
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
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