A Booklist for Black History Month

Photo: pov_steve

When I was in sixth or seventh grade, my older brother handed me a paperback book. I don’t remember exactly what he said, but I knew by his words, and the look on his face, that I had to read it.

I didn’t understand the title, Manchild in the Promised Land, and I’d never heard of its author, Claude Brown. But once I opened the book I couldn’t put it down. It was based on Brown’s coming-of-age in Harlem in the 1940s and ’50s. His descriptions of gangs, drug addicts, pimps, and prostitutes made for a harrowing ride. As I turned the pages, I felt like I was holding a stick of dynamite.

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My father had grown up not far from Harlem, and we visited New York City often. But Brown’s was a world altogether different from anything I had known, and it terrified me. I couldn’t understand why there was such a gulf between his childhood experiences and my own. I only knew that skin color played a defining role. It was a lesson I never forgot. 

Celebrating Black History Month is a complicated endeavor. We honor the talents of inventors, doctors, artists, athletes, and musicians. But we also bear witness to the hundreds of thousands of people who lived in cruel bondage. We look with admiration upon those who escaped from slavery—and those who led them to freedom. We also revisit the foot soldiers of the civil rights movement who faced fire hoses and beatings for freedoms that never should have been denied them. Each time we do so, a piece of our hearts is pierced a bit more. We may want to lay the blame on the likes of Bull Connor and Orval Faubus, but the complicity extends much further.

Since the 1950s, when a Supreme Court ruling and a series of new laws began to dismantle Jim Crow, the harsh realities experienced by a kid like Claude Brown have become rarer, but not rare enough. Segregation is illegal but lives on in insidious ways.

The 50 books and 7 documentary films listed below will help you introduce students to the African-American experience in all of its dimensions. You’ll find Manchild in the Promised Land and other works of literature, a riveting account of Negro League Baseball, and lush picture books by artist Faith Ringgold. Also included is a brand-new biography of Rosa Parks by Jeanne Theoharis, which dispels many myths about the so-called “weary seamstress” who refused to move to the back of the bus.

The titles are grouped according to grade bands K-12, with a range of genres. To help enrich your reading experience, check out this guide to creating evidence-based questions (PDF).

For middle-school students, I’ve appended a classroom play, “Crusader for Justice,” (PDF) about investigative journalist Ida B. Wells, who, in the 1890s, systematically led a campaign against lynching in the South. The play includes a lesson plan and a Strategic Reading work sheet. Southern Horrors and Other Writings: The Anti-Lynching Campaign of Ida B. Wells, 1892-1900 (listed below) can be used as a stretch text, allowing students to analyze Wells’s accounts “of dehumanizing brutality” and explore the events that led to her writings.

All of these works offer a rich account of the struggles and triumphs of a people whose history in America is longer—and more agonizing—than most; who, with their grit, faith, and courage managed to endure and, in many cases, thrive. As Claude Brown wrote, it is “a story of their searching, their dreams, their sorrows, their small and futile rebellions, and their endless battle to establish their own place . . . in America itself.” It is our job to ensure that the battle ends with true equality.

 

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Black History Month: Recommended Reading

Grades K–1

Barack Obama: Out of Many, One

Shana Corey (Random House Books for Young Readers, 2009)
Biography
The story of a skinny little boy with a funny name who became the first African-American President of the United States

Duke Ellington: The Piano Prince and His Orchestra

Andrea Pinkney (Hyperion Book CH, 2006)
Biography
This “smooth-talkin’, slick-steppin’, piano-playin’ kid,” who was born in 1899, would grow up to dazzle the world with his music.

Ellen’s Broom

Kelly Starling Lyons (Putnam Juvenile, 2012)
Literature
A young girl describes a poignant tradition among slaves who are not able to get married legally.

A Picture Book of Frederick Douglass

David A. Adler (Holiday House, Reprint edition, 1995)
Biography
A pictorial depiction of a man who went from being a slave to a freer of slaves and a world-famous orator and civil rights activist

Ruby Bridges Goes to School: My True Story

Ruby Bridges (Cartwheel Books, 2009)
Autobiography
Readers meet a courageous girl who stayed strong in the face of racism.

