Ibram X. Kendi Books In Order

Publication Order of Non-Fiction Books

Publication Order of Graphic Novels

Publication Order of Children's Books

Publication Order of Anthologies

Ibram X. Kendi is a leading antiracist and foremost American historian on issues of race. The award-winning and bestselling author has had his novels win the National Book Award and make the New York Times bestselling list. Kendi is the founder and director of the Center for Antiracist Research at Boston University and is also a Humanities Professor for the Andrew W. Mellon Institute. Kendi also contributes to several News outlets such as CBS and The Atlantic. He is the winner of the WEB Dubois Prize for his novel “The Black Campus Movement.” In 2016, he was the winner of the National Book Award for Nonfiction for his work “Stamped From the Beginning,” which made him the youngest winner of the award as he was only thirty-four at the time. He has asserted that he always fantasized about playing in the National Basketball Association (NBA) and finds it ironic that he ended up winning the literary NBA. He published his third title “How to be an Antiracist” in 2019 and the novel made several best book lists including becoming a New York Times Bestselling title.

Ibram was born during the height of the “Black Power” movement in 1982. His parents were Christians and student activists that found inspiration in Black liberation theology. While he was still a high schooler, his parents moved to Manassas in Virginia from Jamaica, Queens. He would travel even further south to go to college at Florida A&M University, where he was a journalism major. He initially desired to be a sports journalist and interned for several publications in Florida and Atlanta before his interest in sports journalism waned as he became more interested in working in racial justice. He enrolled for a major in African American Studies and upon graduation in 2004, went on to pursue a doctorate in the same from Temple University in 2010. Since then, he has taught in several universities across the United States and been a fellow and resident at many others. Kendi also got many visiting appointments and grants over the years from libraries, professional associations, universities, and foundations. By the time he was 34, he was a full professor and in 2019 he was listed as the most influential professor by “The Root.” He currently lives in Boston Massachusetts.

Kendi has had fourteen of his academic essays published in academic journals such as the “Journal of African American Studies,” “The Journal of African American History,” “Journal of Black Studies,” and “Journal of Social History.” He writes opinion pieces in several periodicals including “The Chronicle of Higher Education,” “The New York Times,” “Black Perspectives,” “The Guardian,” “Paris Review,” “Washington Post,” “Salon,” and “London Review.” He has also been a commentator on many local, national, and international news outlets including “Sirius XM,” “CNN,” “OWN,” “MSNBC,” “Democracy Now,” “NPR,” “BBC,” and “Al Jazeera.” As an in-demand speaker had spoken at many colleges, churches, universities, libraries, bookstores, conferences and festival among other institutions in the US and across the world. Kendi describes himself as a softcore vegan and a hardcore antiracist. He loves spending time with family and friends and participating in African American culture. He also loves to debate contemporary issues, read provocative novels, watch basketball, and lift weights. In 2013, he took the name Xolani and discarded his middle name Henry. He also changed his surname to Kendi after he married a pediatric emergency doctor from Albany with whom they chose the African name Kendi as their new surname.

In Ibrahim Kendi’s “Stamped from the Beginning” the author argues that racism and racist ideas have a lingering and long history. He believes that every great American philosopher and thought leader may have participated in the making of such ideas. The award-winning author argues that even though most Americans assert that they live in a color-blind and post-racial society, racist thought is still prevalent, even though it has become more insidious and sophisticated. It is a fast-moving and well-researched narrative that showcases anti-Black ideas and how they have exerted influence over American history. The novel makes use of the life and times of five philosophers to provide a window into the combative debates between segregationists and assimilationists and between anti-racists and racists. From Angela Davis the anti-prison activist, Cotton Mather the Puritan minister, WEB DuBois the brilliant scholar, to William Lloyd Garrison the fiery abolitionist. The author shows why and how some of the leaders in the pro-civil rights and pro-slavery philosophers helped cement or challenge racist ideologies in the US. As Kendi provocatively shows, racist thinking does not arise from hatred or ignorance. Instead, he asserts that these ideas were propagated and fashioned to foster and bolster deeply ingrained inequitable policies and to justify the racial disparities in America in everything from health to wealth.

“How to Be an Antiracist” by Ibram X Kendi is a novel about the personal journey of clarity, trauma, education, hate, education, and disease that provides a strong case against antiracism. Kendi takes his readers in his journey growing up in Queen as a young black man and the full spectrum of clarity, despair, denial, outrage, and hate that he experiences. He writes with a masterful tone of indignation, hope, and understanding for all races. While it sounds like a how-to novel, it is not as it provides a personal and raw account of a black man’s journey rather than a bullet list on how to fight racism. The author makes the compelling argument that the dichotomy that we face is antiracism and racism rather than racism and non-racism. Kendi says that racism is a hidden insidious and complex force that is directly linked to control and power. He distinguishes between three different philosophies that he calls antiracism, assimilationism, and segregationism. Segregationists believe in cultural, ethnic, and racial prejudice based on racial hierarchies. Assimilationists believe that they are antiracist and pro-black. Still, Kendi says that their efforts to integrate colored people into prevailing racist structures is an effort to regularize such inequitable structures. He thus argues that assimilationists and attempts at assimilation are racist.

“Antiracist Baby” by Ibram X Kendi is a hopeful and vibrant board book that is intended at laying a robust foundation for children to recognize systemic racism and respect all people. It lists steps that help children to gradually grow towards the anti-racist ideal. Using rhyming couplets, it teaches children and possibly their parents that working to foster justice and equity is a lifelong and vital pursuit. It makes use of colorful and bold illustrations to make simple concepts such as the fallacy of being color blind and discriminative incarceration policies. It is a great book for adults and children to learn about race and work towards a just and equitable society.