A Black History Month Reading List for Parents, Educators & Children

For Parents and Educators

• Black Reconstruction in America by W.E.B. Du Bois
• How to Be an Antiracist by Ibram X. Kendi
• Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption by Bryan Stevenson
• Me and White Supremacy: Combat Racism, Change the World, and Become a Good Ancestor  by Layla F. Saad 
• Out of the House of Bondage: The Transformation of the Plantation Household by Thavolia Glymph
• Post-Traumatic Slave Syndrome by Joy DeGruy
• Repair: Redeeming the Promise of Abolition by Katherine Franke
• So You Want to Talk About Race by Ijeoma Oluo 
• Stamped from the Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America (National Book Award Winner) by Ibram X. Kendi 
• The Color of Law by Richard Rothstein
• The Life and Times of Frederick Douglass by Frederick Douglass
• The Water Dancer by Ta-Nehisi Coates
• White Fragility by Robin DiAngelo
• Why Are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria? And Other Conversations About Race by Beverly Daniel Tatum
• Separated by Design: Why Affordable Housing Is Built in Areas With High Crime, Few Jobs and Struggling Schools from ProPublica

• For Teens and Tweens

  • Black Fortunes: The Story of the First Six African Americans Who Survived Slavery and Became Millionaires by Shomari Wills 
  • Dear Martin by Nic Stone  
  • Just Mercy (Adapted for Young Adults): A True Story of the Fight for Justice by Bryan Stevenson
  • Loving vs. Virginia: A Documentary Novel of the Landmark Civil Rights Case by Patricia Hruby Powell and Shadra Strickland
  • She Came to Slay: The Life and Times of Harriet Tubman by Erica Armstrong Dunbar 
  • Tyler Johnson Was Here by Jay Coles  
  • The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas 
  • The Nickel Boys by Colson Whitehead
  • The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead

• For Younger Children

  • Bedtime Inspirational Stories: 50 Amazing Black People Who Changed the World by L. A. Amber
  • Before She Was Harriet by Lesa Cline-Ransome and James E. Ransome
  • Black Pioneers of Science and Invention by Louis Haber  
  • Black Women in Science: A Black History Book for Kids by Kimberly Brown Pellum 
  • Have You Thanked an Inventor Today? by Patrice McLaurin , Dian Wang ,
  • June Peters, You Will Change The World One Day by Alika Turner and Naafi Rohma
  • Little Leaders: Bold Women in Black History by Vashti Harrison
  • Jambo Book Club

  Resources for Educators 

  • History Class and the Fictions About Race in America
  • Pulitzer Center 1619 Project Curriculum – 
  • Reconstruction: America After the Civil War 
  • Segregated by Design
  • Teaching White Supremacy: U.S. History Textbooks and the Influence of Historians
  • History Books that don’t tell the Real Story  (See Color of Law by Richard Rothstein)
  • The Americans: Reconstruction to the 21st Century by Holt McDougal
  • Pearson’s, United States History: Reconstruction to the Present 
  • This Black History Month’s Lesson: Joy

  [Find more resources for Black History Month from Parenting for the Future here]

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