Family Resources
Black history belongs in the home, not just the classroom. Here's how to bring it there — age-appropriate reading, conversation guides, travel destinations, and celebration activities for Juneteenth, Kwanzaa, and Black History Month.
Talking About Race and History With Children
Children notice race earlier than many parents expect. They hear about history from school, from friends, from the news. The research is clear: talking about race honestly and age-appropriately helps children develop healthier attitudes than silence does. These guides are a starting point.
Starting the Conversation Early
Young children understand fairness and unfairness. This guide helps parents use those concepts to introduce the history of slavery, civil rights, and justice in language that is honest without being traumatizing.
Read the guideGoing Deeper: History and Justice
Middle-grade children can handle complexity. This guide covers how to talk about Reconstruction, Jim Crow, the Civil Rights Movement, and ongoing racial inequality in ways that invite questions rather than shutting them down.
Read the guideTeenagers and the Unvarnished Record
Teenagers can and should engage with primary sources, contested history, and structural analysis of systemic racism. This guide supports families in those conversations — especially when teens push back, as they should.
Read the guideBlack History Month Family Guide
Black History Month is February. But one month is not enough and the history does not stop at February 28. This guide is designed to extend the work beyond a single month — and to make it genuinely engaging for children of all ages.
Activity packs by age
Read-aloud suggestions, simple crafts, songs, and family conversation starters for young children.
Download activity packBook recommendations, research projects, timeline activities, and dinner-table discussion questions.
Download activity packActivities designed for mixed-age family use — documentary watchlists, cooking projects, oral history interviews with relatives, and travel planning.
Download activity packJuneteenth & Kwanzaa guides
Juneteenth — June 19
The history of Juneteenth — what it commemorates, why it matters now, and how to celebrate it meaningfully as a family. Includes a historical timeline, recommended reading, and celebration ideas beyond the cookout.
Juneteenth family guideKwanzaa — December 26-January 1
The history and principles of Kwanzaa, how the seven principles (Nguzo Saba) can be taught to children at each age, and a week-by-week activity guide for families observing the holiday.
Kwanzaa family guideBlack History Travel Guide
Some history you have to see to understand. These are the sites every American family should visit — where the history happened, where the people stood, where the country was changed. The full guide is coming in Phase 2; the essentials are here now.
National Museum of African American History and Culture
Washington, D.C. · The most comprehensive museum of African American history and culture in the world. Book tickets months in advance.
Edmund Pettus Bridge
Selma, Alabama · Where John Lewis and 600 marchers were beaten on Bloody Sunday, March 7, 1965. Walk across it. It is still there.
16th Street Baptist Church
Birmingham, Alabama · The church bombed by the Ku Klux Klan on September 15, 1963, killing four girls. Still a functioning congregation. Tours available.
Tuskegee University
Tuskegee, Alabama · The campus Booker T. Washington and his students built, literally, with their own hands. Home of the Tuskegee Airmen National Historic Site.
National Memorial for Peace and Justice
Montgomery, Alabama · The nation's first memorial dedicated to the legacy of enslaved Black Americans and the victims of lynching. Go with older children prepared for what they will see.
Howard University
Washington, D.C. · The flagship HBCU — chartered by Congress in 1867 and home to the Moorland-Spingarn Research Center, one of the most important archives of African American history in the world.
Age-Band Reading Lists
Books evaluated for accuracy, age-appropriate complexity, and quality of writing. No awards-season hype considered — only whether the book tells the truth well.
First introductions to Black history, heritage, and resistance for the youngest readers.
List coming in Phase 2Historical fiction and nonfiction for middle-grade readers ready for longer, more complex narratives.
List coming in Phase 2YA nonfiction and narrative history for teenagers, including memoir and oral history.
List coming in Phase 2Essential adult reading for parents who want to deepen their own knowledge before or alongside their children's.
List coming in Phase 2