Black History Month
February is Black History Month and the Cuyahoga Falls Library has hundreds of resources to share. The library remains committed to developing a diverse collection, representing a wide range of perspectives. Here are a few titles that celebrate black voices and Black history in America.
Visit our in-person display or browse the list below for titles that celebrate black voices and Black history in America.
Adult
Titles – Foundational Reads
- Roots / Alex Haley.
- Native Son / Richard Wright ; with an introduction by Arnold Rampersad
- The Bluest Eye / by Toni Morrison.
- The Underground Railroad / Colson Whitehead.
- The warmth of other suns : the epic story of America’s great migration / Isabel Wilkerson
- The Color of Compromise : the truth about the American church’s complicity in racism / Jemar Tisby
- Their eyes were watching God : a novel / Zora Neale Hurston ; with a new foreword by Mary Helen Washington.
- The changeling : a novel / by Victor LaValle.
- Invisible man / Ralph Ellison.
- The new Jim Crow : mass incarceration in the age of colorblindness / Michelle Alexander.
- I know why the caged bird sings / Maya Angelou.
- Go tell it on the mountain / James Baldwin.
- How long ’til black future month? / Stories / N. K. Jemisin
- March / Graphic Novel Series / John Lewis and Andrew Aydin
- Run / Graphic Novel / John Lewis and Andrew Aydin
Fiction
- Take a hint, Dani Brown : a novel / Talia Hibbert
- Red at the Bone / Jacqueline Woodson
- The Vanishing Half / Brit Bennett
Anti-Racism
- I’m still here : black dignity in a world made for whiteness / Austin Channing Brown
- Me and white supremacy : combat racism, change the world, and become a good ancestor / Layla F. Saad
- How to be an antiracist / Ibram X. Kendi
- So you want to talk about race / Ijeoma Oluo
- Why are all the black kids sitting together in the cafeteria? : and other conversations about race / Beverly Daniel Tatum
- Antiracist Baby / Ibram X. Kendi
Teen
- The Hate u Give / Angie Thomas
- Dear Martin / Nic Stone
- All American Boys / Jason Reynolds, Brendan Kiely
- Opposite of Always / Justin A. Reynolds
- Children of Blood and Bone / by Tomi Adeyemi
- Akata Witch / Nnedi Okorafor
Children
Non-fiction:
- 28 days : Moments in Black History that Changed the World / Charles R. Smith Jr. ;illustrated by Shane W. Evans
- The ABCs of Black History / words by Rio Cortez; pictures by Lauren Semmer
- Hand in Hand : Ten Black Men Who Changed America / by Andrea Davis Pinkney paintings by Brian Pinkney
- Little Leaders : Bold Women in Black History / Vashti Harrison
- The Undefeated / by Kwame Alexander ; illustrated by Kadir Nelson
- What is the Civil Rights Movement? / by Sherri L. Smith ; illustrated by Tim Foley
- Young, Gifted and Black : Meet 52 Black Heroes from Past and Present / words by Jamia Wilson illustrated by Andrea Pippins
Picture Books
- Cool Cuts / written & illustrated by Mechal Renee Roe
- A Girl Like Me / Angela Johnson (local author-lives in Kent)
- Going Down Home with Daddy / written by Kelly Starling Lyons ; illustrated by Daniel Minter
- Hands up! / by Breanna J. McDaniel ; illustrated by Shane W. Evans
- Magnificent Homespun Brown : A Celebration / written by Samara Cole Doyon ; illustrated by Kaylani Juanita
- Me & Mama / Cozbi A. Cabrera
- Overground Railroad / Lesa Cline-Ransome, James Ransome
Graphic Novels
- Black Heroes of the Wild West / a toon graphic by James Otis Smith, introduction by Kadir Nelson
- New Kid and Class Act / Jerry Craft
Juvenile Fiction
- Becoming Muhammad Ali : a novel / James Patterson and Kwame Alexander ; illustrated by Dawud Anyabwile
- Before the Ever After / Jacqueline Woodson
- Blended / Sharon M. Draper
- Genesis Begins Again / Alicia D. Williams
- King and the Dragonflies / Kacen Callender
- Loretta Little Looks Back : Three Voices Go Tell It : A Monologue Novel / by Andrea Davis Pinkney ; illustrations by Brian Pinkney
- The Only Black Girls in Town / by Brandy Colbert
- What Lane? / Torrey Maldonado
Movies
- Southside with You
- Race
- Detroit
- Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom
- The Color Purple
- Hidden Figures
- Fruitvale Station
- 42
- Selma
- Loving
- The Wiz
- The Queen of Katwe
- A Ballerina’s Tale
- Twelve Years a Slave
- The Great Debaters
- I Am Not Your Negro
- Malcolm X
- The Tuskegee Airman
- John Lewis: Good Trouble
- The Hate U Give
- Fences
Kids Movies:
Databases
- African American Heritage- org/db/africanamericanheritage
- Summit Memory: summitmemory.org/