Explore the Schomburg Center's Black Liberation Reading List

Schomburg's Black Liberation List for Young Readers.

For 95 years, the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture has preserved, protected, and fostered a greater understanding of the Black experience through its collections, exhibitions, programs, and scholarship. In response to the uprisings across the globe demanding justice for Black lives, the Schomburg Center has created a Black Liberation Reading List. The titles on the list represent books we and the public turn to regularly as activists, students, archivists, and curators, with a particular focus on books by Black authors and those whose papers we steward.

The Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture in Harlem, one of The New York Public Library’s renowned research libraries, is a world-leading cultural institution devoted to the research, preservation, and exhibition of materials focused on African American, African Diaspora, and African experiences.

We are pleased to offer a range of ways to access the Library’s research services online through Scan & Deliver, other expanded research services, online research assistance, our Digital Collections, and more.

Explore essential titles selected by the Schomburg Center as it marks 95 years of collecting and preserving Black history, arts, and culture.

For more on Black History, this Black History collection highlights the importance of teaching and celebrating Black History year-round, beyond Civil Rights and enslavement, to affirming the identities of Black people and their literature, art, and creativity that has shaped the culture of the world. The resources in the collection emphasize teaching centering liberation and teaching Black History that celebrates Black joy and Black brilliance.