Join our History Book Club, where we’ll read books that educate, inspire pride in how Black Americans have contributed in great measure to our country, and motivate us to take action. In keeping with our mission, we want the History Book Club to be an active experience. We want our readers to connect with history and identify ways they can apply the history learned to combat racism and promote unity—and then do it.
Since most of the books we read are more than 250 pages, in 2024 members voted to spend two months reading one book. So, each month we will discuss half of that month’s book.
The History Book Club meets at 7 PM CT on the last Wednesday of each month via Zoom. Click here to sign up for the mailing list to be notified of meetings and get a PDF of the History Book Club Calendar with Book Descriptions!
2025 History Book Club Calendar
This year’s books focus on resistance, persistence, and resilience. As we learn about the activists and issues in the past, we’ll continue to explore how the issues are still present today and require action from us all to bring about change. Check out the calendar below and scroll down for book details and meeting information.
January-February
March-April
May-June
July-August
September-October
November-December
2025 History Book Club Calendar
Please consider purchasing your books from a BIPOC or Black-owned bookstore in person or select one when you purchase online at Bookshop.org.
29
January2025
Be a Revolution: How Everyday People Are Fighting Oppression and Changing the World—and How You Can, TooWe’ll kick off the year with a book that inspires us to take action in the area(s) we are passionate about. “Looking at many of our most powerful systems—like education, media, labor, health, housing, policing, and more—she (author Ijeoma Oluo) highlights what people are doing to create change for intersectional racial equity.” We’ll discuss the first half of the book this month. Click here for book details.
7:00 PM CTZoom
26
February2025
Be a Revolution: How Everyday People Are Fighting Oppression and Changing the World—and How You Can, TooWe’ll discuss the last half of the book we started in January. Our discussion will include a recap of the racial inequities that exist in education, media, labor, health, housing, policing, etc. and the actions that resonated most with us. Time at the end of the meeting will be reserved for those who were inspired to take action and would like to share the action they plan to take. Click here for book details.
7:00 PM CTZoom
26
March2025
We Refuse: A Forceful History of Black ResistanceWe’ll kick off Women’s History Month and continue our theme of resistance with March’s book. In We Refuse, author and historian Kellie Carter Jackson shows how Martin Luther King Jr.’s and Malcolm X’s chose to resist white supremacy were not the only two approaches and “urges us to move past this false choice, offering an unflinching examination of the breadth of Black responses to white oppression, particularly those pioneered by Black women.” We’ll discuss the first half of the book this month. Click here for book details.
7:00 PM CTZoom
30
April2025
We Refuse: A Forceful History of Black ResistanceWe’ll discuss the last half of the book we started in March and what better month to continue doing so than during Black Women’s History Month. During our discussion, we’ll share our thoughts on this statement included in the publisher’s book summary: “Clear-eyed, impassioned, and ultimately hopeful, We Refuse offers a fundamental corrective to the historical record, a love letter to Black resilience, and a path toward liberation.” Click here for book details.
7:00 PM CTZoom
28
May2025
Black Radical: The Life and Times of William Monroe TrotterIn May, we’ll start reading Black Radical: The Life and Times of William Monroe Trotter, where author “Kerri K. Greenidge renders the drama of turn-of-the-century America, showing how Trotter, a Harvard graduate, a newspaperman and an activist, galvanized black working-class citizens to wield their political power despite the virulent racism of post-Reconstruction America.” We’ll discuss the first half of the book this month. Click here for book details.
7:00 PM CTZoom
25
June2025
Black Radical: The Life and Times of William Monroe TrotterIn June, we’ll wrap up our discussion of Black Radical, which we started in May. Black newspapers were a critical source of news for Black Americans in the early nineteenth to mid-twentieth centuries, since mainstream papers rarely covered relevant news or, if they did, they were oftentimes biased or blatantly racist. Our discussion will include the ways in which Black newspapers like Trotter’s Guardian, which became one of the most important national Black papers, fueled civil rights activism, as well as the significant impact that Trotter has had from the time of Frederick Douglass to today. Click here for book details.
7:00 PM CTZoom
30
July2025
The Colored Conventions Movement: Black Organizing in the Nineteenth Century“This volume of essays is the first to focus on the Colored Conventions movement, the nineteenth century’s longest campaign for Black civil rights. Well before the founding of the NAACP and other twentieth-century pillars of the civil rights movement, tens of thousands of Black leaders organized state and national conventions across North America. Over seven decades, they advocated for social justice and against slavery, protesting state-sanctioned and mob violence while demanding voting, legal, labor, and educational rights.” We’ll discuss the first half of the book this month. Click here for book details.
7:00 PM CTZoom
27
August2025
The Colored Conventions Movement: Black Organizing in the Nineteenth CenturyWe’ll discuss the last half of The Colored Conventions Movement, which we started last month (July). Click here for book details.
7:00 PM CTZoom
24
September2025
You Have to Be Prepared to Die Before You Can Begin to Live: Ten Weeks in Birmingham That Changed AmericaYou Have to Be Prepared to Die Before You Can Begin to Live reads like a thriller, introducing the reader to the civil rights leaders—Wyatt Walker, Fred Shuttlesworth, James Bevel and a lesser-known side of Martin Luther King, Jr.—behind the 1963 Birmingham campaign to end segregation. Starting 10 weeks before the campaign, the tension builds as Kix shows the challenges and events leading up to the campaign. We’ll discuss the first half of the book this month. Click here for book details.
7:00 PM CTZoom
29
October2025
You Have to Be Prepared to Die Before You Can Begin to Live: Ten Weeks in Birmingham That Changed AmericaWe’ll discuss the last half of You Have to Be Prepared to Die Before You Can Begin to Live, which we started last month (September). Click here for book details.
7:00 PM CTZoom
26
November2025
Civil Rights Queen: Constance Baker Motley and the Struggle for Equality In November, we’ll learn about a leading civil rights activist that many may not have heard of: Constance Baker Motley. “She defended Martin Luther King in Birmingham, helped to argue in Brown vs. The Board of Education, and played a critical role in vanquishing Jim Crow laws throughout the South. She was the first black woman elected to the state Senate in New York, the first woman elected Manhattan Borough President, and the first black woman appointed to the federal judiciary.” We’ll discuss the first half of the book this month. Click here for book details.
7:00 PM CTZoom
17
December2025
Civil Rights Queen: Constance Baker Motley and the Struggle for EqualityNOTE: The third Wednesday in December (12/24/25) is Christmas eve and the last Wednesday is New Year’s Eve (12/31/25), so we’ll wrap up Civil Rights Queen the Wednesday before Christmas on 12/17/25. We’ll discuss the last half of Civil Rights Queen, which we started last month (November). At the meeting, we’ll include the questions mentioned in the book summary provided by the publisher: How do the historically marginalized access the corridors of power? What is the price of the ticket? How does access to power shape individuals committed to social justice? Additionally, for those who set action goals at the beginning of the year and wish to share, we’ll reserve time to discuss how we did. Click here for book details.
7:00 PM CTZoom
The History Book Club meets at 7 PM CT on the last Wednesday of each month via Zoom. Click here to sign up for the mailing list to be notified of meetings and get a PDF of the History Book Club Calendar!
