Top 5 Black History Reads
It's Black History Month! Expand your knowledge and get a hold of these 5 books focusing on the history and culture of African Americans.
![](https://national-harbor.imgix.net/images/1619.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&crop=focalpoint&fit=min&fp-x=0.5&fp-y=0.5&h=240&q=80&w=320&s=4d0500121e70cad620bba64e890e270e 320w, https://national-harbor.imgix.net/images/1619.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&crop=focalpoint&fit=min&fp-x=0.5&fp-y=0.5&h=405&q=80&w=540&s=478aa6cc170132af3e65b1b40d821848 540w, https://national-harbor.imgix.net/images/1619.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&crop=focalpoint&fit=min&fp-x=0.5&fp-y=0.5&h=576&q=80&w=768&s=da167544da35454c4bde14bd62ab43b4 768w, https://national-harbor.imgix.net/images/1619.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&crop=focalpoint&fit=min&fp-x=0.5&fp-y=0.5&h=768&q=80&w=1024&s=af77a3a9eb11df980691e689e4b76917 918w)
1619 Project
by Nikole Hannah-Jones
In late August 1619, a ship arrived in the British colony of Virginia bearing a cargo of twenty to thirty enslaved people from Africa. Their arrival led to the barbaric and unprecedented system of American chattel slavery that would last for the next 250 years. This is sometimes referred to as the country’s original sin, but it is more than that: It is the source of so much that still defines the United States.
![](https://national-harbor.imgix.net/images/1619-water.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&crop=focalpoint&fit=min&fp-x=0.5&fp-y=0.5&h=240&q=80&w=320&s=e7750c3161662132e03df13f2b12fa0d 320w, https://national-harbor.imgix.net/images/1619-water.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&crop=focalpoint&fit=min&fp-x=0.5&fp-y=0.5&h=405&q=80&w=540&s=7aa5e5cb20a92f007848be7a8fca93a5 540w, https://national-harbor.imgix.net/images/1619-water.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&crop=focalpoint&fit=min&fp-x=0.5&fp-y=0.5&h=576&q=80&w=768&s=89f953f7d152b92a9103bd42a6239e98 700w)
1619 Project Born on the Water
by Nikole Hannah-Jones
A young student receives a family tree assignment in school, but she can only trace back three generations. Grandma gathers the whole family, and the student learns that 400 years ago, in 1619, their ancestors were stolen and brought to America by white slave traders.
But before that, they had a home, a land, a language. She learns how the people said to be born on the water survived.
![](https://national-harbor.imgix.net/images/come-up.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&crop=focalpoint&fit=min&fp-x=0.5&fp-y=0.5&h=240&q=80&w=320&s=65cc3607037010a684a5a665cd9b1a0e 320w, https://national-harbor.imgix.net/images/come-up.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&crop=focalpoint&fit=min&fp-x=0.5&fp-y=0.5&h=405&q=80&w=540&s=415d39a2cc40e6b55b92a85ca23addaa 540w, https://national-harbor.imgix.net/images/come-up.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&crop=focalpoint&fit=min&fp-x=0.5&fp-y=0.5&h=576&q=80&w=768&s=a97c95e36d52850aa63a4aae9f398ee2 768w, https://national-harbor.imgix.net/images/come-up.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&crop=focalpoint&fit=min&fp-x=0.5&fp-y=0.5&h=768&q=80&w=1024&s=8e3ea5c4ccd8a42b083857649b2f6486 1024w, https://national-harbor.imgix.net/images/come-up.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&crop=focalpoint&fit=min&fp-x=0.5&fp-y=0.5&h=900&q=80&w=1200&s=d18f5e6b1598cf893feb7670672325d4 1200w, https://national-harbor.imgix.net/images/come-up.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&crop=focalpoint&fit=min&fp-x=0.5&fp-y=0.5&h=1080&q=80&w=1440&s=43c4a13302bbeeba318d8c0452050785 1440w, https://national-harbor.imgix.net/images/come-up.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&crop=focalpoint&fit=min&fp-x=0.5&fp-y=0.5&h=1440&q=80&w=1920&s=c4622152142dac62f0276a30f46f350e 1724w)
The Come Up
by Jonathan Abrams
The music that would come to be known as hip-hop was born at a party in the Bronx in the summer of 1973. Now, fifty years later, it’s the most popular music genre in America. Just as jazz did in the first half of the twentieth century, hip-hop and its groundbreaking DJs and artists—nearly all of them people of color from some of America’s most overlooked communities—pushed the boundaries of music to new frontiers, while transfixing the country’s youth and reshaping fashion, art, and even language.
![](https://national-harbor.imgix.net/images/chocolate-city.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&crop=focalpoint&fit=min&fp-x=0.5&fp-y=0.5&h=240&q=80&w=320&s=b463ae717c28d8ec05ad5bc308c6bde8 320w, https://national-harbor.imgix.net/images/chocolate-city.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&crop=focalpoint&fit=min&fp-x=0.5&fp-y=0.5&h=405&q=80&w=540&s=8328d8002267a89c044160b8ee1bf217 359w)
Chocolate City
by Chris Myers Asch
Tracing D.C.'s massive transformations--from a sparsely inhabited plantation society into a diverse metropolis, from a center of the slave trade to the nation's first black-majority city, from "Chocolate City" to "Latte City--Asch and Musgrove offer an engaging narrative peppered with unforgettable characters, a history of deep racial division but also one of hope, resilience, and interracial cooperation.
![](https://national-harbor.imgix.net/images/black-history-color.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&crop=focalpoint&fit=min&fp-x=0.5&fp-y=0.5&h=240&q=80&w=320&s=11a697464103276a7227cfee47126b83 320w, https://national-harbor.imgix.net/images/black-history-color.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&crop=focalpoint&fit=min&fp-x=0.5&fp-y=0.5&h=405&q=80&w=540&s=6280fef631f594123739250442e50692 540w, https://national-harbor.imgix.net/images/black-history-color.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&crop=focalpoint&fit=min&fp-x=0.5&fp-y=0.5&h=576&q=80&w=768&s=f02ab1aceb3b18fe29b54db0be507565 768w, https://national-harbor.imgix.net/images/black-history-color.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&crop=focalpoint&fit=min&fp-x=0.5&fp-y=0.5&h=768&q=80&w=1024&s=670e31e766e8695554dfd13e475f9218 1024w, https://national-harbor.imgix.net/images/black-history-color.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&crop=focalpoint&fit=min&fp-x=0.5&fp-y=0.5&h=900&q=80&w=1200&s=85b0713c9f76a97d3a33d6c1065a2e0e 1200w, https://national-harbor.imgix.net/images/black-history-color.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&crop=focalpoint&fit=min&fp-x=0.5&fp-y=0.5&h=1080&q=80&w=1440&s=84ecbc371a50bd2d66e24b4d81d1611f 1281w)
Illustrated Black History
by George McCalman
Illustrated Black History is a breathtaking collection of original portraits depicting black heroes—both famous and unsung—who made their mark on activism, science, politics, business, medicine, technology, food, arts, entertainment, and more. Each entry includes a lush drawing or painting by artist George McCalman, along with an insightful essay summarizing the person’s life story.