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I enjoyed listening to Ms. Fritzgerald speaking about Antiracism and Universal Design for Learning. What caught my attention is when she said, "Where ever you are you have a license to learn." How do we encourage or engage students through UDL and talk about antiracism, you empower the students in their own way of learning. What I took from this is that teaching has a compliant way of boxing a student in, sit here, learn this, do that. If we do not give an specific environment for students to feel protected safe and affirmed then we might be the problem. We need to add value to our students, engage them in the learning, find out what they like and how do we get them to collaborate and not really feel like they have the drudgery of learning but they have the motivation to learn with our black and brown students. The entire goal of teaching is to support ALL learners and because of the disparities in education, I think that is why this topic was spoken about.

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Sharing Stories: Antiracism and Universal Design for Learning with Andratesha Fritzgerald

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A. “Emphasizing multicultural and anti-racist education to decolonize education requires efforts to go beyond equal opportunities and respect for existing cultural differences. It requires a pluralist transformation of public space, institutions, and civic culture”.

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A. “Emphasizing multicultural and anti-racist education to decolonize education requires efforts to go beyond equal opportunities and respect for existing cultural differences. It requires a pluralist transformation of public space, institutions, and civic culture”.

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A. “Diversity among teachers has significant effects on students—influencing aspects of their performance ranging from test scores to their ability to get jobs. And academic success isn’t the only benefit of diversifying the workforce”. 

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A. “Diversity among teachers has significant effects on students—influencing aspects of their performance ranging from test scores to their ability to get jobs. And academic success isn’t the only benefit of diversifying the workforce”. 

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A. “Illinois adopted the Culturally Responsive Teaching and Leading Standards in March 2021. The standards come from research-based best practices for closing achievement gaps. Cultural responsiveness improves student outcomes across a range of indicators from math and reading scores to attendance, to postsecondary enrollment”. 

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A. “Illinois adopted the Culturally Responsive Teaching and Leading Standards in March 2021. The standards come from research-based best practices for closing achievement gaps. Cultural responsiveness improves student outcomes across a range of indicators from math and reading scores to attendance, to postsecondary enrollment”. 

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A. “Children of color and their families are often marginalized and excluded from access to high-quality early child care and education (ECE). Never has this been so pertinent as amid the COVID-19 pandemic, which is disproportionately affecting Black and Hispanic families, largely because of structural racism”.

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A. “Children of color and their families are often marginalized and excluded from access to high-quality early child care and education (ECE). Never has this been so pertinent as amid the COVID-19 pandemic, which is disproportionately affecting Black and Hispanic families, largely because of structural racism”.

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A. “Equitable outcomes often require differential treatment and resource redistribution so as to achieve a level playing field among all individuals and communities”.

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A. “Equitable outcomes often require differential treatment and resource redistribution so as to achieve a level playing field among all individuals and communities”.

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In the video, Antiracism and Universal Design for Learning with Andratesha Fritzgerald, the author makes a good connection by presenting a scenario. She is getting the readers to understand how it would be for someone with color in a learning environment where they are always fearful and uncertain. As educators we have to make sure that as we group children in tiers to help them give extra support with resources like MTSS (Multi tiered system of support), we are also making them feel wanted as part of class community. Universal Design for Learning is an educational framework that guides the design of learning goals, materials, methods, assessments as well as the policies surrounding the curricular elements with the diversity of learners in mind. There are so many ways to represent materials that help auditory, visual, and kinesthetic learners in a classroom. As a teacher we must make sure each student, no matter what their backgrounds or color, are coming with assets filled with funds of knowledge. All we need to do is help them access it. Giving them avenues or options to show what they can do helps them feel secure and sense of belonging in a community.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xuDeI5m26-g

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Sharing Stories: Antiracism and Universal Design for Learning with Andratesha Fritzgerald

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B. “Decolonizing education involves viewing students who have minority cultures different from the mainstream through their own cultural standards and norms. Viewing minority students in light of dominant beliefs does not produce an equitable perspective and often opposes or impacts their beliefs and traditions. Multicultural and anti- racist education is stressing the unique perspectives of individuals from varying ethnic groups that enable students to consider the differences that exist across cultures”.

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B. “Decolonizing education involves viewing students who have minority cultures different from the mainstream through their own cultural standards and norms. Viewing minority students in light of dominant beliefs does not produce an equitable perspective and often opposes or impacts their beliefs and traditions. Multicultural and anti- racist education is stressing the unique perspectives of individuals from varying ethnic groups that enable students to consider the differences that exist across cultures”.

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B. “Fewer role models in schools for minority students can lead to a lack of interest in academic achievement for many learners, and therefore fewer minority students move on to enroll in college and pursue teaching degrees”.

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B. “Fewer role models in schools for minority students can lead to a lack of interest in academic achievement for many learners, and therefore fewer minority students move on to enroll in college and pursue teaching degrees”.

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B. “The standards encourage future teachers to engage in self-reflection, to get to know their students' families, to connect the curriculum to students' lives, and to support student leadership”.

