Collage of the Top 100 African American Books of the 20th Century

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The Color Purple by Alice WalkerTheir Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale HurstonBeloved by Toni MorrisonAnd This Too Shall Pass: A Novel by E. Lynn HarrisI Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya AngelouSome Love, Some Pain, Sometime: Stories by J. California CooperDisappearing Acts by Terry McMillanInvisible Man by Ralph EllisonSong of Solomon by Toni MorrisonNative Son by Richard Wright2nd Time Around (A B-Boy Blues Novel #2) by James Earl HardyA Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine HansberryHomemade Love by J. California CooperSister, Sister by Eric Jerome DickeyKindred by Octavia E. ButlerA Lesson Before Dying by Ernest J. GainesFlyy Girl by Omar TyreeFriends and Lovers by Eric Jerome DickeyTumbling: A Novel by Diane McKinney-WhetstoneBlessings: A Novel by Sheneska JacksonWaiting To Exhale by Terry McMillanFor Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide/When the Rainbow is Enuf by Ntozake ShangeA Little Yellow Dog by Walter MosleyThe Autobiography of Malcolm X: As Told to Alex Haley by Malcolm X, Alex Haley and Attallah ShabazzInvisible Life: A Novel by E. Lynn HarrisPossessing the Secret of Joy: A Novel by Alice WalkerMakes Me Wanna Holler: A Young Black Man In America by Nathan McCallJust As I Am: A Novel by E. Lynn HarrisMama Day by Gloria NaylorThe Wedding: A Novel by Dorothy WestThings Fall Apart by Chinua AchebeBreath, Eyes, Memory by Edwidge DanticatLi’l Mama’s Rules by Sheneska JacksonOne Better by Rosalyn McMillanYour Blues Ain’t Like Mine: A Novel by Bebe Moore CampbellDevil In a Blue Dress (1st in the Easy Rawlins Mysteries) by Walter MosleySula by Toni MorrisonThe Bluest Eye by Toni MorrisonA Gathering of Old Men by Ernest J. GainesMy Soul to Keep by Tananarive DueRoots: The Saga of an American Family by Alex HaleyThe Selected Poems of Nikki Giovanni: 1968-1995 by Nikki GiovanniThe Street: A Novel by Ann PetryCane by Jean ToomerHow Stella Got Her Groove Back by Terry McMillanTar Baby by Toni MorrisonThe Souls of Black Folk: Includes “The Talented Tenth” and ”The Souls of White Folk” by W.E.B. Du BoisUgly Ways by Tina McElroy AnsaAnother Country by James BaldwinBlack Gold by Anita BunkleyCaught Up in the Rapture: A Novel by Sheneska JacksonOnly Twice I’ve Wished for Heaven by Dawn Turner TriceThe Heart of a Woman (paperback) by Maya AngelouA Do Right Man by Omar TyreeGo Tell It on the Mountain by James BaldwinThe Between by Tananarive DueThe Hand I Fan With by Tina McElroy AnsaThe Piano Lesson (1930s Century Cycle) by August WilsonThe Spook Who Sat by the Door by Sam GreenleeBig Girls Don’t Cry by Connie BriscoeKnowing by Rosalyn McMillanParadise by Toni MorrisonThe Best of Simple by Langston HughesThe Third Life of Grange Copeland by Alice WalkerTryin’ To Sleep In The Bed You Made by Virginia Deberry and Donna GrantBailey’s Cafe by Gloria NaylorIn Search of Satisfaction by J. California CooperJust Above My Head by James BaldwinParable of the Sower by Octavia E. ButlerTempest Rising: A Novel by Diane McKinney-WhetstoneThe Fire Next Time by James BaldwinThe ISIS Papers: The Keys to the Colors by Frances Cress WelsingMama Black Widow by Iceberg SlimMiss Ophelia by Mary Burnett SmithThe Wake of the Wind: A Novel by J. California CooperBaby of the Family by Tina McElroy AnsaBilly by Albert FrenchBlack Betty (Mask Noir) by Walter MosleyManchild In The Promised Land by Claude BrownZora Neale Hurston : Novels and Stories by Zora Neale HurstonThe Women of Brewster Place by Gloria NaylorBessie: Revised and Expanded Edition by Chris AlbertsonBlack Boy by Richard WrightMagic City: A Novel by Jewell Parker RhodesScenes from a Sistah by Lolita FilesThe Color of Love by Sandra KittWhat A Woman’s Gotta Do by Evelyn ColemanB-Boy Blues by James Earl HardyBelly Song and Other Poems by Etheridge KnightThe Color of Water: A Black Man’s Tribute to His White Mother, 10th Anniversary Edition by James McBrideCorregidora by Gayl JonesGiovanni’s Room by James BaldwinI Been in Sorrow’s Kitchen and Licked Out All the Pots: A Novel by Susan StraightIn Search of Our Mother’s Gardens: Womanist Prose by Alice WalkerJazz by Toni MorrisonMiddle Passage by Charles JohnsonPlaying In The Dark: Whiteness And The Literary Imagination by Toni MorrisonPush: A Novel by SapphireThe Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man by James Weldon JohnsonSounder by William H. Armstrong