African American History, Biography & Culture: Books for Middle & High School

Raised by her aunt until she is six, Betty, who will later marry Malcolm X, joins her mother and stepfamily in 1940s Detroit, where she learns about the civil rights movement.

With the Rodney King riots closing in on high school senior Ashley and her family, the privileged bubble she has enjoyed, protecting her from the difficult realities most black people face, begins to crumble.

Teen Justyce McAllister struggles with trying to live life through the lens of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr’s teachings, writings and philosophy and grapples with Dr. King’s stand on race relations and his 21st century existence.

Jason Reynolds shares this letter-poem, written several years ago, in the hope that it will encourage readers to continue reaching for their own dreams.

In 1946, discovering a book of Langston Hughes’ poetry in the library helps an eleven-year-old boy, also named Langston, cope with losing his mother, relocating from Alabama to Chicago, and being bullied.

An illustrated memoir about artist Ashley Bryan’s experience as a black soldier in the segregated army of World War II.

Delves deep into the broken U.S. justice system, detailing from the author’s personal experience his many challenges and efforts as a lawyer and social advocate, especially on behalf of America’s most rejected and marginalized people.

Three Brooklyn teens plot to turn their murdered friend into a major rap star by pretending he’s still alive.

Loretta, Roly, and Aggie B. Little relate their Mississippi family’s struggles and triumphs from 1927 to 1968 while struggling as sharecroppers, living under Jim Crow, and fighting for Civil Rights.

A member of the Little Rock Nine shares her memories of growing up in the South under Jim Crow.

In her New York Times bestseller “White Rage,” Carol Anderson laid bare an insidious history of policies that have systematically impeded Black progress in America, from 1865 to our combustible present. With “One Person, No Vote,” she chronicles a related history: the rollbacks to African American participation in the vote since the 2013 Supreme Court decision that eviscerated the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

A guide to the history of the Black Panther Party.

A history of racist and antiracist ideas in America, from their roots in Europe until today, adapted from the National Book Award winner Stamped from the Beginning.