This page brings together free pdf books about African American history. Our collection covers dozens of topics related to the full spectrum of Black culture, community life, biography, politics, civil rights movements, slavery, and emancipation. Materials range from older public domain works for free download to best modern books.
The Topics section below helps readers find books and documents within the huge Internet Archive collection, which includes periodicals and other materials, from older historical works to recent publications. Each topic link generates an Internet Archive search focused on that subject. Clicking our topics usually works better than searching Internet Archive directly.
The sections below Topics provide links to individual textbooks, vintage audiobooks and modern Open Access books. See those sections for more information.
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U.S. History Book Pages on Century Past
Browse Black History Books PDF Categories & Topics
The topic links below lead to Internet Archive search results related to pdf books on specific aspects of Black history, culture, and civil rights documentation. Each link opens a books-and-documents search focused on a particular topic.
Search results generally include fully readable eBooks and textbooks. For some subjects, Internet Archive also contains other media, such as images, audio, or video files. These can be selected from the media options above the search results. Filters on the left side of Internet Archive pages can help narrow search results by years of publication, language, or specific subjects.
- Arts
- Biography
- African Americans – Crimes against
- African American History Textbooks
- African American Influences
- African American Periodicals 19th & Early 20th Century – HathiTrust Collection
- African American Studies
- Antislavery Movements
- Black Americans History to 1863
- Black Americans Religion
- Black Americans Study and Teaching
Open Access Free Textbooks Black History PDF
The Open Access textbooks below are modern books made freely available online by universities, academic publishers.
Open Access Free Textbooks Black History PDF
Open Access textbooks are licensed by authors and publishers to be freely used, and were published or updated in recent years. You may also find here other learning resources, such as course lesson plans.
African American History and Culture – African American History Textbook PDF
Florida State College at Jacksonville
Achieving the Dream 2021
This textbook covers a variety of topics related to African American History and culture, from African Origins to the Reconstruction era.
Our Lives: An Ethnic Studies Primer – African American History Textbook PDF
Rowena Bermio, Vera Kennedy
Hancock College 2022
Content focuses on major concepts, theories, perspectives, and voices in ethnic studies with research from anthropology, history, political science, psychology, and sociology to offer an inclusive approach for critical inquiry. Modules include learning objectives, a list of key terms and concepts, applications (exercises), biological reflections (stories), summary, and review questions.
Race and Ethnic Relations in the U.S.: An Intersectional Approach – African American History Textbook PDF
Carlos Ramos, Janet Hund, et al
LibreTexts 2022
With an eye on social justice and intersectionality, the text provides a sociological analysis of the history, demographics, and contemporary experiences of the following race-ethnic groups: African Americans, Asian American Pacific Islanders, Euro Americans, Latinx, Native Americans, Middle Eastern Americans, and immigrants.
Slavery to Liberation: The African American Experience (Second Edition) – African American History Textbook PDF
Gwendolyn Graham, Joshua Farrington, et al
Eastern Kentucky Univ. 2022
Gives instructors, students, and general readers a comprehensive and up-to-date account of African Americans’ cultural and political history, economic development, artistic expressiveness, and religious and philosophical worldviews in a critical framework.
An Introduction to African and Afro-Diasporic Peoples and Influences in British Literature and Culture before the Industrial Revolution – Free African American History Textbook PDF
Jenny Halpin, Jonathan Elmore
Univ. System of Georgia 2022
Corrects, expands, and celebrates the presence of the African Diaspora in the study of British Literature, undoing some of the anti-Black history of British studies.
Free Audio Books Black History Download & Stream
These links to audiobook searches of African American history subjects lead to public domain recordings from the LibriVox.org collection at Internet Archive. The audiobooks, recorded by Librivox volunteers, were nearly all published before 1930. Recordings include works on personal memoirs, slave narratives, and early social commentary on racial dynamics.
All Librivox audiobooks are in the public domain. They can be freely streamed online or downloaded for offline listening.
Open Access African American History PDF Download Free
The Open Access materials below are modern books and other works made freely available online by universities, academic publishers, the Library of Congress, and other nonprofit organizations. Open Access collections usually include pdf textbooks, online courses, classroom lesson plans, and recent academic books that reflect current scholarship and research.
Some works may only be read online, but many can be downloaded as PDF or EPUB files.
Related Pages on Century Past
See our comprehensive Century Past directories for hundreds of dedicated pages featuring Books; Magazines; Articles, Vintage Maps, & Archival Photos; and Newspapers. You’ll find these same exact directories listed on our top main navigation Menu. Here are some highly recommended related pages: