Barack Obama shares Black History Month reading recommendations

In honor of Black History Month, former President Barack Obama is sharing nonfiction reading recommendations that shed light on racism in America.

“These works can help provide some essential context about the challenges many people of color face every day,” Obama wrote in a Facebook post.

“From modern memoirs to cornerstones of the American narrative, these works can help us better understand our country’s past and our evolving, persistent struggles with race—and they can be fuel on our journey toward a more fair and just future for all of our sons and daughters,” Obama wrote. “They certainly are for me.”

Obama’s recommendations:

• The Warmth of Other Suns by Isabel Wilkerson

• Stamped from the Beginning by Ibram X. Kendi

• Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption by Bryan Stevenson

• A Stone of Hope: A Memoir by Jim St. Germain with Jon Sternfeld

• The Upshot from The New York Times: Extensive Data Shows Punishing Reach of Racism for Black Boys

• The Fire Next Time by James Baldwin

• The Letter from Birmingham Jail by Martin Luther King, Jr.

• Frederick Douglass: Prophet of Freedom by David W. Blight