Carole Boston Weatherford
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"Carole and Jeffery Boston Weatherford’s ancestors are among the founders of Maryland. Their family history there extends more than three hundred years, but as with the genealogical searches of many African Americans with roots in slavery, their family tree can only be traced back five generations before going dark. And so from scraps of history, Carole and Jeffery have conjured the voices of their kin, creating an often painful but ultimately empowering...
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"In 1936, eighth grader MacNolia Cox became the first African American to win the Akron, Ohio, spelling bee. And with that win, she was asked to compete at the prestigious National Spelling Bee in Washington, DC, where she and a girl from New Jersey were the first African Americans invited since its founding. She left her home state a celebrity—right up there with Ohio’s own Joe Louis and Jesse Owens—with a military band and a crowd of thousands...
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"Whatever she did, wherever she was, Ketanji Brown Jackson rose to the top. From the time their daughter was born, Ketanji Brown’s parents taught her that if she worked hard and believed in herself, she could do anything. As a child, Ketanji focused on her studies and excelled, eventually graduating from Harvard Law School. Years later, in 2016, when she was a federal judge, a seat opened on the United States Supreme Court. In a letter to then-President...
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"A poetic tribute to the victims of the racially motivated church bombing that served as a seminal event in the struggle for civil rights. In 1963, the eyes of the world were on Birmingham, Alabama, a flashpoint for the civil rights movement. Birmingham was one of the most segregated cities in the United States. Civil rights demonstrators were met with police dogs and water cannons. On Sunday, September 15, 1963, members of the Ku Klux Klan planted...
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Describes Tubman's spiritual journey as she hears the voice of God guiding her north to freedom on that very first trip to escape the brutal practice of forced servitude. Tubman would make nineteen subsequent trips back south, never being caught, but none as profound as this first one.
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"Aretha Franklin was born to sing. The daughter of a pastor and a gospel singer, she had a gift for music that was clear from her earliest days in her father's Detroit church. Aretha sang wiht a soaring voice that spanned more than three octaves. Her incredible talent and string of hit songs earned her the title 'the Queen of Soul.' Aretha won many Grammy awards and was the first woman inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. And there was even...
12) Bros
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Celebrating boyhood and friendship, this upbeat picture book follows a group of young Black boys as they spend an adventure-filled day together living their best lives freely in their community.
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"Henry Brown wrote that long before he came to be known as Box, he 'entered the world a slave.' He was put to work as a child and passed down from one generation to the next—as property. When he was an adult, his wife and children were sold away from him out of spite. Henry Brown watched as his family left bound in chains, headed to the deeper South. What more could be taken from him? But then hope—and help—came in the form of the Underground...
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"Before she was Marilyn Monroe-Hollywood icon, blond bombshell, and easily one of the most recognizable faces of the twentieth century-she was Norma Jeane, a young woman whose early life was filled with traumatic experiences: foster homes, loneliness, sexual abuse, and teen marriage. Despite all she overcame, her hard-won, meteoric rise to stardom was besieged by exploitation, pill dependency, and depression, eventually culminating her tragic death...
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"Written in the voice of Mother Africa, who speaks to her children—human beings—this...picture book thrums with the love between mother and child as it celebrates humanity’s common roots. Before words or tools or fire, Mother Africa’s caves sheltered us and her forests fed us. She could not protect us from all dangers, but, like mothers everywhere, she gave her children all she could and sent us into the world with confidence and love." --publisher's...
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"At a time when most African Americans were still enslaved, Charles Tindley was born free. His childhood was far from easy, with backbreaking hours in the fields, and no opportunity to go to school. But the spirituals he heard as he worked made him long to know how to read the Gospel for himself. Late at night, he taught himself to read from scraps of newspapers. From those small scraps, young Charles raised himself to become a founding father of...
19) In your hands
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"A prayer from mother to son that he will always in safe hands"--Provided by publisher.
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"We can do better. When Elijah Cummings was a little boy, he struggled in school. His teachers thought he talked too much and asked too many questions. They said he’d never be able to read or write well. Despite his difficulties, Elijah never gave up. He persevered, having faith that with hard work, he’d be able to achieve his goals. Best known as a voice for people of color and an advocate for equal opportunity, Elijah Cummings was a man...