Grace's Annual Black History Month
Books and Films
What Grace's People Are Reading and Watching
for Black History Month
click here for the list in PDF
Books:
The Warmth of Other Suns by Isabel Wilkerson. Tells the story of Black migration from the South in both human stories and historical terms.
Caste by Isabel Wilkerson. Explores the unspoken hierarchies that divide us across race and class.
The 1619 Project created by Nikole Hannah-Jones. This book speaks directly to our current moment, contextualizing the systems of race and class within which we operate today. It reveals long-glossed-over truths around our nation’s founding—and the way that the legacy of slavery did not end with emancipation, but continues to shape modern American life.
Black Sirens: The Incredible Story of the Black Men Who Became America’s First Paramedics by Kevin Hazzard.
Pauli Murray: A Personal and Political Life by Troy R. Saxby. A biography of a Black non-binary activist, teacher, lawyer, and the first Black woman ordained priest in the Episcopal Church.
Pauli Murray’s Revolutionary Life: A YA Biography by Simki Kuznick
Fire Shut Up in My Bones: A Memoir by Charles M. Blow. Charles M. Blow’s mother was a fiercely driven woman with five sons, brass knuckles in her glove box, and a job plucking poultry at a factory near their segregated Louisiana town, where slavery’s legacy felt close. Charles was the baby of the family and strongly attached to his “do-right” mother. Until the day that divided his life into Before and After – the day an older cousin took advantage of the young boy. The story of how Charles escaped that world to become one of America’s most innovative and respected public figures is a stirring, redemptive journey that works its way into the deepest chambers of the heart.
The South Side by Natalie Moore. An exploration of a portion of Chicago that has long embodied the problems and promises of Black America.
The Light We Carry by Michelle Obama. Practical wisdom and powerful strategies for staying hopeful and balanced in today’s highly uncertain world.
Soul Care in the African American Practice by Barbara L. Peacock.
Self Care for Black Women by Olodara Adeeyo.
Brown Girl Dreaming by Jacqueline Woodson. A mixture of poetry and narrative.
God Speaks through the Womb by Drew Jackson. Poems about God’s unexpected coming.
The Night Is Long but Light Comes in the Morning: Meditations for Racial Healing by Catherine Meeks. This book is a collection of meditations offering a refreshing approach to understanding the ministry of racial healing. Instead of answering the question “what shall we do,” Dr. Meeks invites us to contemplate the question “who shall I be” in order to engage “who shall we become?”
The Undergrown Railroad by Colson Whitehead. An extraordinary book that uses metaphor and science fiction and descriptive writing to force a reckoning with this country’s history.
Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston. Janie Crawford, an attractive, confident, middle-aged Black woman returns to Eatonville, Florida, after a long absence to gossip and suspicion.
If Beale Street Could Talk by James Baldwin. The moving story of love in the face of injustice.
The Best of Simple: Stories by Langston Hughes
Streaming
Till (Amazon Prime, $5.99). The true story of Mamie Till-Mobley’s relentless pursuit of justice for her 14-year-old son, Emmett Till, who was brutally lynched in 1955 while visiting his cousins in Mississippi.
Passing (Netflix). In 1920s New York City, a Black women finds her world upended when her life becomes intertwined with a former childhood friend who’s passing as white. Based on the novel Passing by Nella Larsen.