In Honor of MLK Jr. and the Civil Rights Movement

Yesterday was Martin Luther King Jr. Day in the U.S. Below are ten books about his life as well as the Civil Rights Movement. 

1. A Long Time Coming : a lyrical biography of race in America from Ona Judge to Barack Obama by Ray Anthony Shepard: Meticulously researched and drawn from numerous primary sources, this biography-in-verse tells the story of racism in the U.S. through six important Black Americans from different eras who struggled for justice, chronicling how much - and how little - racism has changed since our country's founding.
2. All You Have to Do by Autumn Allen: In April 1968, in the wake of Martin Luther King, Jr.'s assassination, Kevin joins a protest that shuts down his Ivy League campus... In September 1995, amidst controversy over the Million Man March, Gibran challenges the “See No Color” hypocrisy of his prestigious New England prep school... As the two students, whose lives overlap in powerful ways, risk losing the opportunities their parents worked hard to provide, they move closer to discovering who they want to be instead of accepting as fact who society and family tell them they are. 
3. And We Rise : the Civil Rights Movement in poems by Erica Martin: This debut poetry collection walks readers through the Civil Rights Movement, introducing lesser-known figures and moments just as crucial to the Movement and our nation’s centuries-long fight for justice and equality.
4. Dear Martin by Nic Stone: Justyce McAllister is a good kid, an honor student, and always there to help a friend--but none of that matters to the police officer who just put him in handcuffs. Despite leaving his rough neighborhood behind, he can't escape the scorn of his former peers or the ridicule of his new classmates. Justyce looks to the teachings of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. for answers. But do they hold up anymore? He starts a journal to Dr. King to find out. Then comes the day Justyce goes driving with his best friend, Manny, windows rolled down, music turned up--way up, sparking the fury of a white off-duty cop beside them. Words fly. Shots are fired. Justyce and Manny are caught in the crosshairs. In the media fallout, it's Justyce who is under attack.
5. Freedom Summer for young people : the violent season that made Mississippi burn and made America a democracy by Bruce Watson: In the summer of 1964, as the Civil Rights movement boiled over, the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) sent more than seven hundred college students to Mississippi to help black Americans already battling for democracy, their dignity and the right to vote. The campaign was called "Freedom Summer." But on the evening after volunteers arrived, three young civil rights workers went missing, presumed victims of the Ku Klux Klan. The disappearance focused America's attention on Mississippi. In the days and weeks that followed, volunteers and local black activists faced intimidation, threats, and violence from white people who didn't believe African Americans should have the right to vote. As the summer unfolded, volunteers were arrested or beaten. Black churches were burned. More Americans came to Mississippi, including doctors, clergymen, and Martin Luther King. A few frightened volunteers went home, but the rest stayed on in Mississippi, teaching in Freedom Schools, registering voters, and living with black people as equals. Freedom Summer brought out the best and the worst in America.
6. I See the Promised Land : a life of Martin Luther King, Jr. by Arthur Flowers: Describes the apartheid South in Martin Luther King's time, which in many ways was not very different from the early days of slavery, with descriptions of the Montgomery Bus Boycott, the formation of civil rights groups, and mass movements against segregation.
7. March: Book One by John Lewis: Congressman John Lewis (GA-5) is an American icon and key figure of the civil rights movement. His commitment to justice and nonviolence has taken him from an Alabama sharecropper's farm to the halls of Congress, from a segregated schoolroom to the 1963 March on Washington, and from receiving beatings from state troopers to receiving the Medal of Freedom from the first African-American president. Now, to share his remarkable story with new generations, Lewis presents March, a graphic novel trilogy, in collaboration with co-writer Andrew Aydin and New York Times best-selling artist Nate Powell (winner of the Eisner Award and LA Times Book Prize finalist for Swallow Me Whole). March is a vivid first-hand account of John Lewis' lifelong struggle for civil and human rights, meditating in the modern age on the distance traveled since the days of Jim Crow and segregation. Rooted in Lewis' personal story, it also reflects on the highs and lows of the broader civil rights movement.
8. The Rebellious Life of Mrs. Rosa Parks : adapted for young people by Jeanne Theoharis: Rosa Parks is one of the most well-known Americans today, but much of what is known and taught about her is incomplete, distorted, and just plain wrong. Adapted for young people from the NAACP Image Award–winning The Rebellious Life of Mrs. Rosa Parks, Jeanne Theoharis and Brandy Colbert shatter the myths that Parks was meek, accidental, tired, or middle class. They reveal a lifelong freedom fighter whose activism began two decades before her historic stand that sparked the Montgomery bus boycott and continued for 40 years after. Readers will understand what it was like to be Parks, from standing up to white supremacist bullies as a young person to meeting her husband, Raymond, who showed her the possibility of collective activism, to her years of frustrated struggle before the boycott, to the decade of suffering that followed for her family after her bus arrest. The book follows Parks to Detroit, after her family was forced to leave Montgomery, Alabama, where she spent the second half of her life and reveals her activism alongside a growing Black Power movement and beyond. 
9. Troublemaker for Justice : the story of Bayard Rustin, the man behind the March on Washington by Jacqueline Houtman: Bayard Rustin believed that every human being deserves respect and dignity. As a child he was taught that we all have a duty to stand up to prejudice and discrimination, and that conflict must be resolved through peaceful, nonviolent means. And so, Bayard began to peacefully resist--in high school he was arrested for sitting in the "whites only" section of his hometown movie theater--no matter the consequences. Bayard Rustin grew up to become one of the key figures of the American Civil Rights Movement. He was a mentor to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., teaching him the philosophy and techniques of nonviolent direct action. In 1963, he organized the March on Washington, one of America's most historic protest marches. And yet, he is absent from most history books, in large part because he was openly gay. This biography traces Bayard's lifetime of activism and highlights his fearless commitment to justice and equality for all.
10. Turning 15 on the Road to Freedom : my story of the Selma Voting Rights March by Lynda Blackmon Lowery: As the youngest marcher in the 1965 voting rights march from Selma to Montgomery, Albama, Lynda Blackmon Lowery proved that young adults can be heroes. Jailed nine times before her fifteenth birthday, Lowery fought alongside Martin Luther King, Jr. for the rights of African-Americans. In this memoir, she shows today's young readers what it means to fight nonviolently (even when the police are using violence, as in the Bloody Sunday protest) and how it felt to be part of changing American history.