African Diaspora Resources: Anti-Racist Books

A collection of essays by black women writers, curated by the founder of the popular book club Well-Read Black Girl, on the importance of recognizing ourselves in literature.

Presents the argument that since the passage of the Thirteenth Amendment, when African Americans make advances toward full participation in our democracy, white reaction feeds deliberate and relentless rollback of their progress.

Acho explains the vital core of such fraught concepts as white privilege, cultural appropriation, and 'reverse racism."

Learn about identities, true histories, and anti-racism in twenty [lessons]. This book is written so young people will feel empowered to stand up to the adults in their lives. This book will give them the language and ability to understand racism and a drive to undo it.

This book will serve as a guide for teens seeking a way forward in acknowledging, identifying, and dismantling racism and injustice. Kendi also has a version for adults.

Ijeoma Oluo offers a contemporary, accessible take on the racial landscape in America, addressing head-on such issues as privilege, police brutality, intersectionality, micro-aggressions, the Black Lives Matter movement, and the 'N' word.

This book challenges black girls to reflect on their role in the world, face the challenges of living in a society where expectations are low, set goals despite the naysaying and prejudice of others, push past limiting boundaries, and fulfill their dreams for a badass future of their own design.

A comprehensive history of anti-black racism in graphic format focuses on the lives of five major players in American history and highlights the debates that took place between assimilationists and segregationists and between racists and anti-racists.

The original comprehensive history of anti-black racism focuses on the lives of five major players in American history, including Cotton Mather and Thomas Jefferson, and highlights the debates that took place between assimilationists and segregationists and between racists and anti-racists.

A history of racist and antiracist ideas in America, from their roots in Europe until today, adapted for a teen audience from the National Book Award winner Stamped from the Beginning.

From age six through her high school valedictory speech, believing she and her mother are wizards helps young Echo cope with poverty, hunger, her mother's drug abuse, and much more.

At Niveus Private Academy, Devon and Chiamaka are the only students chosen to be Senior Prefects who are also black, which makes them targets for a series of anonymous texts revealing their secrets to the entire student body. Both students were on track toward valedictorian and bright college futures, but this prank quickly turns into a very dangerous game and they are at more than one disadvantage as it looks like things could turn deadly.

When seventeen-year-old Avery moves to rural Georgia to live with her ailing grandmother, she encounters decade-old family secrets and a mystery surrounding the town's racist past.

Told from two viewpoints, Atlanta high school seniors Lena and Campbell, one black, one white, must rely on each other to survive after a football rivalry escalates into a riot.

Upon arriving at the prestigious Wooddale University, seventeen-year-old Savannah Howard comes face-to-face with microaggressions and outright racism--but if she stands up for justice, will she endanger her future?

An honors student at Jefferson Academy, seventeen-year-old Keira enjoys developing and playing Slay, a secret, multiplayer online role-playing game celebrating black culture, until the two worlds collide.

Sixteen-year-old Alex Rufus's curse of seeing the future distracts him from being and doing his best, but when he sees his little brother Isaiah's imminent death, he races against time, death, and circumstances to save him.

When teen social activist and history buff Kezi Smith is killed under mysterious circumstances, her devastated sister Happi and their family are left reeling in the aftermath. As Kezi becomes another immortalized victim in the fight against police brutality, Happi begins to question the idealized way her sister is remembered. Happi and her sister Genny embark on a journey to honor Kezi in their own way, using an heirloom copy of The Negro Motorist Green Book as their guide. But there's a twist to Kezi's story that no one could've ever expected--one that will change everything all over again.

Ruth Fitz, a black teenager surrounded by activism in a family rocked by tragedy, discovers that she has begun to receive parchment letters from Harriet Jacobs, the author of the autobiography and 1861 American classic, Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, and sets out to use her own voice to make history.

With the Rodney King riots closing in on high school senior Ashley and her family, the privileged bubble she has enjoyed, protecting her from the difficult realities most black people face, begins to crumble.

Tired of being singled out at her mostly-white private school as someone who needs support, high school junior Jade would rather participate in the school's amazing Study Abroad program than join Women to Women, a mentorship program for at-risk girls.

Novel in verse about a boy who keeps his sense of humanity despite being wrongfully incarcerated.

Writing letters to the late Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., seventeen-year-old college-bound Justyce McAllister struggles to face the reality of race relations today and how they are shaping him.

A collection of coming-of-age short stories that reflect on the African American teenage experience in America.

When his best friend is unfairly arrested and kicked off the team, Russell Boudreaux kneels during the national anthem in an effort to fight for justice and, in an instant, falls from local stardom to become a target of hatred.

Explores the story of how the #BlackLivesMatter movement started and spread across the nation and world, including the journey of one of its co-founders, Patrisse Khan-Cullors. The original "adult" version is also available for checkout.

Better Not Bitter is the first time that one of the now Exonerated Five is telling his story and connects it to lessons and principles he learned that gave him the power to survive through the worst of life's experiences. Yusef inspires readers to accept their own path, to understand their own sense of purpose. He unpacks the systems built and designed for profit and the oppression of Black and Brown people, and inspires readers to channel their fury into action, and turn anger and trauma into accountability and change.

As a child, Tarana Burke reeled from her sexual assault, believing she was responsible. She fought to reunite her fractured soul, through organizing, pursuing justice, and finding community. In her debut memoir she shares her extensive work supporting and empowering Black and brown girls, and the devastating realization that to truly help these girls she needed to help that scared, ashamed child still in her soul. She needed to stop running and confront what had happened to her. They gave her the courage to embrace her power. A power which in turn she shared with the entire world.

A collection of art, essays, letters, poems, and stories celebrates standing up against prejudice and racism, and includes entries by such authors as Kwame Alexander, Kat Williams-Garcia, Jacqueline Woodson, and Jason Reynolds.

Lynda Blackmon Lowery recounts her experiences as the youngest marcher on the 1965 voting rights march from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama.

Tells the story of Black Panther Party and its place in the civil rights movement.

Bryan Stevenson details from his personal experience his many challenges and efforts as a lawyer and social advocate, especially on behalf of America's most marginalized people,

Professional football player Michael Bennett discusses his views on racism and police violence, Black athletes and their relationship to powerful institutions like the NCAA and the NFL, the role of protest in history, and the responsibilities of athletes as role models to speak out against injustice.

Writer and performer on 'Late Night with Seth Meyers' Amber Ruffin writes with her sister Lacey Lamar with humor and heart to share absurd anecdotes about everyday experiences of racism.

McGhee believes that all people, of all ages and all backgrounds, need to rethink their attitude toward race and strive together to create opportunities that benefit everyone. This book is a call to action, examining how damaging racism is, not only to people of color but also to white people, and offering hope and real solutions so we can all prosper.

Climate justice activist Vanessa Nakate shares her story as a young Ugandan woman who sees that her community bears disproportionate consequences to the climate crisis. At the same time, she sees that activists from African nations and the global south are not being heard in the same way as activists from white nations are heard. Inspired by Sweden's Greta Thunberg, in 2019 Nakate became Uganda's first Fridays for Future protestor, awakening to her personal power and summoning within herself a commanding political voice.