100 Black Novels by Decade, 1850-2010

The following list presents novels in our “100 Novels Project” organized by decade. These 100 novels constitute a relatively small number of Project on the History of Black Writing's (HBW) larger collection of more than 1,000 books. 

1850-1859            

• The Heroic Slave-A Novella (1852) Frederick Douglass                
• Clotel: or, the President’s Daughter (1853) William Wells Brown           
• Blake; Or, The Huts of America (1859) Martin R. Delany
  

   

1890-1899

• A Charleston Love Story of Hortense Vancross (1899) Theophilus Gould Steward
• Imperium in Imperio (1899) Sutton E. Griggs          

1900-1909

• Contending Forces: A Romance Illustrative of Negro Life North and South (1900) Pauline E. Hopkins    
• House Behind the Cedars (1900) Charles Waddell Chesnutt
• The Fanatics (1901) Paul Laurence Dunbar
• The Marrow of Tradition (1901) Charles Waddell Chesnutt           
• The Hindered Hand or, The Reign of the Repressionist (1905) Sutton E. Griggs   
• The Sport of the Gods (1902)Paul Laurence Dunbar

1910-1919                      

• The Quest of the Silver Fleece (1911) W.E.B. DuBois
• The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man (1912/1927) James Weldon Johnson  
• Conquest: The Story of A Negro Pioneer (1913) Oscar Micheaux  
• Hope’s Highway (1918) Sarah Lee Brown Fleming 

1920-1929

• Cane (1923) Jean Toomer     
• Home to Harlem (1928) Claude McKay
• Quicksand (1928) Nella Larsen
• The Walls of Jericho (1928) Rudolph Fisher

1930-1939

• Not Without Laughter (1930)Langston Hughes
• Black No More (1931) George Schuyler      
• Their Eyes Were Watching God (1937) Zora Neale Hurston           

1940-1949             

• Native Son (1940) Richard Wright   
• If He Hollers Let Him Go (1945) Chester Himes
• The Street (1946) Ann Petry 
• The Living Is Easy (1948) Dorothy West     

1950-1959

• Invisible Man (1952)  Ralph Ellison
• Go Tell It on The Mountain (1953) James Baldwin
• The Outsider (1953) Richard Wright
• Brown Girl, Brownstones (1959) Paule Marshall

1960-1969 

• And Then We Heard the Thunder (1962) John Oliver Killens         
• Lawd Today (1963) Richard Wright             
• Jubilee (1966) Margaret Walker
• A Glance Away (1967) John Edgar Wideman
• The Man Who Cried I Am (1967) John A. Williams
• Trick Baby (1967) Iceberg Slim
• Mama Black Widow (1969) Iceberg Slim

1970-1979

• The Bluest Eye (1970) Toni Morrison          
• The Third Life of Grange Copeland (1970) Alice Walker   
• The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman (1971) Ernest Gaines     
• The Cotillion: or, One Good Bull Is Half the Herd (1971) John Oliver Killens
• Mumbo Jumbo (1972) Ishmael Reed
• Sula (1973) Toni Morrison   
• There is a Tree More Ancient Than Eden (1973) Leon Forrest       
• Corregidora (1975) Gayl Jones
• Dhalgren (1975) Samuel Delany
• Eva's Man (1976) Gayl Jones
• Flight to Canada (1976) Ishmael Reed
• Meridian  (1976) Alice Walker
• Patternmaster (1976) Octavia Butler           
• Roots (1976) Alex Haley
• Song of Solomon (1977) Toni Morrison       
• Kindred (1979) Octavia Butler         

1980-1989

• The Salt Eaters (1980) Toni Cade Bambara
• The Chaneysville Incident (1981) David Bradley
• Tar Baby (1981) Toni Morrison
• The Color Purple (1982) Alice Walker        
• Oxherding Tale (1982) Charles Johnson
• The Women of Brewster Place (1982) Gloria Naylor           
• Sent for You Yesterday (1983) John Edgar Wideman          
• Two Wings to Veil My Face (1983) Leon Forrest    
• Annie John (1985) Jamaica Kincaid 
• Dessa Rose (1986) Sherley Anne Williams
• Beloved (1987) Toni Morrison
• Mama Day (1988) Gloria Naylor      
• Painted Turtle: Woman with Guitar (1988) Clarence Major           

1990-1999             

• Devil in a Blue Dress (1990) Walter Mosley           
• Middle Passage (1990) Charles Johnson
• Philadelphia Fire (1990) John Edgar Wideman
• Jazz (1992) Toni Morrison
• Waiting to Exhale (1992) Terry McMillan  
• A Lesson Before Dying (1993) Ernest Gaines                      
• Maud Martha (1993)Gwendolyn Brooks
• Parable of the Sower (1993) Octavia Butler
• Breath, Eyes, Memory (1994) Edwidge Danticat     
• Brothers and Sisters (1994) Bebe Moore Campbell
• How Stella Got Her Groove Back (1996) Terry McMillan  
• The White Boy Shuffle (1996) Paul Beatty   
• Paradise (1997) Toni Morrison        
• Caucasia (1998) Danzy Senna 
• The Healing (1998) Gayl Jones
• Parable of the Talents (1998) Octavia Butler           
• The Intuitionist (1999) Colson Whitehead   
• Mosquito (1999) Gayl Jones 

2000-2010  

• The Coldest Winter Ever (2000) Sister Souljah
• Erasure (2001) Percival Everett
• John Henry Days (2001) Colson Whitehead            
• Leaving Atlanta (2002) Tayari Jones
• Getting Mother's Body (2003) Suzan-Lori Parks
• The Known World (2003) Edward P. Jones  
• Love (2003) Toni Morrison
• The Man in My Basement (2004) Walter Mosley                
• Apex Hides the Hurt (2007) Colson Whitehead
• A Father's Law (2008) Richard Wright        
• A Mercy (2008) Toni Morrison
• Black Water Rising (2009) Attica Locke                              
• Sag Harbor (2009) Colson Whitehead         
• Getting to Happy (2010) Terry McMillan                            
• Some Sing, Some Cry  (2010) Ntozake Shange