20 Essential Novels for African-American Women
What makes literature such a beautiful and compelling field of study is its fruitful bounty of diversity. Unfortunately, however, syllabi across the United States still tend towards books by dead white men, with everyone else competing for what few available slots remain. Progress has been made, of course, and dead white men still have plenty to say and offer. But the canon could easily do much, much better for itself. Whether historical, romantic, fantastic, mysterious or some combination thereof (or something else entirely), the following reads represent some of the best voices representing African-American women of today and generations past. By no means neither definitive nor emblematic of all experiences and perspectives, it still provides a great sample of some amazing books deserving of more consideration. Or, in some cases, fully deserving of the hefty recognition they already earned.
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The Color Purple by Alice Walker
Alice Walker's Pulitzer-winning classic gives an empowering voice to women marginalized along racial, sexual and economic lines, setting her story during the Great Depression. Protagonist Celie ultimately finds empowerment despite such severe social, political, filial and financial hardships thanks to the loving sexual guidance of her bombastic friend and lover Shug Avery. -
Beloved by Toni Morrison
Another sterling Pulitzer winner and rightfully lauded mainstay in the literary canon, Beloved compares and contrasts the times before, during and after the American Civil War. Haunting and intense, it features some horrifying depictions of slavery's reality and what lengths some might have gone to in order to escape it, including murdering loved ones. -
Their Eyes were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston
Featuring one of the strongest female leads in all of literature, Zora Neale Hurston's undeniable magnum opus follows a Florida woman through many different loves. Some horrid, some amazing, and all of them eventually shaping her into the self-assured, somewhat traumatized and frequently gossiped-about individual she eventually becomes. -
Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl by Harriet Jacobs
This fiercely feminist slave narrative comes so laden with autobiography it may as well be shelved as a memoir. Harriet Jacobs, here cast as Linda, recounts how masters tortured their female slaves more egregiously than their male counterparts, not infrequently involving sexual assault and rape. While graphic and heartwrenching, the novel does carry historical significance making it an essential read. -
Waiting to Exhale by Terry McMillan
Four middle-aged women show each other love and support through times of triumph and times of tragedy both inter- and intrapersonal. Although their individual stories do base a lot of characterization off their masculine relationships, it still turns a realistic eye towards dating and marriage problems. -
The Serpent's Gift by Helen Elaine Lee
Set at the turn of the 20th century, The Serpent's Gift chronicles a tale of two families whose lives begin overlapping in some interesting – some good, some bad — ways as time marches onward. For almost 100 years, they love, share and suffer through their middle-class Midwestern existence, impacted by some of America's most influential historical moments. -
The Women of Brewster Place by Gloria Naylor
Short vignettes bound together by common themes and characters greatly humanize the female inhabitants of a decaying urban neighborhood. They cycle through victories and tragedies, their emotions running the gamut from joy to despair to homicidal rage. -
Kindred by Octavia E. Butler
Science fiction and fantasy author Octavia E. Butler tackles time travel in her narrative of a young woman flung to a pre-Civil War plantation. There, she must serve as a slave in order to protect her identity – and ensure she even exists in the future. -
The Street by Ann Petry
Published in 1946, The Street takes a long look at the experiences of a young, single mother in Harlem harboring a love of books and Ben Franklin. The latter serves as her inspiration to keep pressing forward, working hard and ensuring the safest possible life for her beloved son. -
Betsey Brown by Ntozake Shange
The eponymous protagonist comes of age as the daughter of a doctor during school desegregation, witnessing firsthand the beginnings of the Civil Rights movement. Ntozake Shange juxtaposes Betsey's experiences with those of her parents Jane and Greer to showcase the different attitudes the generations held about social change. -
Push by Sapphire