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B. “The standards encourage future teachers to engage in self-reflection, to get to know their students' families, to connect the curriculum to students' lives, and to support student leadership”.

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B. “Nearly all child care workers are women. Most are women of color, who are paid less and have fewer professional development opportunities than their white counterparts”.

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B. “Nearly all child care workers are women. Most are women of color, who are paid less and have fewer professional development opportunities than their white counterparts”.

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B. It requires recognizing and addressing barriers to to provide opportunity for all individuals and communities to thrive in our University environment”.

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B. It requires recognizing and addressing barriers to to provide opportunity for all individuals and communities to thrive in our University environment”.

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The big idea about UDL is for teachers to identify barriers that might hinder students’ learning and give them choices to work around these barriers. Teachers using the UDL allow students to self differentiate and self direct their learning while providing feedback and support. They also allow students to make choices, which helps them become active members of their learning. This has a connection with the

The video “Sharing Stories: Antiracism and Universal Design for Learning with Andratesha Fritzgerald”. This video has a very powerful and moving message about students being active participants of their learning and agents of social change.

The author’s question, “Have you brought the revolution?” in reference to the place where we are made me think about my purpose as an educator. I would like to think that I have brought positive changes to the lives of my students. The great majority of my students are black. However, when I first started at my school I noticed that there were not many books with black characters in them. I bought many books for my classroom because I believe that it is so important for black and brown children to see themselves and their life experiences represented in stories. I guess I am bringing a little bit of revolution by going against the curriculum and choosing alternative books that are more relevant and meaningful to my students. As a teacher, I hope to inspire my students to become agents of social change who will help build a better world for themselves and others. I can help my students achieve this by having a learning environment that is planned for them – a learning environment that is culturally responsive.

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C. “Many teacher education programs have begun to support their programs with multicultural educational theories and goals outlined by experts in the field because research suggests that teachers prepared in a multicultural teacher education program are more capable of teaching diverse students than teachers who do not receive such preparation”.

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C. “Many teacher education programs have begun to support their programs with multicultural educational theories and goals outlined by experts in the field because research suggests that teachers prepared in a multicultural teacher education program are more capable of teaching diverse students than teachers who do not receive such preparation”.

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C. “Schools need to hire employees earlier in the school year, partner with local teacher preparation programs, include more teachers of color in the hiring process, and offer more support for minority teachers during their first years on the job”. 

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C. “Schools need to hire employees earlier in the school year, partner with local teacher preparation programs, include more teachers of color in the hiring process, and offer more support for minority teachers during their first years on the job”. 

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C. “The standards will be implemented in educator preparation programs and will help aspiring educators build the skills they need to engage students who may come from a different backgrounds and cultures than them, in order to create an environment most conducive to learning”.​

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C. “The standards will be implemented in educator preparation programs and will help aspiring educators build the skills they need to engage students who may come from a different backgrounds and cultures than them, in order to create an environment most conducive to learning”.​

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C. “Today, ECE educators are among the lowest-paid workers in every state, despite their important role in enabling parents with young children to work. Black and Hispanic early educators make the lowest wages among early childhood educators. Systemic barriers reinforce these inequities”.

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C. “Today, ECE educators are among the lowest-paid workers in every state, despite their important role in enabling parents with young children to work. Black and Hispanic early educators make the lowest wages among early childhood educators. Systemic barriers reinforce these inequities”.

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C. “Physically, cognitively, and mentally inaccessible environments and experiences discriminate against people with disabilities. Failure to eliminate barriers to disabled people is just as discriminatory as intentionally refusing entry, providing unequal service, or categorically denying opportunities to disabled people”.

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C. “Physically, cognitively, and mentally inaccessible environments and experiences discriminate against people with disabilities. Failure to eliminate barriers to disabled people is just as discriminatory as intentionally refusing entry, providing unequal service, or categorically denying opportunities to disabled people”.

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I enjoyed watching the antiracism and universal design video, and seeing
Andratesha’s passion for antiracist UDL and her desire to empower black and brown
students through UDL. I never would have made the connection between antiracism
and UDL, but it makes sense. So often in the classroom, black and brown learners
feel excluded because education mirrors the hegemonic powers in a society.
Andretesha encourages teachers to use UDL so that learners can come as they are and instruction can be molded to them, instead of having to fit into a mold that does not allow them to represent themselves. Andretesha makes an excellent point when she
says that UDL supports antiracism because it is student centered and it “does not use
assignments as oppressive tools that tell students they’re not good enough”.

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The Tale of Two Teachers
https://youtu.be/sgtinODaW78

Teach Teachers How to Create Magic
https://youtu.be/H3ddtbeduoo

Emphasizing Multicultural and Anti-Racist Pedagogies as One Aspect of Decolonizing Education
https://journalhosting.ucalgary.ca/index.php/cjnse/article/download/69343/54065

Please note that all the images were obtained from Padlet.

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Diversity Matters in Education
https://youtu.be/Rcw09YMDHuU

The Value of Teacher Diversity: New Ways to Representation
https://www.publicservicedegrees.org/online-degrees/education-teaching-programs/increasing-teacher-diversity/

Please note that all the images were obtained from Padlet.

