BEGIN BLACK HISTORY MONTH BY READING AND LEARNING SOMETHING NEW
READING AND VIEWING SUGGESTIONS FOR BLACK HISTORY MONTH, FOR ADULTS, YOUNG ADULTS, AND CHILDREN
By jazc
All ITEMS ARE AVAILABLE AT OR THROUGH THE BANDON LIBRARY
Descriptions from the Bandon Library catalogue unless otherwise noted
FOR ADULTS
Black history: a retrospective. Mill Creek Entertainment. 2009.
This DVD features the life, culture, and accomplishments of some of the most influential African Americans in history. From the oppression and hardship during the time of the Civil War to civil rights movements that paved the way to this country’s first African-American president. A definitive retrospective of Black history in America.
We are each other’s harvest: celebrating African American farmers, land, and legacy by Natalie Baszile. 2021.
In this impressive anthology, Natalie Baszile brings together essays, poems, photographs, quotes, conversations, and first-person stories to examine Black people’s connection to the American land from Emancipation to today. In the 1920s, there were over one million Black farmers; today there are just 45,000. Baszile explores this crisis, through the farmers’ personal experiences. In their own words, middle aged and elderly Black farmers explain why they continue to farm despite systemic discrimination and land loss. The Returning Generation–young farmers, who are building upon the legacy of their ancestors, talk about the challenges they face as they seek to redress issues of food justice, food sovereignty, and reparations.

This DVD features the life, culture, and accomplishments of some of the most influential African Americans in history. From the oppression and hardship during the time of the Civil War to civil rights movements that paved the way to this country’s first African-American president. A definitive retrospective of Black history in America.
We are each other’s harvest: celebrating African American farmers, land, and legacy by Natalie Baszile. 2021.
In this impressive anthology, Natalie Baszile brings together essays, poems, photographs, quotes, conversations, and first-person stories to examine Black people’s connection to the American land from Emancipation to today. In the 1920s, there were over one million Black farmers; today there are just 45,000. Baszile explores this crisis, through the farmers’ personal experiences. In their own words, middle aged and elderly Black farmers explain why they continue to farm despite systemic discrimination and land loss. The Returning Generation–young farmers, who are building upon the legacy of their ancestors, talk about the challenges they face as they seek to redress issues of food justice, food sovereignty, and reparations.
The African-American century: how Black Americans have shaped our country by Henry Louis Gates. 2000.
Profiles one hundred influential African Americans who helped shape the history of the twentieth century, including revered figures in the fields of music, literature, sports, science, politics, and the civil rights movement.
FOR YOUNG ADULT
Come this far to freedom: a history of African Americans by Angela Shelf Medearis . 1993.
Traces the history and accomplishments of African Americans as explorers, inventors, writers, soldiers, artists, scientists, and more, from the days of slavery to the present.
FOR JUNIOR/CHILDREN
Discovering Black America: from the age of exploration to the twenty-first century by Linda Tarrant-Reid. 2012.
Discovering Black America offers readers an unprecedented account of more than 400 years of African American history set against a background of American and global events. The book begins with a black sailor aboard the Niña with Christopher Columbus and continues through the colonial period, slavery, the Civil War, Jim Crow, and civil rights to the first Black president of the U.S. Including first-person narratives from diaries and journals, interviews, and archival images, Discovering Black America will give readers an intimate understanding of this extensive history. The book includes an index and bibliography.
Timelines from Black history: leaders, legends, legacies. DK Publishing. 2020.
Amazing visual timelines take readers through the people and the issues that have shaped Black history. Erased. Ignored. Hidden. Lost. Underappreciated. No longer. Delve into the unique, inspiring, and world-changing history of Black people. From Frederick Douglass to Oprah Winfrey, and the achievements of ancient African kingdoms to those of the US Civil Rights Movement, Timelines from Black History: Leaders, Legends, Legacies takes kids on an exceptional journey from prehistory to modern times. This DK children’s book boasts more than 30 visual timelines, which explore the biographies of the famous and the not-so-famous – from royalty to activists, and writers to scientists, and much, much more. Stunning thematic timelines also explain the development of Black history – from the experiences of Black people in the US, to the story of postcolonial Africa. Did you know that the richest person ever to have lived was a West African? Or that the technology that made the lightbulb possible was developed by African American inventor, and not Thomas Edison? How about the fact that Ethiopia was the only African country to avoid colonization, thanks to the leadership of a brave queen? Stacked with facts and visually vibrant, Timelines From Black History: Leaders, Legends, Legacies is an unforgettable and accessible hive of information on the people and the issues that have shaped Black history.
