The late Sister Phyllis Stephens compiled The books on this list.  She was a librarian and Master Storyteller from Louisiana residing in New York.   

We keep this precious list because of the unique works that she selected and as a tribute to her desire to ensure that all who wanted to find information about us as a people could do so.  She was a very warm and vibrant human being but she was not very tolerant of those who professed to "want to know" but chose not to do the same amount of research to learn as they had about other cultures.  We share that sentiment.

So, here is a great start.

Thank you, Sister Phyllis!

1. Gumbo Ya Ya: Anthology of Contemporary African-American Women Artists. New York: Midmarch Arts Press, 1995.
Ref Oversize N6538.N5 G85 1995.

2. Acholonu, Catherine Obianuju. The African Feminist Challenge in Life and Literature. New Rochelle, NY: Westchester Consortium for International Studies, 1991.
Oversize HQ1787 .A23 1991.

3. Albert, Octavia V. Rogers. The House of Bondage, or, Charlotte Brooks and Other Slaves. New York: Oxford University Press, 1988.
E444.A33 A3 1988.

4. Arnold, Dorothea. The Royal Women of Amarna: Images of Beauty From Ancient Egypt. New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art : distributed by Harry N. Abrams, 1996.
Oversize NB1296.2 .A75 1996.

5. Atiya, Nayra. Khul-Khaal, Five Egyptian Women Tell Their Stories. Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press, 1982.
HQ1793 .A87 1982.

6. Bair, Barbara, and Susan E. Cayleff, eds. Wings of Gauze: Women of Color and the Experience of Health and Illness. Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1993.
RA564.86 .W55 1993.

7. Bambara, Toni Cade. Deep Sightings and Rescue Missions: Fiction, Essays, and Conversations. New York: Pantheon Books, 1996.
PS3552.A473 D44 1996.

8. Barber, Karin. I Could Speak Until Tomorrow: Oriki, Women, and the Past in a Yoruba Town. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1991.
PL8823.5 .B33 1991.

9. Berger, Iris, et al., contr. Restoring Women to History: Teaching Packets for Integrating Women's History into Courses on Africa, Asia, Latin America, the Caribbean, and the Middle East. Bloomington, Indianna: Organization of American Historians, 1988.
Oversize HQ1121 .R47 1988.

10. Bernstein, Hilda Watts. For Their Triumphs and for Their Tears: Conditions and Resistance of Women in Apartheid South Africa. London: International Defence and Aid Fund, 1978.
HQ1799.S6 B47 1978.

11. Bradford, Sarah H. Scenes in the Life of Harriet Tubman. Salem, NH: Ayer, 1992.
E444 .T894 1992.

12. Bruner, Charlotte H., ed. The Heinemann Book of African Women's Writing. African Writers Series. Oxford, OX: Heinemann, 1993.
PR9348 .H44 1993.

13. Busby, Margaret, ed. Daughters of Africa: an International Anthology of Words and Writings by Women of African Descent From the Ancient Egyptian to the Present. 1st American ed. New York: Pantheon, 1992.
Ref. PN6068 .D38 1992.

14. Chapman, Dorothy Hilton. Index to Poetry by Black American Women. New York: Greenwood Press, 1986.
Ref Z1229.N39 C45 1986.

15. Christian, Barbara. Black Women Novelists: the Development of a Tradition, 1892-1976. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1980.
PS374.N4 C5.

16. Clark-Lewis, Elizabeth. Living in, Living Out: African American Domestics in Washington, D.C., 1910-1940. Washington: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1994.

17. Coles, Robert. The Story of Ruby Bridges. New York: Scholastic, 1995.
In 1960, six-year-old Ruby Bridges became the first African American girl to integrate the public school system in New Orleans. For months she confronted the hostility of white parents at the Frantz Elementary School.
Juvenile Oversize.

18. Cook, Suzan D. Johnson, ed. Sister to Sister: Devotions for and From African American Women: Judson Press, 1995.
BV4844 .S545 1995.

19. Cooper, Anna Julia Haywood. A Voice From the South, by a Black Woman of the South. New York: Negro Universities Press, 1969.
E185.6 .C77.

20. Dash, Julie. Daughters of the Dust: the Making of an African American Woman's Film. New York: New Press, 1992.
PN1997.D313343 D3 1992.

21. Dickerson, Bette J., ed. African American Single Mothers: Understanding Their Lives and Families. Sage Series on Race and Ethnic Relations 10: Thousand Oaks : Sage Publications, 1995.
HQ759.45 .A38 1995.

