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