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32 items

• Copper Sun

  Draper, Sharon M. (Sharon Mills)

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  1700s. Having watched her village torched, witnessed her family killed, and been kidnapped by slave traders, Amari arrives on Mr. Derby's Carolina plantation afraid and confused, yet with time and hard work, she learns the language, befriends…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Good Fortune

  Carter, Noni

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  Early 1800s. Brutally kidnapped from her small African village along with her mother and brother, Ayanna is sold into slavery in America and forced to work on a cotton plantation before risking everything to escape to freedom in the North, where she…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• The Life of Frederick Douglass

  a Graphic Narrative of a Slave's Journey From Bondage to Freedom

  Walker, David, 1968-

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  1800s. A graphic novel biography of abolitionist Frederick Douglass.

• 47

  Mosley, Walter

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  1832. Number Forty-Seven, a fourteen-year-old enslave boy growing up under the watchful eye of a brutal master in 1832, meets the mysterious Tall John, who introduces him to a magical science and also teaches him the meaning of freedom.

• Josephine

  Jenkins, Beverly, 1951-

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  1860s. 17 year old Josephine isn't looking for love. She has managed to start her own hairdressing shop and she's focused on business. Then George, a handsome soldier, begins vying for her attention. She's charmed by his attention, but when her…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Riot

  Myers, Walter Dean, 1937-

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  1860s. Claire, the daughter of a Black father and an Irish mother finds herself caught between sides during the 1863 riots in New York City. She is forced to confront issues of race and class as she struggles to figure out where she belongs.

• Dread Nation

  Rise Up

  Ireland, Justina,

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  Mid/late 1800s. Another option for readers who like fantasy more than historical fiction, this series reimagines what would have happened in soldiers started turning into zombies during the Civil War.

• Carver, a Life in Poems

  Nelson, Marilyn, 1946-

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  1860s-1940s. A biography in verse detailing the life of George Washington Carver who was born enslaved and become an educator and inventor.

• Saving Savannah

  Bolden, Tonya,

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  1919. Savannah is the daughter of an upper class Black family and she feels stifled by the duties and expectations society has for her. Then she meets a working class girl who introduces her to socialism and the suffragette movement, and Savannah…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Angel of Greenwood

  Pink, Randi

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  1921. Life changes on May 31, 1921 when a vicious white mob storms the community of Greenwood, leaving the town destroyed and thousands of residents displaced. Only then do teens Isaiah, Angel, and their peers realize who their real enemies are.

• March. Book One

  Lewis, John, 1940 February 21-

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  1940s-2010s. The first in a trilogy, March Book One recounts John Lewis's childhood and his first forays into activism.

• The Awakening of Malcolm X

  A Novel

  Shabazz, Ilyasah • Jackson, Tiffany D.

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  1940s. While in Charlestown Prison in the 1940s, young Malcolm Little reads all the books in the library, joins the debate team and the Nation of Islam, and emerges as Malcolm X.

• Mare's War

  Davis, Tanita S.

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  Present day / 1940s. Told in alternating timelines, this book follows Mare in the 1940s as she joins the Women's Army Corps and her granddaughters in the present day as they learn about her amazing past.

• Becoming Billie Holiday

  Weatherford, Carole Boston

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  Early/mid 20th century. Written in verse, this book tells the story of a young girl named Eleanora who would overcome seemingly insurmountable odds to become the acclaimed singer Billie Holiday.

• No Crystal Stair

  Nelson, Vaunda Micheaux

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  Mid-20th century. Tells the story of Lewis Micheaux, whose famed Harlem bookstore was a favorite hangout of luminaries like Langston Hughes, Malcolm X, and Muhammed Ali.

• The Invincible Summer of Juniper Jones

  McQueen, Daven,

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  1950s. When Ethan, who has been raised by his white father, is sent to stay with family in Alabama, he finds his Blackness affecting his life in new and upsetting ways. His only relief is Juniper, the town oddball who is just as confused about where…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Simeon's Story

  An Eyewitness Account of the Kidnapping of Emmett Till

  Wright, Simeon, 1942-

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  1955. In 1955, Emmett Till was kidnapped and killed simply for being a Black boy. Here, his cousin Simeon shares Emmett's story and his own experiences during that terrible year.

• This Promise of Change

  One Girl's Story in the Fight for School Equality

  Boyce, Jo Ann Allen,

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  1956. Jo Ann Allen was one of eleven students sent to Clinton High School to desegregate the district. Due to her relative popularity, Jo Ann found herself elected spokesperson of the group. She did her duty, but struggled with her inability to be…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• A Mighty Long Way

  My Journey to Justice at Little Rock Central High School

  LaNier, Carlotta Walls

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  1957. Carlotta Walls is one of the Little Rock 9, a group of Black students who desegregated the Little Rock school system. In her memoir, Carlotta shares everything she went through during her time at Little Rock High.

• Ghost Boys

  Rhodes, Jewell Parker,

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  Present day / 1950s. After seventh-grader Jerome is shot by a police officer who mistakes his toy gun for a real threat, he observes the aftermath of his death and meets the ghosts of other fallen black boys including historical figure Emmett Till.