2020 Nonfiction Books by African-Americans
2. 
Happiness Becomes You: A Guide to Changing Your Life for Good
by:
Tina Turner
4.17 avg rating — 2,564 ratings 3. 
Overground Railroad: The Green Book and the Roots of Black Travel in America 4.23 avg rating — 2,133 ratings
4. 
Our Time Is Now: Power, Purpose, and the Fight for a Fair America
by:
Stacey Abrams
4.42 avg rating — 8,136 ratings 5. 
Wandering in Strange Lands: A Daughter of the Great Migration Reclaims Her Roots
by:
Morgan Jerkins
3.99 avg rating — 2,086 ratings 6. 
7. 
Vanguard: How Black Women Broke Barriers, Won the Vote, and Insisted on Equality for All
by:
Martha S. Jones
4.05 avg rating — 798 ratings 8. 
Begin Again: James Baldwin's America and Its Urgent Lessons for Our Own 4.39 avg rating — 6,235 ratings
9. 
Driving While Black: African American Travel and the Road to Civil Rights
by:
Gretchen Sorin
4.17 avg rating — 830 ratings 10. 
This Is Major: Notes on Diana Ross, Dark Girls, and Being Dope
by:
Shayla Lawson
4.30 avg rating — 863 ratings 10. 
Black Widow: A Sad-Funny Journey Through Grief for People Who Normally Avoid Books with Words Like "Journey" in the Title 4.29 avg rating — 1,119 ratings
12. 
The Sword and the Shield: The Revolutionary Lives of Malcolm X and Martin Luther King Jr.
by:
Peniel E. Joseph
4.23 avg rating — 1,763 ratings 
14. 
Black Women, Black Love: America's War on African American Marriage 4.12 avg rating — 137 ratings
15. 
Black Diamond Queens: African American Women and Rock and Roll
by:
Maureen Mahon
4.43 avg rating — 93 ratings 16. 
Smokey Robinson: Grateful and Blessed, Words + Music
by:
Smokey Robinson
4.29 avg rating — 533 ratings 
18. 
The Other Madisons: The Lost History of a President's Black Family
by:
Bettye Kearse
4.20 avg rating — 1,101 ratings 
20. 
The Address Book: What Street Addresses Reveal About Identity, Race, Wealth, and Power
by:
Deirdre Mask
4.07 avg rating — 8,673 ratings 
22. 
Know Your Price: Valuing Black Lives and Property in America’s Black Cities
by:
Andre Perry
4.21 avg rating — 177 ratings 23. 
Lifting as We Climb: Black Women's Battle for the Ballot Box
by:
Evette Dionne
4.34 avg rating — 715 ratings 24. 
Hood Feminism: Notes from the Women That a Movement Forgot
by:
Mikki Kendall
4.36 avg rating — 60,802 ratings 25. 
26. 
The Shadow System: Mass Incarceration and the American Family
by:
Sylvia A. Harvey
4.25 avg rating — 81 ratings 
29. 
Baseball's Leading Lady: Effa Manley and the Rise and Fall of the Negro Leagues
by:
Andrea Williams
3.96 avg rating — 161 ratings 30. 
31. 
Reading While Black: African American Biblical Interpretation as an Exercise in Hope
by:
Esau McCaulley
4.42 avg rating — 5,844 ratings 32. 
Are You Entertained?: Black Popular Culture in the Twenty-First Century
by:
Simone C. Drake
4.50 avg rating — 6 ratings 33. 
Ebony Magazine and Lerone Bennett Jr.: Popular Black History in Postwar America
by:
E. James West
4.32 avg rating — 19 ratings 
35. 
How Sweet It Is: A Songwriter's Reflections on Music, Motown and the Mystery of the Muse
by:
Lamont Dozier
4.29 avg rating — 52 ratings 36. 
African American Poetry: 250 Years of Struggle and Song
by:
Kevin Young
4.67 avg rating — 230 ratings 37. 
The End of White Politics: How to Heal Our Liberal Divide
by:
Zerlina Maxwell
3.94 avg rating — 578 ratings 
39. 
A More Perfect Reunion: Race, Integration, and the Future of America
by:
Calvin Baker
4.09 avg rating — 102 ratings 
41. 
No, You Shut Up: Speaking Truth to Power and Reclaiming America
by:
Symone Sanders
3.98 avg rating — 428 ratings 
43. 
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52. 
