African American History Month: Children's Non-Fiction

Grades 1 -5

The story of interracial couple Mildred and Richard Loving, 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.

Based on a real 1828 document appraising a home of a slaveholder and giving a monetary value for the 11 enslaved people. It pairs dramatic woodcut portraits of each individual with a poetic reimaging of their lives, struggles and aspirations.  

 

Grades 5 - 8. Raised in South Carolina and New York, Woodson always felt halfway home in each place. In vivid poems, she shares what it was like to grow up as an African American in the 1960s and 1970s, living with the remnants of Jim Crow and her growing awareness of the Civil Rights movement. Touching and powerful, each poem is both accessible and emotionally charged, each line a glimpse into a child's soul as she searches for her place in the world.  

Grades K - 3

Mary Walker, born into slavery in 1848, had to wait a long time before tackling the challenge of literacy. She was 116 years old when she was declared the oldest student in the nation. Proof positive that it is never too late to accomplish something amazing.