Though illiterate, impoverished, twice-pregnant because of her father's repeated rapes and suffering under an abusive mother, the 16-year-old girl around which Push rotates pines for a healthier, happier life. Sapphire leaves her ending ambiguous, but by the end an alternative school has already bolstered her reading skills. -
Coffee Will Make You Black by April Sinclair
Bildungsroman buffs might want to pick up this novel about a young woman crippled beneath poverty and racism in Chicago's South Side during the 1960s. Appropriate for teens and adults, it offers up some sobering lessons about some universal and historical themes alike. -
What Looks Like Crazy on an Ordinary Day by Pearl Cleage
An Atlanta-based hairdresser relocates to her Michigan origins following a devastating and unexpected HIV diagnosis. She reunites with her sister, adopts a baby, rediscovers love and finds excitement in the city she once deemed unworthy. -
Iola Leroy or, Shadows Uplifted by Frances E.W. Harper
Iola Leroy stands as one of the first novels ever published by an African-American woman and concerns itself with the mixed-race daughter of a former slave owner and the wife he once owned. But once the planter dies, she winds up thrust into servitude of her own before being freed and piecing together the broken fragments of her family. -
Blanche on the Lam by Barbara Neely
Barbara Neely's debut novel introduced mystery aficionados to cook and housekeeper Blanche White, who eventually winds up playing detective while running from fraud charges. Her position as a majorly marginalized individual (along both class and race lines) allows her to go about her investigations smoother – handy, considering her first case involves a murdered gardener. -
The Bondwoman's Narrative by Hannah Crafts
Speculation about The Bondwoman's Narrative abounds, with many scholars believing it might be the very first novel ever written by an African-American woman; it wasn't published until 2002, however. This slave story makes for another first-person example about the horrors faced by people dehumanized by others who wrongfully forced them into bondage. -
Water in a Broken Glass by Odessa Rose
Odessa Rose's sensuous story twists and turns throughout an attraction triangle shared by a popular sculptress, a man she loves and the woman she ends up loving even more. It's a joyous journey through eroticism and art alike, and many readers consider it a major triumph of African-American lesbian literature. -
The Color of Love by Sandra Kitt
Even skeptics towards the romance genre can still appreciate The Color of Love for its frank, grounded depiction of the unique challenges interracial couples frequently face. Few authors ever put forth the effort to explore the realities behind such relationships, and fewer still with as much gravitas and intelligent commentary as Sandra Kitt. -
Praisesong for the Widow by Paule Marshall
At age 64, protagonist Avey Johnson heads out on a cruise to Carraiacou to find herself and better connect with her heritage after widowhood. Interspersed throughout her experiences on the Carribbean island are scenes taken from her childhood, marriage and motherhood to help her come to terms with where she's been and where she may very well go. -
Corregidora by Gayl Jones
Through the powerful voice of haunted blues chanteuse Ursa Corregidora, her brutal family history of slavery collides with the realities and experiences of African-Americans in the 1930s. Her newly-acquired inability to bear children challenges her to think of the bitter past that scarred her mother and grandmother.
Hear about the American's mass murder of the continent's indigenous peoples straight from the marginalized tribal leaders and citizens themselves.
The Holocaust may not have been the largest genocide in the 20th century, but it certainly stands as the most infamous. Eli Wiesel's harrowing memoir Night offers up a first-person glimpse at the gruesome realities behind the walls of concentration camps.
Read all about the ways in which the eponymous Belgian royal ravaged the African continent and almost singlehandedly screwed up its peoples – actions which hold some nasty repercussions even today.
Step into the mind and actions of one of the American Civil Rights Movement's most impassioned activists, hopefully gaining some valuable lessons in how to approach major injustices without violence or hate.
Another sterling glimpse into the philosophy of nonviolent resistance, this time from one of the men responsible for freeing India from cruel British imperialism and exploitation.
First-hand accounts and documentations of Japan's brutal massacre of China's then-capital collide here, shedding light on an oft-overlooked genocide occurring around the same time as the Holocaust.
