Top 24: Reading for Understanding 2023

We asked — you voted from a list of 100 books.

These are the Top 24 books selected for our 2023 Reading for Understanding monthly virtual discussions.

Over the next weeks, the members of our Reading for Understanding workgroup will select the final 12 books for 2023. Special thanks to the workgroup: Sabrina, Cherie, Ken, Alicia, Mary, Ida, Diane and Deborah.

1. Indigenous People’s History of the U.S. by Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz

2. Driving While Black: African American Travel and the Road to Civil Rights by Gretchen Sorin

3. The Other Slavery: The Uncovered Story of Indian Enslavement in America by Andres Resendez

4. The Three Mothers: How the Mothers of Martin Luther King, Jr, Malcolm X, and James Baldwin Shaped A Nation by Anna Malaika Tubbs

5. Why We Can’t Wait by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

6. The 1619 Project by Nikole Hannah-Jones and others

7. Racism Without Racists: Color-Blind Racism and the Persistence of Racial Inequality in America by Eduardo Bonilla-Silva

8. Post Traumatic Slave Syndrome: America's Legacy of Enduring Injury and Healing by Joy A. Degrup

9. Medical Apartheid: The Dark History of Medical Experimentation on Black Americans from Colonial Times to the Present by Harriet A. Washington

10. America for Americans: A History of Xenophobia in the United States by Erika Lee

11. A Black Women's History of the United States by Daina Ramey Berry and Kali Nicole Gross

12. Begin Again: James Baldwin’s America and Its Urgent Lessons for Our Own by Eddie S. Glaude Jr.

13. How the Other Half Eats: The Untold Story of Food and Inequality in America by Priya Fielding-Singh, PhD

14. Inventing Latinos: A New Story of American Racism by Laura E. Gómez

15. Living While Black: Using Joy, Beauty, and Connection to Heal Racial Trauma by Guilaine Kinouani

16. A Country of Strangers: Blacks and Whites in America by David K. Shipler

17. An Uncommon Faith: A Pragmatic Approach to the Study of African American Religion by Eddie S. Glaude Jr.

18. Colored People by Henry Louis Gates

19. Harvest of Empire: A History of Latinos in America by Juan Gonzalez

20. Learning from the Germans: Race and the Memory of Evil by Susan Nieman

21. My Grandmother's Hands by Resmaa Menakem

22. Not a Nation of Immigrants: Settler Colonialism, White Supremacy, and a History of Erasure and Exclusion by Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz

23. Parable of the Sower by Octavia E. Butler

24. African American and LatinX History of the U.S. by Paul Ortiz

Support black-owned or independent bookstores.

Find a store in your area and shop in-person or online:

• https://www.oprahdaily.com/entertainment/books/a33497812/black-owned-bookstores/

• https://aalbc.com/bookstores/list.php

Participants are encouraged to continue learning through the Center’s Eradicating Racism: A Path Forward learning series.