NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Literary Work – Nonfiction

Template:Short description This article lists the winners and nominees for the NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Literary Work – Nonfiction. Maya Angelou, Michael Eric Dyson, and Barack Obama hold the record for most wins in this category, with two each.

Winners and nominees

1990s

Award winners, 1994-1999

Year	Book	Author	Result	Template:Abbreviation
1994	By Any Means Necessary: The Trials and Tribulations of the Making of 'Malcolm X'	Template:Sortname and Ralph Wiley	Winner	<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
1996
	When We Were Colored	Template:Sortname	Winner	<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
1999
	With Ossie & Ruby: In This Life Together	Template:Sortname and Ruby Dee	Winner	<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation	CitationClass=web }}</ref>

2000s

Award winners, 2002-2009

Year	Book	Author	Result	Template:Abbreviation
2002	Sally Hemings, An American Scandal	Template:Sortname	Winner	citation	CitationClass=web }}</ref>Template:Better source needed
2003	Keeping the Faith	Template:Sortname	Winner
	Template:Sort	Template:Sortname	Finalist
	Bill Clinton and Black America	Template:Sortname
	Growing Up X	Template:Sortname
	Zora Neale Hurston: A Life in Letters	Template:Sortname
2004	Why I Love Black Women	Template:Sortname	Winner	citation	CitationClass=web }}</ref>Template:Better source needed
2005	Hallelujah! The Welcome Table	Template:Sortname	Winner	citation	CitationClass=web }}</ref>Template:Better source needed
2006	Is Bill Cosby Right? Or Has the Black Middle Class Lost Its Mind?	Template:Sortname	Winner
	Blue Rage, Black Redemption: A Memoir	Template:Sortname	Finalist
	Template:Sort	Template:Sortname and Myrlie Evers-Williams
	50 Years After Brown: The State of Black Equality in America	Template:Sortname
	Winning the Race: Beyond the Crisis in Black America	Template:Sortname
2007	Template:Sort	Template:Sortname	Winner	citation	CitationClass=web }}</ref>
	Come Hell or High Water: Hurricane Katrina and the Color of Disaster	Template:Sortname	Finalist	<ref name="2007 Image Awards" /><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation	CitationClass=web }}</ref>
	Template:Sort	Template:Sortname
	Forty Million Dollar Slaves: The Rise, Fall, and Redemption of the Black Athlete	Template:Sortname
	Not in My Family: AIDS in the African American Community	Template:Sortname
2008	Not on Our Watch	Template:Sortname and John Prendergast	Winner	citation	CitationClass=web }}</ref>
	Template:Sort	Template:Sortname	Finalist	<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation	CitationClass=web }}</ref>
	Brother, I'm Dying	Template:Sortname
	Know What I Mean?: Reflections on Hip-Hop	Template:Sortname
	Race and Racism in the Chinas: Chinese Racial Attitudes Toward Africans and African-Americans	Template:Sortname
2009	Letter to My Daughter	Template:Sortname	Winner	citation	CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation	CitationClass=web }}</ref>

