During this summer of history making 50th anniversaries, why not read about what it was like to be a kid in the segregated South before and during the civil rights movement? Here are some great books to get you started.
Non-fiction
We’ve Got a Job: the 1963 Birmingham Children’s March, by Cynthia Levinson
This book tells the story of the Children’s Crusade in Birmingham, Alabama. Read accounts from people who participated in the marches when they were kids and find out what it was like to live in Birmingham at that time.
Freedom’s Children, by Ellen Levine
This book is a collection of true stories from African Americans who were children and teen activists during the 1950s and 1960s. Learn what motivated them to join the fight and the amazing things they accomplished.
Fiction
Glory Be, by Augusta Scattergood
Almost twelve-year-old Glory writes a no-nonsense letter to the editor in the summer of 1964, when she learns that the citizens of her hometown, Hanging Moss, Mississippi, would rather close down the local swimming pool than desegregate it.
The Watsons Go to Birmingham 1963, by Christopher Paul Curtis
The Watson Family travels to Birmingham, Alabama right after the spring civil rights campaign in this story that is both serious and hilarious.
Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry, by Mildred D. Taylor
A classic novel about life for Cassie Logan and her family as they struggle with race and prejudice in the Deep South of the 1930s.
Remember to look for my book, Fearless Freedom, due out in August.