Black Historical FictionLike this list

13 items

• Deacon King Kong

  McBride, James, 1957-

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  It was 1969 in the Brooklyn housing projects known as the Cause Houses where old Deacon Sport Coat pulled out a gun and shot Deems, a young drug dealer that the old deacon had once coached in baseball. What happens next is a slow unraveling effort…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• The Good Lord Bird

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  The Good Lord Bird Season 1 miniseries is 7 episodes of McBride's book starring Ethan Hawke as John Brown, Daveed Diggs as Frederick Douglas, and Joshua Caleb Johnson as Henry Shackleford, also know as Little Onion. The miniseries is quite…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• The Good Lord Bird

  McBride, James, 1957-

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  James McBride's story about abolitionist John Brown who believed that God called him to free the negro slave. A squirmish at the beginning of the book leaves a boy orphaned after his father is shot and killed. Early on Brown mistakes the boy Henry…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• The Rib King

  a Novel

  Hubbard, Ladee,

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  Not familiar with Hubbard’s book, The Talented Ribkins, this book caught me off guard as I was expecting it to be a story of a wealthy white man appropriating a recipe as well as the image of a black cook who worked in his home. That’s in there, but…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Song Yet Sung

  McBride, James, 1957-,

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  Set in Antebellum Maryland in the 1850s McBride's book examines the legacy of slavery in the future lives of black people in the generations after slavery through the visions of Liz Spocott, a character similar in ways to Harriett Tubman - having…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Miracle at St. Anna

  McBride, James, 1957-

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  Based on a true story that took place during WWII as a troop of Buffalo Soldiers engages with the Nazis in Italy during the German occupation in Europe. The story begins with one of the surviving soldiers 40 years later working as a postal employee…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Libertie

  a Novel

  Greenidge, Kaitlyn,

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  Libertie is set during the period of reconstruction and is inspired by the life of Dr. Susan Smith McKinney-Steward, the third African American of her time to earn a medical degree. The story is from the perspective of her daughter Libertie as she…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Homegoing

  a Novel

  Gyasi, Yaa,

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  A cruel twist of fate in the lives of half sisters born to the same mother but with different fathers causes them to lead drastically different lives: one of privilege, the other is captured and sold as a slave in the trans-Atlantic slave trade.…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Island Queen

  a Novel

  Riley, Vanessa,

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  Island Queen is based on the story of a mixed race slave woman Dorothy Kirwan Thomas, an entrepreneur who was born in the 1700s. After escaping slavery she ran away and is able to earn enough money to buy her families freedom. Doll goes beyond the…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• The Underground Railroad

  a Novel

  Whitehead, Colson, 1969-

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  Narrated by one of the most accomplished women voice actors (Audible.com) Bani Turpin reads Colson Whitehead's fantastic journey of the underground railroad adding the twist of a railroad operating underground with real trains moving slaves from one…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• The Water Dancer

  a Novel

  Coates, Ta-Nehisi,

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  Part slave narrative part fantasy, Coates tells the story of a slave with the ability to remember things and events with great detail - yet struggles to remember his mother who was sold away when he was a boy. This book takes a deep dive into the…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• The Darkest Child

  Phillips, Delores, 1950-2014

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  A tragic story that is difficult to listen to. Narrated in the voice of main character, Tangy Mae, one of 10 children birthed by Rozelle, who is biracial and herself the product of the rape of her mother by a white man. The book is often harsh as…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• The Personal Librarian

  Benedict, Marie,

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  A fascinating fictionalization of Belle da Costa Greene’s (born Belle Marion Greener) life. A black woman, who, at great risk passed as white and built the JP Morgan Library collection. She became the library’s first director and was allowed to…Read moreRead more of this annotation