These Black history resources have been personally selected by Professor Kenyatta to help you go deeper, think harder, and reclaim the knowledge that was deliberately kept from you. The truth about Black and African history isn't hard to find — once you know where to look.
Professor Kenyatta's Works
These three books represent Professor Kenyatta's own contribution to the ongoing project of Black liberation through knowledge. Start here.
The White People Show: How To Understand Racism and Still Be Wrong About It
Most conversations about racism miss the point entirely — on both sides. Professor Kenyatta cuts through the noise with a bold, unflinching analysis of how racism actually works, why good intentions aren't enough, and what it really takes to understand a system designed to be misunderstood. Essential reading for anyone serious about this conversation.
Black Folk's Hair Revised Edition: Secrets, Shame & Liberation .
This isn't a book about hair. It's a book about identity, self-hatred, cultural programming, and what it means to reclaim something that was taken from you. Professor Kenyatta traces the deep psychological and historical roots of Black hair politics — and what liberation actually looks like.
The 7 Most Dangerous Pitfalls to Your College Success
Written for Black students navigating an educational system that was never designed with them in mind, this book is the guide your advisor never gave you. Practical, honest, and grounded in Professor Kenyatta's decades of experience in higher education.
Essential Black History Resources — The Scholars They Suppressed
These essential Black history resources represent the foundation of serious African scholarship. These are the books that serious students of Black and African history need to read. You won't find most of them on a college syllabus — which tells you everything you need to know about why they matter.
The African Origin of Civilization: Myth or Reality? — Cheikh Anta Diop
This is where serious study of African history begins. Cheikh Anta Diop's landmark work uses science, linguistics, and anthropology to prove what the Western academic establishment spent decades trying to deny — that ancient Egypt was a Black African civilization. If you read one book from this list, make it this one.
Civilization or Barbarism — Cheikh Anta Diop Diop's magnum opus.
More dense than The African Origin of Civilization but essential for anyone who wants the full scope of his argument. He doesn't just prove Egypt was Black — he reconstructs the entire intellectual foundation of African world history.
The Cultural Unity of Black Africa — Cheikh Anta Diop Diop turns his attention to the matriarchal social systems of ancient Africa and the cultural threads that connect African people across the continent and throughout the diaspora. A powerful companion to his other works.
The Mis-Education of the Negro — Carter G. Woodson Written in 1933 and more relevant today than ever. Woodson argued that the American education system was designed to make Black people dependent, ashamed, and disconnected from their own history. He was right then. He is still right now.
They Came Before Columbus — Ivan Van Sertima Columbus didn't discover America — and he certainly wasn't the first African to reach the Western hemisphere. Van Sertima's meticulous research, including the Olmec heads and linguistic evidence, makes the case that Africans reached the Americas long before 1492. The academic establishment tried to destroy his reputation for writing it.
The Destruction of Black Civilization — Chancellor Williams
Chancellor Williams spent years in Africa researching this book — and what he found will reframe everything you think you know about African history. This is the book that asks the hard question: what happened? And it answers it with evidence, not excuses.
How Europe Underdeveloped Africa — Walter Rodney
Colonialism didn't just occupy Africa — it systematically dismantled centuries of African economic, political, and cultural development. Rodney's analysis is precise, devastating, and essential for understanding why Africa looks the way it does today and who is responsible.
Key Scholars You Should Know
These scholars created the most important Black history resources available to serious students today.
These are the intellectual giants whose work forms the foundation of true African and Black history. If their names aren't familiar, that's not an accident — it's the miseducation working exactly as intended.
Cheikh Anta Diop (1923–1986) Senegalese physicist, historian, and anthropologist who proved with scientific methodology that ancient Egypt was a Black African civilization. His doctoral thesis was initially refused by the University of Paris — not because it lacked scholarship, but because its conclusions were too dangerous to validate. Cheikh Anta Diop University in Dakar, Senegal's largest university, was named in his honor the year after his death.
Carter G. Woodson (1875–1950) The father of Black History Month and one of the most important Black intellectuals in American history. Woodson understood that controlling a people's history was the most effective form of control — and he spent his life fighting back. His critique of Black education remains the most honest assessment ever written.
Ivan Van Sertima (1935–2009) Guyanese-American scholar whose research on pre-Columbian African contact with the Americas shook the foundation of Western historical consensus. He was attacked, dismissed, and marginalized — and his evidence has never been successfully refuted.
Chancellor Williams (1893–1992) Historian and sociologist who spent years conducting field research across Africa to answer the question Western historians refused to ask seriously: what destroyed African civilization? His answer, documented in The Destruction of Black Civilization, is essential reading.
Walter Rodney (1942–1980) Guyanese historian, political activist, and author of How Europe Underdeveloped Africa.Rodney was assassinated in 1980 — a reminder that the truth about Africa's relationship with Europe has always been considered dangerous by those in power.
Featured Resource — Cheikh Anta Diop: Go Deeper
This Black history resource goes beyond the reading list.
Ready to test your understanding of Diop's work? Professor Kenyatta has put together an in-depth article on Cheikh Anta Diop paired with a questionnaire designed to push your thinking beyond surface-level knowledge.
This isn't a quiz. It's a tool for serious students who want to engage with the ideas, not just memorize the facts.
[Access the Cheikh Anta Diop Article and Questionnaire →]
Featured Video
Richard Pryor: Why I Stopped Using the N-word
Before he was just a comedian, Richard Pryor was a truth-teller. After visiting Africa in 1979, Pryor had an awakening that changed him forever — and he never used that word on stage again. Watch this clip and you'll understand why the connection to African identity isn't just academic. It's personal, psychological, and urgent.
[Watch the Video →]
Ready to Go Beyond the Reading List?
Books are the beginning. But if you want someone to walk you through all of it — Diop, Woodson, Van Sertima, Chancellor Williams, and the full scope of the history they tried to erase — that's exactly what Black History Unfilteredwas built for.
This isn't a survey course. It's the education your school owed you and never delivered.
Enroll in Black History Unfiltered at professorkenyatta.com
Resources curated by Professor Kamau Kenyatta — author, speaker, and professor of African World Studies. Updated regularly as new scholarship and resources are identified.