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The Rock and the River

Kekla Magoon · back to the book

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24 books with the same feel

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The Watsons Go to Birmingham - 1963

Christopher Paul Curtis · 239 pages

The ordinary interactions and everyday routines of the Watsons, an African American family living in Flint, Michigan, are drastically changed after they go to visit Grandma in Alabama in the summer of 1963.

Civil Rights MovementRacial ViolenceBrothersRacism
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The Autobiography of Malcolm X

Malcolm X, Alex Haley · 484 pages

Civil Rights MovementRebellion Against AuthorityRacial ViolenceRacism
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47

Walter Mosley · 232 pages

Walter Mosley is one of the best-known writers in America. In his first book for young adults, Mosley deftly weaves historical and speculative fiction into a powerful narrative about the nature of freedom. 47 is a young slave boy living under the watchful eye of a brutal slave master. His life seems doomed until he meets a mysterious runaway slave, Tall John. Then, 47 finds himself swept up in a s

Racial ViolenceRebellion Against AuthorityRacismTeen Protagonist
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The Help

Kathryn Stockett · 464 pages

Be prepared to meet three unforgettable women: Twenty-two-year-old Skeeter has just returned home after graduating from Ole Miss. She may have a degree, but it is 1962, Mississippi, and her mother will not be happy till Skeeter has a ring on her finger. Skeeter would normally find solace with her beloved maid Constantine, the woman who raised her, but Constantine has disappeared and no one will

Civil Rights MovementRacial ViolenceRacismRebellion Against Authority
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The Secret Life of Bees

Sue Monk Kidd · 311 pages

Sue Monk Kidd's ravishing debut novel has stolen the hearts of reviewers and readers alike with its strong, assured voice. Set in South Carolina in 1964, The Secret Life of Bees tells the story of Lily Owens, whose life has been shaped around the blurred memory of the afternoon her mother was killed. When Lily's fierce-hearted "stand-in mother," Rosaleen, insults three of the town's fiercest racis

Civil Rights MovementRacial ViolenceRacismTeen Protagonist
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Lies We Tell Ourselves

Robin Talley · 376 pages

In 1959 Virginia, Sarah, a black student who is one of the first to attend a newly integrated school, forces Linda, a white integration opponent's daughter, to confront harsh truths when they work together on a school project.

Civil Rights MovementRacial ViolenceRacismFirst Person Narrator
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The Dry Grass of August

Anna Jean Mayhew · 320 pages

Civil Rights MovementRacial ViolenceRacismTeen Protagonist
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The Silence of Our Friends

Mark Long, Jim Demonakos · 198 pages

Civil Rights MovementRacial ViolenceRacismHistorical Fiction
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One Crazy Summer

Rita Williams-Garcia · 232 pages

Eleven-year-old Delphine has it together. Even though her mother, Cecile, abandoned her and her younger sisters, Vonetta and Fern, seven years ago. Even though her father and Big Ma will send them from Brooklyn to Oakland, California, to stay with Cecile for the summer. And even though Delphine will have to take care of her sisters, as usual, and learn the truth about the missing pieces of the pas

Civil Rights MovementRebellion Against AuthorityRacismHistorical Fiction
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March: Book One

John Lewis · 125 pages

March is a vivid first-hand account of John Lewis’ lifelong struggle for civil and human rights, meditating in the modern age on the distance traveled since the days of Jim Crow and segregation. Rooted in Lewis’ personal story, it also reflects on the highs and lows of the broader civil rights movement. Book One spans John Lewis’ youth in rural Alabama, his life-changing meeting with Martin Lut

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Fire from the Rock

Sharon M. Draper · 240 pages

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Long Walk to Freedom

Nelson Mandela · 638 pages

The riveting memoirs of the outstanding moral and political leader of our time, Long Walk to Freedom brilliantly recreates the drama of the experiences that helped shape Nelson Mandela's destiny. Emotive, compelling and uplifting, Long Walk to Freedom is the exhilarating story of an epic life; a story of hardship, resilience and ultimate triumph told with the clarity and eloquence of a born leader

Civil Rights MovementRacial ViolenceRacismFirst Person Narrator
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The Hate U Give

Angie Thomas · 458 pages

Sixteen-year-old Starr Carter navigates between the poverty-stricken neighborhood she has grown up in and the upper-crust suburban prep school she attends. Her life is up-ended when she is the sole witness to a police officer shooting her best friend, Khalil, who turns out to have been unarmed during the confrontation – but may or may not have been a drug dealer. As Starr finds herself even more t

Rebellion Against AuthorityRacismRacial ViolenceTeen Protagonist
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Black Like Me

John Howard Griffin · 190 pages

Publisher's description: Studs Terkel tells us in his Foreword to the definitive Griffin Estate Edition of Black Like Me: "This is a contemporary book, you bet." Indeed, Black Like Me remains required reading in thousands of high schools and colleges for this very reason. Regardless of how much progress has been made in eliminating outright racism from American life, Black Like Me endures as a gre

Civil Rights MovementRacial ViolenceRacismFirst Person Narrator
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X

Ilyasah Shabazz, Kekla Magoon · 360 pages

Co-written by Malcolm X's daughter, this riveting and revealing novel follows the formative years of the man whose words and actions shook the world. Malcolm Little's parents have always told him that he can achieve anything, but from what he can tell, that's a pack of lies--after all, his father's been murdered, his mother's been taken away, and his dreams of becoming a lawyer have gotten him la

Racial ViolenceRacismTeen ProtagonistYoung Adult
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The Road to Memphis

Mildred D. Taylor · 297 pages

In 1941 a black youth, sadistically teased by two white boys in rural Mississippi, severely injures one of them with a tire iron and enlists Cassie's help in trying to flee the state.

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A Calamity of Souls

David Baldacci

Civil Rights MovementRacial ViolenceRacismHistorical Fiction
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Leon's Story

Leon Walter Tillage · 107 pages

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A Fine Dark Line

Joe R. Lansdale · 308 pages

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The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

Mark Twain · 330 pages

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March

Geraldine Brooks · 304 pages

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The Round House

Louise Erdrich · 352 pages

A young man is upended after a violent attack on his mother, which leaves his family in turmoil. Well-written page turner that is hard to put down!

Racial ViolenceRacismTeen ProtagonistFirst Person Narrator
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Roots: The Saga of an American Family

Alex Haley · 704 pages

Roots is a novel written by Alex Haley and published in 1976. It portrays the story of Kunta Kinte, an 18th-century African, captured as an adolescent and sold into slavery in the United States, and follows his life and the lives of his alleged descendants in the U.S. down to Haley. The release of the novel, combined with its hugely popular television adaptation, Roots (1977), led to a cultural se

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Brotherhood

A.B. Westrick · 371 pages

"The year is 1867, and the South has lost the Civil War. Those on the lowest rungs, like Shad's family, fear that the freed slaves will take the few jobs available. In this climate of despair and fear, a group has formed. Today we know it as the KKK"-- The year is 1867 and the South has lost the Civil War. Those on the lowest rungs, like Shad's family, fear that the freed slaves will take the few

Racial ViolenceRacismTeen ProtagonistYoung Adult
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