Anderson, Marian.
My Lord What a Morning: An Autobiography
. New York: Viking Press, 1956.
Marian Anderson, famous concert singer and opera performer recalls her early life in Philadelphia and her career.
Angelou, Maya.
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
. New York: Random House, 1969.
Angelou describes here her childhood in a small Arkansas town and in Saint Louis, and her high school years in San Francisco.
Ashe, Arthur.
Advantage Ashe
. As told to Clifford George Gewecke, Jr. New York: Coward/ McCann, 1967.
Focuses on the career of Ashe, beginning with his teenaged years in Richmond and Lynchburg, Virginia.
Ball, Charles.
Fifty Years in Chains
. New York: Dover Publications, 1970.
Life of Charles Ball who was born a slave in 1858.
Brown, Henry Box.
Narrative of Henry Box Brown, Who Escaped from Slavery Enclosed in a Box 3 Feet Long and 2 Feet Wide
. Philadelphia: Rhistoric Publications, 1969.
Bates, Daisy.
The Long Shadow of Little Rock
. McKay, 1962.
The story of the black high school students who desegregated Central High School in Little Rock Arkansas in 1954.
Beckwourth, James T.
The Life and Adventures of Jim Beckwourth
. As dictated to T.D. Bonner. Harcourt Brace, 1968.
Jim Beckwourth was a mountain man and trapper in the early northwest. His autobiography is a combination of actual events and probably some tall tales also.
Brown, Claude.
Manchild in the Promised Land
. Macmillan, 1965.
Pictures the squalor and crime of Brown’s early life in Harlem and in correctional institutions.
Bruce, H.C.
The New Man
. New York: Negro Universities Press, 1969.
Recollections of Henry Bruce as a slave and as a free man.
Butterfield, Stephen.
Black Autobiography in America.
University of Massachusetts Press, 1974.
Survey of black autobiographies from the slave narratives to the moderns.
Baldwin, James.
Notes of a Native Son
. Bantam, 1955.
Autobiography of Baldwin beginning with his boyhood in Harlem.
DaSilva, Benjamin, Finklestein, Milton. Loshin, Arlene.
The Afro American in United States History
. New York: Globe Book Company, 1972.
US History text on Blacks in the history.
David, Jay.
Growing Up Black
. New York: Pocket Books, 1975.
Anthology of the childhood experiences of nineteen black Americans.
David, Jay. Green, Catherine J.
Black Roots
. McCougall-Littel, 1976.
Anthology of autobiographical accounts written by twenty black Americans, some famous and some not so renowned.
Dennis, Ethel. The Black People of America. New Haven: Reader’s Press, 1970.
A comprehensive black history text.
Equiano, Olaudah.
The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, or Gustavus Vassa, the African (1789).
Boston: Beacon Press, 1969.
Narrative of the life of Equiano as a slave in Africa, his passage to America, and as a slave in America.
Felton, Harold W.
Edward Rose, Negro Trail Blazer
. Dodd, 1967.
Biography of Edward Rose, a black mountain man, hunter, guide, and interpreter in the southwest.
Flipper, Henry Osswain.
Negro Frontiersman: The Western Memoirs of Henry O. Flipper, First Negro Graduate of West Point.
El Paso: Texas Western College Press, 1963.
Memoirs written while Flipper served as a US Army Calvary officer in the southwest from 1878 to 1882.
Franklin, John Hope.
From Slavery to Freedom
.
Comprehensive history of the black man in America from slavery to the civil rights movement of the 1960’s.
Gregory, Dick.
Nigger: An Autobiography
. New York: Dutton, 1969.
Gregory recalls his early life including his civil rights activities.
Gibson, Althea.
I Always Wanted to Be Somebody
. New York: Harper and Bros., 1958.
World champion tennis player describes her career and her young years in South Carolina, Harlem, and Wilmington, Delaware.
Giovanni, Nikki.
Gemini
. Penguin, 1976.
Nikki Giovanni’s collection of essays ranging from personal recollections of her grandmother, the birth of her son, and her reflections on race and revolution.
Johnson, James Weldon.
Black Manhattan
.
History of the negro in New York and the New York stage. Negro experience in the depression period.
Johnson, James Weldon.
Along This Way: The Autobiography
of James Weldon Johnson
. New York: Viking Press, 1933.
Story of Johnson who was the secretary to the NAACP for fourteen years, he was a poet, lecturer, songwriter, lawyer, and teacher.
King, Martin Luther.
Stride Toward Freedom
. Harper and Row, 1958.
Autobiographical account of Dr. Martin Luther King and the Montgomery bus boycott.
Love, Nat.
The Life and Adventures of Nat Love.
New York: Arno Press, 1968.
Adventures of a railroad car worker which covers his life as a slave and later his experiences as a cowboy known as Deadwood Dick.
Lester, Julius.
To Be a Slave
. Dell, 1975.
A collection of writings by slaves and observers describing what life was like during slavery.
Malcolm X, with the assistance of Alex Haley.
The Autobiography of Malcolm X
. New York: Gorve Press, 1965.
Tells the autobiography of Malcolm a famous religious and race leader assassinated in 1965.
Owens, Jesse, with Paul G. Neimark.
The Jesse Owens Story
, New York: Putnam’a, 1970.
A brief volume primarily for young readers, Owens recounts major events in his life.
Parks, Gordon.
A Choice of Weapons
. New York: Harper and Row, 1966.
Parks reveals his life through 1943.
Quarles, Benjamin. Sterling, Dorothy.
Lift Every Voice
. New York: Doubleday, 1965.
Biographical sketches of four black Americans: WEB DuBois, Mary Church Terrell, Booker T. Washington, and James Weldon Johnson.
Robeson, Paul.
Here I Stand.
Boston: Beacon Press, 1971.
Autobiography of Robeson with essays on racial and political issues.
Washington Booker T.
Up From Slavery.
Williamstown Mass. Corner House, 1971.
Autobiography of Washington, his boyhood in West Virginia, his education at Hampton Institute and his work at Tuskegee.
Washington, Mary Helen.
Black Eyed Susans: Classic Stories
by and about Black Women. Doubleday, 1975.
A collection of stories that explore conflicts and strengths of black women. Contains stories by Jean Wheeler Smith, Toni Morrison, Gwendolyn Brooks, Louise Meriweather, Toni Cade Bambara, Alice Walder, and Raule Marshall.
Waters, Ethel, with Charles Samuels.
His Eye is on the Sparrow.
New York: Pyramid Books, 1967.
The autobiography of the life of Ethel Waters.
Wells, Ida B.
Crusade for Justice: The Autobiography of Ida B. Wells
. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1970.
Carries the life of Ida Wells through 1921. A noted civil rights worker and civic leader.
Wright, Richard.
Black Boy: A Record of Childhood and Youth
. New York: Harper and Row, 1966.
Famous fiction writer, poet, dramtiost reflects on his life in Mississippi, Arkansas, and Memphis and his jobs and criminal activities.