Every week during #BlackHistoryBlackFutures Month, we are spotlighting across our social media profiles Banned Black Books. These books, and many others, have been deemed too dangerous to read in schools and libraries across the country for simply being by and about Black people. We encourage you, as a powerful act of love and nonviolent resistance, to read, buy, and share these books. Join the conversation: #IReadBannedBooks

The first spotlight falls on The New Kid by graphic novelist Jerry Craft. Based on his own lived experiences as a Black boy at a predominantly white school in New York City, The New Kid has been banned by a Texas school district for “promoting Critical Race Theory.”

The third spotlight falls on All Boys Aren’t Blue by journalist and activist George M. Johnson. A collection of essays lifting up the joys and pains of growing up Black and queer in America, All Boys Aren’t Blue has been banned in several school districts and libraries for being “sexually explicit.”

The second spotlight falls on Hood Feminism by author and activist Mikki Kendell. Although it received critical acclaim for its clear-eyed critique of anti-Black racism in feminist movements, Hood Feminism was placed on a banned books list by Texas state rep Matt Krause for “making [white] students feel uncomfortable.”

The final spotlight falls on The 1619 Project by Pulitzer Prize-winning New York Times journalist Nikole Hannah-Jones. Now a Hulu docu-series, The 1619 Project has been banned most recently in Florida for being a “one-sided, unbalanced” accounting of history that “promotes Critical Race Theory.”