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Publisher description: In the early morning of June 1, 1921, a white mob marched across the train tracks in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and into its predominantly Black Greenwood District — a thriving, affluent neighborhood known as America’s Black Wall Street. They brought with them firearms, gasoline, and explosives. In a few short hours, they’d razed thirty-five square blocks to the ground, leaving hundreds dead. The Tulsa Race Massacre is one of the most devastating acts of racial violence in US history. But how did it come to pass? What exactly happened? And why are the events unknown to so many of us today? These are the questions that award-winning author Brandy Colbert seeks to answer in this unflinching nonfiction account of the Tulsa Race Massacre.

A powerful coming-of-age story about two brothers, one who presents as white, the other as black, and the complex ways in which they are forced to navigate the world, all while training for a fencing competition. Black Brother, Black Brother is a careful examination of the school-to-prison pipeline and follows one boy’s fight against racism and his empowering path to find his voice. 

A look at African-American whalers and the whaling industry’s role in the Underground Railroad and the Civil War.

Forced to tend to his mother and two sisters by himself while on the wagon train to California, biracial Colton Wescott and his family have great difficulties and are shunned by others, thus Colton decides to join up with the Pony Express in the hopes of making money for his family, knowing that he is risking his life if his true identity is ever discovered.

Eleven-year-old piano-prodigy Isabella, whose Black father and White mother struggle to share custody, never feels whole, especially as racial tensions affect her school, her parents both become engaged, and she and her stepbrother are stopped by police.

Black women everywhere have changed the world! Published in partnership with curators from the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture, this illustrated biography compilation captures the iconic moments of fifty African American women whose heroism and bravery rewrote the American story for the better. 

When a high school class starts having Friday afternoon open-mike poetry, the kids tell their life stories and worries in the poems included in this book. This is a great introduction to spoken word poetry and an inspiration to budding poets.

In 1954, one of the most significant Supreme Court decisions of the twentieth Century aimed to end school segregation in the United States. The ruling was the culmination of work by many people who stood up to racial inequality, some risking significant danger and hardship, and of careful strategizing by the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). Award-winning author Susan Goldman Rubin tells the stories behind the ruling and the people responsible for it. Illustrated with historical photographs, this well-researched narrative account is a perfect introduction to the history of school segregation in the United States and the long struggle to end it. An epilogue looks at the far-reaching effects of this landmark decision, and shows how our country still grapples today with a public school system not yet fully desegregated. Detailed backmatter includes a timeline, primary source texts, and summaries of all mentioned court cases. An ALA Notable Children’s Book.

Young Bud runs away from the latest and worst foster home in search of his father. Though he doesn’t find his father, Bud (not Buddy) does find family, music, and more on his long trek across Michigan during the Depression. In this Newbery-winning novel, both humor and Bud’s naive voice make difficult issues accessible to younger readers.

Can spiders learn? How do ants find their way home? Can bugs see color? All of these questions buzzed endlessly in Charles Henry Turner’s mind. He was fascinated by plants and animals and bugs. And even when he faced racial prejudice, Turner did not stop wondering. He constantly read, researched, and experimented. Author Janice Harrington and artist Theodore Taylor III capture the life of this inspiring scientist and educator in this nonfiction picture book, highlighting Turner’s unstoppable quest for knowledge and his passion for science. The extensive back matter includes an author’s note, time line, bibliography, source notes, and archival images. 

Michael Shiner was born into slavery in Maryland but bought his freedom. He learned to read and write and thus detailed in his journal the history of Washington, DC. Insightful and accessible, this is a well-documented and handsomely presented look at history.

Isabel, an enslaved 13-year old, and her younger sister are set to be freed but instead are sold to a ruthless Loyalist at the start of the Revolutionary War. Life in New York City during the time comes vividly alive as do the complexities of the war

Award-winning author Tonya Bolden explores Black women who have changed the world of STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) in America. Including groundbreaking computer scientists, doctors, inventors, physicists, pharmacists, mathematicians, aviators, and many more, this book celebrates more than 50 women who have shattered the glass ceiling, defied racial discrimination, and pioneered in their fields. The book includes endnotes, a bibliography, and an index. 

In 1972, President Ida Amin had a dream that he believed was a message from God. Based on that dream, this dictator decides to eliminate all foreign Indians — the “Jews of Uganda” — in 90 days. Fifteen-year-old Sabine thinks that she and her family will be spared since they are citizens of Uganda, but eventually no one is spared from the effects of this mandate. When there is a governmental shift in power by an extremist, no one is spard.

This nonfiction book is carefully researched and includes photos and source notes to add to its credibility. It is fascinating to see how Hitler managed to brainwash children into doing things totally contrary to their parents’ values.

This companion to New Kid focuses on another year at Riverdale Academy Day School with Drew trying to find a way to bridge the privilege divide so he and his friends can truly accept each other.

Claudette Colvin, a 15-year old African American student in the mid-1950s, helped change a nation. Her refusal to give up her seat was the precursor to the Montgomery Bus Boycott. Colvin’s words are interspersed with a lucid narrative and additional primary sources in this remarkable look at a person and the period in which she lived.

Set against the backdrop of the segregation history of the American South, William “Scoob” Lamar, an eleven-year-old Black boy, takes an unplanned trip with his grandmother and discovers that the world hasn’t always been a welcoming place for kids like him, and things aren’t always what they seem—his G’ma included.

Born to a poor couple who were tenant farmers on a plantation in Mississippi, Anne Moody lived through some of the most dangerous days of the pre-civil rights era in the South. The week before she began high school came the news of Emmet Till’s lynching. In that moment was born the passion for freedom and justice that would change her life. A straight-A student who realized her dream of going to college when she won a basketball scholarship, she finally dared to join the NAACP in her junior year. Through the NAACP and later through CORE and SNCC, she experienced firsthand the demonstrations and sit-ins that were the mainstay of the civil rights movement—and the arrests and jailings, the shotguns, fire hoses, police dogs, billy clubs, and deadly force that were used to destroy it.

A deeply personal story but also a portrait of a turning point in our nation’s destiny, this autobiography lets us see history in the making, through the eyes of one of the footsoldiers in the civil rights movement.

As a measure of safety, 13-year-old Lisette Beaucaire is sent away from her home in Nazi-occupied Paris to live with an aunt in the country. Disappointed she won’t be with her friends to start a new school year, Lisette is disconcerted about having nothing to do but spend time with her annoying cousin, Cecile. She quickly realizes, however, that her time in the country will be anything but ordinary when she discovers that her aunt is hiding Jewish and Gypsy children from the Nazis. In addition to preparing for the day the Germans come looking for them, she meets Gerard, the ghost of a 14th-century knight, who ends up playing a significant role in the outcome of this story.

Black seventeen-year-old Maverick Carter is taking care of his family the only way he knows how: dealing for the King Lords. But when when Maverick becomes a father, everything changes.

When the Nazis invaded Denmark on Tuesday, April 9, 1940, the people of this tiny country to the north of Germany awoke to a devastating surprise. The government of Denmark surrendered quietly, and the Danes were ordered to go about their daily lives as if nothing had changed. But everything had changed.

Mexican-American poet Herrera wrote one of the first novels in verse for the teen audience. Sixteen-year old Cesar is the son of migrant workers, and he shares his coming-of-age experiences.

From Hitler Youth to hunted “mischling,” Daniel’s world unravels when he discovers his mother’s hidden history “taints” him with Jewish blood and marks him for extermination.