Race and Civil Rights

BORN A CRIME
Author:Trevor Noah

A memoir about growing up in South Africa by the comedian, now the host of “The Daily Show,” whose birth was the result of an illegal (under apartheid) relationship between a white Swiss father and a black Xhosa mother.

HIDDEN FIGURES
Author:Margot Lee Shetterly

The story, based in part on interviews, of the black women mathematicians who were hired as “computers” by the precursor of NASA during World War II. The basis of the forthcoming movie.

BETWEEN THE WORLD AND ME
Author:Ta-Nehisi Coates

A meditation on race in America as well as a personal story by the national correspondent of The Atlantic, framed as a letter to his teenage son. Winner of the National Book Award.

THE NEW JIM CROW
Author:Michelle Alexander

A law professor takes aim at the “war on drugs” and its impact on black men.

JUST MERCY
Author:Bryan Stevenson

A law professor and MacArthur grant recipient's memoir of his decades of work to free innocent people condemned to death.

MARCH TRILOGY
Author:John Lewis and Andrew Aydin

All three volumes of Representative John Lewis's memoir of the civil rights movement are collected here.

MARCH: BOOK ONE
Author:John Lewis and Andrew Aydin

Representative John Lewis of Georgia describes his childhood and the beginning of his involvement in the civil rights movement. The first volume of a trilogy.

MISADVENTURES OF AWKWARD BLACK GIRL
Author:Issa Rae

Humorous essays on what it is like to be awkward in a world that glorifies cool.

YOU CAN'T TOUCH MY HAIR
Author:Phoebe Robinson

Essays by a stand-up comic on topics like race, gender, dating and feminism.

STAMPED FROM THE BEGINNING
Author:Ibram X Kendi

The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America.