Sit-In: How Four Friends Stood Up by Sitting Down

We March

Shane W. Evans · 32 pages

Illustrations and brief text portray the events of the 1963 march in Washington, D.C., where the Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. delivered a historic speech.

Heart and Soul: The Story of America and African Americans

Kadir Nelson · 112 pages

Separate Is Never Equal: Sylvia Méndez and Her Family's Fight for Desegregation

Duncan Tonatiuh · 40 pages

"Years before the landmark U.S. Supreme Court ruling Brown v. Board of Education, Sylvia Mendez, an eight-year-old girl of Mexican and Puerto Rican heritage, played an instrumental role in Mendez v. Westminster, the landmark desegregation case of 1946 in California" --

The Story of Ruby Bridges

Robert Coles · 32 pages

For months six-year-old Ruby Bridges must confront the hostility of white parents when she becomes the first African American girl to integrate Frantz Elementary School in New Orleans in 1960.

Martin's Big Words: The Life of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

Doreen Rappaport · 40 pages

A brief biographical sketch of Martin Luther King, Jr., one of the greatest figures in the American civil rights movement.

Rosa

Nikki Giovanni · 34 pages

The story of Rosa Parks and her courageous act of defiance. Provides the story of the young black woman who refused to give up her seat to a white passenger in Alabama, setting in motion all the events of the Civil Rights Movements that resulted in the end of the segregated south, gave equality to blacks throughout the nation, and forever changed the country in which we all live today. She had not

Lillian's Right to Vote: A Celebration of the Voting Rights Act of 1965

Jonah Winter

As an elderly woman, Lillian recalls that her great-great-grandparents were sold as slaves in front of a courthouse where only rich white men were allowed to vote, then the long fight that led to her right--and determination--to cast her ballot since the Voting Rights Act gave every American the right to vote.

I am Rosa Parks

Brad Meltzer · 40 pages

When Marian Sang: The True Recital of Marian Anderson

Pam Munoz Ryan · 40 pages

An introduction to the life of Marian Anderson, extraordinary singer and civil rights activist, who was the first African American to perform at the Metropolitan Opera, whose life and career encouraged social change.

The Book Itch: Freedom, Truth, & Harlem's Greatest Bookstore

Vaunda Micheaux Nelson · 32 pages

Relates the story of the National Memorial African Bookstore, founded in Harlem by Louis Michaux in 1939, as seen from the perspective of Louis Michaux Jr., who met famous men like Muhammad Ali and Malcolm X while helping there.

Voice of Freedom: Fannie Lou Hamer

Carole Boston Weatherford · 45 pages

Presents a collage-illustrated treasury of poems and spirituals inspired by the life and work of civil rights advocate Fannie Lou Hamer.

The Youngest Marcher: The Story of Audrey Faye Hendricks, a Young Civil Rights Activist

Cynthia Levinson · 40 pages

Presents the life of nine-year-old Audrey Faye Hendricks who became the youngest known child to be arrested for picketing against Birmingham segregation practices in 1963.

Through My Eyes

Ruby Bridges · 63 pages

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

The Case for Loving: The Fight for Interracial Marriage

Selina Alko

The story of interracial couple Mildred and Richard Perry, who got married in Washington, D.C., and were arrested after they returned to Virginia, and took their legal case all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court. This tribute to the Loving family describes how they were arrested in mid-twentieth-century Virginia for violating laws against interracial marriage and argued their case all the way to t

Stride Toward Freedom: The Montgomery Story

Martin Luther King Jr. · 230 pages

Chronicles the Montgomery, Alabama bus boycott sparked by Mrs. Rosa Park's refusal to give up her seat to a white male, describing the plans and problems of a nonviolent campaign, reprisals by the white community, and the eventual attainment of desegrated city bus service.

Claudette Colvin: Twice Toward Justice

Phillip M. Hoose · 146 pages

Based on extensive interviews with Claudette Colvin and many others, Phillip Hoose presents the first in-depth account of an important yet largely unknown civil rights figure, skillfully weaving her dramatic story into the fabric of the historic Montgomery bus boycott and court case that would change the course of American history.

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

A Picture Book of Martin Luther King, Jr.

David A. Adler

Harvesting Hope: The Story of Cesar Chavez

Kathleen Krull · 48 pages

A biography of Cesar Chavez, from age ten when he and his family lived happily on their Arizona ranch, to age thirty-eight when he led a peaceful protest against California migrant workers' miserable working conditions.

I've Got the Light of Freedom: The Organizing Tradition and the Mississippi Freedom Struggle

Charles M. Payne · 525 pages

This momentous work offers a groundbreaking history of the early civil rights movement in the South. Using wide-ranging archival work and extensive interviews with movement participants, Charles Payne uncovers a chapter of American social history forged locally, in places like Greenwood, Mississippi, where countless unsung African Americans risked their lives for the freedom struggle. The leaders

Marching for Freedom: Walk Together Children and Don't You Grow Weary

Elizabeth Partridge

An inspiring look at the fight for the vote, by an award-winning authorOnly 44 years ago in the U.S., Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was leading a fight to win blacks the right to vote. Ground zero for the movement became Selma, Alabama.Award-winning author Elizabeth Partridge leads you straight into the chaotic, passionate, and deadly three months of protests that culminated in the landmark march fro

Who Was Martin Luther King, Jr.?

Bonnie Bader · 112 pages

Showdown: Thurgood Marshall and the Supreme Court Nomination That Changed America

Wil Haygood · 410 pages

"The author of The Butler presents a revelatory biography of the first African-American Supreme Court justice--one of the giants of the civil rights movement, and one of the most transforming Supreme Court justices of the 20th century,"--Novelist.

Martin and Malcolm and America: A Dream or a Nightmare?

James H. Cone · 368 pages