Black History Resources for Children and Adults

February 15, 2023 in Carousel, News

In celebration of Black History Month, we’ve put together a list of books, music, movies, and other resources that you can find at the library or in our digital collections that feature important events and figures in the history of the African diaspora. In addition to the resources below, you can also check out the White Plains Library’s excellent African American Trailblazers collection, their #BlackJoy Picture Books collection, and of course, the Coretta Scott King Book Awards! (Have you read all the 2023 winners yet?)

At the Library

Children

What Color is My World? The Lost History of African-American Inventors by Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
Stacey’s Extraordinary Words by Stacey Abrams
Harriet Tubman and the Underground Railroad by David A. Adler
A Picture Book of Harriet Tubman by David A. Adler
A Picture Book of Sojourner Truth by David A. Adler
Mae Among the Stars by Roda Ahmed
Martha and the Slave Catchers by Harriet Hyman Alonso
Preaching to the Chickens by Jabari Asim
What do You do With a Voice Like That: The Story of Extraordinary Congresswoman Barbara Jordan by Chris Barton
Counting on Katherine: How Katherine Johnson Saved Apollo 13 by Helaine Becker
I Am Ruby Bridges by Ruby Bridges
Through My Eyes by Ruby Bridges
Mae Jemison: the First African American Woman Astronaut by Liza N. Burby
Who Was Booker T. Washington? by James Buckley Jr.
W.E.B. Du Bois and Racial Relations by Seamus Cavan
Hair Love by Matthew A. Cherry
Swim Team by Johnnie Christmas
Finding Langston by Lesa Cline-Ransome
Being Clem by Lesa Cline-Ransome
Words Set Me Free: the Story of Young Frederick Douglass by Lesa Cline-Ransome
Just a Lucky So and So: the Story of Louis Armstrong by Lesa Cline-Ransome
Overground Railroad by Lesa Cline-Ransome
Class Act by Jerry Craft
Parker Looks Up: An Extraordinary Moment by Parker Curry
The Black Cowboys by Gina DeAngelis
Opal Lee and What it Means to be Free: The True Story of the Grandmother of Juneteenth by Alice Faye Duncan
Thurgood Marshall: Young Justice by Montrew Dunham
Jackie Robinson by Joeming W. Dunn
Harriet Tubman and the Underground Railroad by Dan. Elish
The Book of Black Inventors and Scientists by M.J. Fièvre
Abraham Lincoln and Frederick Douglass: the Story Behind an American Friendship by Russell Freedman
If You Read This by Kereen Getten
The Last Last-Day-of-Summer by Lamar Giles
Last Mirror on the Left by Lamar Giles
Change Sings: A Children’s Anthem by Amanda Gorman
Martin Luther King Jr., and the March Toward Freedom by Rita Hakim
Timelines from Black history : leaders, legends, legacies by Mireille Harper
Little Leaders: Bold Women in Black History by Vashti Harrison
Ablaze with Color: A Story of Painter Alma Thomas by Jeanne Walker Harvey
A Day for Rememberin’: Inspired by the True Events of the First Memorial Day by Leah Henderson
What You Don’t Know: a Story of Liberated Childhood by Anastasia Higginbotham
Brave, Black, First: 50+ African American Women Who Changed the World by Cheryl Willis Hudson
Jazz Tap: from African Drums to American Feet by Anne E. Johnson
Reaching for the Moon: the Autobiography of NASA Mathematician Katherine Johnson by Katherine G. Johnson
Lift Every Voice and Sing: a Pictorial Tribute to the Negro National Anthem by James Weldon Johnson
Black is a Rainbow Color by Angela Joy
I Color Myself Different by Colin Kaepernick
The Life of George Washington Carver by Stephen Krensky
Wilma Unlimited: How Wilma Rudolph Became the World’s Fastest Woman by Kathleen Krull
Escape North! The Story of Harriet Tubman by Monica Kulling
The Undefeated by Alexander Kwame
A Ride to Remember: A Civil Rights Story by Sharon Langley
Harlem Hellfighters by J. Patrick Lewis
For Black Girls Like Me by Mariama Lockington
Freewater by Amina Luqman-Dawson
Harriet Tubman by Wil. Mara
The Little Plant Doctor: a Story About George Washington Carver by Jean Marzollo
Black Boy Joy: 17 Stories Celebrating Black Boyhood ed. by Kwame Mbalia
Who Was Sojourner Truth? by Yona Seldis McDonough
Days of Jubilee: the End of Slavery in the United States by Pat McKissack
Martin Luther King by Rosemary Bray McNatt
As Good As Anybody: Martin Luther King and Joshua Heschel’s Amazing March Towards Freedom by Richard Michelson
Thank You Omu! by Oge Mora
The Proudest Blue: a Story of Hijab and Family by Ibtihaj Muhammad
Get Ella to the Apollo by Lisa Mullarkey
Frederick Douglass: the Lion Who Wrote History by Walter Dean Myers
Freedom Bird: A Tale of Hope and Courage by Jerdine Nolen
On Her Wings: The Story of Toni Morrison by Jerdine Nolen
Saving the Day: Garrett Morgan’s Life-changing Invention of the Traffic Signal by Karyn Parsons
Sojourner Truth’s Step-Stomp Stride by Andrea Davis Pinkney
Let It Shine: Stories of Black Women Freedom Fighters by Andrea Davis Pinkney
Who Was Frederick Douglass? by April Jones Prince
Frederick’s Journey: the Life of Frederick Douglass by Doreen Rappaport
Stuntboy in the Meantime by Jason Reynolds
The Negro Leagues by James A. Riley
Sweet Justice: Georgia Gilmore and the Montgomery Bus Boycott by Mara Rockliff
Only Passing Through: the Story of Sojourner Truth by Anne F. Rockwell
Sojourner Truth by Peter Roop
When Marian Sang: the True Recital of Marian Anderson, the Voice of a Century by Pam Muñoz Ryan
A Kid’s Guide to African American History by Nancy I. Sanders
Stitch by Stitch: Elizabeth Hobbs Keckly Sews Her Way to Freedom by Connie Schofield-Morrison
Dr. Charles Drew: Blood Bank Innovator by Anne E. Schraff
Kamala Harris: Madam Vice President by Heather E. Schwartz
Hidden Figures: the True Story of Four Black Women and the Space Race by Margot Lee Shetterly
Jackie Robinson and the Breaking of the Color Barrier by Russell Shorto
Sojourner Truth and the Voice of Freedom by Jane Shumate
Harriet Tubman, a Woman of Courage by Renee Skelton
A Computer Called Katherine: How Katherine Johnson Helped Put America On the Moon by Suzanne Slade
Mae Jemison by Jennifer Strand
Harriet Tubman by George Sullivan
I Love My Hair! by Natasha Tarpley
A History of Me by Andrea Theodore
Stacey Abrams and the Fight to Vote by Traci N. Todd
Amanda Gorman: Inspiring Hope with Poetry by Artika Tyner
Amanda Gorman by Maria Isabel Sanchez Vegara
Freedom in Congo Square by Carole Boston Weatherford
Moses: When Harriet Tubman Led Her People to Freedom by Carole Boston Weatherford
Gordon Parks: How the Photographer Captured Black and White America by Carole Boston Weatherford
R-E-S-P-E-C-T: Aretha Franklin, the Queen of Soul by Carole Boston Weatherford
Voice of Freedom: Fannie Lou Hamer, Spirit of the Civil Rights Movement by Carole Boston Weatherford
Play, Louis, Play! The True Story of a Boy and His Horn by Muriel Harris Weinstein
George Washington Carver by Jill C. Wheeler
Lotus Bloom and the Afro Revolution by Sherri Winston
Benjamin Banneker: Brilliant Surveyor, Mathematician, and Astronomer by Erika Wittekind
Madam C.J. Walker: Self-Made Businesswoman by Della A. Yannuzzi

