Civil Rights & Racial Justice
Individual topics classified under "Civil Rights & Racial Justice", ranked by how many awards the books carrying each one have won combined. Open a topic to see its most-awarded books.
- 1
Civil rights movement
45 books
31
wins
442
score
- Parting the Waters: America in the King Years, 1954–63 · Taylor Branch4 wins · 41 score
- The Dead Are Arising: The Life of Malcolm X · Les Payne and Tamara Payne2 wins · 35 score
- Malcolm X: A Life of Reinvention · Manning Marable1 win · 33 score
- His Name Is George Floyd: One Man’s Life and the Struggle for Racial Justice · Robert Samuels and Toluse Olorunnipa1 win · 25 score
- W. E. B. Du Bois: The Fight for Equality and the American Century, 1919–1963 · David Levering Lewis2 wins · 21 score
- 2
African American history
34 books
24
wins
282
score
- The Dead Are Arising: The Life of Malcolm X · Les Payne and Tamara Payne2 wins · 35 score
- W. E. B. Du Bois: Biography of a Race, 1868–1919 · David Levering Lewis2 wins · 28 score
- The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America's Great Migration · Isabel Wilkerson3 wins · 25 score
- Booker T. Washington: The Wizard of Tuskegee, 1901–1915 · Louis R. Harlan2 wins · 20 score
- Stamped from the Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America · Ibram X. Kendi1 win · 16 score
- 3
Race relations
19 books
22
wins
191
score
- Common Ground: A Turbulent Decade in the Lives of Three American Families · J. Anthony Lukas3 wins · 36 score
- The Hairstons: An American Family in Black and White · Henry Wiencek2 wins · 24 score
- Neither Black nor White: Slavery and Race Relations in Brazil and the United States · Carl N. Degler2 wins · 20 score
- White over Black: American Attitudes Toward the Negro, 1550–1812 · Winthrop D. Jordan2 wins · 20 score
- The Content of Our Character: A New Vision of Race in America · Shelby Steele1 win · 15 score
- 4
Civil rights
19 books
16
wins
174
score
- Frederick Douglass: Prophet of Freedom · David W. Blight4 wins · 38 score
- W. E. B. Du Bois: Biography of a Race, 1868–1919 · David Levering Lewis2 wins · 28 score
- Arc of Justice: A Saga of Race, Civil Rights, and Murder in the Jazz Age · Kevin Boyle1 win · 20 score
- Simple Justice: The History of Brown v. Board of Education and Black America's Struggle for Equality · Richard Kluger1 win · 13 score
- Ali: A Life · Jonathan Eig1 win · 12 score
- 5
Race and identity
23 books
8
wins
146
score
- Negroland: A Memoir · Margo Jefferson1 win · 16 score
- South to America: A Journey Below the Mason-Dixon To Understand the Soul of a Nation · Imani Perry1 win · 15 score
- Gods of the Upper Air: How a Circle of Renegade Anthropologists Reinvented Race, Sex, and Gender in the Twentieth Century · Charles King1 win · 11 score
- African Europeans: An Untold History · Olivette Otele0 wins · 9 score
- How We Fight for Our Lives: A Memoir · Saeed Jones1 win · 8 score
- 6
Racial segregation
10 books
8
wins
74
score
- Carry Me Home: Birmingham, Alabama, the Climactic Battle of the Civil Rights Revolution · Diane McWhorter2 wins · 17 score
- Traveling Black: A Story of Race and Resistance · Mia. Bay1 win · 14 score
- A History of Negro Education in the South from 1619 to the Present · Henry Allen Bullock1 win · 8 score
- Dark Journey: Black Mississippians in the Age of Jim Crow · Neil R. McMillen1 win · 8 score
- Fear Itself: The New Deal and the Origins of Our Time · Ira. Katznelson1 win · 8 score
- 7
Reconstruction era
11 books
7
wins
107
score
- Reconstruction: America's Unfinished Revolution, 1863–1877 · Eric Foner2 wins · 28 score
- Grant: A Biography · William S. McFeely1 win · 20 score
- Hamilton Fish · Allan Nevins1 win · 12 score
- The Greenback Era: A Social and Political History of American Finance, 1865–1879 · Irwin Unger1 win · 12 score
- The Road to Reunion, 1865–1900 · Paul Herman Buck1 win · 12 score
- 8
Martin Luther King Jr.
