Thumper's Top 100 African American Novels & Top 25 African American Authors of the 20th Century

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Rank Title (In No Particular Order)

1

Native Son - Richard Wright

2

Roots - Alex Haley

3

Invisible Man - Ralph Ellison

4

Go Tell It On The Mountain - James Baldwin

5

Their Eyes Were Watching God - Zora Neale Hurston

6

Jonah's Gourd Vine - Zora Neale Hurston

7

Dust Tracks On The Road - Zora Neale Hurston

8

The Ways Of White Folks - Langston Hughes

9

The Best Of Simple - Langston Hughes

10

The Big Sea - Langston Hughes

11

The Color Purple - Alice Walker

12

The Third Life Of Grange Copeland - Alice Walker

13

Possessing The Secret Of Joy - Alice Walker

14

The Autobiography of Malcolm X - Malcolm X as told to Alex Haley

15

Of Love And Dust - Ernest Gaines

16

A Gathering Of Old Men - Ernest Gaines

17

A Lesson Before Dying - Ernest Gaines

18

Ugly Ways - Tina McElroy Ansa

19

Song Of Solomon - Toni Morrison

20

Beloved - Toni Morrison

21

Paradise - Toni Morrison

22

Jazz - Toni Morrison

23

Sula - Toni Morrison

24

Your Blues Ain't Like Mine - Bebe Moore Campbell

25

The Chinaberry Tree - Jessie Redmon Fauset

26

Passing - Nella Larsen

27

Blacker The Berry - Wallace Thurman

28

Infant Of The Spring - Wallace Thurman

29

Cane - Jean Toomer

30

Corrediga - Gayl Jones

31

Black Boy - Richard Wright

32

Things Fall Apart - Chinua Achebe

33

I Know Why The Caged bird Sing - Maya Angelou

34

Middle Passage - Charles Johnson

35

Oxherding Tale - Charles Johnson

36

The Living Is Easy - Dorothy West

37

The Street - Ann Petry

38

The Spook Who Sat By The Door - Sam Greenlee

39

The School on 103rd Street - Roland S. Jefferson

40

Yesterday Will Make You Cry - Chester Himes

41

Billy - Albert French

42

Holly - Albert French

43

The Chartersville Incident - David Bradley

44

Black Thunder - Arna Bontemps

45

Manchild In The Promise Land - Clarence Brown

46

Plum Bun - Jessie Redmon Fauset

47

Push - Sapphire

48

The View From Here - Brian Keith Jackson

49

Black Betty - Walter Mosley

50

Gone Fishin' - Walter Mosley

51

Sassafrass, Cypress & Indigo - Ntozake Shange

52

The Wedding - Dorothy West

53

Touch - Charlotte Watson Sherman

54

An Open Weave - Devorah Major

55

Disappearing Act - Terry McMillan

56

Train Whistle Guitar - Albert Murray

57

When Death Comes A Stealing - Valerie Wilson Wesley

58

Pride - Lorene Carey

59

Sister, Sister - Eric Jerome Dickey

60

Make Me Wanna Holler - Nathan McCall

61

Dorothy Dandridge: A Biography - Donald Bogle

62

Playing In The Dark - Toni Morrison

63

I Been In Sorrow's Kitchen And Licked Out All The Pots - Susan Straight

64

The Color Of Love - Sandra Kitt

65

Divided Soul: The Life And Times Of Marvin Gaye - David Ritz

66

Bessie - Chris Albertson

67

You Send Me: The Life and Times of Sam Cooke - David Wolffe

68

Some Love, Some Pain, Sometime - J. California Cooper

69

Windy City Blues - Hugh Holton

70

The Queen Of The Blues: The Life Of Dinah Washington - James Haskins

71

Cold Medina - Gary Hardwick

72

The Between - Tananarive Due

73

And This Too Shall Pass - E. Lynn Harris

74

Magic City - Jewell Rhodes Parker

75

Waiting To Exhale - Terry McMillan

76

Black Mama Widow - Iceberg Slim

77

Pimp - Iceberg Slim

78

The Heart Of A Woman - Maya Angelou

79

What A Woman Gotta Do - Evelyn Coleman

80

Flyy Girl - Omar Tyree

81

The Selected Poems of Nikki Giovanni - Nikki Giovanni

82

Wishing On The Moon: The Life And Times of Billie Holiday - Donald Clarke

83

God's Country - Percival Everett

84

A Raisin In The Sun - Lorraine Hansberry

85

The Piano Lesson - August Wilson

86

For Colored Girls Who Considered Suicide When The Rainbow Is Enuf - Ntozake Shange

87

Belly Song - Etheridge Knight

88

The Essential Etheridge Knight - Etheridge Knight

89

The Cattle Killing - John Edgar Wideman

90

The Complete Short Stories of Zora Neale Hurston - Zora Neale Hurston

91

Moses, Man Of The Mountain - Zora Neale Hurston

92

The Kindred - Octavia Butler

I'm afraid this is the best I can do with the books. Of course I'm stretching some of the choices, the plays are actually in paperback so I guess they count.

 

Now for my 25 authors:
Rank Author

1

Langston Hughes

2

Zora Neale Hurston

3

Etheridge Knight

4

Toni Morrison

5

Alice Walker

6

Chester Himes

7

Wallace Thurman

8

Dorothy West

9

Lorene Carey

10

Nella Larsen

11

Ann Petry

12

Jean Toomer

13

Richard Wright

14

Alex Haley

15

Walter Mosley

16

J. California Cooper

17

James Baldwin

18

Chinua Achebe

19

Bebe Moore Campbell

20

Albert French

21

Maya Angelou

22

Gayl Jones

23

Charles Johnson

24

Ralph Ellison

25

Albert Murray