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Culturally Responsive Teaching 101
https://youtu.be/LxhF7TZqDyA

Culturally Responsive Teaching and Leading Standards

https://www.isbe.net/Pages/Culturally-Responsive-Teaching-Leading-Standards.aspx

Please note that all the images were obtained from Padlet.

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Education Gap: Root of Inequality
https://youtu.be/9lsDJnlJqoY

Policymakers Can Redesign the Early Childhood and Education System to Root Out Structural Racism
https://www.urban.org/urban-wire/policymakers-can-redesign-early-childhood-and-education-system-root-out-structural-racism

Please note that all the images were obtained from Padlet.

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The Consciousness Gap in Education: An Equity Perspective
https://youtu.be/iOrgf3wTUbo

Equity
https://www.mcgill.ca/equity/resources/definitions

7 Core Arguments Of Disability Rights
https://www.forbes.com/sites/andrewpulrang/2021/04/22/7-core-arguments-of-disability-rights/?sh=225d019c5471

Please note that all the images were obtained from Padlet.

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M. Washington Antiracism and Universal Design 

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M. Washington Antiracism and Universal Design 

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While watching the Sharing Stories: Antiracism and Universal Design for Learning with Andratesha Fritzgerald, I was able to relate to my education in many of the stories that she told. For example, I also took a Shakespeare class. However, my class was in college; my professor allowed the class to demonstrate our knowledge of the plays we read. Instead of rapping, I created a historically accurate gown that Kate would have worn from Taming of a Shrew. Allowing students to show what they learned is a more profound way for students to show what they learn. This is because students can put their knowledge in the best way that reflects what they took from the lesson.

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An Educator’s Guide to Universal Design for Learning
https://youtu.be/YNhYbfkcv4U

Universal Design for Learning: Principles and Examples
https://www.prodigygame.com/main-en/blog/universal-design-for-learning/

Please note that all the images were obtained from Padlet.

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The Banana-Leaf Ball: How Play Can Change the World (CitizenKid)

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The Banana-Leaf Ball: How Play Can Change the World 

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The Banana-Leaf Ball: How Play Can Change the World 

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The Banana-Leaf Ball: How Play Can Change the World (CitizenKid)

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The Banana-Leaf Ball: How Play Can Change the World (CitizenKid)

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Separated from his family when they were forced to flee their home, a young East African boy named Deo lives alone in the Lukole refugee camp in Tanzania. With scarce resources at the camp, bullies have formed gangs to steal what they can, and a leader named Remy has begun targeting Deo.

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Something Happened in Our Town: A Child's Story About Racial Injustice

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Something Happened in Our Town: A Child's Story About Racial Injustice

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Something Happened in Our Town: A Child's Story About Racial Injustice: Celano PhD, Marianne, Collins PhD, Marietta, Hazzard PhD, Ann, Zivoin, Jennifer: 9781433828546: Amazon.com: Books

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Something Happened in Our Town: A Child's Story About Racial Injustice

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Something Happened in Our Town: A Child's Story About Racial Injustice [Celano PhD, Marianne, Collins PhD, Marietta, Hazzard PhD, Ann, Zivoin, Jennifer] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. Something Happened in Our Town: A Child's Story About Racial Injustice

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The Smallest Girl in the Smallest Grade [Roberts, Justin, Robinson, Christian] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. The Smallest Girl in the Smallest Grade

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A moving celebration of school and all it may signify: work and play, creativity and trust, and a supportive community that extends beyond walls

A school isn't just a building; it is all the people who work and learn together. It is a place for discovery and asking questions. A place for sharing, for helping, and for community. It is a place of hope and healing, even when that community can't be together in the same room. John Schu, a librarian and former ambassador of school libraries for Scholastic, crafts a loving letter to schools and the people that make up the communities within in a picture book debut beautifully illustrated by Veronica Miller Jamison.

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This Is a School [Schu, John, Miller Jamison, Veronica] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. This Is a School

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When the Schools Shut Down: A Young Girl's Story of Virginia's "Lost Generation" and the Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka Decision

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When the Schools Shut Down: A Young Girl's Story of Virginia's "Lost Generation" and the Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka Decision

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When the Schools Shut Down: A Young Girl's Story of Virginia's "Lost Generation" and the Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka Decision

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When the Schools Shut Down: A Young Girl's Story of Virginia's "Lost Generation" and the Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka Decision

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When the Schools Shut Down: A Young Girl's Story of Virginia's Lost Generation and the Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka Decision [Gladden, Yolanda, Pizzoli, Dr. Tamara, Morris, Keisha] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. When the Schools Shut Down: A Young Girl's Story of Virginia's Lost Generation and the Brown v.

