With the demonstrations on countless streets and the conversations taking place in countless homes, bookstores are now experiencing a surge of interest in books about Black history, racism and social justice.

“The Forging of a Black Community: Seattle’s Central District from 1870 Through the Civil Rights Era” by Quintard Taylor

Published in 1994, this book by Taylor, a University of Washington history professor emeritus and founder of BlackPast.org, remains a must-read for those who want to understand Seattle’s history.

“The Fire This Time” was conceived as a modern response to James Baldwin’s powerful 1963 essay collection “The Fire Next Time” (in our list below of must-read books on racial justice) and explores the “untidiness” of race in the U.S.

Reading fiction won’t give you a specific list of steps to take to fight social injustice — but it will do something just as important: It places us inside someone’s head and someone’s imagination, letting us begin the work of understanding and empathizing.

A key figure in the Harlem Renaissance, Hurston wrote many novels, stories, essays and poems, including two long-posthumous books: the nonfiction work “Barracoon: The Story of the Last ‘Black Cargo’” (published in 2018) and the short story collection “Hitting a Straight Lick with a Crooked Stick,” published earlier this year.

“The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness” by Michelle Alexander

“Between the World and Me” by Ta-Nehisi Coates

“White Fragility: Why It’s So Hard for White People To Talk About Racism” by Robin DiAngelo

“How To Be an Antiracist” by Ibram X. Kendi

“Redefining Realness: My Path to Womanhood, Identity, Love & So Much More” by Janet Mock

“So You Want To Talk About Race” by Ijeoma Oluo

“Me and White Supremacy: Combat Racism, Change the World, and Become a Good Ancestor” by Layla F. Saad

“Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption” by Bryan Stevenson

“The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America’s Great Migration” by Isabel Wilkerson

For even more suggestions, see the Schomburg Center Black Liberation Reading List from the New York Public Library.

BlackFacts Details

Race riot in Houston

Women Facts

Literature Facts