Black History Month: celebrating excellence

 Black History should be recognized year round, however, since 1915, what started out as a single week to honor the contributions and trials and tribulations of Black people has turned into a month in February to  do so. There is a yearly theme on which to focus and this year's theme is on "Black Resistance." There are a number of books that feature Black heroes who pushed against society's repression.  We have also have stories of the joy and pride in Black people's lives that should be celebrated and shared with young people.  

I hope that these ideas below spark an idea that works with these stories or the books in your class, home or library collection:

Music: Sing a Song (Lift Every Voice and Sing--the Black National Anthem written in honor of President Lincoln's birthday in 1900)

 The Roots of Rap

 How the Beat was Born

 Harlem's Little Blackbird

Writing: Maya Angelou (Little People, Big World) 

 Change Sings 

 DeShawn Days 

Dance: Firebird 

 Bunheads 

 Josephine

Artists: Between the Lines: How Ernie Barnes Went from the Football Field to the Art Gallery

 Radiant Child

 Ablaze with Color

Scientists: Blast Off into Space Like Mae Jemison

How We Got to the Moon

Little Leaders Bold Women in Black History

Black Joy: I Am Every Good Thing

Princess Hair

Princess Truly 

Hair Love

Crown: Ode to the Fresh Cut

Black Joy: Sulwe

Honeysmoke

Magnificent Homespun Brown

Magic Like That

Parker Looks Up

Black Joy: Not Quite Snow White

Posey Monster Slayer

Dream Big, Little One

New Kid

Twins

Black Joy: SnapDragon

All Because You Matter

Ambitious Girl

Black is a Rainbow Color 

Community: Thank You, Omu

Kamala and Maya's Big Idea

Loretta Little Looks Back

Step Right Up

Child of the Dream

Shaking Things Up

Community: Before She Was Harriet

A Good Kind of Trouble

No Small Potatoes

Genesis Begins Again

From the Desk of Zoe Washington

Community: When Stars are Scattered

Evelyn Del Ray is Moving Away

Nana Akua Goes to School

Emily's Fortune

Enough!

Athletes: Before the Ever After

Becoming Muhammad Ali

Mo'Ne Davis: Remember My Name

Black Heroes of the Wild West

Fearless Mary: Mary Fields, American Stagecoach Driver

Athletes: Let'Er Buck!

The Champ: The Story of Muhammad Ali

A Nation's Hope

Flying High

Game Changers 

Folktales: Tristan Strong series

The Jumbies Trilogy 

The Year I Flew Away

Black Author/Illustrator studies: Jason Reynolds, Derrick C. Barnes, Kwame Alexander, Vashti Harrison, Carole Boston Weatherford

Book Awards: Coretta Scott King Award 

Teaching ideas: Choose a Black person from history, research them to find out how they are a CHANGE maker and design a slide, collage, video, song, acrostic poem or artifact that represents them and their accomplishments.

Pick a Black person from history whom you admire.  What qualities did they have and how did that help them and the world?

For more ideas and resources, I like to use the American Association of School Librarian's Resource Guide to Black History Month.  

What do you like to use to share the importance of Black History Month? Share in the comments!

Revolution in Our Time: the Black Panthers' rise, fall & legacy today

 

Kekla Magoon's young adult, nonfiction book, Revolution in Our Time, about the history of the Black Panthers, their enduring struggle for progress in their lifetimes and the recurring themes in the modern-day American society is a poignant informational book that benefits everyone who reads it.  

The Black Panther Party played a large role in pushing back against racist policies in communities, however, the media portrayal focused on the sensational aspects rather than the multi-faceted parts of the movement that actually helped communities.  This is where Magoon's book comes in to set the record straight on how women and children were the focus in order to provide for their basic needs while in poverty.  