4 books
6
wins
88
score
- Parting the Waters: America in the King Years, 1954–63 · Taylor Branch4 wins · 41 score
- King: A Life · Jonathan Eig1 win · 20 score
- Bearing The Cross: Martin Luther King Jr. and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference · David J. Garrow1 win · 16 score
- At Canaan's Edge: America in the King Years, 1965-68 · Taylor Branch0 wins · 11 score
- 9
Human rights
9 books
6
wins
83
score
- A Problem from Hell: America and the Age of Genocide · Samantha Power4 wins · 37 score
- My Fourth Time, We Drowned: Seeking Refuge on the World's Deadliest Migration Route · Sally Hayden1 win · 12 score
- In the Shadow of Liberty: The Invisible History of Immigrant Detention in the United States · Ana Raquel Minian1 win · 8 score
- Our Bodies, Their Battlefield: What War Does to Women · Christina Lamb0 wins · 7 score
- Code Dependent · Madhumita Murgia0 wins · 4 score
- 10
Race in America
6 books
4
wins
54
score
- Between the World and Me · Ta-Nehisi Coates2 wins · 24 score
- Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents · Isabel Wilkerson1 win · 17 score
- The Invisible Line: Three American Families and the Secret Journey from Black to White · Daniel J. Sharfstein1 win · 5 score
- The Black Presidency: Barack Obama and the Politics of Race in America · Michael Eric Dyson0 wins · 3 score
- We Were Eight Years in Power: An American Tragedy · Ta-Nehisi Coates0 wins · 3 score
- 11
Racial inequality
3 books
4
wins
36
score
- 12
Southern United States history
5 books
4
wins
33
score
- A History of Negro Education in the South from 1619 to the Present · Henry Allen Bullock1 win · 8 score
- Origins of the New South, 1877–1913 · C. Vann Woodward1 win · 8 score
- The Free Women of Petersburg: Status and Culture in a Southern Town, 1784–1860 · Suzanne Lebsock1 win · 8 score
- The Leo Frank Case · Leonard Dinnerstein1 win · 5 score
- The South and the Sectional Conflict · David M. Potter0 wins · 4 score
- 13
Racial identity
4 books
4
wins
30
score
- 14
Racial injustice
9 books
3
wins
72
score
- Malcolm X: A Life of Reinvention · Manning Marable1 win · 33 score
- Slavery by Another Name: The Re-Enslavement of Black Americans from the Civil War to World War II · Douglas A. Blackmon1 win · 12 score
- Halfway Home: Race, Punishment, and the Afterlife of Mass Incarceration · Reuben Jonathan Miller0 wins · 6 score
- Tulia: Race, Cocaine, and Corruption in a Small Texas Town · Nate Blakeslee1 win · 5 score
- In the Matter of Color: The Colonial Period · A. Leon Higginbotham, Jr.0 wins · 4 score
- 15
Criminal justice system
11 books
3
wins
67
score
- Know My Name: A Memoir · Chanel Miller1 win · 12 score
- The Briar Patch: The People of the State of New York versus Lumumba Shakur, et al. · Murray Kempton1 win · 12 score
- No Visible Bruises: What We Don't Know About Domestic Violence Can Kill Us · Rachel Louise Snyder0 wins · 10 score
- Catch the Devil: A True Story of Murder, Deception, and Injustice on the Gulf Coast · Pamela Colloff1 win · 8 score
- Crime and Punishment in America · Elliott Currie0 wins · 4 score
- 16
Criminal justice reform
9 books
3
wins
62
score
- Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption · Bryan Stevenson1 win · 18 score
- Charged: The New Movement to Transform American Prosecution and End Mass Incarceration · Emily Bazelon1 win · 10 score
