These works of fiction and nonfiction from African American authors, the civil rights era, and beyond, are part of Vineyard Haven Library's "Alternative Classics" core collection. Inspired by the Alternate Classics Core Collection developed by a team of staff at Denver Public Library, we've identified books in our library's collection to recommend to readers looking to explore wider perspectives.
The 175 fiction and nonfiction titles in this collection are "great works from around the world that may not traditionally be thought of as classics... they are diverse and capture many different voices; they are enduring and important works of literature and narrative non-fiction that speak to the human condition, and are exemplary representations of a particular community, idea, or experience."
To view all titles in the collection with links to our catalog to place a request, visit https://www.vhlibrary.org/alternative.shtml
 | Autobiography of Malcolm X By Malcolm X 1992-09 - Ballantine Books 9780345379757 Check Our Catalog With its first great victory in the landmark Supreme Court decision, Brown vs. Board of Education in 1954, the Civil Rights movement gained the powerful momentum it needed to sweep forward into its crucial decade, the 1960s. As voices of protest and change rose above the din of history and false promises, one sounded more urgently, more passionately than the rest. Malcolm X - once called the most …More |
 | Between the World and Me By Coates, Ta-Nehisi 2015-07 - One World 9780812993547 Check Our Catalog Awards: |
 | The Black Book By Harris, Middleton A. Editor Smith, Ernest Editor Levitt, Morris 2019-12 - Random House (NY) 9781400068487 Check Our Catalog "The Black Book" remains a breathtaking testament to the legendary wisdom, strength, and perseverance of black men and women intent on freedom. . …More |
 | The Fire Next Time By Baldwin, James A. 1992-12 - Vintage 9780679744726 Check Our Catalog A national bestseller when it first appeared in 1963, The Fire Next Time galvanized the nation and gave passionate voice to the emerging civil rights movement. At once a powerful evocation of James Baldwin's early life in Harlem and a disturbing examination of the consequences of racial injustice, the book is an intensely personal and provocative document. It consists of two "letters," written on …More |
 | The Fire This Time: A New Generation Speaks about Race By Ward, Jesmyn 2016-08 - Scribner Book Company 9781501126345 Check Our Catalog The New York Times bestseller, these groundbreaking essays and poems about race--collected by National Book Award winner Jesmyn Ward and written by the most important voices of her generation--are "thoughtful, searing, and at times, hopeful. The Fire This Time is vivid proof that words are important, because of their power to both cleanse and to clarify" (USA TODAY). …More |
 | Frederick Douglass: Autobiographies: Narrative of the Life / My Bondage and My Freedom / Life and Times By Douglass, Frederick Editor Gates, Henry Louis 1994-02 - Library of America 9780940450790 Check Our Catalog Born a slave, Frederick Douglass educated himself, escaped, and made himself one of the greatest leaders in American history. His three autobiographical narratives, collected here in one volume, are now recognized as classics of both American history and American literature. Writing with the eloquence and fierce intelligence that made him a brilliantly effective spokesman for abolition and equal …More |
 | Invisible Man By Ellison, Ralph Waldo 1992-09 - Modern Library 0679600159 Check Our Catalog Ellison won the National Book Award for this searing record of a black man's journey through contemporary America. "Unquestionably, Ellison's book is a work of extraordinary intensity--powerfully imagined and written with a savage, wryly humorous gusto".--Atlantic. …More |
 | Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption By Stevenson, Bryan 2014-10 - Spiegel & Grau 9780812994520 Check Our Catalog Awards: " Bryan Stevenson's] dedication to fighting for justice and equality has inspired me …More |
 | March: Book One By Lewis, John Author Aydin, Andrew Illustrator Powell, Nate 2013-08 - Top Shelf Productions 9781603093002 Check Our Catalog Awards: Congressman John Lewis (GA-5) is an American icon and key figure of the civil rights movement. His commitment to justice and nonviolence has taken him from an Alabama sharecropper's farm to the halls of Congress, from a segregated schoolroom to the 1963 March on Washington, and from receiving beatings from state troopers to receiving the Medal of …More |
 | Men We Reaped By Ward, Jesmyn 2013-09 - Bloomsbury Publishing PLC 9781608195213 Check Our Catalog Awards: |
 | Quicksand and Passing By Larsen, Nella 2010-03 - Wilder Publications 9781604599923 Check Our Catalog "Quicksand and Passing are novels I will never forget. They open up a whole world of experience and struggle that seemed to me, when I first read them years ago, absolutely absorbing, fascinating, and indispensable."--Alice Walker "Discovering Nella Larsen is like finding lost money with no name on it. One can enjoy it with delight and share it without guilt." --Maya …More |
 | A Raisin in the Sun By Hansberry, Lorraine Introduction by Nemiroff, Robert 1995-08 - Modern Library 9780679601722 Check Our Catalog "Never before, the entire history of the American theater, has so much of the truth of black people's lives been seen on the stage," observed James Baldwin shortly before "A Raisin in the Sun opened on Broadway in 1959. |
 | Roots: The Saga of an American Family By Haley, Alex 2000-09 - Wings 0517208601 Check Our Catalog One of the most beloved bestsellers of all time that touched the hearts of readers across the globe, "Roots" is now available in the Modern Classic Edition marking the 25th anniversary of its first printing. …More |
 | The Selected Works of Ida B. Wells-Barnett By Wells-Barnett, Ida B. Introduction by Harris, Trudier 1991-04 - Oxford University Press, USA 0195062027 Check Our Catalog Four of Ida B. Wells-Barnett's moving anti-lynching essays are presented in this volume. Written during the height of the lynching craze at the turn of the century, they elegantly speak to the pain and loss caused by racist thought and action. …More |
 | The Souls of Black Folk By Du Bois, W. E. B. Introduction by Rampersad, Arnold 1993-10 - Everyman's Library 067942802X Check Our Catalog First published in 1903, this eloquent collection of essays exposed the magnitude of racism in our society. The book endures today as a classic document of American social and political history: a manifesto that has influenced generations with its transcendent vision for change. …More |
 | The Street By Petry, Ann Introduction by Jones, Tayari 2020-01 - Mariner Books 9780358187547 Check Our Catalog As much a historical document as it is a novel, this 1946 winner of the Houghton Mifflin Literary Fellowship is the poignant and unblinkingly honest story of a young black woman's struggle to live and raise her son by herself amid the violence, poverty, and racial dissonance of Harlem in the late 1940s. …More |
 | Their Eyes Were Watching God By Hurston, Zora Neale Illustrator Pinkney, Jerry Introduction by Williams, Sherley Anne 1991-10 - University of Illinois Press 0252017781 Check Our Catalog Initially published in 1937, this novel about a proud, independent black woman has, since its reissue in trade paper in 1978, been the most widely readand highly acclaimed novel in the canon of African-American literature. With this richly illustrated new edition, the novel is finally accorded the treatment it deserves as a classic. …More |
 | The Underground Railroad By Whitehead, Colson 2016-08 - Doubleday Books 9780385542364 Check Our Catalog Awards: Cora is a slave on a cotton plantation in Georgia. Life is hell for all the slaves, but especially bad for Cora; an outcast even among …More |
