Iconic Black Women
Biographies, memoirs, and other non-fiction books on Black women. Perfect for Black History Month, Women's History Month, or any old day!
created by displacedcactus
last updated December, 2025
Comments
Share your recommendations please! I'm always looking for more great non-fiction to read.
One Woman's Army by Charity Adams is what the Netflix movie Six Triple Eight was based on. Also, Hidden Figures? And my ever favorite: My Great, Wide, Beautiful World, by Juanita Harrison :)
Brilliant, thank you! This adds some much-needed diversity to what was going to be a very dance-heavy list (I've got at least one more book about Josephine Baker to add, and one about Katherine Dunham, just off the top of my head).
I am sure I have a few on my women's memoirs List but I can't remember them right now đ
Oh you sure do! I'll be exploring that list, lots of fascinating-looking books.
love these! I think Night Flyer by Tiya Miles, Survival is a Promise by Alexis Pauline Gumbs, and Looking for Lorraine by Imani Perry would fit. Maybe also when they call you a terrorist by Patrisse Khan-Cullors and Assata by Assata Shakur? On my TBR I have A Passionate Mind in Relentless Pursuit by Noliwe Rooks and Sojourner Truth: A Life, a Symbol by Nell Irvin Painter. Iâm reading (very slowly but enjoying a lot) Ida: A Sword Among Lions by Paula J. Giddings. If you want to include middle grade and stories about girls, thereâs also This Promise of Change by Jo Ann Allen Boyce and Star Child by Ibi Zoboi. I donât know whether youâd want to include Zami by Audre Lorde (itâs fictionalized a little) or something like Civil Wars or Some of Us Did Not Die by June Jordan. Iâm sorry if this is too many! (I can probably think of more đ )
No such thing as too many recs! I'm going to check all of these out.
Assata Shakurâs autobiography would be an excellent fit. She is absolutely iconic.
Added, thank you! That looks like an amazing book.
YES great suggestion, that book changed my life
gorgeous!!
Thank you! Let me know if you have any recs, you're always reading such great memoirs!
I will send some titles tomorrow for sure!
I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou would be a good fit! Will come back as I think of others.
Edit: immediately thought of two more memoirs How to say Babylon by Safiya Sinclair Men we Reaped by Jesmyn Ward
Thank you!
Oooh, also: Marsha! One of the best books I read this year :)
Iâm reading In Search of Our Mothersâ Gardens by Alice Walker (which might in itself fit) and sheâs writing about helping Mrs. Winson Hudson, who worked with Medgar Evans and fought the Klan with guns, headstart programs, and lawsuits, to write her autobiography. Mrs. Winson Hudsonâs autobiography has been published as Mississippi Harmony: Memoirs of a Freedom Fighter and while Alice Walker doesnât seem to have ultimately been involved anymore, maybe it would still make a good, less well-known addition?
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