The book starts out when in 1967 a group of Black Panthers walked onto the floor of the California State Legislature to express their position on Black people being able to defend themselves against unlawful attacks.  How did this group form and come to this pivotable moment when they were splashed in headlines all around the country?  Magoon then takes the reader back to 1619 until 1965 and summarizes how Black people have endured inhumane treatment up until 1965.  She explains the group's formation in 1966 during the Civil Rights Movement and how they grew in numbers all while being targeted by law enforcement and the FBI.  Magoon finishes the book by going full circle to when the group disbanded in 1982 until the present day struggles for the same protection under the law that was the cornerstone of their platform from their formation. 

It reminded me a lot of Stamped: Racism, Antiracism and You and You Call This Democracy?, both written with a young adult audience in mind.  Our youth deserve to know the historical events that have led our country to the state it is in and how they can help improve their world by not repeating mistakes of the past and recognizing what has worked before.  This is an excellent book for teens and adults to read together and use it study the figures and events on their own.  Full of photographs, quotes, and a storytelling technique that will leave a lasting impression in the mind and heart of the reader, this should be shared and discussed by all who care about Black people.

Click HERE for my book review of this book.

HERE is a short video of Kekla Magoon discussing her book.

If you have middle grade readers (ages 8 - 14) who'd like to learn more about The Black Panthers I'd recommend Rita Garcia-Williams' award winning trilogy:

Loretta Little Looks Back: Three Voices Go Tell It

 

Loretta Little Looks Back: Three Voices Go Tell It by Andrea Davis Pinkney and Brian Pinkney is like no other book I've ever read.  The multi-generational, historical fiction novel begins during an unfair sharecropping agreement between the main character's family and a plantation owner in Mississippi. Then it shifts to surviving under Jim Crow Laws to eventually marching for civil rights.  It's a dramatic series of monologues that follows Loretta Little (from 1927-1930), Roly (from 1942-1950), and finally, Aggie B. (from 1962-1968). Each chapter has a where and when to set the stage for the reader as they step into the heart and mind of the characters.  The first-person narration told in verse, song, and illustrations transport the reader to the emotion of each character.

What stood out was how the author, Pinkney, incorporated real-life historical figures into her storytelling.  Readers can learn more about Fannie Lou Hamer, President Lyndon B. Johnson, James Forman, Emmett Till, Charles McLaurin, and of course, Martin Luther King, Jr. Pinkney also includes more information about sharecroppers in the southern U.S. with additional photos from that time.  

As a parent, teacher and librarian, I would share this book with 3rd graders and above.  It's certainly age-appropriate for readers to learn about the southern Black experience in the U.S.  Each character is strong, distinct and unforgettable.  The illustrations help readers understand the essence of the story without giving away too much.  

Here are several video interviews the Pinkneys did to share with readers:

Politics & Prose

Mom's Don't Have Time to Read Books 

Angel of Greewood: romance set in a tragedy

 

Angel of Greenwood is a historical fiction young adult chapter book written by Randi Pink.  Set 11 days before the Tulsa Race Massacre of 1921, the story alternates point of view between teenagers, Angel and Isaiah.  On the surface, they couldn't be more different: Angel is there to serve others, she's interested in studying and is always home tending to her ailing father.  Isaiah on the other hand is always out of his house he shares with his mother.  He has many hook-ups and runs around town with the community bully, Muggy.  After Isaiah notices Angel dancing at church, he cannot get her out of his mind.  He invokes the help of their teacher to give them a summer project delivering books to the community so they can have a chance at a relationship.

On the surface this is a romance of two interesting characters, however there is so much more to this story than that.  Pink brings alive the community of Greenwood in detail so that by the end of the story, the characters who remain and are affected by the massacre feel real.  The tension in the story lies in the fact that the attack is coming and each chapter reminds the reader through a countdown.  Another tension is the way Isiah and Muggy's relationship changes.  Readers can relate to when a friend's actions caused anxiety and when one needs to decide to cut ties with them.  The will-they-won't-they romance between Angel and Isaiah is a beautiful unfolding.  Although they debate about the merits of writers, Booker T. Washington and W.E.B. Du Bois, they truly listen to one another and come around to understanding the other person.  

