The Sun Does Shine by Anthony Ray Hinton is a beautiful and harrowing memoir detailing the time Hinton spent on death row for a wrongful conviction. Hinton makes a strong case for second chances, highlights the anti-black biases throughout the judiciary system, and demands the reader feel the helplessness he was put through throughout his narrative.

Other Alabama Reads include...

Just Mercy by Bryan Stevenson - this memoir outlining Bryan Stevenson's career fighting to overturn death sentences in Alabama is perfect to read alongside Anthony Ray Hinton's memoir. Hinton was one off the wrongfully convicted inmates on death row who Stevenson represented and ultimately got released.

Looking for Alaska by John Green is a young adult novel that draws inspiration from Green's experience in an Alabama boarding school. It's a coming-of-age story of friendship, tomfoolery, heartbreak, loss, and grief.

Martin Luther King Jr.'s Stride Toward Freedom reflects on the Montgomery Bus Boycott. It is absolutely as brilliant as you would expect King's writing to be.

Zora Neale Hurston's Barracoon is the autobiography of Cudjo Lewis. In 1927, when Hurston began writing this biography, Lewis was 86 years old, living outside of Mobile, and the last living person to have been captured and transported to the Americas as part of the Atlantic Slave Trade.