“True community is based upon equality, mutuality, and reciprocity. It affirms the richness of individual diversity as well as the common human ties that bind us together.”–Pauli Murry
There are two biographies about Pauli Murry on this book list for Pride Month. The book description from one of them, Pauli Murray: The Life of a Pioneering Feminist and Civil Rights Activist, co-written by Terry Catasús Jennings and Murry’s niece Rosita Stevens-Holsey, states that Murry “was a queer civil rights and women’s rights activist before any movement advocated for either…” Deborah Nelson Linck and illustrator Angela Corbin collaborated on the other one, Pauli Murray: Shouting for the Rights of All People. Linck, in this interview, explains that one of the reasons Murry is not well known is because “when we talk about African American history, we’re assigned who our heroes are…and because of that assigning of heroes and icons, those people [like Pauli Murry] don’t appear in the history books. They’ve done tremendous work.”
Another book of note that’s releasing later this year in November is the picture book A Song for the Unsung: Bayard Rustin, the Man Behind the 1963 March on Washington by Carole Boston Weatherford, Rob Sanders, and Byron McCray. Rustin—a gay man—is not commonly mentioned in conversations about civil rights heroes, activists, and trailblazers.
For more book ideas, see 15 Books for Pride Month. Happy Pride Month!
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1. A Song for the Unsung: Bayard Rustin, the Man Behind the 1963 March on Washington
Carole Boston Weatherford | Rob Sanders | Byron McCray | Henry Holt & Company | November 8, 2022 | PB | Amazon | Bookshop
2. Calvin
J.R. Ford | Vanessa Ford | Kayla Harren | G.P. Putnam’s Sons BYR | November 9, 2021 | PB | Amazon | Bookshop
3. Pauli Murray: Shouting for the Rights of All People
Deborah Nelson Linck | Angela Corbin | Morehouse Publishing | May 17, 2022 | MG | Amazon | Bookshop
4. In the Key of Us Anxiety
Mariama Lockington | Farrar, Straus and Giroux (BYR) | April 26, 2022 | MG | Amazon | Bookshop
5. We Deserve Monuments
Jas Hammonds | Roaring Brook Press | November 29, 2022 | YA | Amazon | Bookshop
6. Lark & Kasim Start a Revolution
Kacen Callender | Amulet Books | September 27, 2022 | YA | Amazon | Bookshop
7. How To Succeed in Witchcraft
Aislinn Brophy | G.P. Putnam’s Sons BYR | September 27, 2022 | YA | Amazon | Bookshop
8. Bad Things Happen Here
Rebecca Barrow | Margaret K. McElderry Books | June 28, 2022 | YA | Amazon | Bookshop
9. This Wicked Fate (This Poison Heart, Bk. 2)
Kalynn Bayron | Bloomsbury YA | June 21, 2022 | YA | Amazon | Bookshop
10. Kings of B’more
R. Eric Thomas | Kokila | May 31, 2022 | YA | Amazon | Bookshop
11. Deep in Providence
Riss M. Neilson | Henry Holt & Company BYR | May 31, 2022 | YA | Amazon | Bookshop
12. Only on the Weekends
Dean Atta | Balzer + Bray | May 24, 2022 | YA | Amazon | Bookshop
13. Café Con Lychee
Emery Lee | Quill Tree Books | May 10, 2022 | YA | Amazon | Bookshop
14. Burn Down, Rise Up
Vincent Tirado | Sourcebooks Fire | May 3, 2022 | YA | Amazon | Bookshop
15. Nothing Burns as Bright as You
Ashley Woodfolk | Versify | April 5, 2022 | YA | Amazon | Bookshop
16. Right Where I Left You
Julian Winters | Viking BYR | March 15, 2022 | YA | Amazon | Bookshop
17. Pauli Murray: The Life of a Pioneering Feminist and Civil Rights Activist
Terry Catasús Jennings | Rosita Stevens-Holsey , et al. | Yellow Jacket | February 8, 2022 | YA | Amazon | Bookshop
18. The Kindred
Alechia Dow | Inkyard Press | January 4, 2022 | YA | Amazon | Bookshop
19. Things We Couldn’t Say
Jay Coles | Scholastic Press | September 21, 2021 | YA | Amazon | Bookshop
20. Artie and the Wolf Moon
Olivia Stephens | Graphic Universe | September 7, 2021 | YA | Amazon | Bookshop
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