I highly recommend this book to 8th graders on up to adults.  The subject of the community in Tulsa is not taught very much in schools so this is an accurate feel for what it was like there, how the residents created this free space to thrive, and how they protected their own interests.  For further reading, Pink includes her sources and notes about the attack.  I am grateful that she set her romance story in this setting because it shows that even in the worst tragedies, the universal theme of love still resonates. 

Juneteenth, a day to remember & celebrate

When I teach my students about Juneteenth, the day that the last of the enslaved people in the U.S. learned that they were free due to the Emancipation Proclamation made two years prior, June 19, 1865, they are in shock at how long it actually took for the message to be communicated.  Their questions immediately begin:

• why weren't they told?
• how did the message not get to them for two years?
• did enslaved people try to escape their captors during that time?
• what did the enslaved people do after they found out?
• where could the enslaved people go after that?

This part of American History is an important one and the books that we currently have in our collection only touch on parts of it.  I am looking forward to adding more stories to help learn more about it.  For now these are some reads that worth reading & discussing with elementary & middle grade students:

Sugar by Jewell Parker Rhodes: historical fiction, post-Civil War

    The Civil War is over and technically, 10 year old Sugar is free but where is she to go?  She remains on the plantation where she was enslaved and is working there.  When the plantation owner brings in a large number of Chinese immigrants to work alongside Sugar and the formerly enslaved people, there is a rift between the groups.  Sugar, along with the plantation owner's son, Billy, make a friendship and try to bring the groups together.  

Stamped by Jason Reynolds & Ibram X. Kendi: nonfiction, history of racism

    Based on the adult version of Dr. Kendi's book, Stamped from the Beginning, Reynolds breaks down the start and origins of racism in teh world into language that young people can understand.  Each section is chronological and discusses how and why slavery began.  The arguments made to make people that Black people are inferior are laid out and revisited up the present.  The main definitions of segregationists (haters), assimilationists (likers) and anti-racists who want Black people to be themselves.  There is lots to discuss and extensions for research possibilities abound.  There is a new version for even younger readers out now, Stamped for Kids.

Unbound by Ann E. Burg: historical fiction, slavery, novel-in-verse

    9 year old Grace is told that she is to leave the familiarity of her mom, aunt and little brothers in order to be sent up to the "Big House" to be enslaved there.  With her near-white skin and pale blue eyes she's an "investment," according to the head of the household.  Up in the Big House, though, it's the Missus who strikes fear into Grace.  Grace decides to run away and bring her family with her.  Numerous people help them to escape but they find themselves going down dangerous paths.  Heartfelt, touching, and violent at times, this is a story based on true accounts of real people who lived these parts of history.

The Journey of Little Charlie by Christopher Paul Curtis: historical fiction, 19th century American South

    This chapter book tells the story of a 12 year old boy named Charlie whose father just passed away.  Since he was a sharecropper in South Carolina the owner of the land came to collect on a debt and Charlie had nothing to give him.  They strike a deal where Charlie accompanies the man, Cap'n Buck, up north to track down people who stole from him.  When Charlie finds out what is truly happening, he must change course without being caught.

Chains by Laurie Halse Anderson: historical fiction, revolutionary war

    The year is 1776 and an enslaved girl in Rhode Island named Isabel has just been sold to a couple who remains loyal to King George.  Thankfully her 5 year old younger sister, Ruth, is sold with her so they can stay together.  When they arrive in NYC, Isabel is exposed to harsh treatment by the couple.  When she is approached to work as a spy for the rebels she agrees with the hopes that they will reward her and Ruth by setting them free.  Intertwined with actual accounts from this time in history, Anderson tells a moving account of hope, survival and mixed loyalties.  This is part of a trilogy called, The Seeds of America. Click on the author's website link to read an excerpt, find activities, a teaching guide, and hear Anderson talk about the book.

Before She Was Harriet by Lesa Cline-Ransome and James E. Ransome: picture book biography, poem 

    This beautifully illustrated and written picture book tells the many roles that Harriet Tubman played in her life before she helped enslaved people escape their captors on the Underground Railroad. She used her skills as a nurse, aunt, spy, conductor, general to help those around her live better lives. An inspiring story about a real American hero.

