Reading List for Teachers / Educators

Reading Level: Grades K-2

A Is for Affrilachia is an alphabet book that brings awareness to notable African Americans from Appalachia and celebrates the people, physical spaces, and historical events of this region and its African American peoples.

Reading Level:  Grades K-1

Muhammad Ali is a part of the Little People, BIG DREAMS biography series. This book provides students with a biography of Muhammad Ali from childhood to his boxing career to his lifelong activism.

Reading Level:  Grades K-2

The ABC’s of Black History celebrates a story that spans continents and centuries, following the progression of Black History and highlighting notable figures.

Reading Level:  Grades Pre-K-3

A Song for the Unsung gives praise and accolades to Bayard Rustin, an unsung hero and the center of some of the most important decisions and notable events of the Civil Rights Movement.

Reading Level:  Grades Pre-K-2

We All Belong celebrates diversity in a caring group of children. This picture book teaches students empathy for others regardless of culture or race.

Reading Level:  Grades K-3

Go Forth and Tell: The Life of Augusta Baker, Librarian and Master Storyteller is a vibrant picture book that honors the life and legacy of Augusta Braxton Baker, the first Black coordinator of children’s services at the New York Public Library.

Reading Level:  Grades 1-4

Henry’s Freedom Box focuses on Henry Brown, an enslaved man who worked in a warehouse. The book tells the story of Brown deciding to ship himself in a crate to the North to become a free man.

Reading Level:  Grades 1-4

Carter Reads the Newspaper tells the story of Carter G. Woodson’s, the founder of Black History Month, life. The book details Woodson’s childhood, is work in the coal mines, and his inspiration for reading and researching.

Reading Level:  Grades 1-4

Miles of Style: Eunice W. Johnson and the EBONY Fashion Fair introduces young readers to the life of Eunice W. Johnson, a pioneering figure in fashion and media. As co-founder of EBONY magazine, Eunice used her platform to showcase the beauty and elegance of Black culture. In 1958, she launched the EBONY Fashion Fair, a groundbreaking traveling fashion show that featured Black models and raised funds for various charities.

Reading Level:  Grades 2-5

The Doll Test: Choosing Equality is a compelling exploration of a pivotal moment in the Civil Rights Movement. Weatherford brings to life the groundbreaking psychological study conducted by Drs. Kenneth and Mamie Clark, which revealed the damaging effects of segregation on African American children. This test played a crucial role in the historic 1954 Brown v. Board of Education Supreme Court case that led to the desegregation of public schools in the United States. Weatherford’s book not only honors the courage of the children who participated in the study but also underscores the ongoing struggle for equality and justice.

Reading Level:  Grades 2-5

Swinging Into History: Toni Stone: Big-League Baseball’s First Woman Player celebrates the groundbreaking journey of Toni Stone, the first woman to play professional baseball in a men’s major league. This inspiring book brings to light the courage, resilience, and determination of a trailblazing Black woman who broke barriers in a sport—and a world—dominated by men. The book honors Stone’s passion for the game and her unyielding fight for respect and recognition, making it a powerful introduction to sports history, gender equality, and the strength of the human spirit.

Reading Level:  Grades 3-5

Black Boy Joy is a collection of stories, poems, and comics about the power of joy and wonders of Black boyhood.

Reading Level:  Grades 3-5

Forever This Summer tells the story of Georgie and her mother moving to Louisiana to care for her Great Aunt Vie. The book explores her friendship with Markie, a foster kid who lives with Aunt Vie, and their search for Markie’s biological mother.

Reading Level:  Grades 6-8

Slavery and the African American Story, part of the Race to the Truth series, offers young readers a thoughtful and thorough examination of African American history, beginning with the early presence of Africans in the Americas and extending through the centuries of slavery and its long-lasting effects.

Reading Level:  Grades 6-8

Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry is sat in Mississippi at the height of the Great Depression. The story explores a Black family’s struggle to maintain their pride, integrity, and independence in the face of racism and social injustice.

Reading Level:  Grades 7-8

The Beautiful Struggle is an adapted memoir about the author’s childhood. The author shares his experience growing up with a father committed to raising strong Black men equipped to deal with a racist society during a turbulent period of Baltimore’s history.

Reading Level:  Grades 6-8

Zora and Me is a fictionalized account of Zora Neale Hurston’s childhood adventures. The story explores the idea of collective memories and the lingering effects of slavery.

Reading Level:  Grades 6-7

The Promise of Change recalls the story of Jo Ann Allen, one of twelve African American students who integrated Clinton High School in Tennessee in 1956, a year before federal troops escorted the Little Rock 9 into Central High School. The story explores the teen being thrust into the national spotlight as the spokesperson for the Clinton 12.

Reading Level:  Grades 6-8

The Port Chicago 50 tells the story of a massive explosion at the segregated Navy base at Port Chicago, California, which killed 300 sailors and injured many off-duty men in their bunks. After the explosion, 244 men refused to go back to work until unsafe and unfair working conditions were improved. Fifty of these men were charged with mutiny, facing decades in jail and, potentially, execution.

Reading Level:  Grades 6-7

Hidden Figures tells the story of Dorothy Vaughn, Mary Jackson, Katherine Johnson, and Christine Darden, four Black mathematicians at NASA known as “human computers” who calculated the numbers that would launch rockets and astronauts into space.