Teens

This Poison Heart by Kalynn Bayron
Skin of the Sea by Natasha Bowen
Happily Ever Afters by Elise Bryant
The Beautiful Struggle: Adapted for Young Adults by Ta-Nehisi Coates
Up Close: Thurgood Marshall by Chris Crowe
In the Shadow of Liberty: the Hidden History of Slavery, Four Presidents, and Five Black Lives by Kenneth C. Davis
Legendborne by Tracy Deonn
Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave by Frederick Douglass
Blood Scion by Deborah Falaye
Jackie Robinson by Harvey Frommer
Beasts of Prey by Ayana Gray
A Stranger In My Own House: the Story of W.E.B. Du Bois by Bonnie Hinman
Thurgood Marshall: Champion of Civil Rights by Elisabeth Krug
We’ve Got a Job: the 1963 Birmingham Children’s March by Cynthia Levinson
March (series) by John Lewis
Black Hands, White Sails: the Story of African-American Whalers by Pat McKissack and Fredrick McKissack
There Comes a Time: the Struggle for Civil Rights by Milton Meltzer
A. Philip Randolph and the African American Labor Movement by Calvin Craig Miller
Hidden Figures: the Untold True Story of Four African-American Women Who Helped Launch Our Nation Into Space by Margot Lee Shetterly
Discovering Black America: From the Age of Exploration to the Twenty-first Century by Linda Tarrant-Reid
Marching Toward Freedom, 1957-1965: From the Founding of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference to the Assassination of Malcom X by Robert Weisbrot

