Downs, Linda Bank.
Diego Rivera: The Detroit Industry Murals
. New York: The Detroit Institute of Arts with W.W. Norton & Company, 1999.
Reproductions of the murals painted by Rivera at the Institute including detailed reproductions of the cartoon drawings he worked from with documentary photographs of Rivera at work, including a discussion of the murals and a small poster of the most famous section of the murals.
Duggleby, John.
Story Painter: The Life of Jacob Lawrence
. San Francisco: Chronicle Books, 1998.
A colorful biography interspersed with photographs of the artist and reproductions and discussions of his art.
Ellison, Ralph. "Mr. Toussan,"
Black Perspectives
, Los Angeles: The Scholastics Black Literature Series, 1971.
The highly engaging story of two young black boys on a hot summer day in the South, having what appears to be an innocent conversation about a historical figure who freed Haitians from enslavement by the French. What the reader realizes is that the historical figure that lived some 250 years ago and freed the Haitians is also freeing these young boys as his story unfolds.
Connelly, Bernadine.
Follow the Drinking Gourd
video, Rowayton, CT: Rabbit Ears
Production, Inc., 1992.
A highly animated 30-minute video, narrated by Morgan Freeman with music by Taj Mahal, about the perilous escape of a family (a mother and her two young children) of slaves from the South. They get help along the way, especially from a craggy white man called peg-leg Joe, and eventually, by following the Big Dipper known in lore as the drinking gourd, they are reunited with their father who is waiting for them in the North.
Gates, Henry Louis and Nellie Y. McCay, editors.
The Norton Anthology: African American Literature
, New York: W.W. Norton & Company, Inc., l997.
A monumental representation of all genres of African American literature dating from 1746 to the present, including several complete works such as Toni Morrison's novel
Sula
and August Wilson's play
Fences
.
Hayden, Robert. "Those Winter Sundays,"
Hear My Voice
, Menlo Park, CA: Addison-Wesley Publishing Company, 1994.
A multicultural anthology of literature from the U.S. that contains the short but poignant poem, "Those Winter Sundays."
Hughes, Langston. (illustrated by Brian Pinkney).
The Dream Keeper and other poems
. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1994.
A combination of some of Hughes's poems about aspirations and Pinkney's compelling black and white illustrations.
Lawrence, Jacob.
The Great Migration
. New York: The Museum of Modern Art, 1992.
This book contains all sixty paintings in Lawrence's
Great Migration
series, including his own narration that accompanies the paintings.
Lawrence, Jacob.
Harriet and the Promised Land
. Hong Kong: Aladdin Paperbacks, 1997.
Lawrence's stunning narrative paintings, including his rendition of her story in verse, documenting Harriet Tubman's heroic rescue of slaves, herself a slave, risking her life with every trip from the South to the North.
Minnesota Humanities Commission.
Braided Lives: An Anthology of Multicultural American Writing
. St. Paul: Minnesota Humanities Commission, l991.
An anthology of Native American, Hispanic American, African American, and Asian American prose, poetry and drama.
Myers, Walter Dean. (Paintings by Jacob Lawrence).
Toussaint L'Ouverture, The Fight for Haiti's Freedom
. New York: Simon & Schuster, l996.
Forty-one highly animated paintings documenting the life of a black man, Toussaint L'Ouverture, who gave his life to free the Haitians from enslavement by the French in the first years of the 1800's. Walter Dean Myers tells the story to accompany the paintings.
Ringgold, Faith.
Aunt Harriet's Underground Railroad in the Sky
. New York: Crown Publishers, Inc. 1992.
A gorgeously illustrated children's book, the story is based on a recurring dream that Harriet Tubman is said to have had near the end of her life, in which she is a conductor on a train that travels through the sky, and rescues slaves, delivering them to freedom.
West, Cornell.
Sketches of My Culture
. New York: Sheridan Square Entertainment. LLC, 2001.
A lively, articulate compilation of narrative by Cornell West, of gospel, blues, jazz, and rap telling the survival story of black people from the days of slave ships to the present.
Powell, Richard J. et al.
Rhapsodies in Black, Art of the Harlem Renaissance
. Berkeley: University of California Press, l997.
A combination of reproductions and a candid discussion of the Harlem Renaissance as more than an isolated historical moment, but rather a phenomenon that connected to other parts of the world. Among the reproductions is the painting by Louis Mailou Jones,
The Ascent of Ethiopia
.
Powell, Richard J. and Jock Reynolds.
To Conserve a Legacy, American Art from Historically Black Colleges and Universities
. Andover Academy, Andover, and Massachusetts: Addison Gallery of American Art, l999.
The fascinating account of a collaboration with historically black colleges and universities to gather and restore a remarkable wealth of their art. Among the reproductions in this book is
Building More Stately Mansions
by Aaron Douglas.
Rochfort, Desmond.
Mexican Muralists: Orozco, Rivera, Siqueiros
. San Francisco: Chronicle Books, l993.
Stunning reproductions and discussions of the bold murals, both in the U.S. and
Mexico, of the three best-known Mexican muralists.
Warren, Andrea. Orphan Train Rider, One Boy's True Story. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, l996.
The account and photographs of Lee Nailling who rode the orphan train in l926 when he was seven years old. His wrenching story of losing his mother, being given up by his father and separated from his siblings.
Warren, Andrea.
We Rode the Orphan Trains
. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 2001.
Non-fiction accounts and photographs of adults who rode the orphan trains when they were children.
