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Children’s Books with African American Characters & Heroes

It is time for parents to teach young people early on that in diversity there is beauty and there is strength.” – Maya Angelou

Here are a few of my favorite books featuring African American characters and/or heroes:

The Snowy Day 
by Ezra Jack Keats

Mister and Lady Day: Billie Holiday and the Dog Who Loved Her 
by Amy Novesky

Claudette Colvin: Twice Toward Justice 
by Phillip Hoose

Eddie Red Undercover: Mystery on Museum Mile 
by Marcia Wells

Princess Truly and the Hungry Bunny Problem 
by Kelly Greenawalt

President of the Whole Fifth Grade (President Series) 
by Sherri Winston

One Crazy Summer 
by Rita Williams-Garcia

Meet Addy: An American Girl (The American Girls Collection) 
by Connie Porter

Ninth Ward 
by Jewell Parker Rhodes

Of Thee I Sing: A Letter to My Daughters 
by Barack Obama

I am Jackie Robinson (Ordinary People Change the World) 
by Brad Meltzer

My Rows and Piles of Coins 
by Tololwa M. Mollel

He’s Got the Whole World in His Hands 
by Kadir Nelson

This Little Light of Mine 
by Public Domain

The Youngest Marcher: The Story of Audrey Faye Hendricks, a Young Civil Rights Activist 
by Cynthia Levinson

The People Could Fly: American Black Folktales 
by Virginia Hamilton

The Kidnapped Prince: The Life of Olaudah Equiano 
by Ann Cameron

Little Leaders: Bold Women in Black History 
by Vashti Harrison

Dancing in the Wings 
by Debbie Allen

The Story of Rosa Parks 
by Patricia A. Pingry

I am Rosa Parks (Ordinary People Change the World) 
by Brad Meltzer

Oh Me, Oh My, Who Am I? 
by Dr. Taneshia Knight Shelton

Princess Truly in I Am Truly 
by Kelly Greenawalt

Jaden Toussaint, the Greatest Episode 2: The Ladek Invasion (Volume 2) 
by Marti Dumas

Salt in His Shoes: Michael Jordan in Pursuit of a Dream 
by Deloris Jordan

Bud, Not Buddy 
by Christopher Paul Curtis

 

“You are personally responsible for becoming more ethical than the society you grew up in”  -Eliezer Yudkowsky