Say It Louder!: Black Voters, Voices & the Shaping of American Democracy
by:
Tiffany Cross
4.35 avg rating — 649 ratings 53. 
55. 
Meals, Music, and Muses: Recipes from My African American Kitchen
by:
Alexander Smalls
4.25 avg rating — 88 ratings 
57. 
Say It Louder!: Black Voters, Voices & the Shaping of American Democracy
by:
Tiffany Cross
4.35 avg rating — 649 ratings 58. 
How We Show Up: Reclaiming Family, Friendship, and Community
by:
Mia Birdsong
4.24 avg rating — 3,441 ratings 59. 
Relationship Goals: How to Win at Dating, Marriage, and Sex
by:
Michael Todd
4.09 avg rating — 7,168 ratings 
61. 
The Buck, the Black, and the Existential Hero: Refiguring the Black Male Literary Canon, 1850 to Present
by:
James B. Haile
really liked it 4.00 avg rating — 1 rating 
63. 
African American Political Thought: A Collected History
by:
Melvin L. Rogers
4.67 avg rating — 6 ratings 64. 
Vegetable Kingdom: The Abundant World of Vegan Recipes
by:
Bryant Terry
4.10 avg rating — 663 ratings 65. 
Living Lively: 80 Plant-Based Recipes to Activate Your Power and Feed Your Potential
by:
Haile Thomas
3.94 avg rating — 110 ratings 66. 
Being Property Once Myself: Blackness and the End of Man
by:
Joshua Bennett
4.07 avg rating — 58 ratings 67. 
I Heart Soul Food: 100 Southern Comfort Food Favorites
by:
Rosie Mayes
4.44 avg rating — 129 ratings 68. 
Free the Land: The Republic of New Afrika and the Pursuit of a Black Nation-State
by:
Edward Onaci
4.24 avg rating — 41 ratings 69. 
How to Make a Slave and Other Essays (21st Century Essays)
by:
Jerald Walker
4.40 avg rating — 766 ratings 
71. 
I Don't Like the Blues: Race, Place, and the Backbeat of Black Life
by:
B. Brian Foster
4.42 avg rating — 38 ratings 72. 
Say It!: Celebrating Expository Preaching in the African American Tradition
by:
Eric Redmond
4.19 avg rating — 78 ratings 73. 
74. 
The Good Life: What Jesus Teaches about Finding True Happiness
by:
Derwin L. Gray
4.19 avg rating — 328 ratings 75. 
Black Beauties: African American Pageant Queens in the Segregated South 4.14 avg rating — 7 ratings
76. 
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82. 
Healthy at Last: A Plant-Based Approach to Preventing and Reversing Diabetes and Other Chronic Illnesses
by:
Eric Adams
4.09 avg rating — 327 ratings 
84. 
Wild Interiors: Beautiful plants in beautiful spaces, and how to look after them
by:
Hilton Carter
4.28 avg rating — 468 ratings 
86. 
Let's Get Married & Do Everything Except Make It Last: A Heart-to-Heart with Men on Loving and Leading
by:
Adrian N. Carter
4.60 avg rating — 5 ratings 
88. 
A History of the Black Baptist Church: I Don't Feel No Ways Tired
by:
Wayne E. Croft
4.21 avg rating — 14 ratings 89. 
The Merchant Prince of Black Chicago: Anthony Overton and the Building of a Financial Empire 4.17 avg rating — 6 ratings
90. 
92. 
Young, Gifted and Black: A New Generation of Artists: The Lumpkin-Boccuzzi Family Collection of Contemporary Art
by:
Antwaun Sargent
4.23 avg rating — 31 ratings 93. 
A Most Beautiful Thing: The True Story of America's First All-Black High School Rowing Team
by:
Arshay Cooper
4.35 avg rating — 6,160 ratings 
95. 
Is Christianity the White Man's Religion?: How the Bible Is Good News for People of Color 4.04 avg rating — 89 ratings
96. 
Compassion (&) Conviction: The AND Campaign's Guide to Faithful Civic Engagement
by:
Justin Giboney
4.32 avg rating — 2,046 ratings 
98. 
What We Know: Solutions from Our Experiences in the Justice System
by:
Vivian Nixon
4.42 avg rating — 24 ratings 
100. 
Madam C. J. Walker's Gospel of Giving: Black Women's Philanthropy during Jim Crow (New Black Studies Series) 4.25 avg rating — 75 ratings