50+ Black Autobiographies and Memoirs, 1845 - 2019

Here's a roundup of black autobiographies. This list contributes to my ongoing bibliographies. It's no doubt a partial list.

1845: Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass by Frederick Douglass
1849: Narrative of the Life of Henry Box Brown by Henry Box Brown
1853: Twelve Years a Slave by Solomon Northup
1855: My Bondage and My Freedom by Frederick Douglass
1860: Running a thousand Miles for Freedom by William and Ellen Craft
1861: Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl by Harriet Jacobs
1901: Up From Slavery by Booker T. Washington
1940: The Big Sea by Langston Hughes
1942: Dust Tracks on a Road by Zora Neale Hurston
1945: Black Boy by Richard Wright

1965: The Autobiography of Malcolm X as told to Alex Haley
1965: Manchild in the Promised Land by Claude Brown
1968: Coming of Age in Mississippi by Anne Moody
1968: Soul on Ice by Eldridge Cleaver
1969: I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings
1970: Crusade for Justice: The Autobiography of Ida B. Wells by Ida B. Wells
1971: Gemini: An Extended Autobiographical Statement...on being a Black Poet by Nikki Giovanni
1973: Revolutionary Suicide by Huey P. Newton
1974: Angela Davis: An Autobiography by Angela Davis
1974: Gather Together in My Name by Maya Angelou

1976: Singin' and Swingin' and Gettin' Merry Like Christmas by Maya Angelou
1981: The Heart of a Woman by Maya Angelou
1982: Zami: a New Spelling of my Name by Audre Lorde
1983: The Autobiography of LeRoi Jones by Amiri Baraka
1986: All God's Children Need Traveling Shoes by Maya Angelou
1987: Assata: An Autobiography by Assata Shakur
1992: A Taste of Power: A Black Woman's Story by Elaine Brown
1994: Colored People: a Memoir by Henry Louis Gates, Jr
1994: Makes Me Wanna Holler: A Young Black Man in America by Nathan McCall
1995: Dreams from My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance by Barack Obama

1996: Leaving Pipe Shop: Memories of Kin by Deborah McDowell
1996: Bone Black: Memories of Girlhood by bell hooks
1997: Speaking Truth to Power by Anita Hill
2002: A Song Flung Up To Heaven by Maya Angelou
2006: The Audacity of Hope by Barack Obama
2008: The Beautiful Struggle by Ta-Nehisi Coates
2010: Decoded by Jay-Z
2013: Mom & Me & Mom by Maya Angelou
2013: Buck: A Memoir by MK Asante
2013: Men We Reaped by Jesmyn Ward

2014: Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption by Bryan Stevenson
2015: Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates
2015: The Light of the World by Elizabeth Alexander
2015: Brother Hollis: The Sankofa of a Movement Man by Hollis Watkins with C. Liegh McInnis
2015: Negroland by Margo Jefferson
2017: Hunger: A Memoir of (My) Body by Roxane Gay
2017: Democracy: Stories from the Long Road to Freedom by Condoleezza Rice
2018: Becoming by Michelle Obama
2018: Heavy: An American Memoir by Kiese Laymon
2019: Breathe: A Letter to My Sons by Imani Perry
2019: Finding My Voice: My Journey to the West Wing and the Path Forward by Valerie Jarrett

Related:
• Chronological List of 33 Slave Narratives
• A partial timeline of memoirs & autobiographies by black men by Jeremiah Carter
• A checklist of book lists