- American Prison: A Reporter's Undercover Journey into the Business of Punishment · Shane Bauer1 win · 8 score
- Solitary · Albert Woodfox with Leslie George0 wins · 8 score
- Halfway Home: Race, Punishment, and the Afterlife of Mass Incarceration · Reuben Jonathan Miller0 wins · 6 score
- 17
Mass incarceration
8 books
3
wins
53
score
- Locking Up Our Own: Crime and Punishment in Black America · James Forman Jr.1 win · 15 score
- Charged: The New Movement to Transform American Prosecution and End Mass Incarceration · Emily Bazelon1 win · 10 score
- American Prison: A Reporter's Undercover Journey into the Business of Punishment · Shane Bauer1 win · 8 score
- Halfway Home: Race, Punishment, and the Afterlife of Mass Incarceration · Reuben Jonathan Miller0 wins · 6 score
- Crime and Punishment in America · Elliott Currie0 wins · 4 score
- 18
Racism in America
4 books
3
wins
37
score
- Stamped from the Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America · Ibram X. Kendi1 win · 16 score
- Sons of Mississippi · Paul Hendrickson1 win · 12 score
- Unforgivable Blackness: The Rise and Fall of Jack Johnson · Geoffrey C. Ward1 win · 5 score
- The Fire Next Time · James Baldwin0 wins · 4 score
- 19
African-American history
3 books
3
wins
31
score
- 20
Japanese-American internment
3 books
3
wins
24
score
- Dorothea Lange: A Life Beyond Limits · Linda Gordon2 wins · 17 score
- The Great Betrayal: The Evacuation of the Japanese-Americans during World War II · Audrie Girdner and Anne Loftis1 win · 5 score
- The Train to Crystal City: FDR’s Secret Prison Exchange Program and America’s Only Family Internment Camp During World War II · Jan Jarboe Russell0 wins · 2 score
- 21
Urban poverty
4 books
3
wins
24
score
- Random Family: Love, Drugs, Trouble, and Coming of Age in the Bronx · Adrian Nicole LeBlanc1 win · 9 score
- Sidewalk · Mitchell Duneier with Ovie Carter (photographer)1 win · 8 score
- Manchild in the Promised Land · Claude Brown1 win · 5 score
- Broke: Hardship and Resilience in a City of Broken Promises · Jodie Adams Kirshner0 wins · 2 score
- 22
Apartheid
4 books
3
wins
18
score
- 23
Race and ethnicity
3 books
3
wins
18
score
- 24
Racial discrimination
4 books
3
wins
18
score
- 25
Race and identity in America
3 books
2
wins
39
score
- 26
Wrongful conviction
4 books
2
wins
31
score
- Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption · Bryan Stevenson1 win · 18 score
- Catch the Devil: A True Story of Murder, Deception, and Injustice on the Gulf Coast · Pamela Colloff1 win · 8 score
- Manifest Injustice: The True Story of a Convicted Murderer and the Lawyers Who Fought for His Freedom · Barry Siegel0 wins · 3 score
- Bringing Ben Home: A Murder, a Conviction, and the Fight to Redeem American Justice · Barbara Bradley Hagerty0 wins · 2 score
- 27
Social reform
3 books
2
wins
24
score
- 28
Civil rights activism
5 books
2
wins
22
score
- A Life In The Struggle: Ivory Perry and the Culture of Opposition · George Lipsitz1 win · 5 score
- Looking for Lorraine: The Radiant and Radical Life of Lorraine Hansberry · Imani Perry1 win · 5 score
- The Bishop's Daughter · Honor Moore0 wins · 4 score
- Troublemaker: The Fierce, Unruly Life of Jessica Mitford · Carla Kaplan0 wins · 4 score
- William Wells Brown: An African American Life · Ezra Greenspan0 wins · 4 score
- 29
African American politics
3 books
2
wins
21
score
- 30
Race relations in the American South
3 books
2
wins
21
score
- 31
