These books may be found in the Children’s Division of the Nashville Public Library.

Fiction

The Watsons Go to Birmingham – 1963
Curtis, Christopher Paul
Newberry & Coretta Scott King Honor Book. The ordinary interactions and everyday routines of the Watsons, an African American family living in Flint, Michigan, are drastically changed after they go to visit Grandma in Alabama in the summer of 1963.

Sister Anne’s Hands
Lorbiecki, Marybeth
A seven-year-old has her first encounter with racism in the 1960’s when an African American nun comes to teach at her parochial school.

Goin’ Someplace Special
McKissack, Patricia C.; Illustrated by Jerry Pinkney
Coretta Scott King Award. In segregated 1950’s Nashville, a young African American girl braves a series of indignities and obstacles to get to one of the few integrated places in town: the public library.

Granddaddy’s Gift
Mitchell, Margaree King; Illustrated by Larry Johnson
When her grandfather registers to vote while living in 1960’s segregated Mississippi, an African American girl begins to understand why he insists that she attend school.

Follow the Leader
Winslow, Vicki; Illustrated by Colin Bootman
In 1971 in a small North Carolina town, an eleven-year-old must deal with being bussed to a newly integrated, formerly all-African American school and being separated from her best friend, who has chosen a private school.

The Other Side
Woodson, Jacqueline; Illustrated by Earl B. Lewis
Two girls, one white and one black, gradually get to know each other as they sit on the fence that divides their town.

Learning by Heart
Young, Ronder Thomas
In the early 1960’s a ten-year-old sees changes in her family and small Southern town.

Non- fiction

A Picture Book of Thurgood Marshall
Adler, David A.; Illustrated by Robert Casilla.
Follows the life of the first African-American to serve as a judge on the United States Supreme Court.

Dear Dr. King
Colbert, Jan, and Ann McMillan Harms, eds.
Poetic, innocent, funny, and wise letters written by today’s children in Memphis, Tennessee to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

The Civil Rights Movement
Dunn, John M.
A historical overview of the movement for freedom and equality for blacks in the United States.

Freedom Rides
Haskins, James
Focuses on the Freedom Rides through the deep South, with insight into how the Rides came to be and their importance to the civil rights struggle.

The Civil Rights Movement in America
Landau, Elaine
Relates the history of race relations in the United States, focusing on the civil rights movement that began in 1954 with the Supreme Court ruling against segregation in public schools through the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

Fannie Lou Hamer
Litwin, Laura Baskes
A biography of the civil rights activist who devoted her life to helping blacks register to vote and gain a national political voice.

Rosa Parks: My Story
Parks, Rosa; with Jim Haskins
A compelling autobiography of the “Mother of the Movement” gives an insider’s view of the struggle in Montgomery, AL and the bus boycott.

Martin’s Big Words
Rappaport, Doreen; Illustrated by Bryan Collier
Caldecott & Coretta Scott King Honor Book. Looks at the life of Dr. Martin Luther King, explaining his works to bring about a peaceful end to segregation.

Brown v. Board of Education
Tackach, James
Provides a historical overview of the case that desegregated public education in the United States.