We celebrate the birth of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. on the third Monday of this month. Acknowledging the foundations of civil rights and equality that King preached, we pause as a nation to celebrate King and the other civil rights activists who unceasingly fought for a better life for African Americans. The fight is not over; 60 years later we still face some of the same issues as King witnessed. Challenge your perspective and continue to honor King’s memory and legacy by picking up one of these books about lesser-known, civil rights heroes.

The 57 Bus: A True Story of Two Teenagers and the Crime That Changed Their Lives by Dashka Slater recounts a hate crime and the aftermath. It happened in late 2013 on a public bus in Oakland, California when Richard lit Sasha’s skirt on fire. This young adult book is a New York Times bestseller that “makes you rethink all you know about race, class, gender, crime, and punishment,” states the overview.

The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas is a fictional young adult book, made into a 2018 movie with the same title. A Black teenage girl must decide to speak up or stay quiet after she witnesses the police shooting of her friend. Her community and her own safety are on the line.

Until I Am Free: Fannie Lou Hamer’s Enduring Message to America by Keisha N. Blain is the story of a female civil rights activist. Hamer was “a working-poor and disabled Black woman activist and intellectual” explains the book blurb. Hamer’s televised speech to the Democratic National Convention’s credentials committee focused on voter suppression and state-sanctioned violence; both issues that are still relevant 60 years later.

Remember: The Journey to School Integration by Toni Morrison is a pictorial glimpse into school desegregation. The archival photographs serve as Morrison’s inspiration for her fictional narratives. This collection of snapshots is intended to introduce children to the complexities of race relations in America. It was first published on the 50th anniversary of the Brown v. Board of Education Supreme Court decision.

Behind the Dream: The Making of the Speech That Transformed a Nation by Clarence B. Jones and Stuart Connelly is a behind-the-scenes look at Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s inner circle and the logistics leading up to the historic sermon and the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom in 1963. Jones was King’s speech writer and lawyer.

The Bloody Shirt: Terror After Appomattox by Stephen Budiansky is a story of “violence, racism, division and heroism,” the book description explains. Set in the first decade of Reconstruction when more than 3,000 African Americans and their white allies were murdered struggling to establish a “New South,” where new prosperity was available to all–– former slave and former master alike–– this nonfiction narrative follows five noteworthy men, representing many facets of the complex issues of the day.

Bluff City: The Secret Life of Photographer Ernest Withers by Preston Lauterbach exposes the complicated life and photojournalism career of a civil rights photographer and FBI informant. Withers captured millions of photographs during his six-decade career, including iconic images of MLK, the Emmett Till murder trial and many civil rights protests.

I’ve Got a Home in Glory Land: A Lost Tale of the Underground Railroad by Karolyn Smardz Frost recreates Lucie and Thornton Blackburn’s escape to freedom in the 1830s. They left slavery in Kentucky and eventually settled in Toronto, Ontario. Their journey did not go unnoticed, creating a race riot in Michigan and a diplomatic incident with Canada. They worked tirelessly with other abolitionists against the slavery they escaped.

 

By Celeste McNeil; courtesy photos