Tag Archives: African American Women

African American Women Authors from Texas

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Since February is Black History Month and Women’s History Month is right around the corner in March, we decided to highlight five award winning African American women authors from Texas. Whether you enjoy historical nonfiction, romance, or mysteries, these women writers have something for you.

Reshonda Tate Billingsley

Reshonda Tate Billingsley is the national bestselling author of more than 50 books. She writes both adult and teen fiction, as well as nonfiction, and is she is known for her Christian Fiction series SAY AMEN and GOOD GIRLZ. She currently lives in Houston.

More information can be found at www.reshondatatebillingsley.com

Anita R. Bunkley

Anita Bunkley was voted one of the 50 favorite African American authors of the twentieth century by the on-line African American Literature Book Club. Currently a resident of Houston, she writes across several genres with romance, historical fiction, and mysteries she’s written in our collection.

More Information can be found at: https://www.anitabunkley.com/page/page/1042006.htm

Annette Gordon-Reed

Born in Livingston, Texas, Annette Gordon-Reed, is currently a history professor at Harvard University and was awarded the National Book Award and the Pulitzer Prize in Nonfiction for her work about Thomas Jefferson’s relationship with Sally Hemmings.

More information can be found at: https://hls.harvard.edu/faculty/directory/10329/Gordon-Reed

Attica Lock

Houston native, Attica Locke, is an award-winning author of the suspenseful Highway 59 series featuring Black Texas Ranger Darren Mathews as well as the Jay Porter Series, a legal thriller.  

More information to be found on her website, www.atticalocke.com

Angela Shelf Medearis

Known as “The Kitchen Diva,” Angela Shelf Medearis is a chef and successful children’s book author. After she realized that there were very few cookbooks that illustrated the contributions of African American culture and cuisine she decided to write her own.

More information can be found at: https://www.kitchendiva.org/about-us

African American Women Autobiographies and Biographies

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February is both African American History Month and Women’s History Month. With that in mind, here are several autobiographies and biographies on amazing African American women. Ministers, soldiers, athletes, mathematicians–African American women have done it all. Some of these women may be familiar and some may be new to you, but ALL of them can be read about via the Texas Talking Book Program.

BEHIND THE SCENES, OR, THIRTY YEARS A SLAVE AND FOUR YEARS IN THE WHITE HOUSE
KECKLEY, ELIZABETH
DB 94362, BR 15761

BESSIE COLEMAN: FIRST FEMALE AFRICAN AMERICAN AND NATIVE AMERICAN PILOT
SMALL, CATHLEEN
DB 91002

BOUND FOR THE PROMISED LAND: HARRIET TUBMAN, PORTRAIT OF AN AMERICAN HERO
LARSON, KATE CLIFFORD
DB 64511

CATHY WILLIAMS: FROM SLAVE TO FEMALE BUFFALO SOLDIER
TUCKER, PHILLIP THOMAS
DB 59297

EYE ON THE STRUGGLE: ETHEL PAYNE, THE FIRST LADY OF THE BLACK PRESS
MORRIS, JAMES MCGRATH
DB 81681

FINDING MY VOICE: MY JOURNEY TO THE WEST WING AND THE PATH FORWARD
JARRETT, VALERIE
DB 94980, LB 11113

HABEN: THE DEAFBLIND WOMAN WHO CONQUERED HARVARD LAW
GIRMA, HABEN
DB 96188, BR 22702

HIDDEN FIGURES: THE AMERICAN DREAM AND THE UNTOLD STORY OF THE BLACK WOMEN MATHEMATICIANS WHO HELPED WIN THE SPACE RACE
LEE SHETTERLY, MARGOT
DB 86234, BR 21798

LOOKING FOR LORRAINE: THE RADIANT AND RADICAL LIFE OF LORRAINE HANSBERRY
PERRY, IMANI
DB 92981

MYSTERIOUS LIFE AND CALLING: FROM SLAVERY TO MINISTRY IN SOUTH CAROLINA
RILEY, CHARLOTTE S.
DB 84674

NEVER CAUGHT: THE WASHINGTONS’ RELENTLESS PURSUIT OF THEIR RUNAWAY SLAVE, ONA JUDGE
DUNBAR, ERICA ARMSTRONG
DB 88898

RABBIT: THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MS. PAT
WILLIAMS, PATRICIA
DB 89915

STORMY WEATHER: THE LIFE OF LENA HORNE
GAVIN, JAMES
DB 69545

TIGERBELLE: THE WYOMIA TYUS STORY
TYUS, WYOMIA
DB 93189