Celebrate Black History Month
This February, we encourage you to learn from and celebrate the experiences and contributions of Black Americans. While there are many ways you can do this, one way is to read and watch books and films created by Black artists.
Many thanks to Rev. Dominique Gilliard, the Director of Racial Righteousness for the ECC for compiling this amazing list of resources! We encourage you to choose something to engage from this list and even invite others to do it with you!
Books By ECC Authors
- Subversive Witness: Scriptures Call to Leverage Privilege by Dominique DuBois Gilliard
- Color Courageous Discipleship by Michelle Sanchez
- A Cloud of Women: The Powerful Connection Between Black Women and Women of the Bible by Rev. Dr. Georgia Hill and Diane Proctor Reeder
- Might from the Margins by Dr. Dennis Edwards
Books for Adults
- How the Word Is Passed: A Reckoning with the History of Slavery Across America by Clint Smith
- If God Still Breathes, Why Can’t I?: Black Lives Matter and Biblical Authority by Angela Parker
- The Sum of Us: What Racism Costs Everyone and How We Can Prosper Together by Heather C. McGhee
- Shoutin’ in the Fire: An American Epistle by Danté Stewart
- In My Grandmother’s House: Black Women, Faith, and the Stories We Inherit by Yolanda Pierce
- God Speaks Through Wombs: Poems on God’s Unexpected Coming by Drew Jackson
- A Women’s Lectionary for the Whole Church by Wilda Gafney
- Who Will Be A Witness: Igniting Activism for God’s Justice, Love, and Deliverance by Drew G. I. Hart
- How to be Fight Racism by Jemar Tisby
- Reading While Black by Esau McCauley
For Middle and High School
- Voice of Freedom: Fannie Lou Hamer: The Spirit of the Civil Rights Movement by Carole Boston Weatherford
- Unspeakable: The Tulsa Race Massacre by Carole Boston Weatherford
- Brown Girl Dreaming by Jacqueline Woodson
- Schomburg: The Man Who Built a Library by Carole Boston Weatherford
- Ghost Boys by Jewell Parker Rhodes
- Before the Ever After by Jacqueline Woodson
- The Lions of Little Rock by Kristen Levine
- One Crazy Summer by Rita Williams-Garcia
- A Few Red Drops: The Chicago Race Riot of 1919 by Claire Hartfield
- P.S. Be Eleven by Rita Williams-Garcia
- Gone Crazy in Alabama by Rita Williams-Garcia
- Little Man, Little Man: A Story of Childhood by James Baldwin
- Some Places More Than Others by Renée Watson
- Claudette Colvin: Twice Toward Justice by Phillip Hoose
- Black Brother, Black Brother by Jewell Parker Rhodes
- Black Heroes: A Black History Book for Kids: 51 Inspiring People from Ancient Africa to Modern-Day U.S.A by Arlisha Norwood
- Black Inventors: 15 Inventions that Changed the World by Kathy-Trusty
- This Promise of Change: One Girl’s Story in the Fight for School Equality by Jo Ann Allen Boyce
- The Watsons Go to Birmingham by Christopher Paul Curtis
- As Brave As You by Jason Reynolds
For Elementary Aged Students
The ABCs of Black History by Rio Cortez
Change Sings: A Children’s Anthem by Amanda Gorman
Let the Children March by Monica Clark-Robinson
Little Leaders: Bold Women in Black History by Vashti Harrison
Little Legends: Exceptional Men in Black History by Vashti Harrison
The Year We Learned to Fly by Jacqueline Woodson and Rafael López
Henry’s Freedom Box: A True Story from the Underground Railroad by Ellen Levine
Ruby Bridges: This Is Your Time by Ruby Bridges
Counting on Katherine: How Katherine Johnson Saved Apollo 13 by Helaine Becker
Skin Like Mine by Latashia M. Perry
Lift as You Climb: The Story of Ella Baker by Patricia Hruby Powell
Memphis, Martin, and the Mountaintop: The Sanitation Strike of 1968 by Alice Faye Duncan
The Story of Barack Obama by Tonya Leslie
What Do You Do With A Voice Like That?: The Story of Extraordinary Congresswoman Barbara Jordan by Chris Barton
Moses: When Harriet Tubman Led Her People to Freedom by Carole Boston Weatherford
My Little Golden Book About Martin Luther King Jr. by Bonnie Bader
What will I be?: There are no limits on the greatness we can achieve by Jayla Joseph
The Undefeated by Kwame Alexander
Film/TV Recommendations
- When They See Us (Netflix)
- True Justice (HBO—or EJI)
- Selma
- I Am Not Your Negro (Prime)
- Banished (documentary)
- One Night in Miami (Prime)
- Between the World and Me (HBO)
- All In: The Fight for Democracy (Prime)
- Just Mercy (HBO Max)
- Slavery By Another Name (PBS—or YouTube)
- The Best of Enemies (Hulu)
- Hidden Figures