22. Drewal, Henry John, and Margaret Thompson Drewal. Gelede: Art and Female Power Among the Yoruba. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1983.
DT515.45.Y67 D73 1983.

23. Dunbar-Nelson, Alice Moore. The Works of Alice Dunbar-Nelson. New York: Oxford University Press, 1988.
PS3507 .U6228 1988.

24. Etter-Lewis, Gwendolyn. My Soul Is My Own: Oral Narratives of African American Women in the Professions. New York: Routledge, 1993.
HD6054.4.U6 E88 1993.

25. Forten, Charlotte L. The Journals of Charlotte Forten Grimke. New York: Oxford University Press, 1988.
LA2317.F67 A3 1988.

26. Foster, Frances Smith. Written by Herself: Literary Production by African American Women,1746-1892. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1993.
PS153 .N5 F68 1993.

27. Foxworth, Jo. Wising Up: the Mistakes Women Make in Business and How to Avoid Them. New York: Delacorte, 1980.
HF5500.3.U54 F69.

28. Gaspar, David Barry, and Darlene Clark Hine, eds.
. More Than Chattel: Black Women and Slavery in the Americas. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1996.
HT1049 .M62 1996.

29. Gates, Henry Louis Jr., ed. Six Women's Slave Narratives. New York: Oxford University Press, 1988.
E444 .S59 1988.

30. Gill, LaVerne McCain. African American Women in Congress: Forming and Transforming History. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 1997.
[CO-OP City] E840.6 .G55 1997.

31. Hamilton, Virginia. Her Stories: African American Folktales, Fairy Tales, and True Tales. New York: Blue Sky Press, 1995.
Juvenile Oversize.

32. Harper, Frances Ellen Watkins. A Brighter Coming Day: a Frances Ellen Watkins Harper Reader. Nw York: Feminist Press : distributed by the Talman Co., 1990.
PS1799.H7 A6 1990.

33. ---. Iola Leroy, or, Shadows Uplifted. New York: Oxford University Press, 1988.
PS1799.H7 I6 1988.

34. Harragan, Betty Lehan. Games Mother Never Taught You: Corporate Gamesmanship for Women. New York: Rawson Associates, 1977.
HF5500.3.U54 H37 1977.

35. Hicks, Esther K. Infibulation: Female Mutilation in Islamic Northeastern Africa. New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction Publishers, 1993.
GN650 .H53 1993.

36. Hill, Anita Faye, and Emma Coleman Jordon, eds. Race, Gender, and Power in America: the Legacy of the Hill-Thomas Hearings. New York: Oxford University Press, 1995.
KF8745.T48 R32 1995.

37. Hine, Darlene Clark, ed. Black Women in the Nursing Profession: a Documentary History. The History of American Nursing. New York: Garland, 1985.
Oversize RT83.5 .B57 1985.

38. ---. Black Women in United States History. Brooklyn, NY: Carlson Pub., 1990.
Ref. E185.86 .B543 1990.

39. ---. Black Women in White: Racial Conflict and Cooperation in the Nursing Profession, 1890-1950. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1989.
Ref. RT83.5 .H56 1989.

40. Hine, Darlene Clark, and Kathleen Thompson. A Shining Thread of Hope: the History of Black Women in America. 1st ed. ed. New York: Broadway Books, 1998.
"Chronicles the lives of black women from indentured servitude in the early American colonies to the cruelty of antebellum plantations, from the reign of lynch law in the Jim Crow South to the triumphs of the Civil Rights era.".
E 185.86 .H675 1998.

41. hooks, bell. Ain't I a Woman: Black Women and Feminism. Boston: South End Press, 1981.
E185.86 .H68.

42. ---. Art on My Mind: Visual Politics. New York: New Press : distributed by W.W. Norton, 1995.
N6537.H585 A2 1995.

43. ---. Black Looks: Race and Representation. Boston: South End Press, 1992.
E185.86 .H734 1992.

44. ---. Feminist Theory From Margin to Center. Boston: South End Press, 1984.
HQ1426 .H675 1984.

45. ---. Outlaw Culture: Resisting Representations. New York: Routledge, 1994.
E185.86 .H737 1994.

46. ---. Sisters of the Yam: Black Women and Self-Recovery. Boston: South End Press, 1993.
RC451.5.N4 H66 1993.

47. ---. Talking Back: Thinking Feminist, Thinking Black. Boston: South End Press, 1989.
E185.86 .H74 1989.

48. ---. Teaching to Transgress: Education As the Practice of Freedom. New York: Routledge, 1994.
LC196 .H6 1994.

49. ---. Yearning: Race, Gender, and Cultural Politics. oston: South End Press, 1990.
[New York Theological Seminary] E185.86 .H742 1990.