Sojourner Truth’s Step-Stomp Stride

Andrea Pinkney (Hyperion Book CH, 2009)
Biography
A dynamic portrait of the freed slave whose physical and spiritual strength made her one of America's most powerful abolitionist voices

Tar Beach

Faith Ringgold (Dragonfly Books, 1996)
Literature
“Quilt paintings” illustrate a Depression-era girl’s imaginative foray above the streets of New York City.

A Weed is a Flower: The Life of George Washington Carver

Aliki (Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers, 1988)
Biography
Brief text and pictures present the life of George Washington Carver, born a slave, who became a scientist and devoted his life to helping the South improve its agriculture.

Grades 2–3

Aunt Harriet’s Underground Railroad in the Sky

Faith Ringgold (Dragonfly Books, 1995)
Literature
With Harriet Tubman as her guide, young Cassie retraces the steps that escaping slaves took on the real Underground Railroad.

Freedom on the Menu: The Greensboro Sit-Ins

Carole Boston Weatherford (Puffin, Reprint edition, 2007)
Nonfiction
When Connie sees four young men take a stand for equal rights at a Woolworth’s lunch counter in Greensboro, North Carolina, she realizes that things may soon change in the South.

Heart and Soul: The Story of America and African Americans

Kadir Nelson (Balzar + Bray, 2011)
Nonfiction
A tale of discrimination and broken promises, determination and triumphs

Ida B. Wells: Let the Truth Be Told

Walter Dean Myers (Amistad, 2008)
Nonfiction
An illustrated profile of a pioneering voice against lynching

I Have a Dream

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. (Schwartz & Wade; Har/Com edition, 2012)
Lifelike paintings by Kadir Nelson accompany King’s world-famous speech on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in 1963.

A Splash of Red: The Life and Art of Horace Pippin

Jen Bryant (Knopf Books for Young Readers, 2013)
Nonfiction
After an injury in World War I, Pippin learned to draw again and became a famous painter whose works were displayed across the country.

STAT: Standing Tall and Talented

Amar’e Stoudemire (Scholastic Press, 2012)
Literature
A heartfelt story based on the famous basketball player’s boyhood

What Color Is My World? The Lost History of African-American Inventors

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Raymond Obstfeld (Candlewick, 2012)
Literature
The lives of black inventors and innovators are explored through the eyes of fictional twins.

Grades 4–5

Bud, Not Buddy

Christopher Paul Curtis (Laurel Leaf, 2004)
Literature
It’s 1936, in Flint, Michigan. When 10-year-old Bud decides to hit the road to find his father, nothing can stop him.

Eliza’s Freedom Road: An Underground Railroad Dairy

Jerdine Nolen (Simon & Schuster/Paula Wiseman Books, 2011)
Literature
As she escapes slavery in Maryland for Canada, 12-year-old Eliza recites the stories her mother taught her.

Hand in Hand: Ten Black Men Who Changed America

Andrea Pinkney (Hyperion Book CH, 2012)
Nonfiction
Lyrical narratives about 10 influential men from different eras in American history

Ida B. Wells, Mother of the Civil Rights Movement

Dennis Brindell Fradin and Judith Bloom Fradin (Clarion Books, 2000)
Biography
The acclaimed civil rights leader Ida B. Wells (1862-1931) is brought to life in this accessible and well-researched biography.

One Crazy Summer

Rita Williams-Garcia (Amistad; Reprint edition, 2011)
Literature
Eleven-year-old Delphine has only a few memories of her mother, Cecile, who abandoned the family in Brooklyn. Then, in the summer of 1968, Delphine and her sisters visit Cecile in Oakland.

Sojourner Truth: Ain’t I a Woman?

Patricia C. McKissack (Scholastic Paperbacks, 1994)
Biography
This forceful narrative offers a startling portrait of a pivotal yet appalling era in American history, centering on the life of a remarkable woman born into slavery in 1797 in New York.

