The Black Caucus of the American Library Association (BCALA) (www.bcala.org), established in 1970, serves a pivotal role by representing and supporting the African American community in America’s libraries. Since 1994, their annual BCALA literary awards (www.bcala.org/awards/literary.html) have given recognition to “outstanding works by African American authors depicting the cultural, historical, or socio-political aspects of the African Diaspora.”

2003
Fiction : Douglass Women, Jewell Parker Rhodes
Non Fiction: Forgotten Readers: Recovering the Lost History of African American
Literary Societies, Elizabeth McHenry

2002
Fiction: I Wish I Had a Red Dress, Pearl Cleage
Nonfiction: Vernon Can Read! A Memoir, Vernon E. Jordan

2001
Fiction: Fisher King, Paul Marshall
Nonfiction: Slavery in Florida: Territorial Days to Emancipation, Larry Eugene Rivers

2000
Fiction: Ain’t Nobody’s Business If I Do, Valerie Wilson Wesley
Nonfiction: Homelands and Waterways: The American Journey of the Bond Family 1846-1926, Adele Logan Alexander

1999
Fiction: The Healing, Gayl Jones
Nonfiction: Spirits of the Cloth: Contemporary African American Quilts, Carolyn Mazloomi

1998
Fiction: The River Where Blood is Born, Sandra Jackson-Opoku
Nonfiction: The Black Notebooks: An Interior Journey, Toi Derricotte

1997
Fiction: Sarah’s Psalm, Florence Ladd
Nonfiction: Sojourner Truth: A Life, A Symbol, Nell Irvin Painter

1996
Fiction: RL’s Dream, Walter Mosley
Nonfiction: Brotherman: The Odyssey of Black Men in America, ed. Herb Boyd & Robert L. Allen

1995
Fiction: Rattlebone, Maxine Clair
Nonfiction: I’ve Known Rivers: Lives of Loss and Liberation, Sara Lawrence-Lightfoot

1994
Fiction: A Lesson Before Dying, Ernest J. Gaines
Nonfiction: W. E. B. Dubois: Biography of a Race 1868-1919, David Levering Lewis

Other Awards