Civil War and Reconstruction
3 books
2
wins
18
score
- The Supreme Court in United States History · Charles Warren1 win · 12 score
- The Struggle for Equality: Abolitionists and the Negro in the Civil War and Reconstruction · James M. McPherson1 win · 5 score
- The Second Founding: How the Civil War and Reconstruction Remade the Constitution · Eric Foner0 wins · 1 score
- 32
Race and politics
3 books
2
wins
17
score
- 33
Nonviolent activism
3 books
2
wins
14
score
- Black Freedom: The Nonviolent Abolitionists from 1830 through the Civil War · Carleton Mabee1 win · 5 score
- Walking with the Wind: A Memoir of the Movement (about the American Civil Rights Movement) · John Lewis and Michael D'Orso1 win · 5 score
- Lost Prophet: The Life and Times of Bayard Rustin · John D'Emilio0 wins · 4 score
- 34
Criminal justice
4 books
1
win
27
score
- Newjack: Guarding Sing Sing · Ted Conover1 win · 16 score
- Whitey Bulger: America's Most Wanted Gangster and the Manhunt That Brought Him to Justice · Kevin Cullen and Shelley Murphy0 wins · 4 score
- Wild Justice · Susan Jacoby0 wins · 4 score
- We, the Jury: The Jury System and the Ideal of Democracy · Jeffrey Abramson0 wins · 3 score
- 35
Voting rights
5 books
1
win
24
score
- The Right to Vote: The Contested History of Democracy in the United States · Alexander Keyssar0 wins · 7 score
- John Lewis: A Life · David Greenberg0 wins · 6 score
- Whose Votes Count?: Affirmative Action and Minority Voting Rights · Abigail M. Thernstrom1 win · 5 score
- Give Us the Ballot: The Modern Struggle for Voting Rights in America · Ari Berman0 wins · 4 score
- The Great Suppression: Voting Rights, Corporate Cash, and the Conservative Assault on Democracy · Zachary Roth0 wins · 2 score
- 36
Race and racism
4 books
1
win
23
score
- 37
Gang violence
3 books
1
win
20
score
- The Rent Collectors: Exploitation, Murder, and Redemption in Immigrant LA · Jesse Katz1 win · 11 score
- The Far Away Brothers: Two Young Migrants And the Making of an American Life · Lauren Markham0 wins · 5 score
- It Calls You Back: An Odyssey through Love, Addiction, Revolutions, and Healing · Luis J. Rodriguez0 wins · 4 score
- 38
Racial identity and passing
3 books
1
win
16
score
- Passing Strange: A Gilded Age Tale of Love and Deception Across the Color Line · Martha A. Sandweiss0 wins · 7 score
- The Invisible Line: Three American Families and the Secret Journey from Black to White · Daniel J. Sharfstein1 win · 5 score
- Krazy: George Herriman, a Life in Black and White · Michael Tisserand0 wins · 4 score
- 39
DNA discovery
3 books
1
win
15
score
- 40
Racism
3 books
1
win
11
score
Recent Standout Topics (2020+)
- 1Civil rights movement7 wins
- 2African American history5 wins
- 3Race and identity2 wins
- 4Human rights2 wins
- 5Civil rights2 wins
- 6Criminal justice reform0 wins
- 7Mass incarceration0 wins
- 8Racial injustice0 wins
Where This Data Comes From
- Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Nonfiction2012–2026
- Anisfield-Wolf Book Award1936–2026
- Baillie Gifford Prize for Non-Fiction1999–2026
- Bancroft Prize1948–2026
- Cundill History Prize2008–2026
- Financial Times and Standard Chartered Business Book of the Year Award2005–2026
- J. Anthony Lukas Book Prize1999–2026
- James Tait Black Memorial Prize for Biography1919–2025
- Kirkus Prize for Nonfiction2014–2026
- Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Biography1981–2025