For three months, Rwanda's Hutu tribe slaughtered the Tutsis thanks to sick government encouragement and support. This nauseating but necessary read gives voice to the minorities crushed beneath senseless sanctioned violence and might inspire many up-and-coming human rights activists.
While the Allied Powers were battling it out with the Axis, Josef Stalin – one of their own – was guilty of the very same genocide they were trying to prevent. Gulag takes readers inside Soviet concentration camps, where political prisoners, the convicted and anyone the totalitarian ruler didn't like found themselves tortured and executed to keep the citizenry in fear-fueled subjugation.
Look, this is undoubtedly a sick, stomach-twisting novel, but for human rights activists promoting equality, it might prove a valuable insight into the enemy's mind. Although about racism, the bigoted perspectives white supremacist leader William Luther Pierce (pen name "Andrew MacDonald") can be applied to any hateful individuals persecuting others for senseless reasons.
Read The Turner Diaries to understand the deranged minds behind smaller-scale acts of hate, discrimination and injustice; read Mein Kampf to understand how hell happens comes to happen a national scale. Adolf Hitler was undoubtedly one of the 20th century's nastiest monsters, but learning exactly how his mind worked might very well help prevent another like him from gaining power.
The harrowing, dehumanizing truth of American slavery comes to eloquent life in this inspiring memoir of rising above abuse and bondage.
Sex trafficking brutalizes and objectifies hundreds of thousands of children and women (occasionally men) worldwide every year – often right in front of unsuspecting citizens.
For female slaves, servitude all too frequently meant sexual abuse in addition to physical. Although this memoir takes place in America, those from other countries likely experienced (or experience) similarly horrific marginalization and exploitation as well.
Over the span of 608 pages, Milton Meltzer explores the horrors of slavery from around the world, including forced labor camps. He peers more into the past, however, and only lightly touches upon the horrors committed more recently.
Though fiction, author Sibel Hodge interviewed former sex slaves in order to paint the most realistic portrait possible. What results is a heartbreaking novella capturing the hopelessness, desperation and degrading horrors heaped upon innocent women and kids around the world.
Today's global slave trade – oh yes, darlings, it still happens – keeps some of the world's largest corporations running. Not for Sale chronicles the hows and whys behind the terrors and discusses solutions for ending the inhumanity.
Like the title says, Kevin Bales' book outlines what individuals at all levels of society and in every afflicted nation can do to make sure no other humans end up treated like cattle.
An activist and former exploited sex worker blends memoir and manifesto into one necessary human rights read. Now the founder of a nonprofit focusing on rescuing girls from degradation and manipulation, she discusses how her terrifying experiences eventually led to discovering her life's true calling.
These days, more enslaved individuals exist than in any other era, and they end up in neighborhoods around the world, even those in supposedly "enlightened" nations. Journalist E. Benjamin Skinner delves deeply into this underground world and exposes the myriad hypocrisies and greedy personalities what keep it going.
In a seemingly unassuming, upper-middle-class Detroit suburb, the author lived a truly terrifying life as a sex slave without anyone – not even her parents – ever knowing.
For all its successes, even contemporary feminism often struggles with addressing the needs of women of color. bell hooks looks at the movement on narrow and broad scales alike, offering up a case for more inclusive activism.
Between 80% to 100% of women worldwide experience public sexual harassment and "mild" assault (like groping), and yet few law enforcement officials ever intervene. This important study peers into institutionalized misogyny and what needs doing to make sure women can enjoy public places alone just as often as their male family and friends.
Women in more economically deprived areas of the world notorious for horrific human rights violations often end up left out of the feminist discussion – despite needing the movement's support most of all. Human rights activists must learn how to create more welcoming, heterogeneous spaces, and Feminism without Borders might prove a valuable starting point.
Females don't have to be born with an XX chromosome structure to be considered women. Discussions regarding equality should include transwomen in the mix as well, and Julia Serano explains the biology and sociology behind their frequent shunting. And why, of course, such attitudes just aren't right.
