In celebration of Black History Month, the Curriculum Resource Centre (CRC) is featuring a list of resources to help us learn about and honour the accomplishments of blacks throughout history and appreciate the diversity of our community.

Each week during the month of February, the CRC will be highlighting important works; this week we are featuring resources on black history. Be sure to check out these titles!

A Plan for the People: Nelson Mandala’s Hope for His Nation by Lindsay McDivitt
(Interest Level: Grades 2-8)

As Nelson Mandela lived and worked under the unjust system of apartheid, his desire for freedom grew.  South Africa separated people by races, oppressing the country’s non-white citizens with abusive laws and cruel restrictions. From his work with the African National Congress, to his imprisonment on Robben Island, to his extraordinary rise to the presidency, Nelson Mandela was a rallying force against injustice. This stirring biography explores Mandela’s long fight for equality and the courage that propelled him through decades of struggle.

Africville: An African Nova Scotian Community is Demolished – and Fights Back by Gloria Ann Wesley
(Interest Level: Grades 8-12)

Beginning in the 18th century, Black men and women arrived from the U.S. and settled in various parts of Nova Scotia. In the 1800s, a small Black community had developed just north of Halifax on the shores of the Bedford Basin. The community became known as Africville and grew to about 400 people. Its residents fished, farmed, operated small retail stores and found work in the city. In the 1960s, city planners developed urban renewal plans and city politicians agreed to demolish the community. This resource speaks to the spirit and resilience of Africville lives on in new generations of African Nova Scotians.

Brave Leaders and Activists Who Changed the World by J.P. Millar and Chellie Carroll
(Interest Level: Grades 4-9)

The act of segregation was a common thread woven throughout the world, directed at people of color. It takes great courage to stand up against racial injustice and many Black leaders sacrificed their lives to demand equality. Read about men and women who worked on behalf of all people of color including Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Malcolm X, Barack Obama, the founders of Black Lives Matter Alicia Garza, Opal Tometi, Patrisse Cullors, and many more.

Other titles in the Black Stories Matters include:

I Lay My Stitches Down: Poems of American Slavery by Cynthia Grady and illustrated by Michele Wood
(Interest Level: Grades 4-8)

This rich and intricate collection of poems chronicles the various experiences of American slaves. Drawn together through imagery drawn from quilting and fiber arts, each poem is spoken from a different perspective: a house slave, a mother losing her daughter to the auction block, a blacksmith, a slave fleeing on the Underground Railroad.

The Promise of Change: One Girl’s Story in the Fight for School Equality by Jo Ann Allen Boyce and Debbie Levy
(Interest Level: Grades 6-9)

In 1956, one year before federal troops escorted the Little Rock 9 into Central High School, fourteen year old Jo Ann Allen was one of twelve African-American students who broke the color barrier and integrated Clinton High School in Tennessee. This is the heartbreaking and relatable story of her four months thrust into the national spotlight and as a trailblazer in history. Based on original research and interviews and featuring backmatter with archival materials and notes from the authors on the co-writing process.

We Are Not Equal: Understanding the Racial Divide with Tonya Bolden
(Interest Level: Grades 10-12)

When America achieves milestones of progress toward full and equal black participation in democracy, the systemic response is a consistent racist backlash that rolls back those wins. This book examines five of these moments: the end of the Civil War and Reconstruction was greeted with Jim Crow laws; the promise of new opportunities in the North during the Great Migration was limited when blacks were physically blocked from moving away from the South; the Supreme Court’s landmark 1954 Brown v. Board of Education decision was met with the shutting down of public schools throughout the South; the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and Voting Rights Act of 1965 led to laws that disenfranchised millions of African American voters and a War on Drugs that disproportionally targeted blacks; and the election of President Obama led to an outburst of violence including the death of black teen Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, as well as the election of Donald Trump.