2010s

citation

CitationClass=web }}</ref>
Year	Book	Author	Result	Template:Abbreviation
2010	In Search of Our Roots	Template:Sortname	Winner	citation	CitationClass=web }}</ref>
	Freedom in My Heart: Voices From the United States National Slavery Museum	Template:Sortname	Finalist	<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation	CitationClass=web }}</ref>
	Our Choice	Template:Sortname
	Brain Surgeon: A Doctor's Inspiring Encounters With Mortality and Miracles	Template:Sortname and Keith Black
	Family Affair: What It Means to Be African American Today	Template:Sortname
2011	Template:Sort	Template:Sortname	Winner	citation	CitationClass=web }}</ref>
	Brainwashed: Challenging the Myth of Black Inferiority	Template:Sortname	Finalist
	Hands on the Freedom Plow: Personal Accounts of Women in SNCC	Template:Sortname
	Surviving and Thriving 365 Days in Black Economic History	Template:Sortname
	Template:Sort	Template:Sortname
2012	Template:Sort	Template:Sortname	Winner	citation	CitationClass=web }}</ref>
	Sister Citizen: Shame, Stereotypes, and Black Women in America	Template:Sortname	Finalist	<ref name="2012 Image Award Winners" />
	Super Rich	Template:Sortname
	Template:Sort	Template:Sortname
	Who's Afraid of Post-Blackness?: What It Means to Be Black Now	Touré
2013	Template:Sort	Template:Sortname	Winner	citation	CitationClass=web }}</ref>
	Fraternity	Template:Sortname	Finalist	<ref name="2013 Image Award Winners" /><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation	CitationClass=web }}</ref>
	Guest of Honor: Booker T. Washington, Theodore Roosevelt, and the White House Dinner That Shocked a Nation	Template:Sortname
	Power Concedes Nothing: One Woman's Quest for Social Justice in America, from the Courtroom to the Kill Zones	Template:Sortname
	Template:Sort	Template:Sortname
2014	Envisioning Emancipation: Black Americans and the End of Slavery	Template:Sortname and Barbara Krauthamer	Winner	citation	CitationClass=web }}</ref>
	Bartlett's Familiar Black Quotations: 5,000 Years of Literature, Lyrics, Poems, Passages, Phrases, and Proverbs from Voices Around the World	Template:Sortname	Finalist	<ref name="2014 Image Award Winners" />
	High Price: A Neuroscientist's Journey of Self-Discovery That Challenges Everything You Know About Drugs and Society	Template:Sortname
	Letters to an Incarcerated Brother: Encouragement, Hope, and Healing for Inmates and Their Loved Ones	Template:Sortname
	Template:Sort	Template:Sortname and Donald Yacovone
2015	Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption	Template:Sortname	Winner	citation	CitationClass=web }}</ref>
	Bad Feminist	Template:Sortname	Finalist	<ref name="2015 Image Award Winners" />
	Place Not Race: A New Vision of Opportunity in America	Template:Sortname
	Who We Be: The Colorization of America	Template:Sortname
2016	Spectacle: The Astonishing Life of Ota Benga	Template:Sortname	Winner	citation	CitationClass=web }}</ref>
	50 Billion Dollar Boss: African American Women Sharing Stories of Success in Entrepreneurship and Leadership	Template:Sortname and Andrea Hoffman	Finalist	<ref name="2016 Image Award Winners" />
	Ghettoside: A True Story of Murder in America	Template:Sortname
	Showdown: Thurgood Marshall and the Supreme Court Nomination That Changed America	Template:Sortname
	Template:Sort	Template:Sortname
2017	Hidden Figures	Template:Sortname	Winner	citation	CitationClass=web }}</ref>
	Democracy in Black: How Race Still Enslaves the American Soul	Template:Sortname	Finalist	<ref name="2017 Image Award Winners" />
	Stamped from the Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America	Template:Sortname
	Writings on the Wall: Searching for a New Equality Beyond Black and White	Template:Sortname and Raymond Obstfeld
2018	Defining Moments in Black History: Reading Between the Lies	Template:Sortname (posthumous)	Winner	citation	CitationClass=web }}</ref>
	Black Detroit – A People’s History of Self-Determination	Template:Sortname	Finalist	<ref name=":0" />
	Chokehold: Policing Black Men	Template:Sortname
	Template:Sort	Template:Sortname
	We Were Eight Years In Power: An American Tragedy	Template:Sortname
2019	For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Politics	Template:Sortname, Yolanda Caraway, Leah D. Daughtry, Minyon Moore, Veronica Chambers	Winner	citation	CitationClass=web }}</ref>
	Barracoon: The Story of the Last "Black Cargo"	Template:Sortname	Finalist	<ref name=":1" />
	Black Girls Rock! Owning Our Magic. Rocking Our Truth	Template:Sortname
	May We Forever Stand: A History of the Black National Anthem	Template:Sortname
	Template:Sort	Template:Sortname and Lara Love Hardin

2020s

Award winners, 2020-present<ref name=":4" />

Year	Book	Author	Result	Template:Abbreviation
2020	Template:Sort	Template:Sortname	Winner	citation	CitationClass=web }}</ref>
	Breathe: A Letter to My Sons	Template:Sortname	Finalist	<ref name=":2" />
	STONY THE ROAD: Reconstruction, White Supremacy, and the Rise of Jim Crow	Template:Sortname
	Template:Sort	Template:Sortname
	What Doesn't Kill You Makes You Blacker: A Memoir in Essay	Template:Sortname
2021	Template:Sort	Template:Sortname	Winner	citation	CitationClass=web }}</ref>
	Template:Sort	Template:Sortname and Kali Nicole Gross	Finalist	<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation	CitationClass=web }}</ref>
	Driving While Black	Template:Sortname
	Long Time Coming: Reckoning with Race in America	Template:Sortname
	We're Better Than This	Template:Sortname
2022	Template:Sort	Template:Sortname	Winner	citation	CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref name=":5">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation	CitationClass=web }}</ref>
	Dance Theatre of Harlem	Template:Sortname and Paul Novosel	Finalist	<ref name=":5" />
	Just As I Am	Template:Sortname
	My Remarkable Journey	Template:Sortname
	Renegades: Born in the USA	Template:Sortname and Bruce Springsteen
2023	Finding Me	Template:Sortname	Winner	citation	CitationClass=web }}</ref>
	Grace: President Obama and Ten Days in the Battle for America	Template:Sortname	Finalist	<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation	CitationClass=web }}</ref>
	Under the Skin: The Hidden Toll of Racism on American Lives and on the Health of Our Nation	Template:Sortname
	Who’s Black and Why?: A Hidden Chapter from the Eighteenth-Century Invention of Race	Template:Sortname and Andrew S. Curran
	Requiem for the Massacre: A Black History on the Conflict, Hope, and Fallout of the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre	Template:Sortname
2024	Template:Sort	Template:Sortname and Charly Palmer	Winner	citation	CitationClass=web }}</ref>
	Black AF History: The Un–Whitewashed Story of America	Template:Sortname	Finalist	<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation	CitationClass=web }}</ref>
	BLK ART: The Audacious Legacy of Black Artists and Models in Western Art	Template:Sortname
	Iconic Home: Interiors, Advice, and Stories from 50 Amazing Black Designers	Black Interior Designers and June Reese
	Template:Sort	Template:Sortname

Multiple wins and nominations

Wins

2 wins

• Maya Angelou
• Michael Eric Dyson
• Barack Obama

Nominations

5 nominations

• Michael Eric Dyson

3 nominations

• Maya Angelou

2 nominations

• Henry Louis Gates Jr.
• Hill Harper
• Barack Obama
• Gil L. Robertson
• Tavis Smiley
• Imani Perry