Black History Month gives us another opportunity to invest in our young people. We may even learn a thing or two. So often the history that we did not receive in class is being distributed by publishers today. Witness books such as “Stamped for Kids: Racism, Antiracism and You,” and “African History for Kids: A Captivating Guide to the History of Africa”. 

When we read books to children, we may become inspired by the lyrical retellings of our uplifting stories. Two picture books are particularly close to home. 

“I Am Ruby Bridges” is told by the woman who as a six-year-old integrated William Franz elementary school in 1960. Along with the illustrator Nikkolas Smith, Bridges tells her story in verse, emphasizing that her last name is a metaphor. The bridge between people was the result of this child’s courage. The author hopes to inspire youngsters to see their place in the world. 

The second picture book is an homage to the music that surrounds us. While not a Louisiana author (but married to Wade Hudson from Mansfield), Cheryl Willis Hudson created an introduction to spiritual music. “When I Hear Spirituals” describes the emotions that a young girl feels when she hears church songs, “A big, full feeling grows in my chest,” she says. Willis Hudson is an experienced writer about the topic as a long-time choir member and author. The book incorporates the lyrics of 12 spirituals including  “Go down, Moses,” “Nobody Knows the Troubles I See,” “Sometimes I Feel Like a Motherless Child,” “Rock-a-My Soul,” and “Get on Board, Little Children.” Black history as we know in Louisiana was not always written down but it was definitely carried forward as this book about spiritual music displays. The book is illustrated by London Ladd and is a Junior Library Guild Gold Standard Selection. 

EMBERS

W. E. B. Dubois considered the literacy of children so important that he started a monthly magazine called “The Brownies Book” that included poetry, fiction, and world news in 1920. “Popo and Fifina: Children of Haiti” was the first children’s book with black authors Arna Bontemps and Langston Hughes. 

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Fatima Shaik is the author of seven books including "Economy Hall: The Hidden History of a Free Black Brotherhood," the Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities 2022 Book of the Year. She is a native of...