DPS Media Coordinator Recommends Children’s Books That Focus On African-American History
African-American history teaches lessons in activism, community, and perseverance. Esther Glenn, Media Coordinator at R.N. Harris Elementary School, has compiled the list below of children’s picture books that offer storytelling on African heritage, the emancipation of slavery or Juneteenth, activism during the Civil Rights Movement, freedom to travel during Jim Crow, and the hard history of the Tulsa Massacre. Glenn recommends checking your local library for eBooks, eAudioBooks, and copies you can borrow of the children’s books listed in this article.
Circle Unbroken
Written by Margot Theis Raven, illustrated by E.B. Lewis
Published by Square Fish, 2007
As she teaches her granddaughter to sew a traditional sweetgrass basket, a grandmother weaves a story, going back generations to her grandfather’s village in faraway Africa. There, as a boy, he learned to make baskets so tightly woven they could hold the rain. Even after being stolen away to a slave ship bound for America, he remembers what he learned and passes these memories on to his children – as they do theirs. (barnesandnoble.com)
Ages 4 – 8
Available at Barnes and Noble and Amazon.com. Read Aloud at Youtube.com.
All Different Now: Juneteenth, the First Day of Freedom
Written by Angela Johnson, illustrated by E.B. Lewis
Published by Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers, 2014
Through the eyes of one little girl, All Different Now tells the story of the first Juneteenth, the day freedom finally came to the last of the slaves in the South. Since then, the observance of June 19 as African American Emancipation Day has spread across the United States and beyond. This stunning picture book includes notes from the author and illustrator, a timeline of important dates, and a glossary of relevant terms. Told in Angela Johnson’s signature melodic style and brought to life by E.B. Lewis’s striking paintings, All Different Now is a joyous portrait of the dawn breaking on the darkest time in our nation’s history. (barnesandnoble.com)
Ages 5 – 8
Available at Barnes & Noble and Amazon.com. Read Aloud at Youtube.com.
Unspeakable: The Tulsa Race Massacre
Written by Carole Boston Weatherford, illustrated by Floyd Cooper
Published by Carolrhoda Books, an imprint of Lerner Publishing, 2021
Celebrated author Carole Boston Weatherford and illustrator Floyd Cooper provide a powerful look at the Tulsa Race Massacre, one of the worst incidents of racial violence in our nation’s history. The book traces the history of African Americans in Tulsa’s Greenwood district and chronicles the devastation that occurred in 1921 when a white mob attacked the Black community. News of what happened was largely suppressed, and no official investigation occurred for seventy-five years. This picture book sensitively introduces young readers to this tragedy and concludes with a call for a better future. (barnesandnoble.com)
Ages 9 – 10
Available at Barnes and Noble and Amazon.com. Book Trailer and Read Aloud at Youtube.com.
Pies From Nowhere: How Georgia Gilmore Sustained The Montgomery Bus Boycott
Written by Dee Romito, illustrated by Laura Freeman
Published by Little Bee Books, 2018
Georgia Gilmore was a cook at the National Lunch Company in Montgomery, Alabama. When the bus boycotts broke out in Montgomery after Rosa Parks was arrested, Georgia knew just what to do. She organized a group of women who cooked and baked to fund-raise for gas and cars to help sustain the boycott. Called the Club from Nowhere, Georgia was the only person who knew who baked and bought the food, and she said the money came from “nowhere” to anyone who asked. When Martin Luther King Jr. was arrested for his role in the boycott, Georgia testified on his behalf, and her home became a meeting place for civil rights leaders. This picture book highlights a hidden figure of the civil rights movement who fueled the bus boycotts and demonstrated that one person can make a real change in her community and beyond. It also includes one of her delicious recipes for kids to try with the help of their parents! (barnesandnoble.com)
Ages 6 – 9
Available at Barnes & Noble and Amazon.com. Read Aloud at Youtube.com.
The Teachers March!: How Selma’s Teachers Changed History
Written by Sandra Neil Wallace and Rich Wallace, illustrated by Charly Palmer
Published by Astra Publishing House, 2020
Reverend F.D. Reese was a leader of the Voting Rights Movement in Selma, Alabama. As a teacher and principal, he recognized that his colleagues were viewed with great respect in the city. Could he convince them to risk their jobs—and perhaps their lives—by organizing a teachers-only march to the county courthouse to demand their right to vote? On January 22, 1965, the Black teachers left their classrooms and did just that, with Reverend Reese leading the way. Noted nonfiction authors Sandra Neil Wallace and Rich Wallace conducted the last interviews with Reverend Reese before his death in 2018 and interviewed several teachers and their family members in order to tell this story, which is especially important today. (barnesandnoble.com)
Ages 7 – 10
Available at Barnes & Noble and Amazon.com. Book Trailer and Read Aloud at Youtube.com.
Opening the Road: Victor Hugo Green and His Green Book
Written by Keila V. Dawson, illustrated by Alleanna Harris
Published by 1517 Media, 2021
In the late 1930s when segregation was legal and Black Americans couldn’t visit every establishment or travel everywhere they wanted to safely, a New Yorker named Victor Hugo Green decided to do something about it. Green wrote and published a guide that listed places where his fellow Black Americans could be safe in New York City. The guide sold like hotcakes! Soon customers started asking Green to make a guide to help them travel and vacation safely across the nation too. With the help of his mail carrier co-workers and the African American business community, Green’s guide allowed millions of African Americans to travel safely and enjoy traveling across the nation. (barnesandnoble.com)
Ages 4 – 8
Available at Barnes & Noble and Amazon.com. Book Trailer and Read Aloud at Youtube.com.
For more suggested reading, visit Esther Glenn’s blog.