Racism book series in reading order

by Kate Chopin

by Malorie Blackman

James Baldwin

40 books• 4 series

James Baldwin (August 2, 1924 - December 1, 1987), born James Arthur Jones, was an American writer and civil rights activist whose essays, novels, plays and poems drew wide acclaim. Time magazine ranked Go Tell It on the Mountain among the top 100 English-language novels. The essay collection Notes of a Native Son (1955) established Baldwin as a voice for human equality, and a 1965 debate with William Buckley became a landmark on race in the United States. Catalogued works include Giovanni's Room (1956), Another Country (1962) and The Fire Next Time (1963), with race relations and African American life as recurring subjects.

Kate Chopin

25 books• 4 series

The Awakening (1899) is the novel Kate Chopin is best known for today. Born Katherine O'Flaherty in St. Louis, Missouri, on February 8, 1850, Chopin was of French descent on her mother's side and Irish on her father's, and died on August 22, 1904. After marrying, Chopin lived in New Orleans and later in rural Cloutierville, Louisiana. Scholars treat Chopin as a forerunner of 20th-century American feminist writers. Her 25-title catalogue opens with At Fault (1890) and includes Desiree's Baby (1893) and The Story of an Hour (1894), with Louisiana Creoles, race and selfhood among the subjects.

Michael Eric Dyson writes on race relations, racism and African American intellectual life, with rap music, popular culture, African American arts and the civil rights movement among the catalogued subjects. The 28 books run from Reflecting Black (1993) to Represent: The Unfinished Fight for the Vote (2024). Making Malcolm (1995), Between God and Gangsta Rap (1996), Race Rules (1996) and I May Not Get There With You (2000) sit in the earlier part of the list. The 2000s are the busiest decade, the median book is 294 pages, and Dyson remains actively publishing.

Kekla Magoon

24 books• 7 series

Kekla Magoon, born 1980, is an American author of young adult and middle grade fiction, short stories, and non-fiction on historical, socio-political and economic subjects. The Rock and the River, nominated for an NAACP Image Award, opens the catalogue in 2009. How It Went Down (2014), X (2015) and The Season of Styx Malone stand among Magoon's known titles, and the American Library Association gave Magoon its Margaret Edwards Award in 2021 for a body of work. The 24 catalogued books reach Ayana Ndoum Takes the Stage (2025). Recorded subjects include African Americans, civil rights movements, the Black Panther Party, racism, race relations, and robbers and outlaws.

Toni Morrison

46 books• 11 series

Toni Morrison, born Chloe Ardelia Wofford (1931-2019), was an American novelist and editor and the 1993 Nobel laureate in Literature. The Bluest Eye (1970) was Morrison's first novel. Song of Solomon (1977) won the National Book Critics Circle Award, and Beloved (1987) won the Pulitzer Prize in 1988. Sula (1973) and Recitatif (1983) are further works. Morrison grew up in Lorain, Ohio, and earned a B.A. in English at Howard University in 1953. The catalogue lists 46 books, including non-fiction, plays and short fiction, with Language as Liberation dated 2026.

Malorie Blackman

78 books• 10 series

Malorie Blackman, born Oneta Malorie Blackman on 8 February 1962, is a British writer and was Children's Laureate from 2013 to 2015. Blackman writes books and television drama for children and young adults and uses science fiction to examine social and ethical questions. The Noughts and Crosses series uses a fictional alternative Britain to examine racism. Blackman won the 2022 PEN Pinter Prize and became a dame in the King's 2026 Birthday Honours. The 78 catalogued books run from Not So Stupid! (1990) to Just Sayin': My Life In Words (2022).

Ibram X. Kendi

10 books

Ibram X. Kendi, born Ibram Henry Rogers on August 13, 1982, is an American author, professor, anti-racism activist and historian of race and discriminatory policy in the United States. Kendi founded the Center for Antiracist Research at Boston University in July 2020 and directed it until 2025. Time named Kendi among its 100 Most Influential People of 2020. The catalogue holds 10 books from The Black Campus Movement (2012) to Chain of Ideas (2026), including Stamped from the Beginning (2016), How to Be an Antiracist (2019) and Antiracist Baby (2020).