The Watsons Go to Birmingham—1963

Christopher Paul Curtis (Laurel Leaf, 2000)
Literature
A boisterous family makes a journey from Flint, Michigan, straight into one of the most chilling moments in American history: the burning of the Sixteenth Avenue Baptist Church with four little girls inside.

We Are the Ship: The Story of Negro League Baseball

Kadir Nelson (Hyperion Book CH, 2008)
Nonfiction
A lost piece of American history comes to life in Kadir Nelson's elegant and eloquent story of the Negro leagues and their gifted baseball players.

Grades 6–8

Black Women in White America: A Documentary History

Gerda Lerner (Vintage, 1992)
Nonfiction
From the first women who fought slavery to the great Fannie Lou Hamer, this book profiles some of America’s most extraordinary women.

Harlem

Walter Dean Myers (Scholastic Press, 1997)
Literature
This songlike poem relates the story of a people who settle in New York City, hoping to improve their lots in life, only to discover that racism can still keep them from achieving success.

Harriet Tubman, The Road to Freedom

Catherine Clinton (Back Bay Books, 2005)
Biography
The famous conductor of the Underground Railroad is revealed as a singular and complex character.

Not Without Laughter

Langston Hughes (Dover Publications, 2008)
Literature
This 1930s coming-of-age tale, the only novel by the great poet, unfolds in rural Kansas in a racially divided society.

Southern Horrors and Other Writings: The Anti-Lynching Campaign of Ida B. Wells, 1892-1900

Edited by Jacqueline Jones Royster (Bedford/St. Martin’s, 1997)
Nonfiction
This volume collects three pamphlets that constitute Wells’s major works during the anti-lynching movement: Southern Horrors: Lynch Law in All Its Phases; A Red Record; and Mob Rule in New Orleans.

A Testament of Hope: The Essential Writings and Speeches of Martin Luther King Jr.

Edited by James M. Washington (HarperOne; Reprint edition, 1990)
King is revealed in his many roles—philosopher, theologian, orator, essayist, and author.

Up From Slavery

Booker T. Washington (Dover Publications, 1995)
Autobiography
This 1901 narrative details Washington’s slow and steady rise in the years after the Civil War.

Grades 9–10

The Amistad Rebellion: An Atlantic Odyssey of Slavery and Freedom

Marcus Rediker (Viking Adult, 2012)
Nonfiction
In this powerful account, the author reclaims the famous slave rebellion for the African rebels who risked death to stake a claim for freedom.

By Any Means Necessary: Malcolm X Speeches and Writing

(Pathfinder Press, 1992)
In eleven speeches and interviews, Malcolm X presents a revolutionary alternative to societal injustices.

The Color Purple

Alice Walker (Mariner Books, 2003)
Literature
This moving story, set in rural Georgia, tells of a 14-year-old girl’s shame and suffering after her father rapes and beats her

Extraordinary, Ordinary People: A Memoir of Family

Condoleezza Rice (Three Rivers Press, 2011)
Autobiography
The former Secretary of State recalls her childhood in the segregated South and how she overcame prejudice with the help of her exceptional parents and an extended family and community.

Eyes on the Prize: America’s Civil Rights Years, 1954-1965

Juan Williams (Penguin Books; Reprint edition, 1988)
Nonfiction
The events of the 1950s and ’60s are brought to life with photographs and vivid text, including first-person accounts. Written in conjunction with the PBS TV series of the same name.

Their Eyes Were Watching God

Zora Neale Hurston (Harper Perennial Modern Classics, 2006)
Literature
One of the most important works of 20th-century American literature, Hurston's 1937 classic is a Southern love story that sparkles with wit and wisdom.

The Life and Times of Frederick Douglass

(Dover Publications, 2003)
Autobiography
Douglass, who was born into slavery in 1818, recounts his harrowing escape and how he later risked his own freedom as an antislavery advocate, orator, writer, and publisher.

The Souls of Black Folk

W. E. B. DuBois (Dover Publications, 1994)
Nonfiction
First published in 1903, this classic work remains a crucial document in African-American literary history.

