The ABCs of Black History
(eBook)

A NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER B is for Beautiful, Brave, and Bright! And for a Book that takes a Bold journey through the alphabet of Black history and culture. Letter by letter, The ABCs of Black History celebrates a story that spans continents and centuries, triumph and heartbreak, creativity and joy. It's a story of big ideas--P is for Power, S is for Science and Soul. Of significant moments--G is for Great Migration. Of iconic figures--H is for Zora Neale Hurston, X is for Malcom X. It's an ABC book like no other, and a story of hope and love. In addition to rhyming text, the book includes back matter with information on the events, places, and people mentioned in the poem, from Mae Jemison to W. E. B. Du Bois, Fannie Lou Hamer to Sam Cooke, and the Little Rock Nine to DJ Kool Herc. A beautiful alphabet picture book that presents key names, moments, and places in Black history with text lyrically written by poet Rio Cortez. This is an opportunity for children to learn their ABCs to the sound of words beyond apple, boy, and cat, and an opportunity for young thinkers to prepare for big ideas. Rio Cortez is a writer and Pushcart-nominated poet who has received fellowships from Poet's House, Cave Canem, and CantoMundo foundations. Her work has appeared or is forthcoming in the Los Angeles Review of Books, The New Yorker, and Prairie Schooner, among others. Rio writes and lives in Harlem where she works as a bookseller and buyer for the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture. Lauren Semmer is an artist, children's book illustrator, and designer. She studied drawing at St. Paul College of Visual Arts and art history at New York University. Lauren's bright and charming work is featured on everything from kid's wall art to children's apparel. She lives in Manhattan with her family. The ABCs of Black History: Terms and Figures James Baldwin A is for Anthem Lift Ev'ry Voice and Sing James Weldon Johnson John Rosamond Johnson NAACP B is for Beautiful, Brave, Bright, Bold, Brotherhood, Believing "Black is beautiful" Kwame Brathwaite Soul Train Don Cornelius C is for Community, Church, Civil Rights Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. Dexter Avenue Baptist Church D is for Diaspora African Diaspora slave trade Senegal Gambia Guinea-Bissau Mali Angola Congo the Democrative Republic of Congo Gabon Nigeria the Ivory Coast Ghana Sudan Cameroon E is for Explore, Education, Expanding the mind literacy segregation Linda Brown and Brown v. Board of Education Ruby Bridges Little Rock Nine Matthew Henson Mae Jemison F is for Food, Farmed, Fried Fish, Folklore, Family, Freedom Emancipation Proclamation sharecroppers soul food "jumping the broom" G is for Go!, Great Migration Black Codes blues music H is for Harlem, Heart, Langston Hughes, Zora Neale Hurston W.E.B. Du Bois Alain Locke Harlem Renaissance James Weldon Johnson Jean Toomer Arna Bontemps Countee Cullen Claude McKay Duke Ellington Bessie Smith Louis Armstrong Ethel Waters Bill "Bojangles" Robinson "Ma" Rainey Eubie Blake Apollo Theater Paul Robeson Marcus Garvey Arthur Schomburg Henry O. Tanner James Van Der Zee Aaron Douglass Augusta Savage Lillian Harris Dean (Pig Foot Mary) I is for Imagine, Invent, Innovative George Washington Carver Madame C.J. Walker (Sarah Breedlove) Gwendolyn Brooks Alvin Ailey DJ Kool Herc Jean-Michel Basquiat J is for Joy, Juneteenth, J'Ouvert Morning Carnival Trinidad Canboulay K is for Kin, Kwanzaa Dr. M