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The Day War Came [Nicola Davies] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. The Day War Came

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The Undefeated (Caldecott Medal Book) [Alexander, Kwame, Nelson, Kadir] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. The Undefeated (Caldecott Medal Book)

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The Proudest Blue: A Story of Hijab and Family

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The Proudest Blue: A Story of Hijab and Family

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The Proudest Blue: A Story of Hijab and Family

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The Proudest Blue: A Story of Hijab and Family

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The Proudest Blue: A Story of Hijab and Family [Muhammad, Ibtihaj, Ali, S. K., Aly, Hatem] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. The Proudest Blue: A Story of Hijab and Family

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Some Secrets Should Never Be Kept: Protect children from unsafe touch by teaching them to always speak up

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Some Secrets Should Never Be Kept: Protect children from unsafe touch by teaching them to always speak up

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Some Secrets Should Never Be Kept: Protect children from unsafe touch by teaching them to always speak up

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Some Secrets Should Never Be Kept: Protect children from unsafe touch by teaching them to always speak up

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Some Secrets Should Never Be Kept: Protect children from unsafe touch by teaching them to always speak up [Sanders, Jayneen, Smith, Craig] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. Some Secrets Should Never Be Kept: Protect children from unsafe touch by teaching them to always speak up

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Can I Catch It Like a Cold?: Coping With a Parent's Depression

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Can I Catch It Like a Cold?: Coping With a Parent's Depression

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Can I Catch It Like a Cold?: Coping With a Parent's Depression

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In partnership with the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH), Tundra is proud to launch an important series of books for children who have to cope with adult-sized problems.

Young Alex's father had been a policeman until he began to suffer from depression, perhaps the most common mental health issue we face. Alex's questions are those that are often asked by the children of parents who have depression: is the parent simply lazy? Does he no longer care? And is it something I can catch, like a cold?

In simple, straightforward language, the book explains what depression is and how it is treated. It also prepares a child for working with a helping professional. And perhaps most important, it reassures a child that he or she is not alone.

Written by Canada's foremost experts in the field, this is an important book to spur discussion and allay fears of those affected by depression.

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Can I Catch It Like a Cold?: Coping With a Parent's Depression

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In partnership with the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH), Tundra is proud to launch an important series of books for children who have to cope with adult-sized problems. Young Alex's father had been a policeman until he began to suffer from depression, perhaps the most common m...

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Women’s History Month: A Book Every Day - Social Justice Books

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In honor of Women's History Month, each day Social Justice Books is featuring a children's book we recommend to highlight grassroots women's history in the United States.
Find many more titles for children check out the booklist: women's history and women's lives. By Carole Boston Weatherford, Ekua Holmes (Illustrator)
We begin the month with Voice of Freedom: Fannie Lou Hamer, Spirit of the Civil Rights Movement about the life of Fannie Lou Hamer. Beautifully written and illustrated, it is one of the too few books about a major figure in the Civil Rights Movement that is not about King, Parks, or Lewis.
By Phillip M. Hoose
Today is the anniversary of the day (March 2, 1955) when in Montgomery, Alabama, fifteen-year-old Claudette Colvin refused to give up her bus seat to a white woman. This was nine months before Rosa Parks took the same action. Colvin was motivated by what she had been learning in school about African-American history (note this event follows Black History Month) and the U.S. Constitution. Parks knew Colvin from the NAACP Youth Council and was inspired in part to take her action by Colvin. Read more about Colvin in this upper elementary/middle school book and find more resources from Teaching for Change for teaching outside the textbook about the Montgomery Bus Boycott.

We also recommend Choosing Brave: How Mamie Till-Mobley and Emmett Till Sparked the Civil Rights Movement. This picture book biography powerfully tells the story of the murder of Emmett Till and how his mother channeled her grief into acts of resistance against white supremacy.
By Duncan Tonatiuh
This book tells the story of Sylvia Mendez, who was the central figure in the Mendez v. Westminster school desegregation case in California that preceded Brown v. Board of Education. Author and illustrator Duncan Tonatiuh (we LOVE all his books) tells the story of how Mexican-born Gonzalo Mendez and Puerto Rican Felicitas Mendez challenged the separate and unequal school system in California. The award-winning book highlights the story of parent organizing. Winner of the Pura Belpre Award and the Américas Book Award.
By Katheryn Russell-Brown, Illustrated by Eric Velasquez
This book tells the story of Shirley Chisholm, the first African American woman elected to the New York state assembly, the first Black woman in Congress, and the first woman and first African American to seek the nomination for president of the United States from one of the two major political parties. Chisholm was an outspoken voice for laws that that helped women, children, students, poor people, farm workers, Native people, and others who were often ignored.

Another book for children about a trailblazing politician is What Do You Do with a Voice Like That?: The Story of Extraordinary Congresswoman Barbara Jordan by Chris Barton, illustrated by Ekua Holmes. Jordan was the first African American congresswoman to come from the deep South and in 1966, became the first woman ever elected to the Texas Senate.
By Sharice Davids with Nancy K. Mays
This picture book autobiography depicts the life of Sharice Davids, one of the first Native American women elected to Congress, and the first LGBTQ congressperson to represent Kansas. As Debbie Reese writes in her review, "The article has key words and definitions, realistic steps for you to take with your students as you begin to fill that silent space, and links to resources to help you. Affirming Indigenous Sovereignty (the article) and Sharice's Big Voice can be your starting place to make a difference in what your students learn about Native peoples."