Adults

On the Pulse of Morning by Maya Angelou
Find more by Maya Angelou!
If Beale Street Could Talk by James Baldwin
Find Go Tell It On the Mountain and more by James Baldwin!
He Calls Me By Lightning: the Life of Caliph Washington and the Forgotten Saga of Jim Crow, Southern Justice, and the Death Penalty by S. Jonathan Bass
The Toni Morrison Book Club by Juda Benett
Mary Wells: the Tumultuous Life of Motown’s First Superstar by Peter Benjaminson
The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett
Louis Armstrong: an Extravagant Life by Laurence Bergreen
Frederick Douglass: Prophet of Freedom by David W. Blight
African American Art: the Long Struggle by Crystal Britton
Justice of the Pies: Sweet and Savory Pies, Quiches, and Tarts Plus Inspirational Stories from Exceptional People by Maya-Camille Broussard
The Black Calhouns: from Civil War to Civil Rights With One African American Family by Gail Lumet Buckley
You are Your Best Thing : Vulnerability, Shame Resilience, and the Black Experience — An Anthology by Tarana Burke
Harriet Tubman: the Road to Freedom by Catherine Clinton
The Water Dancer: a Novel by Ta-Nehisi Coates
Jackie Robinson: Race, Sports, and the American Dream by Joseph Dorinson
She Came to Slay: the Life and Times of Harriet Tubman by Erica Armstrong Dunbar
Well-read Black Girl: Finding Our Stories, Discovering Ourselves: an Anthology by Glory Edim
George Washington Carver: Scientist and Symbol by Linda McMurry Edwards
Ali: a Life by Jonathan Eig
Aretha: From These Roots by Aretha Franklin
The Black Church: This is Our Story, This is Our Song by Henry Louis Gate, Jr.
On Juneteenth by Annette Gordon-Reed
Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi
Roots: the Saga of an American Family by Alex Haley
Driving the Green Book: How Black Resistance Lit a Path Through Jim Crow by Alvin Hall
The Bad-ass Librarians of Timbuktu: and Their Race to Save the World’s Most Precious Manuscripts by Joshua Hammer
The Birth of Black America: the First African Americans and the Pursuit of Freedom at Jamestown by Tim Hashaw
Black Music in America: a History Through Its People by James Haskins
Black Dance in America: a History Through Its People by James Haskins
Showdown: Thurgood Marshall and the Supreme Court Nomination that Changed America by Wil Haygood
Tanya Holland’s California Soul: Recipes from a Culinary Journey West by Tanya Holland
The Panther & the Lash: Poems of Our Times by Langston Hughes
Find more by Langston Hughes!
Harriet Tubman: the Life and Stories by Jean McMahon Humez
How Long ‘til Black Future Month? by N. K. Jemisin
Panther Baby: a Life of Rebellion and Reinvention by Jamal Joseph
Ella Fitzgerald by Bud Kliment
Beale Street Dynasty: Sex, Song, and the Struggle for the Soul of Memphis by Preston Lauterbach
The Black History of the White House by Clarence Lusane
An Afro-Indigenous History of the United States by Kyle T. Mays
Behold the Dreamers by Imbolo Mbue
His Truth is Marching On: John Lewis and the Power of Hope by Jon Meacham
The Defender: How the Legendary Black Newspaper Changed America: from the Age of the Pullman Porters to the Age of Obama by Ethan Michaeli
Soul food: the Surprising Story of an American Cuisine, One Plate at a Time by Adrian Miller
Kamala’s Way: An American Life by Dan Morain
The Light We Carry: Overcoming in Uncertain Times by Michelle Obama
My America: Recipes from a Young Black Chef by Kwame Onwuachi
Girl in Black and White: the Story of Mary Mildred Williams and the Abolition Movement by Jessie Morgan-Owens
Beloved by Toni Morrison
Find Paradise, Jazz, Sula, and many more by Toni Morrison!
Ancestor Trouble: A Reckoning and a Reconciliation by Maud Newton
Up From History: The Life of Booker T. Washington by Robert J. Norrell
Sojourner Truth: a Life, a Symbol by Nell Irvin Painter
Gordon Parks: a Poet and His Camera by Gordon Parks
Buses are a Comin’: Memoir of a Freedom Rider by Charles Person
Black Gotham: a Family History of African Americans in Nineteenth-century New York City by Carla L. Peterson
James Baldwin by Louis H. Pratt
“The Hills” in the Mid-nineteenth Century: the History of a Rural Afro-American Community in Westchester County, New York by Edythe Ann Quinn
Florynce “Flo” Kennedy: the Life of a Black Feminist Radical by Sherie M. Randolph
Blood Brothers: the Fatal Friendship of Muhammad Ali and Malcom X by Randy Roberts
James Baldwin by Lisa Rosset
The Color of Law: a Forgotten History of How Our Government Segregated America by Richard Rothstein
My Vanishing Country: A Memoir by Bakari Sellers
Go and Tell Pharaoh: the Autobiography of the Reverend Al Sharpton by Al Sharpton
Hidden Figures: the American Dream and the Untold Story of the Black Women Mathematicians Who Helped Win the Space Race by Margot Lee Shetterly
Driving While Black: African American Travel and the Road to Civil Rights by Gretchen Sullivan Sorin
Picturing Frederick Douglass: an Illustrated Biography of the Nineteenth Century’s Most Photographed American by John Stauffer
Black Women Writers at Work by Claudia Tate
The Original Black Elite: Daniel Murray and the Story of a Forgotten Era by Elizabeth Dowling Taylor
Watermelon and Red Birds: A Cookbook for Juneteenth and Black Celebrations by Nicole Taylor
King of the Blues: The Rise and Reign of B.B. King by Daniel De Visé
The Black Cabinet: the Untold Story of African Americans and Politics During the Age of Roosevelt by Jill Watts
Smoketown: the Untold Story of the Other Great Black Renaissance by Mark Whitaker
The Warmth of Other Suns: the Epic Story of America’s Great Migration by Isabel Wilkerson
Readings On Maya Angelou by Mary E. Williams
Black Fortunes: the Story of the First Six African Americans Who Escaped Slavery and Became Millionaires by Shomari Wills
Two Trains Running by August Wilson
Harlem Speaks: a Living History of the Harlem Renaissance by Cary D. Wintz
Master Slave Husband Wife: An Epic Journey from Slavery to Freedom by Ilyon Woo

