African American History Books

Last updated: January 2, 2012

1. The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America's Great Migration (Vintage) by Isabel Wilkerson Published: October 4, 2011 Score: 16.48
2. Dreams from My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance by Barack Obama Published: January 9, 2007 Score: 12.59
3. Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl: Written by Herself, with "A True Tale of Slavery" by John S. Jacobs (John Harvard Library) by Harriet A. Jacobs, Jean Fagan Yellin and John S. Jacobs Published: November 30, 2009 Score: 11.23
4. Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass by Frederick Douglass Published: December 5, 2011 Score: 11.04
5. Mudbound by Hillary Jordan Published: October 23, 2008 Score: 8.38
6. Kindred by Octavia E. Butler Published: February 1, 2009 Score: 6.99
7. The New Jim Crow by Michelle Alexander and Cornel West Published: January 16, 2012 Score: 4.59
8. Roots-Thirtieth Anniversary Edition: The Saga of an American Family by Alex Haley Published: May 22, 2007 Score: 3.22
9. Hellhound On His Trail: The Electrifying Account of the Largest Manhunt In American History by Hampton Sides Published: March 22, 2011 Score: 3.18
10. The Reluctant Fundamentalist by Mohsin Hamid Published: April 14, 2008 Score: 2.6
11. The Color of Water: A Black Man's Tribute to His White Mother by James McBride Published: February 1, 1997 Score: 2.11
12. The Mis-Education of the Negro by Carter Godwin Woodson Published: November 24, 2009 Score: 2.08
13. The Souls of Black Folk: 100th Anniversary Edition (Signet Classics) by W. E. B. Du Bois and Randall Kenan Published: August 1, 1995 Score: 2.04
14. We Wish to Inform You That Tomorrow We Will be Killed With Our Families: Stories from Rwanda by Philip Gourevitch Published: September 1, 1999 Score: 1.39
15. Slavery by Another Name: The Re-Enslavement of Black Americans from the Civil War to World War II by Douglas A. Blackmon and Dennis Boutsikaris Published: May 31, 2010 Score: 1.2
16. I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou Published: January 12, 1970 Score: 1.12
17. The Fiery Trial: Abraham Lincoln and American Slavery by Eric Foner Published: September 26, 2011 Score: 0.94
18. Fences (August Wilson Century Cycle) by August Wilson and Samuel G. Freedman Published: April 1, 2008 Score: 0.81
19. Up from Slavery: An Autobiography (Penguin Classics) by Booker T. Washington and Louis R. Harlan Published: January 7, 1986 Score: 0.81
20. Black Rednecks and White Liberals by Thomas Sowell Published: April 24, 2006 Score: 0.81
21. Life at the Bottom: The Worldview That Makes the Underclass by Theodore Dalrymple Published: March 8, 2003 Score: 0.79
22. Brainwashed: Challenging the Myth of Black Inferiority by Tom Burrell Published: February 1, 2010 Score: 0.77
23. The Hemingses of Monticello: An American Family by Annette Gordon-Reed Published: September 17, 2008 Score: 0.71
24. Injustice: Exposing the Racial Agenda of the Obama Justice Department by J. Christian Adams Published: October 3, 2011 Score: 0.65
25. Elizabeth and Hazel: Two Women of Little Rock by David Margolick Published: October 4, 2011 Score: 0.61