Take a look at these insightful and inspiring titles for teens and young adults to celebrate Black History.
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And We Rise: The Civil Rights Movement in Poems
Erica Martin
A powerful, impactful, eye-opening journey that explores through the Civil Rights Movement in 1950s-1960s America in spare and evocative verse, with historical photos interspersed throughout.
Erica Martin’s debut poetry collection walks readers through the Civil Rights Movement – from the well-documented events that shaped the nation’s treatment of Black people, beginning with the ‘Separate but Equal’ ruling – and introduces lesser-known figures and moments that were just as crucial to the Movement and our nation’s centuries-long fight for justice and equality.
Black and British: A Forgotten History
David Olusoga
David Olusoga’s ‘Black and British’ is a rich and revealing exploration of the extraordinarily long relationship between the British Isles and the people of Africa. Drawing on new genetic and genealogical research, original records, expert testimony and contemporary interviews, ‘Black and British’ reaches back to Roman Britain, the medieval imagination and Shakespeare’s ‘Othello’.
Unflinching, confronting taboos and revealing hitherto unknown scandals, Olusoga describes how black and white Britons have been intimately entwined for centuries.
100 Great Black Britons
Patrick Vernon and Angelina Osborne
Frustrated by the widespread and continuing exclusion of the black British community from the mainstream popular conception of ‘Britishness’, despite black people having lived in Britain for over a thousand years, Vernon set up a public poll in which anyone could vote for the black Briton they most admired.
The response to this campaign was incredible. As a result, a number of black historical figures were included on the national school curriculum and had statues and memorials erected and blue plaques put up in their honour.
Cane Warriors
Alex Wheatle
Moa is fourteen. The only life he has ever known is toiling on the Frontier sugar cane plantation for endless hot days, fearing the vicious whips of the overseers. Then one night he learns of an uprising, led by the charismatic Tacky. Moa is to be a cane warrior, and fight for the freedom of all the enslaved people in the nearby plantations.
But before they can escape, Moa and his friend Keverton must face their first great task: to kill their overseer, Misser Donaldson. Time is ticking, and the day of the uprising approaches.
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
Maya Angelou
In this first volume of her seven books of autobiography, Maya Angelou beautifully evokes her childhood with her grandmother in the American south of the 1930s. Loving the world, she also knows its cruelty. As a Black woman she has known discrimination, violence and extreme poverty, but also hope, joy, achievement and celebration.
The Color Purple
Alice Walker
Set in the deep American South between the wars, The Color Purple is the classic tale of Celie, a young black girl born into poverty and segregation. Raped repeatedly by the man she calls ‘father’, she has two children taken away from her, is separated from her beloved sister Nettie and is trapped into an ugly marriage.
But then she meets the glamorous Shug Avery, singer and magic-maker – a woman who has taken charge of her own destiny. Gradually Celie discovers the power and joy of her own spirit, freeing her from her past and reuniting her with those she loves.
I Will Not Be Erased: Our Stories About Growing Up as People of Colour
Jess Nash
gal-dem are an award-winning magazine and creative collective of young women of colour, described by the Guardian as ‘bubbling with energy, ideas and talent’. In this thought-provoking collection of fourteen essays, their writers take raw material from their teenage years – diaries, poems and chat histories – and explore growing up.
Straight-talking, funny and insightful, the essays tackle important subjects including race, gender, mental health and activism, making this essential reading for any young person.
Stamped: Racism, Antiracism, and You
Jason Reynolds and Ibram X. Kendi
Racist ideas in our country did not arise from ignorance or hatred. Instead, they were developed by some of the most brilliant minds in history to justify and rationalise the nation’s deeply entrenched discriminatory policies. But while racist ideas have always been easy to fabricate and distribute, they can also be discredited.
In shedding light on the history of racist ideas in America, this adaptation offers young readers the tools they need to combat these ideas – and, in the process, gives society a reason to hope.
