Books for Students

Books

A Wreath for Emmett Till

Marilyn Nelson

Houghton Mifflin 2005

ISBN-10: 0-618-39752-3

Coretta Scott King Award

Interest Level: Young Adult 

  This illustrated poetry collection eulogizes Emmett Till, an African American man who was killed in a brutal, racially motivated lynching in 1955.

The NAACP: An Organization Working to End Discrimination

Andrew Santella

Child's World Publisher, 2003

ISBN: 1567665403

Interest Level: 3rd - 6th Grade

Introduction to the origins, motivations, and accomplishments behind the NAACP.

 

Mary McLeod Bethune: Voice of Black Hope

Milton Meltzer

Puffin Publishers, 1988

ISBN:  9780140322194

Interest Level: 3rd - 6th Grade

One of 17 children born to former slaves, Bethune made the most of her life, creating opportunities for herself and other black people. This is a factual account of her achievements: founder of what later became Bethune-Cookman College; advocate for blacks during the New Deal; organizer, spokeswoman and visionary leader.

 

Experiencing Racism: Exploring Racism through the eyes of college students

Richard Seltzler

Lexington Books, 2009

ISBN: 0739134329

Interest Level: Young Adult - Adult

 This collection is a depiction of race in America that goes beyond black and white to show how the changing racial contours of America are impacting the ways we view and experience racism.

 

Strength to Love

Martin Luther King, Jr.

Fortress Press, 1963

ISBN: 0800697405

Interest Level: Adult

A collection of sermons preached by civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr. during or after the bus protest in Montgomery, Alabama in 1955, in which he brings the Christian message to bear on the social problems of war, and economic and racial injustice.

 

The Autobiography of Martin Luther King, Jr.

Edited by Clayborne Carson

Grand Central Publishing, 2001

ISBN: 0446676500

Reading Level: Adult

An autobiography of the Baptist minister Martin Luther King, Jr., compiled and edited from articles, essays, speeches, sermons, letters, and other sources, examining his private and public life and describing his involvement in many important events in the civil rights movement.

 

Freedom's Children

Ellen Levine

Puffin Publishers, 2000

ISBN: 0698118707

Interest Level: Young Adult 

  Presents a collection of true stories in which African-Americans who were involved in the Civil Rights movement during the 1950s and 1960s discuss their struggles to end segregation in the South.

 

A Dream of Freedom

Diane McWhorter

Scholastic, 2004

ISBN: 9780439576789

Interest Level: 5th - 8th grade

  Examines the rise of the Civil Rights movement in America, the men and women whose lives made an impact in the pursuit of social and political equality, and landmark Supreme Court cases that changed the fabric of American society in the mid-to-late twentieth century.

 

Lunch at the 5 & 10

Miles Wolff

I. R. Dee Publisher, 1990

ISBN: 9780929587318

Interest Level: Young Adult

A detailed account of the sit-in at a Woolworth's lunch counter in Greensboro, North Carolina, in 1960, which ignited the civil rights movement in the United States.

 

The Montgomery Bus Boycott and the Women Who Started It

Jo Ann Robinson

University of Tennesse Press, 1987

ISBN: 0870495275

Interest Level: Adult

An autobiographical account of the Montgomery Bus Boycott of 1955-56, focusing on the role of the Women's Political Council in the successful protest by African-Americans against segregation in the city's public transportation system.

 

For Freedom's Sake: The Life of Fannie Lou Hamer

Chana Kai Lee

Univerisity of Illinois Press, 2000

ISBN: 0252069366

Interest Level: Adult

A biography of Civil Rights activist Fannie Lou Hamer, discussing the childhood experiences and observances that led her to become involved in the struggle for political and economic equality, and documenting her lifelong crusade to win equal rights for African-American.

 

Death of Innocence

Mamie Till-Mobley

One World Publishing, 2004

ISBN: 0812970470

Interest Level: Adult

Mamie Till-Mobley discusses the effect on her life of the murder of her son, Emmett Till, a fourteen-year-old African-American boy who was killed in Mississippi in 1955 for allegedly whistling at a white woman.  She tells how she was able to go on after his death to become a teacher and an activist in the civil rights struggle.

 

Getting Away with Murder

Chris Crowe

Dial Publishing, 2003

ISBN: 9780803728042

Interest Level: Young Adult

Presents a true account of the murder of fourteen-year-old, Emmett Till, in Mississippi, in 1955.

 

They Called Themselves the KKK: The Birth of the American Terrorist Group

Susan Campbell Bartoletti

Houghton Mifflin, 2010

ISBN: 061844033X

Interest Level: Young Adult

Documents the history and origin of the Ku Klux Klan from its beginning in Pulaski, Tennessee, and provides personal accounts, congressional documents, diaries, and more.

 

Remember: The Journey of School Integration

Toni Morrison

Houghton Mifflin, 2004

ISBN: 9780618397402

Interest Level: 3rd - 6th Grade 

  Presents a selection of archival photographs that document events surrounding the integration of U.S. schools following the 1954 Supreme Court decision in Brown v. Board of Education, and includes captions in which Toni Morrison imagines what the people in the pictures must have been thinking and feeling.

 

Through My Eyes

Ruby Bridges

Scholastic Press, 1999

ISBN: 0590189239

Interest Level: 3rd - 6th grade 

  Ruby Bridges recounts the story of her involvement, as a six-year-old, in the integration of her school in New Orleans in 1960.

 

 

Medgar Evers

Heidi Moore

Heineman Library, 2006

ISBN:  1403472726

Interest Level: 3rd - 6th Grade

Tells the life story of African-American civil rights leader Medgar Evers, describing his childhood in Mississippi, his work with the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) for equality and justice in the South, and his assassination.

 


Remember Little Rock: The Time, the People, the Stories

Paul Robert Walker

National Geographic Children's Books, 2009

ISBN: 9781426304026

Interest Level: 5th - 8th grade

 Combines eye witness accounts with archival photographs to document the events surrounding the integration of Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas.

 

Malcolm X: By Any Means Necessary

Walter Dean Myers

Scholastic

1994

ISBN: 9780590481090

Interest Level: Young Adult

Chronicles the life of controversial militant leader Malcolm X.

Malcolm X: A Fire Burning Brightly

Walter Dean Myers

Amistad Publishers

2003

ISBN: 9780060562014

Interest Level: Young Adult

Text and pictures describe the life and ideas of the Black Muslim leader Malcolm X.

Martins' Big Words

Doreen Rappapart

Hyperion Book

2007

ISBN: 1423106350

Interest Level: 1st - 4th

Tells the story of Dr. King's life and includes quotes from his speeches and sermons.