Cane (1951) is a collection of stories and poems by Jean Toomer, one of the early masters of African-American fiction and a major influence on Johnson. Cane addresses issues of racial oppression and African-American identity in both the South and the North.

Invisible Man (1947), by Ralph Ellison, is a novel treating issues of Black identity in American culture. Johnson considers Invisible Man an important influence on his own fiction.

Black Boy (1966), by Richard Wright, is a novel about the coming-of-age of an African-American boy as he develops into a young man. Wright has been a major literary influence on Johnson.

Middle Passage (1990) is Johnson's award-winning novel about an African-American man traveling on a slave ship.

King: The Photobiography of Martin Luther King, Jr. (2000), co-authored by Johnson and Bob Adelman, offers numerous photographs tracing major events in the Civil Rights movement led...