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By Kwame Alexander, illustrated by Kadir Nelson

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Originally performed for ESPN's The Undefeated, this poem is a love letter to black life in the United States. It highlights the unspeakable trauma of slavery, the faith and fire of the civil rights movement, and the grit, passion, and perseverance of some of the world's greatest heroes. The text is also peppered with references to the words of Martin Luther King, Jr., Langston Hughes, Gwendolyn Brooks, and others, offering deeper insights into the accomplishments of the past, while bringing stark attention to the endurance and spirit of those surviving and thriving in the present. Robust back matter at the end provides valuable historical context and additional detail for those wishing to learn more.

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by Rio Cortez, illustrated by Lauren Semmer

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B is for Beautiful, Brave, and Bright! And for a book that takes a bold journey through the alphabet of Black history and culture. Letter by letter, this book celebrates a story that spans continents and centuries, triumph and heartbreak, creativity and joy. In addition to rhyming text, the book includes back matter with information on the events, places, and people mentioned in the poem, from Mae Jemison to W. E. B. Du Bois,Fannie Lou Hamer to Sam Cooke, and the Little Rock Nine to DJ Kool Herc.

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by Tonya Bolden, illustrated by R. Gregory Christie

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A biography of the legendary boxer, who began his career as Cassius Clay, discussing his prowess in the ring, his conversion to Islam, and his life after boxing.

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by Gene Barretta, illustrated by Frank Morrison

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The Secret Garden of George Washington Carver

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The Secret Garden of George Washington Carver

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Gene Barretta's moving words and Frank Morrison's beautiful paintings tell the inspiring life and history of George Washington Carver, from a baby born into slavery to celebrated botanist, scientist, and inventor. His passion and determination are the seeds to this lasting story about triumph over hardship--a tale that begins in a secret garden.

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secret garden of george washington carver

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by Jen Bryant, illustrated by Frank Morrison

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Above the Rim: How Elgin Baylor Changed Basketball

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Above the Rim: How Elgin Baylor Changed Basketball

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Though not as widely known as other basketball legends, hall-of-famer Elgin Baylor was one of the game's all-time greatest players--an innovative athlete, team player, and quiet force for change. A member of the early, scrappy NBA and one of the first professional African American players, Elgin played in the late 1950s and early 1960s for the Minneapolis/Los Angeles Lakers, taking risks on and off the court. Known for his acrobatic style of moving and shooting, he inspired others to get creative with their game. But when traveling for away games, hotels and restaurants weren't as welcoming of Elgin as they were of his white teammates. Together, Elgin and his teammates boycotted places practicing segregation until the entire NBA followed suit. This book is a peek into the early days of the NBA, a poetic telling of the life of an under-known athlete, and a celebration of standing up for what is right.

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by Jennifer Berne, illustrated by Lorraine Nam

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Look Up With Me: Neil DeGrasse Tyson, a Life Among the Stars

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Look Up With Me: Neil DeGrasse Tyson, a Life Among the Stars

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A biography of famed astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson and awe-inspiring facts about our universe.

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by Rita Lorraine Hubbard, illustrated by Oge Mora

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The Oldest Student: How Mary Walker Learned to Read

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The Oldest Student: How Mary Walker Learned to Read

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A picture book biography sharing the true story of the nation's oldest student, Mary Walker, who learned to read at the age of 116.

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by Nikole Hannah-Jones and Renée Watson, illustrated by Nikkolas Smith

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A young student receives a family tree assignment in school, but she can only trace back three generations. Grandma gathers the whole family, and the student learns that 400 years ago, in 1619, their ancestors were stolen and brought to America by white slave traders.
But before that, they had a home, a land, a language. She learns how the people said to be born on the water survived.

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by Misty Copeland, illustrated by Christopher Myers

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Firebird: Ballerina Misty Copeland Shows a Young Girl How to Dance Like the Firebird

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Firebird: Ballerina Misty Copeland Shows a Young Girl How to Dance Like the Firebird

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American Ballet Theater soloist Misty Copeland encourages a young ballet student, with brown skin like her own, by telling her that she, too, had to learn basic steps and how to be graceful when she was starting out, and that some day, with practice and dedication, the little girl will become a firebird, too. Includes author's note about dancers who led her to find her voice.

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by Monica Kulling, illustrated by David Parkins

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To the Rescue! Garrett Morgan Underground

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To the Rescue! Garrett Morgan Underground

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Working alone, Garrett Morgan invented a safety hood for firefighters. Little did he know that most people wouldn't be interested in his safety hood - a device that would literally save lives - once they discovered its inventor was black. Following an explosion that trapped workers in a tunnel under Lake Erie, Garrett pleaded for his hoods to be taken to the scene; they were and hundreds lived. Developed further, Garrett's hoods came to save thousands of soldiers in World War I. This gorgeous picture book introduces Garrett's story to young children for the first time.

