8 Essential Queer Black History Books

Black connected Both Sides by C. Riley Snorton

In this broad book, C. Riley Snorton traces the histories of some Black and trans identities, examining their intersections, and the galore ways successful which history, literature, and popular civilization person erased Black trans radical from the conversation. He shares stories of Black trans radical passim the 20th period and offers thoughtful investigation of assorted texts, films, and different media. This publication skews academic, but it’s an important and worthwhile read, 1 worthy spending immoderate clip with.

Black. Queer. Southern. Women. by E. Patrick Johnson

This beauteous postulation of oral histories includes the stories of implicit 70 queer Black women surviving successful the South. Johnson’s careful, generous attack allows for the voices of Black queer Southern women to radiance done large and clear. Their stories are astir conflict and joy, queer household and community, absorption and faith, powerfulness and desire. It’s a affluent collection, and a reminder that queer Southerners person ever been here, adjacent when, excessively often, queer past renders them invisible.

Mouths of Rain: An Anthology of Black Lesbian Thought Edited by Briona Simone Jones

For anyone looking for a history-adjacent book, and anyone funny successful delving much profoundly into the intersections of Blackness, queerness, and feminism, this measurement of penning by and astir Black lesbians is simply a must-read. It includes the enactment of immoderate of the astir salient 20th period Black queer and lesbian writers, including Audre Lorde and Alice Dunbar-Nelson, arsenic good arsenic enactment from immoderate lesser-known but arsenic important writers.

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Not Straight, Not White by Kevin J. Mumford

Historian Kevin J. Mumford recounts the past of Black cheery men successful the aboriginal fractional of the 20th century, focusing connected the 1950s done the 1990s. He explores the roles that Black cheery men person played successful the large societal movements of that time, including the Black powerfulness movement, cheery liberation, AIDS activism, and civilian rights. It’s a broad past that illuminates some the contributions Black cheery men person made passim history, arsenic good arsenic the ways successful which mainstream movements person not ever made abstraction for their intersecting identities.

Looking for Lorraine by Imani Perry

If you’re looking for a bully biography — adjacent if you don’t often work biographies — this is simply a stellar one. Though she was astir celebrated for her play A Raisin successful the Sun, Lorraine Hansberry was a analyzable woman, activist, and artist, who fought for societal alteration passim her life. Drawing connected Hansberry’s penning and different archival materials, Perry paints a representation of a visionary creator and queer pistillate whose bequest lives connected today.

Lost Prophet by John D’Emilio

I work this publication successful my aboriginal 20s and I tin inactive retrieve however it felt to larn astir this monumental civilian rights leader, the main organizer down the March connected Washington — and a idiosyncratic I had ne'er erstwhile heard astir successful school. Bayard Rustin’s activism has not been mostly overshadowed by other, much celebrated civilian rights leaders, partially owed to his sexuality. This is simply a broad relationship of his life, arsenic good arsenic a large investigation of wherefore it’s taken truthful agelong for him to beryllium recognized, particularly successful the civilian rights past taught successful schools.

The New Negro: The Life of Alain Locke by Jeffrey C. Stewart

Are you looking for a wintertime speechmaking project? This 900+ leafage biography of intellectual, scholar, and prof Alain Locke, champion known for his captious relation successful the Harlem Renaissance and the galore Black authors and artists helium mentored, is decidedly a project. But it’s a fascinating one, arsenic Stewart doesn’t lone connection a nuanced look into Locke’s idiosyncratic and nonrecreational life, but extends his lens outward to the times successful which Locke lived, turning this enactment into a past of Black art, intellectualism, and aesthetics passim the 20th century.

Miss Major Speaks by Miss Major with Toshio Meronek

I’ve stuck with mostly histories and biographies, but I could not permission this caller autobiography disconnected the list. Trans elder Miss Major has played a large relation successful Black and queer societal justness movements. Her engagement successful the Stonewall Riots is legendary, but she has besides been instrumental successful warring for enactment workers’ rights and AIDS activism. In this book, she shares each the contented she’s gained implicit the years, with warmth, humor, and generosity.