Born March 15, Harriet E. Wilson was the first African American to publish a novel in North America. Her novel, Our Nig, Sketches From the Life of a Free Black, published in 1859, is an autobiographical narrative that stands as one of the most important accounts of the life of a black woman in the antebellum North.
Born March 3, Lawrence Dunbar Reddick was an African American historian, professor, and author of the first biography of Martin Luther King, Jr.
W.E.B. Du Bois is another author born on February 23. Author of the classic, The Souls of Black Folk, Dr. Du Bois continued writing many more books on African Americans. Read more about this scholarly professor, writer, and civil rights activist here.
John Lewis was born February 20. Posting books about his life and legacy. Read more about him here.
Here are just a few books written by and about him.
T. Thomas Fortune was a journalist and editor. He wrote about civil rights and other issues. Read more about his life and writings here. Some of his more notable books are below:
At the Sherwood Forest Branch Library, I saw a documentary film about Dorothy Foreman Cotton, an activist, educator, and unsung hero in the civil rights movement. She taught voting education to people in the South during the civil rights movement. More information about her film can be found here:
She wrote a book titled “If Your Back’s Not Bent”
2019 Author Winner: A Few Red Drops by Claire Hartfield
2019 Illustrator Winner: The Stuff of Stars; illustrated by Ekua Holmes
2019 Author Honor Title: The Parker Inheritance by Varian Johnson
2019 Illustrator Honor Title: Memphis, Martin, and the Mountaintop; illustrated by R. Gregory Christie
2022 CSK Author and Illustrator Award Winner: Unspeakable The Tulsa Race Massacre by Carole Boston Weatherford; illustrated by Floyd Cooper
2022 Author Honor Book: Home is Not a Country by Safia Elhillo
2022 John Steptoe New Talent Author Award Winner: Me(Moth) by Amber McBride
2022 John Steptoe New Talent Illustrator Award Winner: The Me I Choose to Be; illustrated by Regis and Kahran Bethencourt
John Hope Franklin was born on January 2, 1915. He was an American historian who wrote primarily about American history. His classic and seminal work is:
Book: From Slavery to Freedom
Book: Mirror to America, his autobiography
Born January 1, 1915, John Henrik Clarke was a historian, professor, and Afrocentrist. He wrote and co-wrote many books on Africa and African history. Some of his more prominent works are:
Book 1: Christopher Columbus and the Afrikan Holocaust
Book 2: African People in World History
Book 3: Who Betrayed the African Revolution?
The CamaraIfe Maktaba 