9 Fascinating Books for Black History Month

There are so many wonderful biographies and histories that explore the Black experience in America, but these 9 recent books are particular standouts.

All That She Carried: The Journey of Ashley’s Sack, a Black Family Keepsake by Tiya Alicia Miles

Heirlooms embody powerful familial stories, and Miles meticulously takes us through one such story of an inheritance that reveals as much about a maternal ancestry as it does about the history of the United States. In 1852, an enslaved woman gave a sack to her 9-year-old daughter before the girl was sold and the pair were separated forever. That sack, filled with articles that demonstrated a mother’s protection and love, was miraculously passed down through four generations. The book chronicles the unending dangers Black women endured during enslavement, while offering critical lessons on the enduring nature of love.

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Finding Me by Viola Davis

Davis’ 2022 memoir was a huge bestseller, detailing the actor’s rise from a troubled childhood in Rhode Island to beloved Emmy- and Oscar-winning star, most recently of The Woman King. She is frank about her family’s struggles and later the racism and misogyny she faced during her rise to fame in this impressive story of resilience and determination. The self-narrated audio version is particularly well done: Davis, 58, has received loads of kudos for her narration, including a Grammy, and the memoir won audiobook of the year at the Audie Awards, the big industry event dedicated to “recognizing distinction in audiobooks and spoken-word entertainment.”  

Simon & Schuster

August Wilson: A Life by Patti Hartigan

As theater critic for The Boston Globe, Hartigan met and interviewed the renowned playwright August Wilson several times before his death from cancer in 2005 at age 60. Her 2023 biography explores his beginnings in Pittsburgh, where he faced racism as a biracial boy (his father was a white man from Germany, his mother African American), and his rise to become one of the most significant 20th-century playwrights in the U.S. He received Pulitzer Prizes for his plays The Piano Lesson and Fences, which was the basis for a 2016 film adaptation starring Denzel Washington (a movie version of another Wilson play, Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, hit screens in 2020).