50. Hull, Gloria T. Color, Sex and Poetry: Three Women Writers of the Harlem Renaissance. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1987.
Criticism and interpretation of works by Alice Dunbar-Nelson, Angelina Weld Grimke and Georgia Douglas Camp Johnson.

51. Hull, Gloria T., Patricia Bell Scott, and Barbara Smith, eds. All the Women Are White, All the Blacks Are Men, but Some of Us Are Brave: Black Women's Studies. Old Westbury, NY: Feminist Press, 1982.
The editors argue the need for academic programs addressing Black women's studies, including suggestions for curricula.
E185.86 .A4 1982.

52. Hunter, Tera W. To 'Joy My Freedom: Southern Black Women's Lives and Labors After the Civil War. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 1997.

53. Isichei, Elizabeth. A History of African Societies to 1870. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997.
GN 645 .I84 1997.

54. Ivan-Smith, Edda, Nidhi Tandon, and Jane Connors. Women in Sub-Saharan Africa. London: The Minority Rights Group, 1988.
Oversize HT1501 .M5 no.77 1988.

55. Jackson, Rebecca. Gifts of Power: the Writings of Rebecca Jackson, Black Visionary, Shaker Eldress. Amherst: University of Massachesetts Press, 1987.
BX9771 .J3 1987.

56. James, Joy, and Ruth Farmer, eds. Spirit, Space, and Survival: African American Women in (White) Academe. New York: Routledge, 1993.
LC2781 .S69 1993.

57. Johnson, A. E. The Hazeley Family. New York: Oxford University Press, 1988.
PS2134.J515 H39 1988.

58. Jones, Eldred Durosimi, Eustace Palmer, and Marjorie Jones, eds. Women in African Literature Today: a Review. 1st ed. Trenton, NJ: Africa World Press, 1987.
PL8010 .W65 1987.

59. Keckley, Elizabeth. Behind the Scenes, or, Hirty Years a Slave and Four Years in the White House. New York: Oxford University Press, 1988.
E457.15 .K26 1988.

60. King, Julie Adair. The Smart Woman's Guide to Interviewing and Salary Negotiation. Hawthorne, NJ: Career Press, 1993.
HF5382.6 .K56 1993.

61. Larison, Cornelius Wilson. Silvia Dubois: a Biografy of the Slav Who Whipt Her Mistres and Fand Her Fredom. New York: Oxford University Press, 1988.
E444.D83 L37 1988.

62. Lawson, Annette, and Deborah L. Rhode, eds. The Politics of Pregnancy: Adolescent Sexualiy and Public Policy. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1993.
HQ759.4 .P64 1993.

63. Leith-Ross, Sylvia. African Women; a Study of the Ibo of Nigeria. New York: P. A. Praeger, 1965.
DT515 .L4.

64. Levine, Ellen. Freedom's Children: Young Civil Rights Activists Tell Their Own Stories. New York: Putnam, 1993.
Southern Blacks who were young and involved in the Civil Rights Movement during the 1950's and 1960's describe their experiences.
E185.615 .L477 1992.

65. Lewis, I. M., Ahmed Al-safi, and Sayyid Hurreiz, eds. Women's Medicine: the Zar-Bori Cult in Africa and Beyond. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press for the International African Institute, 1991.
BL2462 .W64 1991.

66. Lightfoot-Klein, Hanny. Prisoners of Ritual: an Odyssey into Female Genital Circumcision in Africa. New York: Harrington Park Press, 1989.
GN484 .L53 1989b.

67. Little, Kenneth Lindsay. African Women in Towns; an Aspect of Africa's Social Revolution. London: Cambridge University Press, 1973.
HQ1787 .L54.

68. Loth, Heinrich. Woman in Ancient Africa. Westport, CT: L. Hill & Co., 1987.
Oversize HQ1137.A35 L6813 1987.

69. Magona, Sindiwe. To My Children's Children. New York: Interlink Books, 1994.
PR9363.3.M335 Z47 1994.

70. Major, Clarence, ed. Calling the Wind: Twentieth Century African-American Short Stories. 1st ed. New York: HarperPerennial, 1993.
PS647.A35 C35 1993.

71. McClain, Carol Shepherd, ed. Women As Healers: Cross-Cultural Perspectives. New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 1989.
GN296 .W65 1989.

72. Mogona, Sindiwe. Living, Loving, and Lying Awake at Night. New York: Interlink Books, 1994.
PR9369.3.M335 L58 1994.

73. Morrison, Toni. Playing in the Dark: Whiteness and the Literary Imagination. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1992.
PS173.N4 M67 1992.

