brown v. Board of Education. Dr. Brown examines how freed slaves, white elites, and Black educators contested who would control learning, shaping segregated schools and influencing global education under colonial rule. The book reveals how these battles over education entrenched racial inequality and access to American democratic ideals.
Black Genius : Essays on an American Legacy by Tre Johnson
A powerful read examining the lack of opportunity given to Black Americans due to structural racism, and how forgotten historical figures and the author’s own family found a way to succeed despite the obstacles.
Black Moses: A Saga of Ambition and the Fight for a Black State by Caleb Gayle
This book recounts the remarkable true story of Edward McCabe, a Black political leader in the late 19th century who dreamed of creating a state within the U.S. governed by and for Black people. Gayle traces McCabe’s rise, his recruitment of Black settlers to Kansas and Oklahoma, and the forces of racism, politics, and greed that ultimately thwarted his bold vision of self‑determination and Black autonomy.
Black-Owned : The Revolutionary Life of the Black Bookstore by Char Adams
NBC News reporter Char Adams explores the history of Black political movements through the lens of Black-owned bookstores—vital hubs of activism, community, and resistance from abolition to Black Lives Matter. From Malcolm X’s speeches to FBI surveillance, these bookstores have faced danger and celebrated culture, shaping generations of organizers and artists. Today, they continue to be essential centers of community and liberation.
Dreaming in Ensemble : How Black Artists Transformed American Opera by Lucy Caplan
Caplan explores Black opera in the first of the twentieth century, before the “golden age” inaugurated by Marian Anderson. Early Black opera was decidedly countercultural, fostering aesthetic innovation and antiracist activism, as artists found in opera’s grandeur resources for expressing the complexity of Black life and diasporic experience.
The First Eight : A Personal History of the Pioneering Black Congressmen Who Shaped a Nation by James Clyburn
Congressman James E. Clyburn tells the story of South Carolina’s first Black members of Congress—the trailblazers who rose to power during Reconstruction and paved the way for his own historic career nearly a century later. From Joseph Rainey, the first Black member of the U.S. House, to Civil War hero Robert Smalls and journalist–minister Richard Cain, these men confronted the promise of emancipation and the crushing rise of Jim Crow. Blending history and memoir, Clyburn honors their legacy while reflecting on America’s ongoing struggle for racial justice and true democracy.
I am Nobody’s Slave: How Uncovering My Family’s History Set Me Free by Lee Hawkins
This book traces one Black family’s pursuit of the American Dream while confronting the lasting effects of enslavement, Jim Crow, and racial violence. Though the Hawkins family appeared to embody suburban success, generations of trauma shaped their private lives. Through personal discovery, historical research, and genetic testing, Lee Hawkins uncovers a legacy of racism-driven violence and stress—and reveals how resilience and survival endured despite it all.
In Slavery’s Wake : Making Black Freedom in the World
The companion book to a groundbreaking exhibition on African American history and culture-with 150 powerful illustrations of people and objects.
This book presents firsthand accounts of the fight against white supremacy from the aftermath of World War I through the modern civil rights era. Featuring voices ranging from Ida B. Wells and Thurgood Marshall to Fannie Lou Hamer, James Baldwin, and John Lewis, the collection documents both resistance to Jim Crow and the ideologies that sustained it. Together, these writings trace a powerful “Second Reconstruction” and illuminate America’s ongoing struggle to close the gap between its democratic promise and reality.
The Legend of Wyatt Outlaw : From Reconstruction through Black Lives Matter by Sylvester Allen Jr.
A recounting of the life and murder of Wyatt Outlaw, a Black Reconstruction-era leader and the first Black town constable in Graham, North Carolina, whose 1870 lynching by the Ku Klux Klan helped spark a violent white supremacist backlash. Through archival research, personal stories, and community history, the authors uncover why Outlaw was erased from public memory and connect his story to ongoing racial violence from Reconstruction to Black Lives Matter. The book offers both a reckoning with the past and a path forward for communities confronting legacies of racism.
That’s How they Get You : An Unruly Anthology of Black American Humor
A bold anthology of Black American humor that uses satire, wit, and irreverence to confront racism, politics, and everyday life. Featuring a wide range of voices and styles, the collection reveals how humor has long been a powerful tool for survival, resistance, and truth-telling in Black culture.
-Archana, Adult Services & Acquisitions Librarian