The book's artwork is beautifully illustrated by Joshua Mangeshig Pawis-Steckley, an Ojibwe Woodland artist.

What Your Ribbon Skirt Means to Me: Deb Haaland's Historic Inauguration, written by Alaska Native Alexis Bunten and illustrated by Nicole Neidhardt, Diné (Navajo) of the Kiiyaa'áanii Clan. The book follows Deb Haaland as she becomes the first Native American to serve as a cabinet secretary.

Fighter in Velvet Gloves: Alaska Civil Rights Hero Elizabeth Peratrovich by Annie Boochever with Roy Peratrovich Jr. about Native Alaskans fighting for their civil rights in the 1940s. Read a review by Debbie Reese.

Find more books about Native Americans.
By Gretchen Woelfle, Alix Delinois (Illustrator)
Today marks the anniversary of the horrific SCOTUS ruling in Dred [and Harriet] Scott v. Sandford in 1857 that "Any person descended from Africans, whether slave or free, is not a citizen of the United States, according to the Constitution." (Harriet Scott filed her own case for freedom that was eventually combined with her husband's.) We do not know of a good children's book about Harriet and Dred Scott, so today we highlight Mumbet's Declaration of Independence.

Readers are introduced to Mumbet, a Black woman enslaved in Massachusetts at the time of the Declaration of Independence in 1776. Knowing that the promise of freedom and equality should belong to her as well, Mumbet successfully brought a lawsuit against her owners to be free and chose the name Elizabeth Freeman. We highly recommend Mumbet's Declaration of Independence and we suggest reading it to students of all ages before introducing the Dred Scott decision. It shows that people were appealing to the courts for justice throughout the history of slavery and later Jim Crow - and in some all too rare cases (such as Mumbet's) the courts ruled as they should have - and in others (Dred Scott, Plessy, and many more) the rulings defied the laws of humanity and in fact international human rights laws. Read examples of how teachers used the book in a middle and upper elementary classroom here.

March 6 is Student Activists Day for the Black Lives Matter at School Year of Purpose.
By Lynda Blackmon Lowery, Elspeth Leacock, Susan Buckley
On this anniversary of Bloody Sunday in Selma (March 7, 1965), we share this book about Lynda Blackmon Lowery, who was jailed nine times before her fifteenth birthday in her fight for voting rights. Her story shines a light on young people, local people, and women, too often left out of the master narrative about the Civil Rights Movement. We also recommend Selma, Lord, Se lma: Girlhood Memories of the Civil Rights Days narrated by Sheyann Webb and Rachel West who were 8 and 9 years old at the time. For these books and more on the history of the Selma to Montgomery Marches visit our recommended booklist for teaching about Selma.

To learn about more women in the Civil Rights Movement, read Hands on the Freedom Plow: Personal Accounts by Women in SNCC.‬
By Kate Schatz, Miriam Klein Stahl (Illustrator)
On this International Women's Day, we feature Rad American Women A-Z. Written for middle grade, it includes illustrations and short bios of women from each letter of the alphabet from Angela Davis to Zora Neale Hurston. Featured women include blacklisted musical prodigy Hazel Scott, Mexican-American journalist Jovita Idar and transgender performance artist Kate Bornstein. We need children's picture books about each of the women featured in this book, as well.

See related books Rad Girls Can: Stories of Bold, Brave, and Brilliant Young Women and Rad Women Worldwide: Artists, Athletes, Pirates and Punks, and Other Revolutionaries Who Shaped History.

We also recommend Let It Shine: Stories of Black Women Freedom Fighters by Andrea Davis Pinkney and Stephen Alcorn (illustrator). Through the stories of ten freedom fighters, including Sojourner Truth, Mary McLeod Bethune, Fannie Lou Hamer, and Shirley Chisholm, this book inspires the reader to be courageous and determined in the face of oppression and fear.
By Winifred Conkling
Today marks the anniversary of the 1841 Supreme Court ruling in the Amistad case. Less known is the Pearl incident when in 1848, 77 people in Washington, D.C., made a brave and carefully planned escape from slavery. Tragically, they were apprehended. However, the Pearl became a key event in the fight for the abolition of slavery. We highly recommend this book for middle school to adult. There is also a middle school book on the Amistad, Africa Is My Home: A Child of the Amistad.
By Amy Nathan, Sarah K. Evans (With)
The book of the day is about Pfc. Sarah Louise Keys. On Aug. 1, 1952, Keys traveled from Fort Dix, New Jersey, to her family's home in Washington, North Carolina. During a stop to change drivers, she was told to relinquish her seat to a white Marine and move to the back of the bus. Keys refused to move, was arrested, and eventually, her case was brought before the Interstate Commerce Commission.

Never heard of her? Keys and biographer Amy Nathan tried to share her story, but the publishers said they weren't interested because they already had a book on Rosa Parks, or that Sarah Louise Keys Evans wasn't famous so nobody would be interested. So, Nathan published it herself. This means it gets none of the promotion nor distribution of a commercially published book.

