The Intuitionist, by Colson WhiteheadRead about the other entries on the list.
The Intuitionist is a unique novel about integration and racial progress in a world of elevators and their inspectors. The inspectors are divided between Empiricist and Intuitionists. Protagonist Lila Mae Watson becomes the second black inspector—and the first black female black—in the Elevator Guild. When she finds herself in trouble with the powers that be, she uses her wit and research skills to untangle herself, in the process stumbling upon lost technology that could deliver her society into a new future. While this novel skews more toward the literary than the genre elements of Afrofuturism, it remains an important work that comments on racism and societal reform in a science fictional universe.
--Marshal Zeringue