Black History Month Reads
28 days : moments in Black history that changed the world
Smith, Charles R., Jr., 1969-, author
2015
Africville : an African Nova Scotian community is demolished - and fights back
Wesley, Gloria, author
2021
Becoming
Obama, Michelle, 1964-, author
2021
When she was a little girl, Michelle Robinson's world was the South Side of Chicago, where she and her brother, Craig, shared a bedroom in their family's upstairs apartment and played catch in the park, and where her parents, Fraser and Marian Robinson, raised her to be outspoken and unafraid. But life soon look her much further afield, from the halls of Princeton, where she learned for the first time what if felt like to be the only black woman in a room, to the glassy office tower where she worked as a high-powered corporate lawyer--and where, one summer morning, a law student named Barack Obama appeared in her office and upended all her carefully made plans. Here, for the first time, Michelle Obama describes the early years of her marriage as she struggles to balance her work and family with her husband's fast-moving political career. She takes us inside their private debate over whether he should make a run for the presidency and her subsequent role as a popular but oft-criticized figure during his campaign. Narrating with grace, good humor, and uncommon candor, she provides a vivid, behind-the-scenes account of her family's history-making launch into the global limelight as well as their life inside the White House over eight momentous years--as she comes to know her country and her country comes to know her.
Black heroes : 51 inspiring people from ancient Africa to modern-day U.S.A.: a black history book for kids
Norwood, Arlisha, author
2020
"Take an exciting journey through Black history with dozens of inspiring biographies for kids. From the queens and pharaohs of ancient Egypt to modern-day scientists, athletes, and journalists, discover the lives of black leaders and role models throughout history. Black Heroes: a Black History Book for Kids is packed with 51 brief and engaging biographies of inspiring figures from Africa, the United States, and around the world. Learn about how these outstanding individuals followed their passion, created lasting change, and paved the way for generations of future leaders."-- Provided by publisher.
Black History Month
O'Brien, Cynthia (Cynthia J.), author
2021
An overview of Black History Month as it is celebrated in Canada.
The bluest eye : a novel
Morrison, Toni, author
2019
Pecola Breedlove, a young eleven-year-old black girl, prays every day for beauty. Mocked by other children for the dark skin, curly hair, and brown eyes that set her apart, she yearns for the blond hair and blue eyes that she believes will allow her to finally fit in. Yet as her dreams grow more fervent, her life slowly starts to disintegrate in the face of adversity and strife. A powerful examination of our obsession with beauty and conformity.--from publisher's description.
The book of negroes
Hill, Lawrence, 1957-
2011
A sweeping story that transports the reader from a tribal African village to a plantation in the southern United States, from the teeming Halifax docks to the manor houses of London.
Deacon King Kong
McBride, James, 1957- author
2020
In September 1969, a fumbling, cranky old church deacon known as Sportcoat shuffles into the courtyard of the Cause Houses housing project in south Brooklyn, pulls a .45 from his pocket, and in front of everybody shoots the project's drug dealer at point-blank range. McBride brings to vivid life the people affected by the shooting: the victim, the African-American and Latinx residents who witnessed it, the white neighbors, the local cops assigned to investigate, the members of the Five Ends Baptist Church where Sportcoat was deacon, the neighborhood's Italian mobsters, and Sportcoat himself.
The hanging of Angelique : the untold story of Canadian slavery and the burning of old Montreal
Cooper, Afua, author
2006
I know why the caged bird sings
Angelou, Maya, author
2002
Author's memoir of growing up black in the 1930's and 1940's.
North of the color line : migration and Black resistance in Canada, 1870-1955
Mathieu, Sarah-Jane, author
2010
Oscar lives next door : a story inspired by Oscar Peterson's childhood
Farmer, Bonnie, 1959- author
2015
Policing Black lives : state violence in Canada from slavery to the present
Maynard, Robyn, 1987-, author
2017
The talk
Williams, Alicia, 1970- author
2022
As a little boy grows into a bigger boy, he first must have the difficult conversation Black families have with their sons, warning them about the challenges they face due to racism.
The vanishing half
Bennett, Brit, author
2020
The Vignes twin sisters will always be identical. But after growing up together in a small, southern black community and running away at age sixteen, it's not just the shape of their daily lives that is different as adults, it's everything: their families, their communities, their racial identities. Ten years later, one sister lives with her black daughter in the same southern town she once tried to escape. The other secretly passes for white, and her white husband knows nothing of her past. What will happen to the next generation, when their own daughters' storylines intersect?
Viola Desmond's Canada : a history of Blacks and racial segregation in the promised land
Reynolds, Graham, 1944- author
2016