These 20th-Century Black History Books cover a period of history during which segregation tightened and racial oppression escalated across the United States. Uniquely, it also includes years of immense progress and explosive creative expression among Black Americans who found ways to survive and even thrive amid incredibly unjust circumstances.
The books I’ve chosen for my children to read next school year highlight stories from the Great Migration, the Harlem Renaissance, and the Great Depression to the Civil Rights Movement and more recent calls for justice. We’ll also study the role of African Americans in the intervening wars of this time period alongside poets, musicians, artists, and more!
In my book, A PLACE TO BELONG, I’ve devoted two chapters to books as mirrors and windows and a chapter on defining a “really good book.” I also have chapters on teaching hard (tough, tragic, traumatic) history and teaching the joyful aspects of history and culture through literature, art, music, poetry, food, and more. Please read the book to fully understand how and why I use these books (and how they can be used to grow “roots and branches” in your home).
Grades & Ages
These plans cover 20th-Century Black history books for my children; however, the book recommendations certainly extend above, below, and between these ages, so hopefully, everyone will find something relevant for their children. My kids will be the following ages this fall:
- 9th grader (Age 14)*
- 7th grader (Age 12)
- 5th grader (Age 10)
- 2nd grader (Age 8)
* Finally! Parents have been asking me for high school recommendations for years, but I couldn’t share what I didn’t have. The time has come, folks! I now have a full-fledged teenager, and the book recommendations will pour forth. Enjoy 🙂
Black History Books Across Time Periods
We’ve adopted a four-year history rotation modeled after Charlotte Mason’s but adapted for American students. My kiddos will experience each rotation 3 times during their school years, going deeper each time. The time periods studied are as follows:
- Rotation 1: 800 – 1650 AD (Grades 5-12 also study 3500-550 BC)
- Rotation 2: 1650 -1800 AD (Grades 5-12 also study 550-100 BC)
- Rotation 3: 1800 -1900 AD (Grades 5-12 also study 100 BC-350 AD)
- Rotation 4: 1900 – present (Grades 5-12 also study 350-800 AD) – This links to a previous post that I wrote about this same time period.
I don’t want to repeat all of the notes and suggestions that I’ve shared in these posts over the years, so I recommend that you take a quick look at the introductory info for the Rotation 2 & Rotation 3 posts above. You can ignore the books if you’re not in those time periods, but I share ideas and details at the top of each post that may help with your planning for this year.
20th-Century Black History Books
Here are direct links to the booklists containing each element of my family’s Black history plans covering the 1900s:
Disclaimers
I have not read all of these 20th-Century Black history books from cover to cover. I already have all the books sitting here with me, and I’ve done a pretty thorough preview of the ones I haven’t read, so I don’t expect any issues, but I will update this post if I run into any questionable material as I finish pre-reading.
I shop my home bookshelves for our lesson books before making additional purchases because I want my family to read the books we already have. Some of these were purchased years ago. I did NOT pay a ton of money for any of these titles, and you shouldn’t either (unless you just want to). I always offer enough variety that no one should feel pressure to overpay for harder-to-find titles. Request books from your library, share/swap with friends, invest in the ones that interest you most, and skip the rest.
My goal in sharing is not to say that these are the best and only 20th-Century Black history books. I’m simply sharing my family’s plans with the hope that they will inspire you (and save you time!) as you prepare for the next school year. Please feel free to drop additional ideas (or questions) in the comments below so we can all benefit.
Saying Thank You
As I shared the individual posts that comprise this mega post, many of you reached out to say thank you, and some asked if you could send a donation or buy me a coffee. I appreciate being appreciated, so THANK YOU for caring and acknowledging the large expense and many hours of work that went into pulling all of this together. What I would appreciate more than payment is for you to LEAVE A REVIEW for my book on Amazon and other online sites where my book is sold. Thank you in advance, and I hope these Black history books add fresh perspectives and enjoyable moments to your lessons.
You can find me on Instagram @heritagemomblog. I hope to see you there!
These are so great – thanks for sharing! I am new to CM and would love to put my own curriculum together using some of your recommendations. I have followed your blog for awhile but am just now jumping in:) The process of creating your own curriculum seems so overwhelming! Any tips on how to start?
Hi! It can definitely be intimidating at first, but it’s also so rewarding. My process: I choose the subjects/lessons I want to include first. Then I put them into a schedule/routine to make sure that I’m not including too much. Once I have a general schedule (I don’t put exact times for each thing – just a list of what we’ll do each day since many CM lessons are only 1x or 2x a week), I choose a resource (usually a book or multiple books across the year) for each subject/lesson. Finally, I take how many pages of the resource I want to cover, and divide it by the number of lessons we’ll have that year (with a little buffer built in) and that’s about how many pages we’ll look to cover each lesson. If that would make the lessons too long, I decide whether I want to cut back on what we’ll cover or if I want to add an additional lesson of that subject some time during the week in lieu of something else. My process isn’t very scientific, but it doesn’t take too long and it works well for me!
That is definitely helpful! It simplifies things in my head for sure.🙂 One more question – Is your LA separate or do pull from/combine with your history plans?
The kids do narrations (everyone does oral, older ones also do written) on their history readings, and they read historical fiction of the time period, but grammar and general literature are separate from the history plans.
Oh! In all my stalking of you, it never clicked that my kids are almost the same ages as yours – 14 year old upcoming 9th grader (boy), 12 year old 7th (girl) and a 9 year old 4th grader (boy). 😉 I’ll look forward to your growing book list. 14 year old loves history and geography and 12 year old voraciously reads historical fiction. 9 year old… well, we’re working on that. 😉
Thanks again for all your research and work!
Well that just works out perfectly, doesn’t it? We can journey through together!
Amber, I am late ordering these books Sista! Have I missed the reading schedule, because we are using the books CM with an Afro wear! 🙂 They never disappoint. Thanks Beloved for sharing all the good books with us!
I’m always glad to hear that our kids will be reading the same books. My friend who usually makes the schedule is managing a new co-op and was traveling in Ambleside, England with me this summer, and my guess is that she won’t get to it this year. I’ll update the post so people won’t be expecting it. Thank you for reminding me!