George Curry's Top 100 Books on Black History

[Black Author Showcase]

George E. Curry - journalist, speaker, past editor-in-chief of the National Newspaper Publishers Association News Service and Emerge magazine, has this list of must reads in Black history. Do you agree or do you have any books he may have missed? How many of these have you read or do you own? Better yet - how many have your children read in school? Any favorites and why? Leave a comment below.

http://www.georgecurry.com/top-100-books-on-black-history


1. Your History: From the Beginning of Time to Present By J.A. Rogers
2. • African People in World History By John Henrik Clarke
3. • Africa: Mother of Civilization By Yosef be-Jochannon
4. • Fifty Days on Board a Slave Vessel By Pascoe G. Hill
5. • The Origin of Race and Color By Martin R. Delany
6. • 100 Amazing Facts about the Negro with Complete Proof By J.A. Rogers
7. • The Destruction of Black Civilization: Great Issues of Race from 4500 B.C. to 2000 A.D. By Chancellor Williams
8. • From Slavery to Freedom: A History of African Americans By John Hope Franklin
9. • The Negro in the Making of America By Benjamin Quarles
10. • Before the Mayflower: A History of Black America (1619-1962) By Lerone Bennett, Jr.
11. • Frederick Douglass By Benjamin Quarles
12. • Harriet Tubman: The Road to Freedom By Catherine Clinton
13. • In the Matter of Color: Race and the American Legal Process By A. Leon Higginbotham, Jr.
14. • David Walker’s Appeal
15. • The Militant South, 1800-1861 By John Hope Franklin
16. • The Strange Career of Jim Crow By C. Vann Woodward
17. • Origins of the New South, 1877–1913 By C. Vann Woodward
18. • The Ku Klux Spirit By J.A. Rogers
19. • 100 Years of Lynching By Alan Ginzburg
20. • At the Hands of Persons Unknown: The Lynching of BlackAmerica By Philip Dray
21. • The Autobiography of W.E. B. DuBois
22. • Up from Slavery By Booker T. Washington
23. • The Soul of Black Folk By W.E. B. DuBois
24. • The Guardian of Boston: William Monroe Trotter By Stephen R. Fox
25. • Crusader for Justice: The Autobiography of Ida B. Wells
26. • A Sword Among Lions: Ida B. Wells and the Campaign Against Lynching By Paula J.Giddings
27. • The Negro in the Civil War By Benjamin Quarles
28. • Black Reconstruction By W.E.B. DuBois
29. • Black Power U.S.A.: The Human Side of Reconstruction 1867-1877 By Lerone Bennett, Jr.
30. • Forced into Glory: Abraham Lincoln’s White Dream By Lerone Bennett, Jr.
31. • The Mis-Education of the Negro By Carter G. Woodson
32. • Mary McLeod Bethune: Building a Better World: Essays and Selected Documents Edited by Audrey Thomas McCluskey and Elaine M. Smith
33. • The Philadelphia Negro By W.E. B. DuBois
34. • W.E.B. Du Bois: Biography of a Race, 1868-1919 (Winner of the 1994 Pulitzer Prize for Biography) by David Levering Lewis
35. • W.E.B. Du Bois: The Fight for Equality and the American Century (Winner of the 2001 Pulitzer Prize for Biography) by David Levering Lewis
36. • The Philosophy and Opinions of Marcus Garvey Edited by Amy Jacques Garvey
37. • The Marcus Garvey and Universal Negro Improvement Association Papers Edited by Robert A. Hill
38. • Shades of Freedom By A. Leon Higginbotham, Jr.
39. • On Her Own Ground: The Life and Times of Madam C. J. Walker By A’Lelia Bundles
40. • Buffalo Soldiers By Tom Willard
41. • Here I Stand By Paul Robeson
42. • The Undiscovered Paul Robeson By Paul Robeson, Jr.
43. • Paul Robeson: A Biography By Martin Duberman
44. • Banneker: The Afro-American Astrologer By Will W. and David Murray
45. • Only the Ball Was White: A History of Legendary Black Players and All-Black Professional Teams By Robert Peterson
46. • I Never Had It Made By Jackie Robinson
47. • Jackie Robinson: A Biography By Arnold Rampersad
48. • A Hard Road to Glory: A History of African-American Athletes(Three Volumes) By Arthur R. Ashe, Jr
49. • Stephin Fletchit: The Life and Times of Lincoln Perry By Mel Watkins
50. • Fighting for America: Black Soldiers – The Unsung Heroes of World War II By Christopher Paul Moore
51. • Go Up for Glory By Bill Russell
52. • Born to Rebel: An Autobiography By Benjamin Mays
