To gain a deeper understanding of Malcolm X's life, read The Autobiography of Malcolm X (1965). This was written in collaboration with Alex Haley and fills in more details and truth in this charismatic and controversial man's life.

James Baldwin's Another Country (1962) is set in New York's Greenwich Village, Harlem, and France. It is a searing tale that captures the emotions and the sensuality of relationships stripped of definitions of gender and race during the 1970s.

Go Tell It on the Mountain (1953) is Baldwin's first and most popular book of fiction. The story follows one day in the life of a fourteen-year-old boy, who recounts the harsh realities of his past.

Baldwin wrote two successful plays. The Amen Corner: A Play (1968) is a play about family. Margaret Alexander must face her estranged husband, a jazz musician, when he suddenly returns home...