NCW Libraries

A first-ever picture book biography of civil rights hero Myrlie Evers-Williams. Myrlie Evers-Williams' voice is gentle yet strong, soft yet powerful. It is a soaring song of hope. Myrlie's voice didn't start out that way. She was born into the segregated South and the beautiful brown color of her skin made her a target for hate. It meant she didn't have the same opportunities as white children, and that meant her dream of playing music onstage one...

"Before she became First Lady, Eleanor Roosevelt was a girl trying to find her voice. As a young orphan, she was shy and made to feel like a failure. But every night, Eleanor would read her father's letters, full of love and belief in her, and she used his words to help her face her fears. She took them to school across the sea, where she excelled at her studies and helped other girls with theirs. And back to New York, where she volunteered in immigrant...

Growing up African American in the middle part of the twentieth century, James Baldwin saw firsthand the ugly racism that scarred the United States. Further complicating his identity was the fact that he was openly gay at a time when homosexuality was a crime in almost all states. Baldwin turned his struggles into art, writing the semi-autobiographical novel Go Tell It on the Mountain; the essay collection Notes of a Native Son; and the controversial...

"Engaging text and fun illustrations tell the story of Martin Luther King Jr.'s childhood"--

"This brilliant memoir-in-verse tells the moving story of how a nation learned to celebrate a hero. Through years of protests and petition, Kathlyn's story highlights the foot soldiers who fought to make Martin Luther King Jr.'s birthday a national holiday."-- From publisher's description.

Shortlisted for an Academy Awardʼ for Best Documentary Feature and winner of the Sundance Grand Jury Prize, Going to Mars: The Nikki Giovanni Project is a beguiling documentary portrait that follows poet and activist Nikki Giovanni as she approaches 80. The film explores Giovanni's Afrofuturist-feminist philosophical outlook as well as her poignant relationship with her family, her political audacity, and her poetic eloquence, all knit together with...

Biography of Joan Trumpauer Mulholland follows her from her childhood in 1950s Virginia through her high school and college years, when she joined the Civil Rights Movement, attending demonstrations and sit-ins. She also participated in the Freedom Rides of 1961 and was arrested and imprisoned. Her life has been spent standing up for human rights.

Author Zora Neale Hurston's anthropological work challenges assumptions about race, gender and cultural superiority that had been defined by the field in the 19th century.

An introduction to the example and achievements of the influential civil rights leader poses and answers key questions about his life and time, offering insight into such topics as segregation, the 1963 Civil Rights March, and the history and purpose of his famous speeches.