The Autobiography of Malcolm X, narrated by Malcolm X and written by Alex Haley (1964), is a powerful account of one man's journey to self-education and his fight for African American rights. It continues the legacy of African-American autobiographies and explores the connection between African-American protest literature and literacy issues.

The Oxford Frederick Douglass Reader, edited by William Andrews and published in 1996, offers a rich collection of Douglass's later works, including passionate speeches, excerpts from his subsequent autobiographies, letters, and his novella The Lessons of the Hour.

Toni Morrison's 1987 novel Beloved, which won the 1988 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, explores the brutal realities of slavery and its lingering traumatic effects, even for those who believe they have escaped its dehumanizing grip.

In her 1992 book Black Looks: Race and Representation, African-American scholar and writer Bell Hooks examines the portrayal of African Americans in contemporary media and popular culture.

Harriet Beecher Stowe's influential antislavery novel, Uncle Tom's Cabin, first published in 1862, offers an intriguing contrast to Douglass's Narrative. Authored by a white abolitionist, the book became a bestseller, with over three hundred thousand copies sold in its first year. It exposes the injustices of Southern slavery, primarily through the character Tom.

I Was Born a Slave: An Anthology of Classic Slave Narratives, edited by Yuval Taylor and released in 1999, is a two-volume collection of slave narratives that depict a wide array of slave experiences from the seventeenth to the mid-nineteenth centuries.

The Norton Anthology of African-American Literature (1996), edited by Henry Louis Gates, Jr. and Nellie McKay, is an extensive compilation of African-American literature, featuring poetry, fiction, drama, and autobiography, along with vernacular forms such as spirituals and blues songs.