Black Authors

Spring in New Hampshire and Other Poems (1920) is a poetry collection by Claude McKay. Published toward the beginning of the Harlem Renaissance, Sp...

Harlem Shadows (1922) is a poetry collection by Claude McKay. Published at the height of the Harlem Renaissance, Harlem Shadows earned praise from ...

Unfettered: A Novel (1902) is a novel by Sutton E. Griggs. Sutton's third novel is a story of violence and forced migration that explores and criti...

Overshadowed: A Novel (1901) is a novel by Sutton E. Griggs. Published just two years after his debut novel, Overshadowed takes a different angle o...

The Garies and Their Friends (1857) is a novel by Frank J. Webb. Published at the height of the abolitionist movement, Webb's novel was only the se...

Imperium in Imperio (1899) is a novel by Sutton E. Griggs. Written while Sutton was at the beginning of his career as a Baptist minister, Imperium ...

Fifty Years and Other Poems (1917) is a collection of poems by James Weldon Johnson. Although less popular than his book God's Trombones: Seven Neg...

Lyrics of Lowly Life (1896) is a collection of poems by African American author Paul Laurence Dunbar. Published while Dunbar was at a turning point...

Southern Horrors (1892) is a pamphlet by Ida B. Wells. Published several months after a white mob destroyed the office of her prominent Memphis new...

The Gift of Black Folk (1924) is a book of essays by W. E. B. Du Bois. Written while the author was using his role at The Crisis, the official maga...

The Heroic Slave (1852) is a novella by Frederick Douglass. Although he is more frequently recognized as prominent orator and autobiographer who sp...

The Book of American Negro Poetry (1922) is an anthology by James Weldon Johnson. Alongside some of his own poems, Johnson includes the work of suc...

The New Negro (1925) is an anthology by Alain Locke. Expanded from a March issue of Survey Graphic magazine, The New Negro compiles writing from su...

First appearing in 1845 The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, with its painfully vivid depiction of life in bondage, was both a bestsell...

Sojourner Truth, one of the most revered figures in American history, explains her road to liberation, spiritual enlightenment and the development ...

Originally published in 1847, William W. Brown offers a first-person narrative that details his enslavement and the daring escape that ultimately l...

The Sport of the Gods (1902) is a novel by African American author Paul Laurence Dunbar. Published while Dunbar was at the height of his career as ...

When two young people are given a life-changing opportunity they encounter moral and systemic challenges that are directly tied to their racial and...

A compilation of more than 30 addresses from Booker T. Washington explaining the importance of personal responsibility, self-reflection and economi...

Elizabeth Keckley reveals the hardships of slavery and the changing political climate in Washington amongst the country's most powerful couple, Ab...

A gifted musician's decision to navigate society as a white man causes an internal debate about anti-blackness and the explicit nature of intent ve...