AA Book Reading List Suggestions

List compiled by Shelia M. Goss

Below is a list of books either by or about African-American pioneers. The books can be found at your local library or from an online retailer.

The early black history movement, Carter G. Woodson, and Lorenzo Johnston Greene.
Dagbovie, Pero Gaglo

Carter G. Woodson : the father of Black history
McKissack, Pat

Carter G. Woodson : a life in Black history
Goggin, Jacqueline Anne

Art from her heart : folk artist Clementine Hunter
Whitehead, Kathy

Clementine Hunter : the African house murals
Hunter, Clementine

Talking with Tebe : Clementine Hunter, memory artist
Hunter, Clementine

Coretta Scott King
Waxman, Laura Hamilton

Coretta Scott King : first lady of civil rights
Stanley, George E.

Coretta Scott King : civil rights activist
Rhodes, Lisa Renee

Minnie’s sacrifice ; Sowing and reaping ; Trial and triumph : three rediscovered novels
Harper, Frances Ellen Watkins

A brighter coming day : a Frances Ellen Watkins Harper reader
Harper, Frances Ellen Watkins

Three classic African-American novels
Brown, William Wells

Maggie L. Walker National Historic Site : junior ranger activity book. DOC
United States. National Park Service.

Freedom’s Teacher: The Life of Septima Clark by Katherine Mellen Charron

Ready from Within: Septima Clark & the Civil Rights Movement, A First Person Narrative by Septima Poinsette Clark and Cynthia Stokes Brown

From Slavery to Freedom: A History of African Americans by John Hope Franklin and Alfred A. Moss Jr.

Shelia M. Goss compiled this list for her in person lecture during Black History Month. She is the author of the young adult series – The Lip Gloss Chronicles: The Ultimate Test, Splitsville, and Paper Thin.

For more information or to sign up to The Lip Gloss Chronicles mailing list, visit www.thelipglosschronicles.com or www.sheliagoss.com.

What’s that old saying, “Behind every good man there’s a good woman” or something like that Coretta Scott King (1927-2006) was married to civil rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. She’s also known as the First Lady of Civil Rights.

Coretta Scott was born in Heiberger, Alabama and raised on the farm of her parents Bernice McMurry Scott, and Obadiah Scott, in Perry County, Alabama. She was exposed at an early age to the injustices of life in a segregated society. She walked five miles a day to attend the one-room Crossroad School in Marion, Alabama, while the white students rode buses to an all-white school closer by. Young Coretta excelled at her studies, particularly music, and was valedictorian of her graduating class at Lincoln High School. She graduated in 1945 and received a scholarship to Antioch College in Yellow Springs, Ohio.

As an undergraduate, she took an active interest in the nascent civil rights movement; she joined the Antioch chapter of the NAACP, and the college’s Race Relations and Civil Liberties Committees. She graduated from Antioch with a B.A. in music and education and won a scholarship to study concert singing at New England Conservatory of Music in Boston, Massachusetts.

In Boston she met a young theology student, Martin Luther King, Jr., and her life was changed forever. They were married on June 18, 1953, in a ceremony conducted by the groom’s father, the Rev. Martin Luther King, Sr. Coretta Scott King completed her degree in voice and violin at the New England Conservatory and the young couple moved in September 1954 to Montgomery, Alabama, where Martin Luther King Jr. had accepted an appointment as Pastor of the Dexter Avenue Baptist.

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Win a copy of Martin Luther King: The Essential Box Set: The Landmark Speeches and Sermons of Martin Luther King, Jr.  By Clayborne Carson, Kris Shepard, Peter Holloran

What do you have to do to enter? Leave a comment on this blog post and there will be several other opportunities this month to enter but you have to check the bottom of random blog posts.  (Sign up to mailing list so you’ll be alerted of new posts).  The more you comment, the more chances you have to win. Contest ends on February 28, 2010. U.S. & Canada residents only. Avoid where prohibited by law.