Black History Month Speakers

These motivational author speakers discuss some of the most crucial topics relating to the Black American experience, including identity, inequality, national history, and popular culture.

Ta-Nehisi Coates

#1 New York Times bestselling author of Between the World and Me and The Water Dancer

Eric Holder

Former U.S. attorney general and esteemed civil rights leader

Dr. Ibram X. Kendi

National Book Award-winning historian and #1 New York Times-bestselling author of Stamped from the Beginning and How to Be an Antiracist

Isabel Wilkerson

Pulitzer Prize winner and author of the critically-acclaimed bestsellers The Warmth of Other Suns and Caste

More Black History Month Speakers

Brit Bennett

Novelist of National Book Award nominated, New York Times-bestselling The Vanishing Half, and National Book Foundation 2016 5 Under 35 Honoree

Dr. Uché Blackstock

Founder and CEO of Advancing Health Equity, emergency physician, and bestselling author of Legacy: A Black Physician Reckons with Racism in Medicine

Danielle Evans

Recipient of the National Book Foundation's 'Under 35' award and author of Before You Suffocate Your Own Fool Self and The Office of Historical Corrections

Dr. Thomas Fisher

Emergency room physician and author of The Emergency: A Year of Healing and Heartbreak in a Chicago ER

Yaa Gyasi

Author of Homegoing and Transcendent Kingdom, and recipient of the National Book Foundation's 'Under 35' award

Valerie June

Grammy-nominated singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist

Carlotta Walls LaNier

Youngest of the Little Rock Nine, civil rights advocate, National Women's Hall of Fame inductee

Lachi

Award-winning recording artist, disability rights activist, and founder of RAMPD

Ian Manuel

Advocate for criminal justice reform, poet, and motivational speaker

Dinaw Mengestu

Named one of The New Yorker "20 Under 40" writers to watch and author of The Beautiful Things That Heaven Bears and How to Read the Air

Leila Mottley

Award-winning author of Oprah’s Book Club selection Nightcrawling and former Youth Poet Laureate of Oakland

Damali Peterman

Global negotiation expert, lawyer, mediator, and founder & CEO of Breakthrough ADR

Kiley Reid

Author of Come and Get It and instant New York Times-bestseller Such a Fun Age

Shaka Senghor

Author of Letters to the Sons of Society and Writing My Wrongs and leading voice on criminal justice reform

Chris Smalls

Labor organizer and president and co-founder of the Amazon Labor Union

Colson Whitehead

Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award-winning author of The Underground Railroad and The Nickel Boys

Nicola Yoon

#1 New York Times bestselling author and National Book Award finalist

Alora Young

Spoken word poet and author of Walking Gentry Home