Although kaika, or female genital mutilation, existed as the norm in her Togolese village, Fauziya Kassindja refused to take part and fled the country mere hours before the ceremony. But escaping one particular atrocity didn't necessarily mean a life free of discrimination, marginalization and stereotyping, either.
Women's rights activists should get to know their feminist history, which issued forth a call the action decades before the movement's second wave finally crashed.
This feminist classic chastised "Western" society for its perceptions that women exist as delicate, inferior creatures and the ingrained actions perpetuating such hogwash.
Journalist Betty Friedan almost singlehandedly kick-started feminism's second wave with her in-depth exploration of the emotional, infantilizing prisons in which postwar American housewives felt themselves trapped.
Explore how the life of the prophet Mohammad and his views towards women clash with some (though by no means all) contemporary Islamic sects. This sociological work examines the faith from a feminist perspective, drawing up ideas as to making the more unequal corners quite the opposite.
Women's rights activists with a particular affinity for all things literary might want to pick up this popular memoir (rife with classic novel critique!) of forbidden education amongst some of the world's most socially suppressed women.
The Jungle may be fiction, but the journalist-cum-novelist's modus operandi revolved around very real examples of immigrant exploitation in America. Unfortunately, more readers wound up shocked (and understandably so!) by the super duper nasty depiction of substandard food processing.
Everything one needs to know about this anthology can be found more or less in the title. Read up on how human rights activists must also consider employee safety and fair wages in their activities and why so many tend to overlook even the most egregious violations.
Once hailed as "The Most Dangerous Woman in America," Mother Jones passionately fought for the rights of industrial workers – particularly children – brutalized by the careless, thoughtless profiteers valuing money over basic humanity.
Part expose on exploited immigrant labor, part feminist manifesto, Sweatshop Warriors celebrates the women of color responsible for spearheading awareness campaigns fighting unsafe working conditions. Many (if not most) of the individuals featured have themselves experienced these hazardous spaces firsthand, sharing their frequently head shake-inducing stories here.
This investigative reporter earned a bevy of attention after spending a year and a half working nothing but minimum-wage and low-paying positions. Despite what so many politicians claim, earning so little honestly doesn't provide enough to meet most basic needs – particularly when supporting a family.
Free the Children founder Craig Kielburger's life receives a thorough summary here, chronicling his standard suburban childhood all the way through his activism. His work takes him around the world fighting for the rights of kids worldwide crammed into inhumane employment situations.
Both startling photographs and heartbreaking stories relay the horrific reality of kids and teens suffering from backbreaking labor inside cruel conditions and abuses. What makes the phenomenon so awful is the amount of legislation protecting their basic human rights that so often go entirely ignored.
Get inspired by Cesar Chavez's heavily influential unionizing of farm workers (many of them immigrants) screwed over by the American companies taking advantage of them.
Dockworker-turned-Polish-president Lech Walesa held illegal union meetings while his country floundered under Soviet rule. Learn all about the Solidarity movement and hopefully find some kernels of encouragement here.
The fashion industry's notorious abuse of sweatshop labor is pretty common knowledge these days, though most people sadly seem to not really care who makes their clothes. Hopefully picking up this book will encourage compassion and a more humane, safe, and equal living for thousands (if not tens or hundreds of thousands) of workers worldwide.
At Northern Illinois University, you'll find one half of a local power couple, professor David Gunkel. His wife, Ann Hetzel Gunkel, is a professor at Columbia College Chicago. They've been referred to as an academic power couple in the Chicago area, and the title seems to fit: they're both award-winning scholars with PhDs in philosophy. Their work has taken them all across the globe, and they're highly sought after by the news media for their expertise. But they're not the only ones in the family finding fame: they've raised a son, Stas Gunkel, who in 2008, just days before the November 4th presidential election, received a personal thank you letter from Barack Obama in response to the young Gunkel's political blog.
