11 Books for Children to Help Them Understand the Struggle for Racial Equality
My children attend a diverse school, and their teachers regularly and frankly discuss American history, civil rights, and the ongoing struggle for social justice in the United States. I discuss current events with them as much as possible without frightening them – my oldest son has developed a legitimate fear of war – and I formulate racial issues in terms that I think they understand (our language now mostly talks about why some people are “nice” and some are “disagreeable” for people of color, and age-appropriate conversations about voting rights, school inclusion and safety). But I could use help, and when I need help, I always turn to books. From my childhood favorites are generally very white and certainly don’t address any racial justice issues (and in fact, as I wrote for Vox , are sometimes overtly racist).
That’s why I was happy to come across this list of books to help kids understand the struggle for racial equality from ReadBrightly. Olugbemisola Rudai-Perkovich offers 11 proposals, divided by age, starting with The Other Side by Jacqueline Woodson on segregation and We are the March by Shane W. Evans on the 1963 march to Washington. I’m going to start with Duncan Tonatiu’s book Separate Is Never Equal , because my son and I have already talked about school segregation and Lillian’s right to vote by John Winter, illustrated by Shane W. Evans, because we also talked about voting and the Law of electoral rights. There are also books for older teens and a graphic novel by Congressman John Lewis. Check out the full ReadBrightly list, and if you have any other favorites, leave them in the comments.