53. • All Deliberate Speed: Reflecting on the First Half Century of Brown v. Board of Education By Charles J. Ogletree, Jr.
54. • Testament of Hope: The Essential Writings of Martin Luther King, Jr. Edited by James M. Washington
55. • An American Death: The True Story of the Assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and the Greatest Manhunt of Our Time By Gerold Frank
56. • Code Name Zorro: The Murder of Martin Luther King, Jr. By Mark Lane and Dick Gregory
57. • And the Walls Came Tumbling Down By Ralph David Abernathy
58. • Walking with the Wind: A Memoir of the Movement By John Lewis
59. • An Easy Burden: The Civil Rights Movement and the Transformation of America By Andrew Young, Jr.
60. • A Time to Speak, a Time to ACT: The Movement in Politics By Julian Bond
61. • To Praise Our Bridges: An Autobiography By Fannie Lou Hamer
62. • The Autobiography of Medgar Evers: A Hero's Life and Legacy Revealed Through His Writings, Letters, and Speeches By Myrlie Evers-Williams
63. • In the Struggle: SNCC and Black Awakening in the 1960s By Clayborn Carson
64. • SNCC: The New Abolitionists By Howard Zinn
65. • Soon We Will Not Cry: The Liberation of Ruby Doris Smith Robinson By Cynthia Griggs Fleming
66. • Lay Bare the Heart: An Autobiography of the Civil Rights Movement By James Farmer
67. • Militant Mediator: Whitney M. Young, Jr. By Dennis C. Dickerson
68. • Vernon Can Read! A Memoir By Vernon E. Jordan, Jr.
69. • Sammy Young, Jr.: The FirstBlackCollege Student to Die in the Black Liberation Movement By James Forman
70. • Black Power: The Politics of Liberation By Kwame Ture (Stokely Carmichael) and Charles V. Hamilton
71. • Adam Clayton Powell, Jr.: The Political Biography of an American Dilemma By Charles V. Hamilton
72. • Coming of Age in Mississippi By Anne Moody
73. • Bearing the Cross: Martin Luther King, Jr., And The Southern Christian Leadership Conference (1987 Pulitzer Prize for Biography) By David J. Garrow
74. • Parting the Waters: America in the King Years, 1954-63 (Pulitzer Prize for History, 1988) By Taylor Branch
75. • Pillar of Fire: America in the King Years, 1963-65 By Taylor Branch
76. • At Canaan's Edge: America in the King Years, 1965-1968 By Taylor Branch
77. • My Soul is Rested: Movement Days in the Deep SouthRemembered By Howell Raines
78. • The Autobiography of Malcolm X
79. • Malcolm X: The FBI File By Clayborne Carson
80. • The Muhammad Ali Reader By Gerald Early
81. • The COINTELPRO Papers: Documents from the FBI's Secret Wars Against Dissent in the United StatesBy Ward Churchill and Jim Vander Wall
82. • Lion in the Lobby: Clarence Mitchell Jr.’s Struggle For the Passage of the Civil Rights Laws By Denton L. Watson
83. • The Longest Debate:A Legislative History of the 1964 Civil Rights Act By Charles Whalen and Barbara Whalen
84. • Protest at Selma: Martin Luther King, Jr. and the Voting Rights Act of 1965; By David J. Garrow
85. • The Informant: The FBI, the Ku Klux Klan, and the Murder of Viola Liuzzo By Gary May
86. • In the Shadow of Selma: The Continuing Struggle for Civil Rights in the Rural South By Cynthia Griggs Fleming
87. • Thurgood Marshall: Warrior at the Bar, Rebel on the Bench By Michael D. Davis and Hunter R. Clark
88. • My Life With Martin Luther King, Jr. By Coretta Scott King
89. • For Us, the Living By Myrlie Evers with William Peters
90. • Standing Fast: The Autobiography of Roy Wilkins
91. • Jesse Jackson: The Man, The Myth, The Movement By Barbara A. Reynolds
92. • The Essence of Fred Hampton Edited by William Hampton, et al.
93. • Racial Matters: The FBI’s Secret File on Black America 1960-1972 By Kenneth O’Reilly
94. • Voices of Freedom: An Oral History of the Civil Rights Movement from the 1950s through the 1980s By Henry Hampton and Steve Fayer
95. • Open Wide Freedom’s Gates: A Memoir By Dorothy Height
96. • Malcolm X: A Life of Reinvention By Manning Marable
97. • The Black West: A Documentary and Pictorial History By William Loren Katz
98. • The Life and Adventures of Nat Love By Nat Love
99. • The African American Century: How Black Americans Have Shaped Our Century By Henry Louis Gates, Jr.
100. • On the Road to Freedom: A Guided Tour of the Civil Rights Trail By Charles E. Cobb, Jr