74. ---, ed. Race-Ing Justice, En-Gendering Power: Essays on Anita Hill, Clarence Thomas, and the Construction of Social Reality. 1st ed. ed. New York: Pantheon Books, 1992.
KF8745.T48 R33 1992.

75. Morton, Patricia, ed. Discovering the Women in Slavery: Emancipating Perspectives on the American Past. Athens: University of Georgia Press, 1996.
E443 .D57 1996.

76. Mullen, Bill, ed. Revolutionary Tales: African American Women's Short Stories, From the First Story to the Present. New York: Dell, 1995.
PS508.N3 R49 1995.

77. Nasta, Susheila, ed. Motherlands: Black Women's Writing From Africa, the Caribbean, and South Asia. New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 1992.
PR9340.5 .M67 1992.

78. Naylor, Gloria, ed. Children of the Night: the Best Short Stories by Black Writers, 1967 to the Present. 1st ed. Boston: Little, Brown, 1995.
PS647.A35 C5 1995.

79. Nelson, Jill. Volunteer Slavery: My Authentic Negro Experience. Chicago: Noble Press, 1993.
PN4874.N295 A3 1993.

80. Nelson, Nici, ed. African Women in the Development Process. London; Totowa, NJ: F. Cass, 1981.
HQ1787 .A375 1981.

81. Nikuradse, Tamara, ed. My Mother Had a Dream: African-American Women Share Their Mothers' Words of Wisdom. New York: Dutton, 1996.
E185.86 .M967 1996.

82. Olmos, Margarite Fernandez, and Lizabeth Paravisini-Gebert, eds. Sacred Possessions: Vodou, Santeria, Obeah, and the Caribbean. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 1997.
BL2565 .S23 1997.

83. Opitz, May, et al., eds. Farbe Bekennen [Showing Our Colors: Afro-German Women Speak Out]. trans. Anne V. Adams. Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 1992.
DD78 .B55 P3713 1992.

84. Painter, Nell Irvin. Sojourner Truth: a Life, a Symbol. New York: W.W. Norton, 1996.
E85.97.T8 P35 1996.

85. Parks, Rosa, and Jim Haskins. Rosa Parks: My Story. New York: Dial Books, 1992.
F334 .M753 P37 1992.

86. Parpart, Jane L., and Kathleen A. Staudt, eds. Women and the State in Africa. Boulder, CO: L. Rienner Publishers, 1989.
HQ1236.5.A357 W65 1989.

87. Peterson, Carla L. Doers of the Word: African-American Women Speakers and Writers in the North (1830-1880). New York: Oxford University Press, 1995.
PS153.N5 P443 1995.

88. Plato, Ann. Essays: Including Biographies and Miscellaneous Pieces, in Prose and Poetry. Nw York: Oxford University Press, 1988.
PS2593 .P347 1988.

89. Reid-Merritt, Patricia. Sister Power: How Phenomenal Black Women Are Rising to the Top. New York: John Wiley, 1996.
E185.86 .R416 1996.

90. Robins, Gay. Women in Ancient Egypt. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1993.
HQ1137.E3 R63 1993.

91. Rowell, Charles H., ed. Ancestral House: the Black Short Story in the Americas and Europe. Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1995.
PN6120.92.B45 A53 1995.

92. Royster, Jacqueline Jones, ed. Southern Horrors and Other Writings: the Anti-Lynching Campaign of Ida B. Wells, 1892-1900. The Bedford Series in History and Culture. Boston: Bedford Books, 1997.
E185.97.W55 S68 1997.

93. Russell, Diana E. H. Lives of Courage: Women for a New South Africa. New York: Basic Books, 1989.
HQ1236.5.S6 R87 1989.

94. Sarpong, Peter. Girls' Nubility Rites in Ashanti. Tema, Ghana: Ghana Pub. Corp., 1977.
DT507 .S27 1977.

95. Scheub, Harold. The Tongue Is Fire: South African Storytellers and Apartheid. Wisconsin: University of Wisconsin Press, 1996.
Harold Scheub is professor of African languages and literature at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
GR359 .S34 1996.

96. Seacole, Mary. Wonderful Adventures of Mrs. Seacole in Many Lands. New York: Oxford University Press, 1988.
DK215 .S43 1988.

97. Shange, Ntozake. For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide, When the Rainbow Is Enuf: a Choreopoem. New York: MacMillan, 1977.
PS359.H3324 F6.

98. ---. Nappy Edges. New York: St. Martin's Press, 1978.
PS3569.H3324 N3.

