Reading order
| # | Title | Published | Author | Buy on Amazon |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Giant Steps: The Autobiography of Kareem Abdul-Jabbar | 1983 | Kareem Abdul-Jabbar | Buy |
| 2 | Black Profiles in Courage | 1996 | Kareem Abdul-Jabbar | Buy |
| 3 | A Season on the Reservation: My Soujourn With the White Mountain Apaches | 2000 | Kareem Abdul-Jabbar | Buy |
| 4 | Brothers In Arms: The Epic Story of the 761St Tank Battalion, WWII’s Forgotten Heroes | 2004 | Kareem Abdul-Jabbar | Buy |
| 5 | On the Shoulders of Giants: My Journey Through the Harlem Renaissance | 2007 | Kareem Abdul-Jabbar | Buy |
| 6 | What Color Is My World?: The Lost History of African-American Inventors | 2012 | Kareem Abdul-Jabbar | Buy |
| 7 | Writings on the Wall: Searching for a New Equality Beyond Black and White | 2016 | Kareem Abdul-Jabbar | Buy |
| 8 | Coach Wooden and Me: Our 50-Year Friendship On and Off the Court | 2017 | Kareem Abdul-Jabbar | Buy |
| 9 | Kareem | 2017 | Kareem Abdul-Jabbar | Buy |
| 10 | Becoming Kareem: Growing Up On and Off the Court | 2017 | Kareem Abdul-Jabbar | Buy |
| 11 | Black Cop’s Kid: An Essay | 2021 | Kareem Abdul-Jabbar | Buy |
| 12 | We All Want to Change the World: My Journey Through Social Justice Movements from the 1960s to Today | 2025 | Kareem Abdul-Jabbar | Buy |
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar’s non-fiction spans four decades and reflects his evolution from basketball star to public intellectual. Giant Steps (1983) was his first autobiography, followed by books on African-American history, civil rights, and cultural commentary. His subjects range from the Harlem Renaissance to WWII’s forgotten Black heroes to the history of African-American inventors.
More recent titles include Coach Wooden and Me, a memoir about his fifty-year friendship with John Wooden, and We All Want to Change the World (2025), which examines social justice movements from the 1960s to today. The twelve books form a body of work that consistently argues for a more complete understanding of American history and the contributions of Black Americans.