Books For Kids: African American History
Not Just For February
From the slave trade to emancipation and Jim Crow to Civil Rights, these books for elementary school children cover major historical milestones not just for African Americans, but also for our nation.
Sugar Changed the World : A Story of Spice, Magic, Slavery, Freedom, and Science
By Mark Aronson and Marina Budhos
A broad look at the history of the sugar trade and how it influenced the slave trade.
Escape from Slavery: Five Journeys to Freedom
By Doreen Rappaport
These are five true stories about slaves who escaped through the Underground Railroad to freedom.
Ben and the Emancipation Proclamation
By Pat Sherman
Benjamin Holmes was a slave in Charleston who broke the law and taught himself to read. He used this clandestine skill to read Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation to his fellow slaves.
By Aaron Rosenberg
A comprehensive look at the Civil War and six people who played vastly different, but important, roles in it: President Abraham Lincoln, freed slave Frederick Douglass, nurse Clara Barton, General George McClellan, Confederate General Robert E. Lee, and photographer Mathew Brady.
Miles to Go for Freedom: Segregation and Civil Rights in the Jim Crow Years
Linda Barrett Osborne
Photos, interviews, and essays on the hardships that many African Americans faced in the years after the Civil War.
The Great Migration: Journey to the North
By Eloise Greenfield
Tens, if not hundreds, of thousands of black families migrated north during the Jim Crow years to find more opportunities and a better life for themselves, settling in areas like Chicago, Detroit, and Washington, DC. This collection of poems explores the journey that so many families made at the turn of the 20th century.
We’ve Got a Job: The 1963 Birmingham Children’s March
By Cynthia Levinson
Just when the Civil Rights movement was losing steam, children and young people brought the cause back to life with a protest march in Birmingham, Alabama. This book explores this nearly forgotten piece of American history, one that reinvigorated the Civil Rights movement after hundreds of children were sent to jail.
Our Children Can Soar: A Celebration of Rosa, Barack, and the Pioneers of Change
By Michelle Cook
An inspirational look at the people who fought for freedom for all.
By Cynthia Grady
This beautifully illustrated book contains poems portraying different African American experiences throughout history.