Reading Level:  Grades 6-7

Finding Langston tells the story of Langston, a young boy whose mother recently passed away and has moved from Alabama to Chicago’s Bronzeville district. There, at the Chicago Public Library, Langston discovers the poetry of Langston Hughes, the poet for who he was named after. Langston’s study of the poetry helps him cope and adjust to his new life.

Reading Level:  Grades 6-8

Look Both Ways tells ten tales about what happens when after the dismissal bell rings. Each tale highlights a different student’s interactions and perspectives within their neighborhood.

Reading Level:  Grades 6-8

Mamie Phipps Clark, Champion for Children is a compelling graphic novel that brings to life the groundbreaking work of Dr. Mamie Phipps Clark, a pioneering psychologist and civil rights advocate. As the first Black woman to earn a Ph.D. in psychology from Columbia University, she conducted the influential “Doll Test”—a study revealing how segregation affected Black children’s self-perception. Her research was instrumental in the landmark 1954 Brown v. Board of Education Supreme Court case, which declared racial segregation in public schools unconstitutional.

Reading Level:  Grades 11-12

Appalachian Elegy is a compilation of poetry that explores bell hook’s childhood in the isolated hills and hidden hollows of Kentucky. Her poems discuss the marginalization of Appalachian people and the environmental degradation of the region.

Reading Level:  Grades 9-10

Black Enough is a collection of stories about what it’s like to be young and Black in America. The book explores the idea of what it means to be Black and the diversity of the Black experience in America.

Reading Level:  Grades 9-12

This Side of Home tells the story of two identical twin sisters, Maya and Nikki. Before their senior year of high school, Maya notices the gentrification of her neighborhood and school. Her principal begins prioritizing white students at the expense of the school’s largely Black identity. The story follows Maya as she grapples with where and with whom she belongs.

Reading Level:  Grades 9-12

Black Girl You Are Atlas is a powerful and poetic celebration of Black girlhood, resilience, and sisterhood. In this semi-autobiographical collection, Watson reflects on her experiences growing up as a young Black girl at the intersections of race, class, and gender. Through a variety of poetic forms, she shares recollections of her childhood in Portland, tender odes to the Black women in her life, and urgent calls for Black girls to step into their power.

Reading Level:  Grades 9-12

Black Birds in the Sky tells the complete story of the Tulsa Race Massacre. Colbert’s book answers the question of how it came to pass, what happened, and why the events are unknown to many today.

Reading Level:  Grade 9

The Davenports, sat in 1910s America, explores the story of an immensely wealthy Black family. The novel is inspired by the real-life story of the Patterson family and seeks to tell the tale of four determined young Black women discovering to create their own path in life.

Reading Level:  Grades 9-11

All American Boys tells the story of two teens—one black, one white—who grapple with a single act of violence that leaves their school, community, and the country divided by racial tension.

Reading Level:  Grades 9-12

Overground Railroad chronicles the history of the Green Book, the “Black travel guide to America.” The Green Book, published from 1936-1966, highlighted hotels, restaurants, stores, gas stations, and recreational destinations that were safe for Black travelers. Overground Railroad celebrates the businesses and Black travel during the era of segregation.

Reading Level:  Grades 9-12

Poemhood is a young adult poetry anthology that explores centuries of Black poetry. The anthology features over thirty poets, both modern and ancestral, who use their art to discuss their Black experience.

Reading Level:  College / Adult

Beloved tells the story of Sethe, a woman born enslaved who escaped to Ohio. Eighteen years later, she is still not free. Sethe has too many memories of Sweet Home, the beautiful farm where so many hideous things happened. Sethe’s new home is haunted by the ghost of her baby, who died nameless and whose tombstone is engraved with a single word: Beloved.

Reading Level:  College / Adult

Black Feminist Thought traces the history of Black women’s ideas and actions to argue that Black feminist thought is the discourse that fosters Black women’s survival, persistence, and success against the odds. Collins argues that Black women’s ideas and actions are not marginal concerns but are central to the future of social justice in democratic societies.

Reading Level:  College / Adult

Death of Innocence is a powerful and emotional book that displays the mother of Emmett Till recounting the story of her life, her son’s tragic death, and the dawn of the Civil Rights Movement.

Reading Level:  College / Adult

Black Joy is a collection of lyrical essays about the ways joy has evolved, even in the midst of trauma. Lewis-Giggetts details instances of joy in the context of Black culture to recognize the power of Black joy as a resource, and to challenge the one-note narratives of Black life as solely compromised of trauma and hardship.

Reading Level:  College / Adult

Killing Rage argues that eradicating racism and sexism must go hand-in-hand. In essays, hooks addresses a wide spectrum of topics dealing with racism in the United States, including friendship between Black women and white women, psychological trauma among African Americans, and internalized racism in media.

Reading Level:  College / Adult

The Miseducation of the Negro was first published in 1933. Woodson exposed how American education was structured to culturally indoctrinate Black Americans rather than teach him. Woodson concluded this indoctrination caused Black American to become dependent and seek out inferior places in the greater society of which they were part of.

Reading Level:  College / Adult

Defining Moments in Black History chronicles the complex, and often obscured, history of the African American experience from African ancestry and the Middle Passage to the Black Lives Matter movement.

Reading Level:  College / Adult

Racism Without Racists explores contemporary conversations about race, most notably how color-blind racism uses an arsenal of arguments, phrases, and stories to justify racial inequalities in modern America.