Go Get a Book in Your Hand: A Timeline of Black History 'Literacy Now' Choices

Summary

---

"Lift Every Voice and Sing" (Amistad/Harper Collins, 2007), is illustrated by Bryan Collier and written by James Weldon Johnson, who was born on June 17,1871, and died on June 26, 1938. The imaginative, colorful illustrations by Bryan Collier, a multiple Caldecott Honour Book and Coretta Scott King Award winner, brilliantly serves to interpret the powerful lyrics of James Weldon Johnson. Written in 1900 in honor of Abraham Lincoln's birthday, the inspirational "Lift Every Voice" is known as the African-American National anthem.

"Garvey's Children-The Legacy of Marcus Garvey" (Macmillan Education, 1990), by Tony Sewell is an interesting, informational text that covers the lifetime of one of the most powerful Black leaders of the 20th century. Born on August 17, 1887, in St. Ann's, Jamaica, Marcus Mosiah Garvey died on June 10,1940, in London, England. In 1914, Garvey created the Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA), which developed into one of the largest Black organizations in the world. By 1920, Garvey was able to fill Madison Square Garden with 20,000 UNIA delegates, who came from all over the world to hear him speak.

According to Sewell, [Martin Luther King, Jr.] visited Jamaica in 1965 and "laid a wreath at Marcus Garvey's shrine and said: "Marcus Garvey was the first man of color in the history of the United States to lead and develop a mass movement. He was the first man, on a mass scale, and level, to give millions of Negroes a sense of dignity and destiny and make the Negro feel that he was somebody." Like Garvey, the author, Sewell, who was born in London, has also lived in various places of the world, including Jamaica, where Garvey is recognized as a national hero.

Created in 1926 by historian and educator Carter G. Woodson, Ph.D, the observance, which at that time lasted for seven days, was called Negro History Week Born in 1875, Dr. Woodson's purpose in creating this tribute was to bring attention to the many contributions made by Black people in America because he did not see any examples of this in the history books of the time. After being taken to the colony of Georgia in 1526 by Spanish colonists, not only did the Africans resist enslavement, but they also escaped and were befriended by a group of Native Americans.

See the full content of this document

Extract

---

Go Get a Book in Your Hand: A Timeline of Black History 'Literacy Now' Choices

Black History Month is observed every year during February in the North American countries of the United States of America and Canada. Created in 1926 by historian and educator Carter G. Woodson, Ph.D, the observance, which at that time lasted for seven days, was called Negro History Week

Born in 1875, Dr. Woodson's purpose in creating this tribute was to bring attention to the many contributions made by Black people in America because he did not see any examples of this in...

See the full content of this document

---