In honoring women who made history, the Southern Poverty Law Center is highlighting books banned in several U.S. schools and libraries or narrowly banned in local school districts.
As we celebrate Women’s History Month, the SPLC is sharing this book list to spotlight some of the ways in which women across history have used the power of the written word to push back against racial and social injustice and to recognize the fullness and diversity of life over narrowness, intolerance and fear.
Books for readers over 13
Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston
Main character and narrator Janie Crawford recounts her life, loves, three abusive marriages and exoneration for killing her third husband in self-defense before she discovers self-identity and independence. First published in 1937, the novel explores broad themes of male-female power dynamics, racism, racial hierarchy and stereotypical gender roles.
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
This literary classic and 1961 Pulitzer Prize-winning novel also uses a narrator, Scout Finch, whose attorney father represents a Black man arrested, tried, convicted and killed after being falsely accused of raping a white woman. Scout and her brother also make wrong assumptions about their shut-in neighbor, Boo Radley, who ultimately saves them from harm. The novel exposes racism and racial inequality, the shattering of childhood innocence and the values of courage and compassion.
To Be Young, Gifted and Black by Lorraine Hansberry
Hansberry’s play A Raisin in the Sun, about a Black family’s conflicting ideas on how to spend a life insurance payout, was the first play produced on Broadway written by a Black woman. Her body of work dramatized racial and class inequality, assimilation and gender roles. This impassioned memoir includes segments from Hansberry’s writings and letters but also her drawings and photographs after her death.
Tomorrow Will Be Different: Love, Loss, and the Fight for Trans Equality by Sarah McBride
In this memoir the courageous McBride, the first openly transgender woman to become a member of the U.S. Congress, describes her personal and political journey to become a transgender advocate in the House of Representatives.
Books for young readers
Little Leaders: Bold Women in Black History by Vashti Harrison (for ages 4-8)
Harrison, twice winner of the NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Literary Work, profiles 40 inspiring women. Sojourner Truth and Harriet Tubman are included but also less well-known boundary busters in the fields of astronomy, medicine, education and more.
Who Was Ida B. Wells? by Sarah Fabiny, illustrated by Ted Hammond (for ages 8-12)
Born in Mississippi in 1862 to enslaved parents, the trailblazing journalist challenged racism and sexism from an early age. Fabiny relates the early forces that shaped Wells’ resistance, her exposé of lynchings, courageous journalism on behalf of Black people and activism for women’s suffrage.
I Am Malala: How Oe Girl Stood Up for Education and Changed the World by Malala Yousafzai (young readers edition for ages 10+)
From age 11, Yousafzai advocated for education rights for women and girls in her native Pakistan, where the Taliban prohibit them from attending school. In 2012, then 15, she barely survived a Taliban assassination attempt. Yousafzai became the youngest Nobel Peace Prize winner at age 17. Adapted from her best-selling memoir.
Illustration at top by the SPLC.