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by Brad Meltzer, illustrated by Christopher Eliopoulos

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An illustrated look at the life and career of Jackie Robinson.

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Black Birds in the Sky: The Story and Legacy of the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre

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Black Birds in the Sky: The Story and Legacy of the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre

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In the early morning of June 1, 1921, a white mob marched across the train tracks in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and into its predominantly Black Greenwood District--a thriving, affluent neighborhood known as America's Black Wall Street. They brought with them firearms, gasoline, and explosives. In a few short hours, they'd razed thirty-five square blocks to the ground, leaving hundreds dead. The Tulsa Race Massacre is one of the most devastating acts of racial violence in US history. But how did it come to pass? What exactly happened? And why are the events unknown to so many of us today? These are the questions that author Brandy Colbert seeks to answer in this nonfiction account of the Tulsa Race Massacre.

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by Margot Theis Raven, illustrated by Chris Ellison

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Presents the story of the 1955 Cannon Street All-Star baseball team, their desire to gain a spot in the Little League program of South Carolina, the boycott against them, and the spirit and determination of young African-Americans in the center of racism and segregation.

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A novel in verse about a boy escaping slavers during the nineteenth century.

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by Charles R. Smith, Jr., illustrated by Shane Evans

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Each day features a different influential figure in African-American history, from Crispus Attucks, the first man shot in the Boston Massacre, sparking the Revolutionary War, to Madame C. J. Walker, who after years of adversity became the wealthiest black woman in the country, as well as one of the wealthiest black Americans, to Barack Obama, the country's first African-American president.

With powerful illustrations by Shane Evans, this is a completely unique look at the importance and influence of African Americans on the history of this country.

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by Carole Boston Weatherford, illustrated by Floyd Cooper

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A look at the Tulsa Race Massacre, one of the worst incidents of racial violence in US 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.

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by Troy "Trombone Shorty" Andrews, illustrated by Bryan Collier

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A Grammy-nominated headliner for the New Orleans Jazz Fest describes his childhood in Tremé and how he came to be a bandleader by age six.

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By Margot Lee Shetterly, illustrated by Laura Freeman

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Before John Glenn orbited the earth, or Neil Armstrong walked on the moon, a group of dedicated female mathematicians known as "human computers" used pencils, slide rules, and adding machines to calculate the numbers that would launch rockets, and astronauts, into space. This book brings to life the stories of Dorothy Vaughan, Mary Jackson, Katherine Johnson, and Christine Darden, four African-American women who lived through the civil rights era, the Space Race, the Cold War, and the movement for gender equality, and whose work forever changed the face of NASA and the country.

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by Brittney Cooper, illustrated by Cathy Ann Johnson

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Stand Up! 10 Mighty Women Who Made a Change

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Stand Up! 10 Mighty Women Who Made a Change

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Tells the stories of ten historic female figures who changed the world by standing up for what's right, including legendary Civil Rights activists like Ruby Bridges and Rosa Parks and spanning to contemporary role models like Bree Newsome, who removed the confederate flag from the South Carolina state house grounds, and Mari Copeny, a youth activist who fought for clean water in Flint, Michigan.

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A Marked Man: The Assassination of Malcolm X

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A Marked Man: The Assassination of Malcolm X

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Examines the life and death of Malcolm X and explores his impact on civil rights in the United States.

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A biographical novel tells the story of Cassius Clay, the determined boy who would one day become Muhammad Ali, one of the greatest boxers of all time.

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by Carole Boston Weatherford, illustrated by Eric Velasquez

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Amid the scholars, poets, authors, and artists of the Harlem Renaissance stood an Afro-Puerto Rican named Arturo Schomburg. This law clerk's life's passion was to collect books, letters, music, and art from Africa and the African diaspora and bring to light the achievements of people of African descent through the ages. When Schomburg's collection became so big it began to overflow his house (and his wife threatened to mutiny), he turned to the New York Public Library, where he created and curated a collection that was the cornerstone of a new Negro Division. A century later, his groundbreaking collection, known as the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, has become a beacon to scholars all over the world.

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by Amanda Gorman, illustrated by Loren Long

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As a young girl leads a cast of characters on a musical journey, they learn that they have the power to make changes--big or small--in the world, in their communities, and in most importantly, in themselves.

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by Laban Carrick Hill, illustrated by Bryan Collier

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Chronicles the life of Dave, a nineteenth-century slave who went on to become an influential poet, artist, and potter.

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by Tony Medina, illustrated by R. Gregory Christie

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A series of poems written from the point of view of the poet Langston Hughes, offering an overview of key events and themes in his life.