Chester Himes

23 books• 2 series

Chester Himes (July 29, 1909 - November 12, 1984) was an American writer, several of whose works were filmed. If He Hollers Let Him Go appeared in 1945. Himes is best known for the Harlem Detective novels, set in the 1950s and early 1960s, whose leads are two black policemen, Grave Digger Jones and Coffin Ed Johnson. France awarded Himes the Grand Prix de Littérature Policière in 1958. The catalogue lists 23 books, including Lonely Crusade (1947), For Love of Imabelle / A Rage in Harlem (1957), The Real Cool Killers (1958) and All Shot Up (1960).

Eric Brown was a British science fiction author and a critic for The Guardian, born on 24 May 1960 and died on 21 March 2023. Catalogue subjects include space opera, human-alien encounters, space colonies and mystery. The earliest listed book is The Time Lapsed Man And Other Stories (1990), followed by Meridian Days (1992) and Engineman (1994). Series credited to Brown include Langham and Dupré Mystery, Starship Seasons, Telemass Quartet, Virex Trilogy and Bengal Station.

Eric Walters

207 books• 18 series

Eric Walters, full name Eric Robert Walters, is a Canadian author of young adult fiction and picture books, born March 3, 1957 and the writer of more than 130 books. The catalogue lists 207 books from Stand Your Ground (1994) to Werewolves Don't Keep Diaries (2026). Series include Camp X, Rule of Three, Orca Echoes, Tiger, War Of The Eagles, We All Fall Down, Catboy and Teen Astronauts. Subjects include basketball, survival, orphans, the Second World War and adventure.

Michael R. Phillips writes Christian historical fiction. The Stonewycke books opened the catalogue in 1985 with The Heather Hills of Stonewycke, and the Journals of Corrie Belle Hollister follow a teenage girl in California. Later series include The Russians, Secret of the Rose, Secrets of Heathersleigh Hall, Shenandoah Sisters and Carolina Cousins. Reconstruction, plantation life, race relations and orphans sit among the subjects. The catalogue holds 89 books through Praying with David (2026), at a median of 367 pages.

Carole Boston Weatherford

67 books• 1 series

Carole Boston Weatherford, born Carole Michele Boston on February 13, 1956, is an American author, poet and critic. More than 50 of Weatherford's children's books have been published, mostly non-fiction and poetry. Unspeakable: The Tulsa Race Massacre won the 2022 Coretta Scott King Author Award, and Weatherford received the Children's Literature Legacy Award in 2025. African American history, civil rights and slavery appear among the subjects. The catalogue lists 67 books from Juneteenth Jamboree (1995) to Kin: Rooted in Hope (2023).

Julius Lester

48 books• 2 series

To Be a Slave (1968) opens the catalogue of Julius Lester, an American writer for both children and adults who was also a civil rights activist, a photographer and a musician with two recorded albums of folk music and original songs. Lester taught at the University of Massachusetts Amherst for 32 years, from 1971 to 2003. The 48 listed titles run to The Girl Who Saved Yesterday (2016) and return to African American history, slavery, folktales and race relations. Lester lived from 1939 to 2018.

George P. Pelecanos

27 books• 8 series

Washington, D.C. is the home ground of George P. Pelecanos, an American crime novelist who also works in television as a writer and producer. The 27 catalogued Pelecanos books run from A Firing Offense (1992) to The Blue Flame (2026). The Nick Stefanos, Derek Strange & Terry Quinn and Spero Lucas series sit beside the D.C. Quartet and standalone novels. For television, Pelecanos wrote episodes of The Wire and Treme with David Simon, and the two co-created The Deuce and We Own This City for HBO. Pelecanos was born in 1957.