Social Justice Books

Critically reviewed selection of multicultural and social justice books for children, young adults, and educators.

Civil Rights Teaching: Elementary

Early Elementary | Upper Elementary

Here are some of the titles we recommend for teaching about the Civil Rights Movement. More books and resources on related social movements and the long history of struggles for civil rights in the U.S. can be found at the Zinn Education Project and the Putting the Movement Back Into Civil Rights Teaching sites.

Booklists also available for Middle School and High School.

Early Elementary

Belle, the Last Mule at Gee's Bend: A Civil Rights Story *
By Calvin Alexander Ramsey, Bettye Stroud, John Holyfield (Illustrator)

Boycott Blues: How Rosa Parks Inspired a Nation
By Andrea Davis Pinkney, Brian Pinkney (Illustrator)

Child of the Civil Rights Movement*
By Paula Young Shelton, Raul Colon (Illustrator)

Freedom on the Menu: The Greensboro Sit-Ins
By Carole Boston Weatherford and Jerome Lagarrigue  (Illustrator)

Freedom School, Yes!
By Amy Littlesugar and Floyd Cooper
Grandmama's Pride
By Becky Birtha and Colin Bootman (Illustrator)

I've Seen the Promised Land: The Life of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
By Walter Dean Myers, Leonard Jenkins (Illustrator)

Liberty's Civil Rights Road Trip
By Michael W. Waters and Nicole Tadgell (Illustrator)

Malcolm X: A Fire Burning Brightly
By Walter Dean Myers, Leonard Jenkins (Illustrator)

New Shoes
By Susan Lynn Meyer

The Other Side
By Jacqueline Woodson, E. B. Lewis (Illustrator)

A Ride to Remember
By Sharon Langley and Amy Nathan

Rosa *
By Nikki Giovanni, Bryan Collier (Illustrator)

Rosa Parks
By Eloise Greenfield, Gil Ashby (Illustrator)

She Stood for Freedom: The Untold Story of a Civil Rights Hero, Joan Trumpauer Mulholland
By Loki Mulholland, Angela Fairwell, Charlotta Janssen (Illustrator)

Sit-In: How Four Friends Stood Up by Sitting Down
By Andrea Davis Pinkney, Brian Pinkney (Artist)

Someday Is Now: Clara Luper and the 1958 Oklahoma City Sit-ins *
By Olugbemisola Rhuday-Perkovich, Jade Johnson (Illustrator)

The Story of Ruby Bridges: Special Anniversary Edition
By Robert Coles, George Ford (Illustrator)

We March *
By Shane W. Evans

White Water
By Michael S. Bandy, Eric Stein, Shadra Stickland (Illustrator)

Upper Elementary

Abby Takes a Stand: 1960
By Patricia McKissack, Gordon James (Illustrator)

As Fast as Words Could Fly
By Pamela M. Tuck, Eric Velasquez (Illustrator)

Birmingham, 1963
By Carole Weatherford

Boycott Blues: How Rosa Parks Inspired a Nation
By Andrea Davis Pinkney, Brian Pinkney (Illustrator)

Call Me Miss Hamilton: One Woman's Case for Equality and Respect *
By Carole Boston Weatherford and  Jeffery Boston Weatherford (Illustrator)

Evicted! The Struggle for the Right to Vote *
By Alice Faye Duncan and Charly Palmer (Illustrator)

Harvesting Hope: The Story of Cesar Chavez
By Kathleen Krull, Yuyi Morales (Illustrator)

Let It Shine: Stories of Black Women Freedom Fighters
By Andrea Davis Pinkney, Stephen Alcorn (Illustrator)

Locked Up for Freedom
By Heather E. Schwartz

Malcolm X

Malcolm X
By Gail Fay

Mama's Window
By Lynn Rubright and Patricia McKissack

Mississippi Bridge
By Mildred D. Taylor

Nobody Gonna Turn Me 'Round: Stories and Songs of the Civil Rights Movement
By Doreen Rappaport, Shane W. Evans (Illustrator)

Ruth and the Green Book 
By Calvin A. Ramsey, Floyd Cooper (Illustrator)

Selma, Lord, Selma: Girlhood Memories of the Civil Rights Days
By Sheyann Webb-Christburg, Rachel West Nelson Milhouse, Frank Sikora

Streetcar to Justice
By Amy Hill Hearth

A Sweet Smell of Roses
By Angela Johnson, Eric Velazquez (Illustrator)

The Teachers March! How Selma's Teachers Changed History *
By Sandra Neil Wallace, Rich Wallace, and Charly Palmer (Illustrator)

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