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by Roxane Orgill, illustrated by Francis Vallejo

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Jazz Day: The Making of a Famous Photograph

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Jazz Day: The Making of a Famous Photograph

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A collection of poems tell the story behind a famous 1958 photograph of jazz musicians. Includes bios of several of the fifty-seven musicians, an author's note, source notes, a bibliography, and a foldout of Art Kane's famous photograph.

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Radiant Child: The Story of Young Artist Jean-Michel Basquiat

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Radiant Child: The Story of Young Artist Jean-Michel Basquiat

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A biography of Jean-Michel Basquiat, an artist in New York City who rose to fame in the 1980s.

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by Nikki Giovanni, illustrated by Bryan Collier

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Provides the story of the black woman whose refusal to give up her seat on a bus in Alabama set in motion all the events of the civil rights movements that resulted in the end of the segregated South.

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The Remarkable Story of George Moses Horton, Poet

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The Remarkable Story of George Moses Horton, Poet

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Relates the story of North Carolina slave George Moses Horton, who taught himself to read, learned to write, and became a well-known, published poet in spite of his slave status.

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by Susan E. Goodman, illustrated by E.B. Lewis

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The First Step: How One Girl Put Segregation on Trial

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The First Step: How One Girl Put Segregation on Trial

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Looks at how in 1847, a young African American girl named Sarah Roberts made history with her case of Roberts versus the City of Boston to outlaw segregated schools.

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by Brad Meltzer, illustrated by Christopher Eliopoulos

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A biography of Harriet Tubman, the abolitionist leader who played a key role in helping enslaved people escape via the Underground Railroad.

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A picture book biography introduces the ideas and accomplishments of a gifted and influential speaker by using some of his own words to tell the story.

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Lillian's Right to Vote: A Celebration of the Voting Rights Act of 1965

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Lillian's Right to Vote: A Celebration of the Voting Rights Act of 1965

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As an elderly woman, Lillian recalls that her great-great-grandparents were sold as slaves in front of a courthouse where only rich white men were allowed to vote, then the long fight that led to her right--and determination--to cast her ballot since the Voting Rights Act gave every American the right to vote.

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Voice of Freedom: Fannie Lou Hamer, Spirit of the Civil Rights Movement

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Voice of Freedom: Fannie Lou Hamer, Spirit of the Civil Rights Movement

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Presents a collage-illustrated treasury of poems and spirituals inspired by the life and work of civil rights advocate Fannie Lou Hamer.

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by Ibi Zoboi, illustrated by Loveis Wise

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Recounts the journey of African descendants in America by connecting their history to the seven principles of Kwanzaa.

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Discovering a book of Langston Hughes' poetry in the library helps Langston cope with the loss of his mother, relocating from Alabama to Chicago as part of the Great Migration, and being bullied.

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After fleeing the plantation where they were enslaved, siblings Ada and Homer discover the secret community of Freewater, and work with freeborn Sanzi to protect their new home from the encroaching dangers of the outside world.

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Twelve-year-old Shayla is allergic to trouble. All she wants to do is to follow the rules. But in junior high, it's like all the rules have changed. Now she's suddenly questioning who her best friends are and some people at school are saying she's not black enough. Wait, what? Shay's sister, Hana, is involved in Black Lives Matter, but Shay doesn't think that's for her. After experiencing a powerful protest, though, Shay decides some rules are worth breaking. She starts wearing an armband to school in support of the Black Lives movement. Soon everyone is taking sides. And she is given an ultimatum. Shay is scared to do the wrong thing (and even more scared to do the right thing), but if she doesn't face her fear, she'll be forever tripping over the next hurdle. Now that's trouble, for real.

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After seventh-grader Jerome is shot by a white police officer, he observes the aftermath of his death and meets the ghosts of other fallen black boys including historical figure Emmett Till.

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During World War II, a light-skinned African American girl "passes" for white in order to join the Women Airforce Service Pilots.

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by John Lewis, Andrew Aydin, and Nate Powell

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A first-hand account of the author's lifelong struggle for civil and human rights spans his youth in rural Alabama, his life-changing meeting with Martin Luther King, Jr., and the birth of the Nashville Student Movement.

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An African-American family living in the South during the 1930s is faced with prejudice and discrimination which its children do not understand.

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by Barry Wittenstein, illustrated by Jerry Pinkney

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A Place to Land: Martin Luther King, Jr. and the Speech that Inspired a Nation

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A Place to Land: Martin Luther King, Jr. and the Speech that Inspired a Nation

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The true story behind the writing of Martin Luther King's 'I Have a Dream' speech.

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Dark Sky Rising: Reconstruction and the Dawn of Jim Crow

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Dark Sky Rising: Reconstruction and the Dawn of Jim Crow

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American literary critic, teacher, historian, filmmaker and public intellectual Henry Louis Gates Jr. looks at America's history from 1861 to 1915, focusing on the destruction of slavery, the Reconstruction Amendments, and African-American resilience in times of racial unrest and drawing parallels to them with the early twenty-first century in the United States.

