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A Juneteenth Reading List: Classic Novels by Black Authors

June 19, 2023
/
Literature
Nesha Ruther
Writer at Bond & Grace

Juneteenth, while only recently established as a federal holiday, has long celebrated the June 19th, 1865 proclamation that informed the last enslaved Americans in the United States of their freedom.

While the emancipation proclamation was passed in 1863, it did not immediately take effect in all Confederate states. In Galveston Bay, Texas, the last holdout of slavery, it would take another two years. Juneteenth commemorates the arrival of 2,000 Union troops that arrived in Texas to enforce emancipation, and the 250,0000 enslaved African Americans who were freed thereafter.

Black communities began celebrating Juneteenth as a second independence day in the Reconstruction period that followed Emancipation. In many ways, it is an even more legitimate independence day than the 4th of July, because while today is a day of celebration, it is also an opportunity for reflection. The enslavement of African Americans is not only part of our collective history, it continues to inform our present.

In commemoration of Juneteenth, we turn to the rich literary tradition of Black authors, who provide us with joyous, heartbreaking, and poignant insights through the diverse stories of African Americans in the United States.

Here are ten classic novels by Black authors to read today, and every day!

Passing - Nella Larsen

First published in 1929, Passing tells the story of childhood friends Irene and Clare, and how they navigate their mixed-race identity in a country that rewards whiteness and punishes Blackness.

Not Without Laughter - Langston Hughes

Langston Hughes’ semi-autobiographical novel centers on an African American community living in Kansas in the 1910s, and how race, class, and religion function within this microcosm.

Their Eyes Were Watching God - Zora Neale Hurston

A classic of the Harlem Renaissance, Their Eyes Were Watching God tells the story of a young Black woman named Janie and her struggle to find both love and freedom in her relationships with men.

Native Son - Richard Wright

Native Son is the heartbreaking story of Bigger Thomas, a young man growing up in Chicago’s South Side in the 1930s. While Bigger makes near-constant mistakes and commits terrible crimes, Wright’s insights reveal a larger systemic injustice behind Bigger’s action.

Invisible Man- Ralph Ellison

Ellison’s absurdist and experimental 1950s novel follows an unnamed young Black man trying to form his own identity among the vying political beliefs of Marxism, Black Nationalism, and Respectability.

Go Tell It On The Mountain - James Baldwin

Go Tell it On the Mountain tells the story of teenage John Grimes and his family, who are living in Harlem in the 1930s. Semi-autobiographical, Baldwin focuses largely on the multi-faceted role of the Pentecostal Church in John’s family and community.

Kindred - Octavia Butler

Written by one of the premier Black science fiction writers, Kindred chronicles the experiences of Dana, a writer living in 1970s Los Angeles with her white husband, as she begins uncontrollably traveling back in time to a 19th-century Maryland plantation.

The Color Purple - Alice Walker

Walker’s Pulitzer Prize Winning novel tells the stories of sisters Celie and Nettie who grow up in rural Georgia and struggle to form their own identities amid the expectations and interference of others.

Corregidora - Gayl Jones

Set in Kentucky in the 1940s, Corregidora recounts the life and family history of blues singer Ursa Corregidora as she recovers from an accident that has left her injured in the hospital.

Beloved - Toni Morrison

Set in the decades after the Civil War, Toni Morrison's iconic novel charts the traumas, loves, and dysfunctions of a formerly enslaved family whose Cincinnati home is haunted by a vengeful spirit.

We owe a tremendous debt to the Black writers who shaped our literary tradition and added new insights and perspectives on what it means to be free.

Happy Juneteenth!

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