R. Gregory Christie

This historical fiction picture book presents the story of nine-year-old Lorraine Jackson, who in 1968 witnessed the Memphis sanitation strike--Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s final stand for justice before his assassination--when her father, a sanitation worker, participated in the protest.

Rhyming text celebrates the Harlem neighborhood that successful African Americans first called home during the 1920s. Includes brief biographies of jazz greats Duke Ellington, Count Basie, Sonny Rollins, and Miles Davis; artists Aaron Douglas and Faith Ringgold; entertainers Lena Horne and the Nicholas Brothers; writer Zora Neale Hurston; civil rights leader W. E. B. DuBois; and lawyer Thurgood Marshall.

"As slaves relentlessly toiled in an unjust system in 19th century Louisiana, they all counted down the days until Sunday, when, at least for half a day, they were briefly able to congregate in Congo Square in New Orleans. There, they were free to set up an open market, sing, dance, and play music. They were free to forget their cares, their struggles, and their oppression. This poetic, nonfiction story about this little-known piece of African American...

Spunky third-grader Dyamonde Daniel misses her old neighborhood, but when she befriends a boy named Free, another new student at school, she finally starts to feel at home.

Dyamonde Daniel and her best friend, Free, are excited about the library's poetry contest and its $100 prize. When Dyamonde learns that a classmate is homeless, she encourages the girl to submit a poem about the homeless shelter where she lives. As the two girls become friends, Dyamonde learns what it's really like to be poor yet rich in friends.

A collection of poetry inspired by various leaders of civil rights.

Dyamonde, longing for a pair of red high-top sneakers, is persuaded by a classmate that it is her mother's job to give her what she needs, and she learns an important lesson when she tries that argument on her mom who responds by literally giving Dyamonde only what she needs.

Baby and his family make some jazzy music.

A young boy ponders a variety of emotions and how different members of his family experience them, from his own blues to his father's grays and his grandmother's yellows.