Born in Missouri in 1928, Maya Angelou had a difficult childhood. Jim Crow laws segregated blacks and whites in the South. Her family life was unstable at times. But much like her poem, "Still I Rise," Angelou was able to lift herself out of her situation and flourish. She moved to California and became the first black and first female streetcar operator before following her interest in dance. She became a professional performer in her twenties and...

A stunning picture-book biography of the High Priestess of Soul and one of the greatest voices of the 20th century.

"Jacqueline Woodson, one of today's finest writers, tells the moving story of her childhood in mesmerizing verse. Raised in South Carolina and New York, Woodson always felt halfway home in each place. In vivid poems, she shares what it was like to grow up as an African American in the 1960s and 1970s, living with the remnants of Jim Crow and her growing awareness of the Civil Rights movement. Touching and powerful, each poem is both accessible and...

"Mahalia Jackson was known as the queen of gospel music. A close friend of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s, she was also a civil rights activist who sang at the March on Washington. And she traveled the world, too!" -- Book Jacket.

An in-depth exploration of five different marches, protests, and boycotts of the Civil Rights Era--actions that made it impossible for the people in power to ignore the social injustices rampant in the United States. Part of a new series on the civil rights era for ages 12 to 15 from Nomad Press. Thousands of protests, marches, and demonstrations of the Civil Rights Era gave a strong voice to people and groups who were traditionally ignored. These...

"You either were there or you wanted to be. The Freaks Came Out to Write is the definitive oral history of The Village Voice-a New York City institution. Roaming its cramped, chaotic halls were the people who had written the first stories about the Stonewall Riots and the gay rights movement; who had advocated for civil rights before it was mainstream. The Voice was the first to cover hip-hop, the avant-garde art scene, and the AIDS crisis with urgency...

"Fifty years ago, a single bullet robbed us of one of the world's most eloquent voices for human rights and justice. [This book] goes beyond the iconic view of Martin Luther King Jr. as an advocate of racial harmony, to explore his profound commitment to the poor and working class and his call for 'nonviolent resistance' to all forms of oppression--including the economic injustice that 'takes necessities from the masses to give luxuries to the classes.'...