Best Children's Books about African American Freedom Fighters

This fascinating book combines dramatic portraits by Ansel Pitcairn with profiles of 20 African-American men and women, written by Tonya Bolden. There are a number of similar books that concentrate on the nineteenth century. Portraits of African-American Heroes is unusual because, while it includes profiles of remarkable African-American men and women of the nineteenth century, it also includes notables from the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. I recommend the book for mature seven years old through high school age. (ISBN: 0525470433. Dutton Children's Books, 2003) Read my review of Portraits of African-American Heroes.

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Andrea Davis Pinkney's award-winning book is written for 9-12 year olds. It presents the dramatic stories of 10 women, including Sojourner Truth, Harriet Tubman, Mary McLeod Bethune, Ella Josephine Baker, Rosa Parks, and Shirley Chisholm. The first page of each biography faces a stunning portrait, with striking allegorical images, by artist Stephen Alcorn. (Harcourt, 2000. ISBN: 015201005X)  Read my review of Let It Shine: Stories of Black Women Freedom Fighters.

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The narrator of Freedom on the Menu: The Greensboro Sit-Ins is a young African American girl named Connie. At the beginning of 1960 in Greensboro, North Carolina, as in other parts of the country, there are still many places that serve "whites only." When four African American college students stage a sit-in at the Woolworth's lunch counter seeking to be served like other customers, Connie's older brother and sister join the sit-ins and she helps make posters for the protesters. The book, by Carole Boston Weatherford, tells the story of life in Greensboro prior to the February 1, 1960 sit-in and the protests and changes that came as a result of the months-long sit-ins. (Puffin Books, Penguin Group, 2005. ISBN: 9780142408940)  Read my review of Freedom on the Menu: The Greensboro Sit-Ins.

This large picture book biography of Martin Luther King, Jr. was written by Doreen Rappaport, with dramatic and moving cut paper collage and watercolor artwork by Bryan Collier. Quotations by the civil rights leader are highlighted throughout the book, which also includes helpful author's and illustrator's notes, a timeline, and other resources. (Jump at the Sun, Hyperion Books, 2001. ISBN: 9780786807147)  Read my review of Martin's Big Words: The Life of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr..