Resources

A Child’s Introduction to African American History 
by Jabari Asim and Lynn Gaines

This illustrated encyclopedia is a useful resource for any home or classroom. Asim helps older children understand the truth that African American history is American history. The scope of the events, people, and movements that he includes goes far beyond what children are typically taught in school.

The Black Lives Matter movement and the deaths of Trayvon Martin, Eric Garner, Michael Brown, and other unarmed Black people each have separate entries in the new millennium section of the book.

While the entries in the book are detailed, they’re not so long that older elementary children will lose interest. (Recommended for ages 8 – 14)

       

Nurture Shock Chapter 3 – "Why White Parents Don't Talk about Race"
by Po Bronson

Talking Race with Young Children NPR (20 minute listen)

Daddy, There’s a Noise Outside
by Kenneth Braswell, Joe Dent, and Julie Anderson

This short graphic novel explores what protests are, and why people use them. When two children ask their father what the sounds they heard the night before were, he explains the community was protesting.

Drawing on examples from Martin Luther King to the Million Man March, their parents explain that people in the neighborhood are protesting how their community is treated by the police. This is a good first book for talking about why and how groups like Black Lives Matter protest. (Recommended for ages 5 – 9)

Something Happened In Our Town: A Child’s Story about Racial Injustice by Marianne Celano, Marietta Collins, and Ann Hazzard

This engaging and important book was written by three child psychologists. It’s an excellent resource that helps caregivers talk to children about police shootings. The story follows two children, one white and one Black, who are in the same class at school. All the adults in town have been talking about a police shooting of a Black man. Kids have overheard their conversations, and have questions.

The children’s questions prompt responses from their parents that unpack the legacy of racism in the United States, as well as Black resistance to racism. The story has a variety of levels, and children will experience it differently at different ages. The book also includes extensive notes for parents on countering racism, including resources specifically designed for Black families. (Recommended for ages 6 – 10)

Lillian's Right to Vote : a celebration of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 2015 by Jonah Winter

This non-fiction picture book follows one-hundred-year-old Lillian as she votes in an election. As she goes to vote, she recounts what it was like for black Americans before the 1965 Voting Rights Act, and the impact that law has had to help ensure black voices are heard in elections.

One Crazy Summer 2010
by Rita Garcia

It's 1968, and the Gaither sisters have left their Brooklyn home to spend the summer with their mother in Oakland, California. While in Oakland they become aware of the Black Panthers and black poets, and their experiences with black empowerment change how they feel about themselves and the world the live in.

Sit-in : how four friends stood up by sitting down 2010
by Andrea Davis Pinkney

This gorgeous picture book recounts the history of the 1960 sit-in at Woolworth's lunch counter in North Carolina, a seminal moment in the mid-century civil rights movement.