49 African American Novels on Wikipedia

[Compiled By Kenton Rambsy]

The following list showcases novels in our “100 Novels Project” and their corresponding Wikipedia pages. Out of 100 novels in our project, 49 novels have Wikipedia pages of some sort.

We have organized the novels into three categories and by chronological order: Extensive, General, and Limited Overviews:

• Extensive overviews offer publication information, plot summaries, character lists, references to pop culture and criticism (such as TV, Movie adaptations, etc.) as well as major motifs.
• General overviews provide a general plot summary and, sometimes, historical information concerning the novel as well as critical reception.
• Limited overviews provide publication information and a short/concise summary of the novel.

 

Extensive Wikipedia Overviews

1900s

• The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man (1912) James Weldon Johnson

1940s

• Native Son (1940) Richard Wright

1950s

• Invisible Man (1952) Ralph Ellison

• Go Tell It on The Mountain (1953) James Baldwin

1980s

• The Color Purple (1982) Alice Walker

• Beloved (1987) Toni Morrison

General Wikipedia Overviews

1850s

• The Heroic Slave (1852) Frederick Douglass

• Clotel: or, the President’s Daughter (1853) William Wells Brown

1900s

• The Marrow of Tradition (1901) Charles Waddell Chesnutt

1920s

• Cane (1923) Jean Toomer

1930s

• Their Eyes Were Watching God (1937) Zora Neale Hurston

1950s

• The Outsider (1953) Richard Wright

• Brown Girl, Brownstones (1959) Paule Marshall

1970s

• The Bluest Eye (1970) Toni Morrison

• The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman (1971) Ernest Gaines

• Mumbo Jumbo (1972) Ishmael Reed

• Sula (1974) Toni Morrison

• Dhalgren (1975) Samuel Delany

• Patternmaster (1976) Octavia Butler

• Roots (1976) Alex Haley

• Song of Solomon (1977) Toni Morrison

• Kindred (1979) Octavia Butler

1980s

• Annie John (1985) Jamaica Kincaid

1990s

• Middle Passage (1990) Charles Johnson

• A Lesson Before Dying (1993) Ernest Gaines

• Parable of the Sower (1993) Octavia Butler

• Breath, Eyes, Memory (1994) Edwidge Danticat

• The Coldest Winter Ever (1999) Sister Souljah

• The Intuitionist (1999) Colson Whitehead

2000s

• Apex Hides the Hurt (2006) Colson Whitehead

• Sag Harbor (2009) Colson Whitehead

Limited Wikipedia Overviews

1900s

• The Sport of the Gods (1902) Paul Laurence Dunbar

1930s

• Not Without Laughter (1930) Langston Hughes 

1940s

• If He Hollers Let Him Go (1945) Chester Himes

• The Street (1946) Ann Petry

1970s

• The Third Life of Grange Copeland (1970) Alice Walker

• Meridian (1976) Alice Walker

1980s

• Tar Baby (1981) Toni Morrison

• The Chaneysville Incident (1981) David Bradley

• Sent for You Yesterday (1983) John Edgar Wideman

1990s

• Jazz (1992) Toni Morrison

• Paradise (1997) Toni Morrison 

• Parable of the Talents (1998) Octavia Butler

2000s

• John Henry Days (2001) Colson Whitehead

• The Known World (2003) Edward P. Jones

• Love (2003) Toni Morrison

• A Mercy (2008) Toni Morrison

[Notable Findings Concerning 100 Black Novels]