Kindred by Octavia Butler. One of the great Black sci-fi writers but unfortunately she had a habit of pairing Black women lead characters with non BM until close to the end of her life (Parable of the Sower).
The Oankali books, Parable of the Sower, Parable of the Talents and her short stories like Bloodchild are objectively great scifi as long as you realize strong non-mixed Black male characters aren't her thing except in the Parables books.
I haven't read Kindred but I was kind of
at her explanation for writing it in an interview she gave. She talked about a classmate in the 1970s that denounced older Black people for being accommodationists and goes on to say she basically admired the people who endured slavery without fighting back and patiently worked and hoped for better days (incremental change) since the rebellious and outspoken people got killed and accomplished nothing and left no descendants. She also says the bf in Kindred had to be White since a modern Black man traveling back to slavery would have gone out of pocket and gotten himself killed.
