Books can help to foster empathy and understanding in students, and to validate the experiences of those who don’t always see themselves reflected in the culture or the curriculum. If you'd like to borrow any of these books to read or to share with your students, please let me know and I will put them aside for you.
#OwnVoices - Books by Black Authors
February is Black History Month, a great time to read - and recommend - books by black authors. Learn what they have to say about their own experiences or put yourself in the shoes of their fictional characters.
Just Mercy: A True Story of the Fight for Justice (adapted for young adults)
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Pride
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Tristan Strong Punches a Hole in the Sky
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On the Come Up
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It's Trevor Noah: Born a Crime
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Look Both Ways
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We Are Not Yet Equal: Understanding Our Racial Divide
by Carol Anderson
When America achieves milestones of progress toward full and equal black participation in democracy, the systemic response is a consistent racist backlash that rolls back those wins. We Are Not Yet Equal examines five of these moments- The end of the Civil War and Reconstruction was greeted with Jim Crow laws; the promise of new opportunities in the North during the Great Migration was limited when blacks were physically blocked from moving away from the South; the Supreme Court's landmark 1954 Brown v. Board of Education decision was met with the shutting down of public schools throughout the South; the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and Voting Rights Act of 1965 led to laws that disenfranchised millions of African American voters and a War on Drugs that disproportionally targeted blacks; and the election of President Obama led to an outburst of violence including the death of black teen Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri as well as the election of Donald Trump. A NY PUBLIC LIBRARY BEST BOOK FOR TEENS
Note: Summaries are provided by the publishers or closely adapted from their summaries.