The Tuskegee Airmen: An Illustrated History: 1939-1949

Joseph Caver, Jerome Ennels, and Daniel Haulman (NewSouth Books, 2011)
Nonfiction
Here, in pictures and words, is the full story of the Tuskegee Airmen and the world in which they lived, worked, played, fought, and sometimes died.

When I Was a Slave: Memoirs From the Slave Narrative Collection

Edited by Norman R. Yetman (Dover Publications, 2002)
Nonfiction
More than 2,000 interviews with former slaves provide often-startling first-person accounts of their lives in bondage.

Grades 11–CCR

The New York Times: The Complete Civil War

Edited by Harold Holzer (Black Dog & Leventhal Publishers, 2010)
Newspaper accounts
This book collects every article that the Times published about the war from 1861 to 1865.

Dreams From My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance

Barack Obama (Crown, Reprint edition, 2007)
Autobiography
A poignant, probing memoir by the man who would become America’s first black President

Invisible Man

Ralph Ellison (Vintage, 1995)
Literature
First published in 1952, this award-winning novel tells the story of a disaffected young black man who makes his way from the segregated South to an often-violent Harlem.

Mama’s Girl

Veronica Chambers (Riverhead Trade, 1997)
Autobiography
A personal story of perseverance and achievement, this book is Chamber's self-examination as an African-American woman.

Notes of a Native Son

James Baldwin (Beacon Press, 2012)
Essays
Written during the 1940s and early ’50s, these essayscapture a view of black life and black thought at the dawn of the civil rights movement.

Native Son

Richard Wright (Harper Perennial Modern Classics, 2008)
Literature
The shocking tale of a young African-American man living in a black neighborhood of Chicago

Parting the Waters: America in the King Years, 1954-63

Taylor Branch (Simon & Schuster, 1989)
Nonfiction
This volume, the first of two, offers an unsurpassed portrait of Martin Luther King Jr.’s rise to greatness.

Song of Solomon

Toni Morrison (Vintage; Reprint edition, 2004)
Literature
A powerful, poetic exploration of four generations of a family mistakenly named Dead

The Rebellious Life of Mrs. Rosa Parks

Jeanne Theoharis (Beacon Press, 2013)
Biography
A new biography, published 100 years after the birth of the great activist, fleshes out Parks’s sometimes-surprising role in the fight for civil rights

Manchild in the Promised Land

Claude Brown (Touchstone, Reprint edition, 2011)
Literature
Based on Brown’s coming-of-age in Harlem, this book is considered the definitive account of everyday life for the first generation of African Americans raised in the Northern ghettos of the 1940s and ’50s.

Midnight Rising: John Brown and the Road That Sparked the Civil War

Tony Horwitz (Henry Holt and Co., 2010)
Nonfiction
The true story of the men and women who launched a desperate strike at the slaveholding South

 

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Black History Month: Documentary Films

African-American Lives

A PBS series hosted by Henry Louis Gates
In search of lost history, the great scholar probes the ancestry of well-known African Americans.

The Civil War

Directed by Ken Burns, 1990
This award-winning documentary series tells the story of the war with archival photographs, paintings, and newspaper images.

Eyes on the Prize: America’s Civil Rights Movement, 1954-1985

Directed by Henry Hampton, 1987
A “peerless” series that brings to life the incredible characters and epic stories that have shaped America’s past and present

Jazz

Directed by Ken Burns, 2000
A history of the music that is considered one of America’s greatest cultural achievements

4 Little Girls

Directed by Spike Lee, 1997
The story of the 1963 murder of four African-American girls at a church bombing in Birmingham, Alabama

The Untold Story of Emmett Louis Till

Directed by Keith Beauchamp, 2005
With archival photos, footage, and interviews, this film tells the haunting story of 14-year-old Emmett Till’s senseless murder.

When We Were Kings

Directed by Leon Gast, 1996
A documentary of the 1974 heavyweight championship bout in Zaire between champion George Foreman and underdog challenger Muhammad Ali

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Many of the titles above—and other great books that honor Black History Month—are available on the Scholastic Teacher Store.