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Revolution in Our Time: The Black Panther Party's Promise to the People

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Revolution in Our Time: The Black Panther Party's Promise to the People

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A comprehensive history of the Black Panther Party that introduces readers to the Panthers' community activism, grounded in the concept of self-defense, which taught Black Americans how to protect and support themselves in a country that treated them like second-class citizens. For too long the Panthers' story has been a footnote to the civil rights movement rather than what it was: a revolutionary socialist movement that drew thousands of members--mostly women--and became the target of one of the most sustained repression efforts ever made by the U.S. government against its own citizens.

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This biography of Rosa Parks examines her six decades of activism, challenging young readers perceptions of her as an accidental actor in the civil rights movement.

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by Charles R. Smith, Jr., illustrated by Charlot Kristensen

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In 1929, 18-year-old Bessie Stringfield hopped on her motorcycle and headed out on an adventure, an unusual choice for a young Black woman at the time. Paying her way by winning motorcycle races, she criss-crossed the country through small towns, big cities, and wide open spaces. But not everyone was happy to see Bessie's brown face peeking out from underneath her helmet. And more than once, Bessie found herself making some quick exits on the back of her bike to escape Jim Crow. A trailblazer in the world of women's racing and motorcycling, Bessie Stringfield was a figure who will inspire all children to pursue their dreams.

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by Derrick Barnes, illustrated by Gordon C. James

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Celebrates the magnificent feeling that comes from walking out of a barber shop with newly-cut hair. A high-spirited, engaging salute to the beautiful, raw, assured humanity of black boys and how they see themselves when they approve of their reflections in the mirror.

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by Derrick Barnes, illustrated by Vanessa Brantley-Newton

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A confident little boy takes pride in his first day of kindergarten, by the Newbery Honor-winning author of Crown. The morning sun blares through your window like a million brass trumpets. It sits and shines behind your head--like a crown. Mommy says that today, you are going to be the King of Kindergarten! Starting kindergarten is a big milestone--and the hero of this story is ready to make his mark.

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"On a rainy day when the house smells like cinnamon and Papa and Luca are still asleep, when the clouds are wearing shadows and the wind paints the window with beads of water, I want to be everywhere Mama is." With lyrical prose and a tender touch, the Caldecott and Coretta Scott King Honor Book Mama and Me is an ode to the strength of the bond between a mother and a daughter as they spend a rainy day together.

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by Matthew A. Cherry, illustrated by Vashti Harrison

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Based on the short film "Hair Love."  A little girl's daddy steps in to help her arrange her curly, coiling, wild hair into styles that allow her to be her natural, beautiful self.

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by Kelly DiPucchio, illustrated by LeUyen Pham

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On a school field trip to Washington, D.C., student council member Grace and her classmates learn about the three branches of the federal government, how school government operates, the qualities of effective leadership, and how to be a good citizen.

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Jabari is definitely ready to jump off the diving board. He's finished his swimming lessons. He's passed his swim test. It's just... maybe he should do some stretches first. 'Looks easy,' says Jabari, watching the other kids take their turns. But when his dad squeezes his hand, Jabari squeezes back.

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Princesses with curls wear pearls. Princesses with head wraps take long naps. And princesses with teeny-weeny Afros wear teeny-weeny bows. From dreadlocks to blowouts to braids, Princess Hair shines a spotlight on the beauty and diversity of black hair, showing young readers that every kind of hair is princess hair. Debut author-illustrator Sharee Miller encourages confidence and pride in this playful, colorful picture book that teaches readers to love every bit of themselves.

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In vivid poems that reflect the joy of finding her voice through writing stories, an award-winning author shares what it was like to grow up in the 1960s and 1970s in both the North and the South.

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by Carole Boston Weatherford, illustrated by Frank Morrison

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R-E-S-P-E-C-T: Aretha Franklin, the Queen of Soul

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R-E-S-P-E-C-T: Aretha Franklin, the Queen of Soul

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Aretha Franklin was born to sing. The daughter of a pastor and a gospel singer, her musical talent was clear from her earliest days in her father's Detroit church. Aretha sang with a soaring voice that spanned more than three octaves. Her incredible talent and string of hit songs earned her the title "the Queen of Soul." This Queen was a multi-Grammy winner and the first female inductee to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. And there was even more to Aretha than being a singer, songwriter, and pianist: she was an activist, too. Her song "Respect" was an anthem for people fighting for civil rights and women's rights. With words that sing and art that shines, this vibrant portrait of Aretha Franklin pays her the R-E-S-P-E-C-T this Queen of Soul deserves.

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