99. Shaw, Thomas McDonald. The Fulani Matrix of Beauty and Art in the Djolof Region of Senegal. Lewiston, NY: Edwin Mellen Press, 1994.
NK9789.6.S42 D567 1994.

100. Sherman, Joan R., ed. Collected Black Women's Poetry. The Schomburg Library of Nineteenth-Century Black Women Writers. New York: Oxford University Press, 1988.
PS591.N4 C57 1988.

101. Smith, Amanda. An Autobiography the Story of the Lord's Dealings With Mrs. Amanda Smith, the Colored Evangelist. New York: Oxford University Press, 1988.
BV3785.S56 A3 1988.

102. Smith, Jessie Carney, ed. Epic Lives: One Hundred Black Women Who Made a Difference. Detroit: Visible Ink Press, 1993.
Ref. E185.96 .E65 1993.

103. ---, ed. Notable Black American Women. Detroit: Gale Research, 1992.
Ref. Oversize E185.96 .N68 1992.

104. Smitherman, Geneva, ed. African American Women Speak Out on Anita Hill-Clarence Thomas. African American Life Series. Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1995.
E185.86 .A3344 1995.

105. Snyder, Margaret C., and Mary Tadesse. African Women and Development: a History. Johannesburg: Witwatersrand University Press, 1995.
HQ1240.5.A35 S69 1995.

106. Sterling, Dorothy. Black Foremothers: Three Lives. Old Westbury, NY: Feminist Press, 1979.
Ellen Craft, Ida B. Wells, and Mary Church Terrell.
E185.96 .S75.

107. Stetson, Erlene. Glorying in Tribulation: the Lifework of Sojourner Truth. East Lansing: Michigan State University Press, 1994.
E185.97.T8 S74 1994.

108. Turshen, Meredeth, ed. Women and Health in Africa. Trenton, NJ: Africa World Press, 1991.
RA545 .W55 1991.

109. Black Women in Antiquity. ed. Ivan Van Sertima. revised ed. Journal of African Civilizations 6 (1). New Brunswick: Transaction Books, 1988.
HQ1137.A35 B56 1988.

110. Great Black Leaders: Ancient and Modern. ed. Ivan Van Sertima. third printing ed. Journal of African Civilizations Ltd., Inc., 1995.
Ref. E185.96 .G73 1988.

111. Vanzant, Iyanla. The Value in the Valley: a Black Woman's Guide Through Life's Dilemmas. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1995.
E185.86 .Z39 1995.

112. ---. Interiors: a Black Woman's Healing--in Progress. New York: Writers and Readers, 1995.
E185.86 .V395 1995.

113. ---. Tapping the Power Within: a Path to Self'Empowerment for Black Women. New York: Harlem River Press, 1992.
E185.86 .V39 1992.

114. Viano, Emilio C., ed. The Victimology Handbook: Research Findings, Treatment, and Public Policy. New York: Garland, 1990.
Ref. HV6250.2 .V515 1990.

115. Villarosa, Linda, ed. Body and Soul: the Black Women's Guide to Physical Health and Emotional Well-Being. New York: HarperPerennial, 1994.
Ref. RA778 .B67 1994.

116. Walker, Alice. In Search of Our Mothers' Gardens: Womanist Prose. San Diego: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1983.
PS3573.A425 Z467 1983.

117. Walker, Alice, and Pratibha Parmar. Warrior Marks: Female Genital Mutilation and the Sexual Blinding of Women. New York: Harcourt Brace, 1993.
GN484 .W35 1993.

118. Wells-Barnett, Ida B. Crusade for Justice: the Autobiography of Ida B. Wells. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1972.
E185.97.B26 A3 1972.

119. ---. The Memphis Diary of Ida B. Wells. Boston: Beacon Press, 1995.
E185.97.W55 A3 1995.

120. Wells, Evelyn. Hatshepsut. Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1969.
DT87.2 W4.

121. White, Kate. Why Good Girls Don't Get Ahead--but Gutsy Girls Do: 9 Secrets Every Working Woman Must Know. New York: Warner Books, 1996.
HF5386 .W488 1996.

122. Winters, Wendy Glasgow. African American Mothers and Urban Schools: the Power of Participation. New York: Lexington Books, 1993.
LC225.3 .W56 1993.

123. Zenani, Nongenile Masithathu. The World and the Word: Tales and Observations From the Xhosa Oral Tradition. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1992.
GR359.2.X64 Z46 1992

123. Zenani, Nongenile Masithathu. The World and the Word: Tales and Observations From the Xhosa Oral Tradition. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1992.
GR359.2.X64 Z46 1992