Whether it’s by reading books, listening to speakers or watching movies, one of the more important things we can all do during the month of February is keep learning. We must continue to learn about and remember the leaders in politics, science, the arts and civil rights who have helped shape our current society. And we must learn about our current leaders, who are shaping our future at this very moment.
Here at the Communities In Schools national office, we’ve compiled a list of some of our favorite books, movies and other media that we enjoy during Black History Month. Do you have any to add to our list? How do you Honor Black History Month? Please share in the comments section below!
Books for Adults
1. Coming of Age in Mississippi, by Anne Moody
2. Dreams from my Father, by Barack Obama
3. Gifted Hands, by Dr. Ben Carson
4. Having Our Say, by the Delaney Sisters
5. The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, by Rebecca Skloot
6. Mirror to America, by John Hope Franklin
7. My Song: A Memoir, by Harry Belafonte
8. Native Son, by Richard Wright
9. A People’s History of Sports in the United States: 250 Years of Politics, Protest, People, and Play, by Dave Zirin
10. The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America’s Great Migration, by Isabel Wilkerson
Books for Children
1. Amazing Grace, by Mary Hoffman
2. Aunt Flossie’s Hats and Crab Cakes Later, by Elizabeth Fitzgerald Howard, James Ransome
3. I Love My Hair!, by Natasha Anastasia Tarpley
4. Of Thee I Sing, by Barack Obama
5. Quiet Strength, by Gregory Reed
Movies
1. The Black Power Mixtape 1967-1975
2. Forrest Gump
3. Glory
4. Hairspray
5. Malcolm X
6. Ray
7. Red Tails
Theater
The Scottsboro Boys– Original Broadway Cast Recording
Another excellent book I found while listening to The Book Report (http://bookreportradio.com/) is Claudette Colvin: Twice Toward Justice
The list of books for children and adults written by African American authors and sometimes focused on the lives and history of a people is exhaustive. A must read for all of us at Communities In Schools is “The Other Wes Moore: One Name, Two Fates” by Wes Moore. Two kids with the same name, liv¬ing in the same city. One grew up to be a Rhodes Scholar, dec¬o¬rated com¬bat vet¬eran, White House Fel-low, and busi¬ness leader. The other is serv¬ing a life sen¬tence in prison for felony mur¬der. Both had grown up in sim¬i¬lar neigh¬bor¬hoods and had dif¬fi¬cult child¬hoods, both were father¬less; they’d hung out on sim¬i¬lar Baltimore street cor¬ners with sim¬i¬lar groups of young men, and both had run into trou¬ble with the police. At each stage of their young lives they had come across sim¬i¬lar moments of deci¬sion, yet their choices and the peo¬ple in their lives would lead them to aston¬ish¬ingly dif¬fer¬ent destinies. We will all see how the right people who enter the lives of young people at the right time can make all of the difference.