We ask everyone to help spread the word about Take a Seat. And write a letter in the ‪#‎StepUpScholastic‬ campaign. Let them know that our children want to read stories about people who aren't famous, but should be.
By Mary Cronk Farrell
This beautiful book about early 20th-century labor organizer Fannie Sellins begins with her murder by sheriff's deputies, in broad daylight, at the age of 47. No one is prosecuted. Mary Cronk Farrell then jumps back 20 years to trace Sellins' life organizing garment and mine workers. Full of photos and primary documents, Fannie Never Flinched puts Sellins' story in the context of the struggles of workers and the labor movement during the "Gilded Age." As Farrell, a skilled and engaging nonfiction writer, explains in the author's note, during the research for the book she realized that the murder of Sellins is part of a much larger pattern of violence against working people.‬
By Jo Ann Allen Boyce, Debbie Levy
This dramatic story is told by one of the 12 students - Jo Ann Allen Boyce (in collaboration with children's book author Debbie Levy), who desegregated their high school in Clinton, Tennessee, one year before the more well-known Little Rock Nine. To tell the powerful story, the authors use free verse interspersed with quotes from newspapers, white supremacist protest signs, preachers' sermons, and other primary documents from the time. Read a review.

The Girl from the Tar Paper School: Barbara Rose Johns and the Advent of the Civil Rights Movement by Teri Kanefield. Lessons on Brown v. Board of Education should not begin with the 1954 Supreme Court decision but, instead, with the decades of activism that led to the historic ruling. And there is no better way to hook students than with the school walkout led by 15-year-old Barbara Rose Johns in Prince Edward County, Virginia, in 1951.

How Do You Spell Unfair?, the true story of young spelling champion MacNolia Cox, by Carole Boston Weatherford and illustrated by Frank Morrison.

March 12 is the anniversary of the Capitol Crawl in 1990, one the most influential protests of the disability rights movement. There is a children's picture book about 8-year-old activist Jennifer Keelan-Chafins who participated in that event.
By Carmen Tafolla, Sharyll Teneyuca, Celina Marroquin (Editor)
This book for elementary age children is about Emma Tenayuca, born in born in San Antonio, Texas in 1916. Through her work as an educator, speaker, and labor organizer, Tenayuca became known as "La Pasionaria." From 1934-48, she supported almost every strike in the city, writing leaflets, visiting homes of strikers, and joining them on picket lines.
By Jeanne Theoharis, Adapted by Jeanne Theoharis and Brandy Colbert
Rosa Parks is one of the most well-known Americans today, but much of what is known and taught about her is incomplete, distorted, and just plain wrong. Adapted for young people from the NAACP Image Award-winning The Rebellious Life of Mrs. Rosa Parks, Jeanne Theoharis and Brandy Colbert shatter the myths that Parks was meek, accidental, tired, or middle class. They reveal a lifelong freedom fighter whose activism began two decades before her historic stand that sparked the Montgomery bus boycott and continued for 40 years after.

For younger readers, we recommend Rosa by Nikki Giovanni and illustrated by Bryan Collier. Rosa is one of the very few children's books on the Montgomery Bus Boycott to place the roles of Rosa Parks and Dr. King in the context of a movement with a long history and led by women.

More resources for teaching about Parks and the Montgomery Bus Boycott are available at our Civil Rights Teaching website.
By Dee Romito
This beautifully illustrated picture book highlights a hidden figure of the civil rights movement who fueled the bus boycotts. It tells the story of Georgia Gilmore and the Club from Nowhere - a grassroots project of maids, service workers, and cooks who provided food and funds for the Montgomery Bus Boycott. Georgia Gilmore was an excellent cook and baker who used her skills to fight injustice. When the citywide boycott began, Gilmore supported the cause using her remarkable culinary ability and creative thinking, along with other women, they sold their food, using proceeds to support many aspects of the boycott.
By Walter Dean Myers, Bonnie Christensen (Illustrator)
Born into slavery during the Civil War, Ida B. Wells fought hard to better the lives of African Americans and women. "I'd rather go down in history as one lone Negro who dared to tell the government that it has done a dastardly thing than to save my skin by taking back what I have said." This book follows her life from her schooling, raising her siblings after the death of her parents, to her rise to national fame as a journalist, speaker, and anti-lynching activist. In 1881, Wells refused to move from the ladies' coach on a train, was forcibly removed, then sued the railroad. In 1892 she organized one of the first economic boycotts after three Black men, who owned a grocery store, were murdered by a mob of white men. "This is what opened my eyes to what lynching really was. An excuse to get rid of Negroes who were acquiring wealth and property." Wells fought for the right of women to vote and at the 1913 suffragette march at Woodrow Wilson's inauguration, she sternly refused to march in the separate colored section.

