Veterans Day is November 11th. It is a day to recognize and honor military personnel who fought and served in wars throughout American history. There are many children’s books that cover those various time periods. They feature fiction and nonfiction stories about heroes and events during the American Revolution, the Civil War, World War I, and other past and recent global conflicts. However, not many tell the stories of Black people who served and defended the ideas of America abroad even when fighting for freedom and equality at home. Listed below are books that feature biographies and events that show the significant role that Black Americans in the military played in the foundation and shaping of America. The books are listed according to year of publication.
The Escape of Robert Smalls: A Daring Voyage Out of Slavery
Jehan Jones-Radgowski | Poppy Kang | 2019 | Amazon | Bookshop | IndieBound
Spies: James Armistead Lafayette
Kyandreia Jones | Chooseco | 2019 | Amazon | Bookshop | IndieBound
Infinite Hope: A Black Artist’s Journey from World War II to Peace
Ashley Bryan | Atheneum/Caitlyn Dlouhy | 2019 | Amazon | Bookshop | IndieBound
Harriet Tubman: Freedom Fighter
Nadia L. Hohn | Gustavo Mazali | HarperCollins | 2018 | Amazon | Bookshop | IndieBound
Who Were the Tuskegee Airmen? (Who Was?)
Sherri L. Smith | Penguin Workshop | 2018 | Amazon | Bookshop | IndieBound
*Brothers in Valor: Battlefield Stories of the 89 African Americans Awarded the Medal of Honor
Robert F. Jefferson Jr. | Lyons Press | 2018 | Amazon | Bookshop | IndieBound
Now or Never!: Fifty-Fourth Massachusetts Infantry’s War to End Slavery
Ray Anthony Shepard | Calkins Creek | 2017 | Amazon | Bookshop | IndieBound
You Can Fly: The Tuskegee Airmen
Carole Boston Weatherford | Jeffery Boston Weatherford | Atheneum BYR | 2016 | Amazon | Bookshop | IndieBound
Birchtown and the Black Loyalists
Wanda Taylor | Nimbus Publishing | 2014 | Amazon | Bookshop | IndieBound
Reminiscences of My Life in Camp: An African American Woman’s Civil War Memoir
Susie King Taylor | University of Georgia Press | 2006 | Amazon | Bookshop | IndieBound
The Harlem Hellfighters: When Pride Met Courage
Walter Dean Myers | Bill Miles | HarperCollins | 2005 | Amazon | Bookshop | IndieBound
*Brothers in Arms: The Epic Story of the 761st Tank Battalion, WWII’s Forgotten Heroes
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar | Anthony Walton | Broadway | 2004 | Amazon | Bookshop | IndieBound
Come All You Brave Soldiers: Blacks in the Revolutionary War
Clinton Cox | Scholastic Press | 1999 | Amazon
African American Military Heroes
Jim Haskins | Wiley | 1998 | Amazon | Bookshop
Black, Blue & Gray: African Americans In the Civil War
James Haskins | Simon & Schuster | 1998 | Amazon
Between Two Fires: Black Soldiers in the Civil War
Joyce Hansen | Franklin Watts | 1993 | Amazon
*These books are not categorized as children’s books but can be of interest to older YA readers.
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