Should Every Black Person Read These Books?

The Atlanta Post has compiled a list of "13 books That Every African American Should Have in His/Her Home." Suggested Reading Three Friends Were Headed To A Beyoncรฉ Concert, But One Dies On the Way. Guess What The Other Two Did Next? Our Fave Moments From A$AP Rocky’s Fashion Show During Paris Men’s Fashion Week…

The Atlanta Post has compiled a list of "13 books That Every African American Should Have in His/Her Home."

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Trump’s Tariffs Might Stick Around. What Should We Buy Now?
Trump’s Tariffs Might Stick Around. What Should We Buy Now?

The Miseducation of the Negro, by Carter G. Woodson

The Souls of Black Folk, by W.E.B. Du Bois

Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, by Frederick Douglass

Up From Slavery, by Booker T. Washington

Thomas and Beulah, by Rita Dove

Annie Allen, by Gwendolyn Brooks

I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, by Maya Angelou

The Collected Poems of Langston Hughes

Africana, by Kwame Anthony Appiah and Henry Louis Gates Jr.

From Slavery to Freedom, by John Hope Franklin

Godโ€™s Trombones: Seven Negro Sermons in Verse, by James Weldon Johnson

The Autobiography of Malcolm X, as told to Alex Haley

Black Boy, by Richard Wright

Not a bad collection, but there's a heck of a lot of poetry, no James Baldwin, and work from recent years is scarce. (Does Dreams From My Father have to sit on the shelf for two decades before it makes the cut?) What would you add or remove? How many non-African-American-studies majors actually have all of these (be honest!)? And if black history is American history, are we the only ones who have an obligation to appreciate these classics?

Read more about the books at the Atlanta Post.

In other news: Scathing Report on New Orleans Police Highlights Racial Bias.

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