Another great children's book about Ida B. Wells is Ida B. Wells, Voice of Truth: Educator, Feminist, and Anti-Lynching Civil Rights Leader. This is her true story, as told by her great-granddaughter Michelle Duster and brought to life by Coretta Scott King Award Honoree artist Laura Freeman.
By Connie C. Miller, Steve Erwin (Illustrator), Charles Barnett, III (Illustrator)
For Saint Patrick's Day, the Woman's History Month Book of the Day is the graphic novel, "Mother Jones: Labor Leader." Mary Harris "Mother" Jones learned firsthand about injustice when she was a young girl living in Cork County, Ireland. As the potato blight starved the poor, their landlords exported grain and meat-food that could have prevented those deaths. Learn more.

Her family immigrated to North America in the 1850s. After her husband and four children died from yellow fever, Mother Jones dedicated her life to workers' rights. Jones earned the label "the most dangerous woman in America" by using new organizing strategies that involved women and children in strikes. She organized miners' wives into teams armed with mops and brooms to guard the mines against scabs and staged parades with children carrying signs that read, "We Want to Go to School and Not to the Mines."

We also recommend On Our Way to Oyster Bay: Mother Jones and Her March for Children's Rights. "Troubled by all she had seen, Mother Jones wanted to end child labor. But what could she do? Why, organize a children's march and bring the message right to President Theodore Roosevelt at his summer home in Oyster Bay, of course!" Written by Monica Kulling, with illustrations by Felicita Sala, this nonfiction picture book uses an entertaining story about fictitious characters to bring a real event in history to life.
By Eloise Greenfield, Daniel Minter (Illustrator)
This unique picture book begins with an essay on the history of midwives, written in prose that is accessible to young readers and accompanied by archival photographs. The book then switches to poetry and stunningly beautiful illustrations - with vignettes from lives of midwives during slavery, emancipation, and today. Greenfield closes with a poem about Miss Rovenia Mayo of Parmele, North Carolina, the midwife who "caught" her when she was born.
By Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston, James D. Houston
Born in California, Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston was seven years old when her family was forced into the Manzanar internment camp near the Sierra Nevada mountains in Nevada, along with more than 11,000 other Japanese Americans. The memoir describes the Wakatsuki family's strategies for surviving internment and the harmful effects it had on their family.
By Margarita Engle
Today's Women's History Month Book of the Day, in English and Spanish, is about the life of legendary nurse Rosa la Bayamesa during Cuba's long fight for independence in the 19th century. The book includes the seldom told story of the reconcentration camps that led to the death of 400,000 Cubans. Too often, popular knowledge of Cuba begins and ends with name recognition of the Cuban Revolution, the Cuban Missile Crisis, and Fidel Castro. Spanning the years 1850-1899, Engle's poems tell the story of Cuba's Wars for Independence. Our thanks to Margarita Engle for this and many more invaluable books for elementary and middle school on Cuba, including Drum Dream Girl.
By Janet Halfmann, London Ladd (illustrator)
Lilly Ann Granderson was an enslaved woman born around 1821. After her mother's death, she was sent to Kentucky where the plantation owners' children often played school with Granderson. As a result, she learned to read and went on to teach others in secrecy. After the plantation owner's death, she was sold to a cotton plantation in Natchez, Mississippi, where it was illegal for people who were enslaved to learn to read. Undeterred, Granderson expanded her education efforts.
By Annette Bay Pimentel
In this book, children are taken on Pura Belpré's journey of how she came to be a transformational figure in the library system by pioneering bilingual storytelling and making library services accessible to the Latinx community.
By Erica Armstrong Dunbar & Kathleen Van Cleve
"This book, the young readers' version of Erica Armstrong Dunbar's Never Caught - a 2017 National Book Award finalist in nonfiction - is a welcome, compelling corrective to the whitewashed version of Revolutionary-era history...a story in which the Anglo men were heroes, the black people were nameless, and slavery was simply, unquestionably, The Way Things Were." - Anndee Hochman, Broadstreetreview.com

Born into slavery, Ona Judge made a courageous (and dangerous) escape from the most powerful couple in the country, George and Martha Washington. This is her bold and brave story.
By Ilyasah Shabazz and Renee Watson
In Detroit, 1945, eleven-year-old Betty's house doesn't quite feel like home. She believes her mother loves her, but she can't shake the feeling that her mother doesn't want her. Church helps those worries fade, if only for a little while. The singing, the preaching, the speeches from guest activists like Paul Robeson and Thurgood Marshall stir African Americans in her community to stand up for their rights. Betty quickly finds confidence and purpose in volunteering for the Housewives League, an organization that supports black-owned businesses. Soon, the American civil rights icon we now know as Dr. Betty Shabazz is born.
By Olugbemisola Rhuday-Perkovich, Jade Johnson (Illustrator)
Introduce students to the activism of Clara Luper, an African American high school teacher who organized lunch counter sit-ins for her students to protest segregation in 1958. The narrative functions as a history lesson and as a guide for when and how to challenge injustice (now and with nonviolent direct action). The author does not shy away from describing the humiliating abuse the children suffered during the sit-in. The artist shows images of Black children covered in food while white patrons yell, throw, and shake their fists. The art is simple but stunning.
By Andrea L. Rogers
On this day, the anniversary of the day in 1839 when the Cherokee came to the end of the forced death march from their ancestral home to the Oklahoma Territory, we share Mary and the Trail of Tears: A Cherokee Removal Survival Story. Written by a Cherokee citizen and featuring nonfiction support material, this story explores the tragedy of forced removals following the Indian Removal Act of 1830. Facing horrors such as internment, violence, disease, and harsh weather, Mary perseveres and helps keep her family and friends together until they can reach the new Cherokee nation in Indian Territory.
By Vanessa Nakate
In today's book, A Bigger Picture, Vanessa Nakate shares her story as a young Ugandan woman who sees that her community bears disproportionate consequences to the climate crisis. At the same time, she sees that activists from African nations and the global south are not being heard in the same way as activists from white nations are heard. Inspired by Sweden's Greta Thunberg, in 2019 Nakate became Uganda's first Fridays for Future protestor, awakening to her personal power and summoning within herself a commanding political voice.
By Michelle Markel, Melissa Sweet (Illustrator)
The book of the day is about Clara Lemlich, born March 28, 1886 in Ukraine who said:

