Charlayne Hunter-Gault was one of two black students to attend the University of Georgia fifty years ago. She recalls, “We were greeted by a screaming, howling mob of students, and I think some provocateurs…And as we walked under the arch, the students were yelling and screaming all kinds of epithets, and telling us to go…
Category: African American Children’s Books
HARLEM: Found Ways & Harlem Children’s Books
I brought my daughters and one of their friends to see an art exhibit on Harlem. We were fortunate to get a private tour by Vera Ingrid Grant, Director of the Ethelbert Cooper Gallery of African & African American Art at the Hutchins Center in Harvard Square, on her show, HARLEM: Found Ways, a collection…
10 Picture Books About Africa That Teach Empathy
I received so many great picture book suggestions for my first list, 10 Great Picture Books to Learn About Africa, that I had to include them on a new list. So here it is. Part Two: 10 More Great Picture Books To Learn About Africa. This new list highlights seemingly ordinary people who find ways to…
Celebrate #BlackHistoryMonth using Children’s Books by Carole Boston Weatherford
I had the distinct pleasure of meeting Carole Boston Weatherford in Roxbury, Massachusetts last year. I was struck by her quiet elegance and dignity. Her books reflect that too. Carole Boston Weatherford is on the left. Ekua Holmes is on the right. I didn’t realize how many #BlackHistoryMonth stories would have remained largely untold if…
Meeting Voices of Freedom: The Fannie Mae Hamer Author and Illustrator
It was an honor and a thrill to meet author Carole Boston Weatherford and illustrator Ekua Holmes of Voices of Freedom: Fannie Lou Hamer: The Spirit of the Civil Rights Movement. Did you know that Voices of Freedom won: 2016 Caldecott Honor Book 2016 Robert F. Sibert Honor Book 2016 John Steptoe New Talent Illustrator Award…
21 African-American Female Musicians Picture Books
March is Women’s History Month so I’ve started off with a video of a musician that is new to me, Hazel Dorothy Scott, a jazz prodigy who was prominent during the 1930s and 1940s. I could not find a picture book biography on her (yet) but here’s hoping that someone will write out. In the…
Gordon Parks: Black History Month
Parks at the Civil Rights March on Washington, 1963 from Wikipedia I had seen a photography exhibit at Boston’s Museum of Fine Arts last year and had taken a few photos of Gordon Parks photos because they seemed really important somehow. I knew nothing about Gordon Parks then. In researching female pioneering musicians, I came…