Here are more book suggestions for:

• Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s Legacy
• The Awakening of Malcom X
• Making Interracial Marriage Legal

These are the books we plan to add to our library collection that are specifically about Juneteenth:

• 5 Children's Books About Juneteenth
• 18 Children's Books to Honor Juneteenth

Take Back the Block: a middle grades activism tale

 

Take Back the Block by Chrystal D. Giles is a middle-grades, fictional chapter book that centers on the gentrification that is happening all over this country.  The main character is 11 year-old Wes who has grown up in his neighborhood of The Oaks for his entire life.  In fact, he lives in his grandfather's home where his mom grew up, too.  She drags him to social justice protests every weekend but he cannot see how it relates to him. He thinks, "I got why we were there, but I was a little tired of fighting battles that didn't have anything to do with me."

As he's making the transition from elementary to middle school, he is worried about looking cool, keeping up with his studies, but certainly not his friends.  He has a tight-knit crew of Alyssa, Brent, Jas, Mya, and Kari.  Even though My and Kari are on the outs, he has high hopes that they will get past it soon.

Unfortunately once the school year begins, a real-estate development company offers residents of The Oaks over appraisal value for their homes so that they can demolish and build new condos and retail plazas there.  At first, some of the residents want to take the money and leave, but over time they realize that their neighborhood has more value than money.  It is a community, a home nestled near the inner-city of a bustling place.  Why should they be forced to move away just so higher-wage earners can live in their part of the city?

Wes is determined to help his activist parents with this problem.  He invokes the help of his new teacher who connects him with a community organizer and from there, there is hope!  Wes and Alyssa research ideas on how to save their community and actually find one way that could possibly work. His teacher tells him, "this is why I wanted you to research social justice.  Being aware of what's happening in society connects us to the world around us."

I loved this story because it was fast-paced, full of dynamic characters and a truly realistic problem facing communities today.  There are lots of opportunities for readers to discuss what they think about Wes and his friends and family.  The story is about gentrification, but it is also about the bonds of friendship, poverty, racial profiling, family and standing up for what's right.

When I first heard about this story I thought that I wouldn't be able to relate to it because I live in a college-town.  After reading and enjoying it immensely, I highly recommend it to middle grade readers, educators, community members and families.  Giles writes with humor, heart, and a memorable tone. She even dedicates the book to her "son, Ezra, may you always take up space, be visible, and raise your voice." This is what I, too, hope for my students and daughter.

Here is a free excerpt from the book or listen to Giles read the first chapter here.

The Awakening of Malcom X: a novel

 

The Awakening of Malcom X by Ilyasah Shabazz with Tiffany D. Jackson is a moving narrative biography that focuses on the years that X spent in prison from ages 20 to 27,  where he learned about the teachings of Islam and was shaped into the person he became to lead the Nation of Islam. 

"Wake up, Malcom!"

 Told in three parts from the first time he steps into the horrendous prison in Charlestown where he loses the willingness to improve his mind, to part two where he is enlightened by self-education in the library and his family's support, and concludes with part three where he gets transferred to a better facility in Norfolk where he joins the debate team.  Throughout his time in prison he has flashbacks to his family and reflected on ways he can help his people be free.

"Up, up you mighty race!"

I was already familiar with Malcom X's teachings and speeches, however, the way that he came to the religion was new information.  Since Shabazz is his daughter she had first-hand knowledge of the letters he wrote back and forth with his family and with Elijah Muhammad.  The part that stood out to me was when he discovers that, "even a crumb of dignity can change the way you look at the world and the way you see yourself in it."  Once he was given the chance to prove his worth to his fellow inmates and to the outside world, he only wanted to inspire others to follow suit.  

"Everybody needs their family, Malcom. We're always with you. Don't ever forget that."

This story sparks a lot of questions for students and even adults.  They can delve deeper into Malcom X's speeches and what happened to his position in the Nation of Islam.  Inquiry into the role of prisons and incarcerated people can also stem from this story.  Finally, the role he had in the Civil Rights Movement can also be explored further.