Movies

Borrow Online

Overdrive

The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett (available as ebook or audiobook)
A Taste of Power: A Black Woman’s Story by Elaine Brown (available as ebook)
Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison (available as ebook or audiobook)
The Black Church: This Is Our Story, This Is Our Song by Henry Louis Gates, Jr. (available as ebook or audiobook)
Hitting a Straight Lick with a Crooked Stick: Stories from the Harlem Renaissance by Zora Neale Hurston (available as ebook and audiobook)
Deacon King Kong by James McBridge (available as ebook or audiobook)
The Dead Are Arising: The Life of Malcolm X by Les Payne and Tamara Payne (available as ebook or audiobook)
Black Bottom Saints by Alice Randall (available as ebook)
Hidden Figures by Margot Lee Shetterly (available as ebook or audiobook; find the Young Reader’s and Picture Book version too!)
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot (available as ebook or audiobook)
Black Fortunes by Shomari Wills (available as ebook)

Hoopla

Black History For Beginners by Denise Dennis (available as ebook or audiobook)
Hitting a Straight Lick with a Crooked Stick: Stories from the Harlem Renaissance by Zora Neale Hurston (available as ebook and audiobook)
Henrietta Lacks: The Untold Story by Ron Lacks (available as ebook)
Sister Rosetta Tharpe by J.P. Miller (available as ebook)
Find music by Sister Rosetta Tharpe!
The Dead Are Arising: The Life of Malcolm X by Les Payne and Tamara Payne (available as audiobook)
Black Bottom Saints by Alice Randall (available as ebook or audiobook)
Hidden Figures by Margot Lee Shetterly (available as ebook or audiobook; find the Young Reader’s and Picture Book version too!)
Up From Slavery: An Autobiography by Booker T. Washington (available as ebook or audiobook)
Find more books by Booker T. Washington!
Black Fortunes by Shomari Wills (available as ebook or audiobook)

Kanopy