Suggested reading on civil rights movement
The Kansas City Public Library suggests these books about the civil rights movement:
Elementary
“Seeds of Freedom: The Peaceful Integration of Huntsville, Alabama” by Hester Bass; illustrated by E. B. Lewis
“Granddaddy’s Turn: A Journey to the Ballot Box” by Michael S. Bandy and Eric Stein; illustrated by James E. Ransome
“Stella by Starlight” by Sharon M. Draper
“We March” by Shane W. Evans
“Sit-In: How Four Friends Stood Up by Sitting Down” by Andrea Davis Pinkney; illustrated by Brian Pinkney
“Belle, the Last Mule at Gee’s Bend” by Calvin Alexander Ramsey and Bettye Stroud; illustrated by John Holyfield
“28 Days: Moments in Black History that Changed the World” by Charles R. Smith; illustrated by Shane W. Evans
“Separate Is Never Equal: Sylvia Mendez and Her Family’s Fight for Desegregation” by Duncan Tonatiuh
“Henry Aaron’s Dream” by Matt Tavares
“Love Will See You Through: Martin Luther King Jr.’s Six Guiding Beliefs (as told by his niece)” by Angela Farris Watkins; illustrated by Sally Wern Comport
“One Crazy Summer” by Rita Williams-Garcia (followed by the sequels: “P.S. Be Eleven” and “Gone Crazy in Alabama”)
“Lillian’s Right to Vote” by Jonah Winter; illustrated by Shane Evans
Middle school
“Marching to the Mountaintop: How Poverty, Labor Fights, and Civil Rights Set the Stage for Martin Luther King, Jr.’s Final Hours” by Ann Bausum
“Birmingham Sunday” by Larry Dane Brimner
“I See the Promised Land: A Life of Martin Luther King Jr.” by Arthur Flowers; illustrated by Manu Chitraker
“The Girl from the Tar Paper School: Barbara Rose Johns and the Advent of the Civil Rights Movement” by Teri Kanefield
“Turning 15 on the Road to Freedom: My Story of the 1965 Selma Voting Rights March” by Lynda Blackmon Lowery, as told to Elspeth Leacock and Susan Buckley; illustrated by PJ Loughran
“Miles to Go for Freedom: Segregation and Civil Rights in the Jim Crow Era” by Linda Barrett Osborne
“The Port Chicago 50: Disaster, Mutiny, and the Fight for Civil Rights” by Steve Sheinkin
“Voice of Freedom: Fannie Lou Hamer: The Spirit of the Civil Rights Movement” by Carole Boston Weatherford; illustrated by Ekua Holmes
“Revolution” by Deborah Wiles
“Brown Girl Dreaming” by Jacqueline Woodson
High school
“Black & White: The Confrontation Between Reverend Fred L. Shuttlesworth and Eugene ‘Bull’ Connor” by Larry Dane Brimner
“Caleb’s Wars” by David L. Dudley
“We’ve Got a Job: The 1963 Birmingham Children’s March” by Cynthia Levinson
“March: Book One” by John Lewis and Andrew Aydin; illustrated by Nate Powell
“March: Book Two” by John Lewis and Andrew Aydin; illustrated by Nate Powell
“The Silence of Our Friends: The Civil Rights Struggle Was Never Black and White” by Mark Long and Jim Demonakos; illustrated by Nate Powell
“A Wreath for Emmett Till” by Marilyn Nelson; illustrated by Philippe Lardy
“No Crystal Stair: A Documentary Novel of the Life and Work of Lewis Michaux, Harlem Bookseller” by Vaunda Micheaux Nelson; illustrated by R. Gregory Christie
“Marching for Freedom: Walk Together, Children, and Don’t You Grow Weary” by Elizabeth Partridge
“Freedom Summer: The 1964 Struggle for Civil Rights in Mississippi” by Susan Goldman Rubin
“X” by Ilyasah Shabazz
This story was originally published January 12, 2016 at 2:54 PM with the headline "Suggested reading on civil rights movement."