Beloved
Toni Morrison
Terrible, unspeakable things happened to Sethe at Sweet Home, the farm where she lived as a slave for so many years until she escaped to Ohio. Her new life is full of hope but 18 years later she is still not free. Sethe’s new home is not only haunted by the memories of her past but also by the ghost of her baby, who died nameless.
Invisible Man
Ralph Ellison
Defeated and embittered by a country which treats him as a non-being, the ‘invisible man’ retreats into an underground cell, where he smokes, drinks, listens to jazz and recounts his search for identity in white society: as an optimistic student in the Deep South, in the north with the black activist group the Brotherhood, and in the Harlem race riots. And explains how he came to be living underground.
The Black History Book
Discover the rich and complex history of the peoples of Africa, and the struggles and triumphs of Black communities worldwide. With profiles of key people, movements, and events, ‘The Black History Book’ brings together accounts of the most significant ideas and milestones in Black history and culture.
This vital and thought-provoking book presents a bold and accessible overview of the history of Africa and the African diaspora – from the earliest human migrations to modern Black communities.
The Lonely Londoners
Samuel Selvon
At Waterloo Station, hopeful new arrivals from the West Indies step off the boat train, ready to start afresh in 1950s London. There, homesick Moses Aloetta, who has already lived in the city for years, meets Henry ‘Sir Galahad’ Oliver and shows him the ropes. In this strange, cold and foggy city where the natives can be less than friendly at the sight of a black face, has Galahad met his Waterloo?
But the irrepressible newcomer cannot be cast down. He and all the other lonely new Londoners – from shiftless Cap to Tolroy, whose family has descended on him from Jamaica – must try to create a new life for themselves. As pessimistic ‘old veteran’ Moses watches their attempts, they gradually learn to survive and come to love the heady excitements of London.
Black History Matters
Robin Walker
This title presents an important and hard-hitting account of the history of black people, looking at African kingdoms, slavery, apartheid, the battle for civil rights and much more. Important and inspiring black personalities, from Olaudah Equiano to Oprah Winfrey, are highlighted throughout, while achievements and progress are balanced alongside a look at the issues that continue to plague black communities.
Half of a Yellow Sun
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
In 1960s Nigeria, three lives intersect. Ugwu, a boy from a poor village, works as a houseboy for a university professor. Olanna has abandoned her life of privilege in Lagos to live with her charismatic lover, the professor. And Richard, a shy Englishman, is in thrall to Olanna’s enigmatic twin sister. As the horrific Nigerian Civil War engulfs them, they are thrown together and pulled apart in ways they had never imagined.
The Diary of Sarah Forbes Bonetta
Victoria Princewel
Set in 1860, this is the story of Sarah Forbes Bonetta, the intelligent, multilingual Yoruba princess from West Africa who became the goddaughter of the British Queen Victoria. Victoria Princewill reimagines Sarah’s life in England, telling the story of a girl living between two cultures, trying to create, and assert, her own identity.
Musical Truth: A Musical History of Modern Black Britain in 25 Songs
Jeffrey Boakye and Ngadi Smart
A history book with a twist, structured around a playlist of twenty three songs, listed chronologically. Each song is a jumping off point for deeper social, political and historical analysis, tracking key moments in Black history, and the emotional impact of both the songs and the artists who performed them. The book redefines British history, the Empire, and post colonialism, and invites readers to immerse themselves in music and think again about the narratives and key moments in history that they have been taught up to now.
Part of a Story That Started Before Me: Poems about Black British History
George The Poet
Taking readers on a thought-provoking poetical journey through Black British history, the anthology brings together some of the most exciting wordsmiths from across the diaspora and fascinating era-by-era notes from historian Dr Christienna Fryar.
From Africans in Roman Britannia to the first Black actor to play Othello on stage, from Malcolm X’s visit to the West Midlands to highlighting an organizer of the UK’s first Gay Pride, this important collection reveals unsung people and events from our past to recognize the intrinsic impact they’ve had on Britain today.
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