Profiles one hundred influential African Americans who helped shape the history of the twentieth century, including revered figures in the fields of music, literature, sports, science, politics, and the civil rights movement.
FOR YOUNG ADULT
Come this far to freedom: a history of African Americans by Angela Shelf Medearis . 1993.
Traces the history and accomplishments of African Americans as explorers, inventors, writers, soldiers, artists, scientists, and more, from the days of slavery to the present.
FOR JUNIOR/CHILDREN
Discovering Black America: from the age of exploration to the twenty-first century by Linda Tarrant-Reid. 2012.
Discovering Black America offers readers an unprecedented account of more than 400 years of African American history set against a background of American and global events. The book begins with a black sailor aboard the Niña with Christopher Columbus and continues through the colonial period, slavery, the Civil War, Jim Crow, and civil rights to the first Black president of the U.S. Including first-person narratives from diaries and journals, interviews, and archival images, Discovering Black America will give readers an intimate understanding of this extensive history. The book includes an index and bibliography.
Timelines from Black history: leaders, legends, legacies. DK Publishing. 2020.
Amazing visual timelines take readers through the people and the issues that have shaped Black history. Erased. Ignored. Hidden. Lost. Underappreciated. No longer. Delve into the unique, inspiring, and world-changing history of Black people. From Frederick Douglass to Oprah Winfrey, and the achievements of ancient African kingdoms to those of the US Civil Rights Movement, Timelines from Black History: Leaders, Legends, Legacies takes kids on an exceptional journey from prehistory to modern times. This DK children’s book boasts more than 30 visual timelines, which explore the biographies of the famous and the not-so-famous – from royalty to activists, and writers to scientists, and much, much more. Stunning thematic timelines also explain the development of Black history – from the experiences of Black people in the US, to the story of postcolonial Africa. Did you know that the richest person ever to have lived was a West African? Or that the technology that made the lightbulb possible was developed by African American inventor, and not Thomas Edison? How about the fact that Ethiopia was the only African country to avoid colonization, thanks to the leadership of a brave queen? Stacked with facts and visually vibrant, Timelines From Black History: Leaders, Legends, Legacies is an unforgettable and accessible hive of information on the people and the issues that have shaped Black history.
AGES 5 AND UP
The ABCs of Black history by Rio Cortez. 2020.
B is for Beautiful, Brave, and Bright! And for a Book that takes a Bold journey through the alphabet of Black history and culture. Letter by letter, The ABCs of Black History celebrates a story that spans continents and centuries, triumph and heartbreak, creativity and joy. It’s a story of big ideas–P is for Power, S is for Science and Soul. Of significant moments–G is for Great Migration. Of iconic figures–H is for Zora Neale Hurston, X is for Malcom X. It’s an ABC book like no other, and a story of hope and love. In addition to rhyming text, the book includes back matter with information on the events, places, and people mentioned in the poem, from Mae Jemison to W. E. B. Du Bois, Fannie Lou Hamer to Sam Cooke, and the Little Rock Nine to DJ Kool Herc.
B is for Beautiful, Brave, and Bright! And for a Book that takes a Bold journey through the alphabet of Black history and culture. Letter by letter, The ABCs of Black History celebrates a story that spans continents and centuries, triumph and heartbreak, creativity and joy. It’s a story of big ideas–P is for Power, S is for Science and Soul. Of significant moments–G is for Great Migration. Of iconic figures–H is for Zora Neale Hurston, X is for Malcom X. It’s an ABC book like no other, and a story of hope and love. In addition to rhyming text, the book includes back matter with information on the events, places, and people mentioned in the poem, from Mae Jemison to W. E. B. Du Bois, Fannie Lou Hamer to Sam Cooke, and the Little Rock Nine to DJ Kool Herc.