I have listened to all the speakers, and I have no further patience for talk. I am a working girl, one of those striking against intolerable conditions. I am tired of listening to speakers who talk in generalities. What we are here for is to decide whether or not to strike. I make a motion that we go out in a general strike.

Read about Clara Lemlich at Women and the American Story via the New York Historical Society. The profile begins,

Clara Lemlich Shavelson was born in 1886 in Gorodok, Ukraine. She did not receive a formal education because there were no Jewish schools for girls. But Clara did not let this stop her. She borrowed books from neighbors and hid them in her attic. She was fascinated with Karl Marx and communism. By the time she was a teenager, Clara had formed her own beliefs about the challenges of working-class people.

When Clara was 17, her parents decided to move to America and escape the violence against Jews spreading in Europe. Within two weeks of arriving on New York's Lower East Side, Clara was working in a garment factory. Because her father found it hard to find a permanent job, Clara was often the primary breadwinner for her family. Continue reading.
By Leah Henderson, George Doutsiopoulos (Illustrator)
Mamie "Peanut" Johnson was a talented baseball player, but she wasn't welcome in the segregated All-American Girls Pro Baseball League due to the color of her skin. In 1953, she signed to play ball for the Negro Leagues' Indianapolis Clowns, becoming the first female pitcher to play on a men's professional team. During the three years she pitched for the Clowns, her record was an impressive 33-8. But more importantly, she broke ground for other female athletes and for women everywhere.

Three women played Negro league baseball (women never played in the white major leagues). You can read about Marcenia Lyle Toni Stone, the first woman to play in the Negro leagues, in Catching the Moon: The Story of a Young Girl's Baseball Dream by Crystal Hubbard.
By Nancy Churnin, Felicia Marshall (Illustrator)
Growing up in the late 19th century, Laura Wheeler Waring didn't see any artists who looked like her. She didn't see any paintings of people who looked like her, either. As a young woman studying art in Paris, she found inspiration in the works of Matisse and Gauguin to paint the people she knew best. Back in Philadelphia, the Harmon Foundation commissioned her to paint portraits of accomplished African Americans. Her portraits still hang in Washington, DC's National Portrait Gallery, where children of all races can admire the beautiful shades of brown she captured.

Another wonderful children's book about an artist is Art from Her Heart: Folk Artist Clementine Hunter by Kathy Whitehead. Born in 1886 in Louisiana, Clementine Hunter picked cotton on the Melrose Plantation and was a talented artist. She was the first African American artist to have a solo exhibition at the Delgado Museum (now the New Orleans Museum of Art). The book describes how a friend brought Hunter into one of her own exhibits when the gallery was closed because as an African American, Hunter was not allowed to enter.
By Terry Catasús Jennings, Rosita Stevens-Holsey, and Ashanti Fortson (Illustrator)
Pauli Murray was a trailblazer who spent her life fighting for civil rights and women's rights. Writer, lawyer, activist, priest, Pauli was a champion for justice. Her life is immortalized in this riveting biography told in verse.

In searching for the daily title to feature, our Teaching for Change staff face the stark reminder of how many stories remain untold. Last year we were overjoyed to see Carole Boston Weatherford's book on Fannie Lou Hamer. But where are the children's books on Ella Baker, Yuri Kochiyama, Berta Caceras, and countless other women who can inspire and inform our next generation?

The lack of representation is profound. There are a five children's books on Wangari Maathai and one each on Isatou Ceesay and Miriam Makeba, but not one we could find of any other woman of note from contemporary Africa. There is not one children's books about a Central American historic figure (female or male) - despite a large number of children coming to the U.S. from Central America. This is why we are collaborating on the #StepUpScholastic campaign. As one of the largest publishers and distributors of children's books, they need to fill these gaps.

Share our Women's History, Women's Lives list, then visit the #StepUpScholastic campaign to send a message today.

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In honor of Women's History Month, each day Social Justice Books is featuring a children's book we recommend to highlight grassroots women's history in the United States. Find many more titles for children check out the booklist: women's history and women's lives.