Black Historical Fiction to Read in Your Book Club

Out a little later this month, this new book follows Ady, a young girl enslaved right alongside her mother, Sanite, to a Frenchman in New Orleans. The two spend as much time together as possible, daydreaming and walking along the river, often while Sanite tells Ady of the fierceness of their ancestors. When the two become separated, Ady is lost. But then she meets Lenore, a free Black woman, in an inn and learns of a secret society of spies called The Daughters. With stories of her ancestors fortifying her spirit, Ady joins The Daughters to fight for freedom.

While this takes place in New York City during the Reconstruction Era— which is right after Juneteenth— its portrayal of Black life isn’t mired in slavery and ill-treatment. While these things are, of course, understandably present in stories about Black people during this time, it gets tiring when that’s the only narrative offered. Here, Libertie Sampson was born free in Brooklyn and lives with her mother, one of the only Black women practicing as a doctor. Her mother has a plan for Liberty to follow in her footsteps by becoming a doctor and practicing alongside her. Libertie has her own ideas, though, preferring the arts to science. She accepts a proposal by a young Haitian doctor, who promises she’ll be his equal in Haiti, but tests determine that was a lie. I would have been beyond tight after traveling all that way to Haiti to discover everything was a sham.

Libertie is in a constant quest to discover what freedom means for her as she navigates the gender discrimination and racism of the world at large, as well as the classism and colorism present in her own community. Plus, Roxane Gay gave this five stars on Goodreads, so there’s that.

This ticks off a lot of boxes for me. It’s set in 1921 Chicago, has an investigation, a romance, and a depiction of both wealthy and everyday Black life during this time. It follows Nelly Sawyer, who is suddenly thrust into the role of wealthy debutante when her brother’s death makes her the sole heir to the fortune of “the wealthiest Negro in America.” But she’s not really cut out for the socialite life. Instead, she’s set on continuing her work as an investigative journalist, with her latest story being on a vice lord called “The Mayor of Maxwell Street.” That’s where Alabama-born Jay Shorey comes in. Seeing as he belongs to the same underworld as the Mayor, Nelly recruits him to help expose details of all the corruption in the city. But he — and the budding romance between them — ends up being more than she bargained for.

In her latest award-winning book, Due writes of the horrors of the Jim Crow South. It’s 1950 in Florida when 12-year-old Robbie is sentenced to six months at the Gracetown reformatory for kicking a wealthy white boy in defense of his sister. He can see ghosts, and the ones at the reformatory are something else — they tell of the horrors that have befallen Gracetown boys and warn him of worse things to come. Robbie makes friends who teach him how to survive, but if his sister can’t find a way to get him out of the reformatory in time, it may not be enough.