*An ALA Rainbow List Selection
*WINNER, Best Illustrations - Black Kidlit Awards
*Bank Street College's Best Books of the Year List 2024

*A civil rights luminary finally gets his due. The prose works in perfect harmony with Jackson's warmly colored, stunning illustrations, which present Rustin as a gifted, passionate visionary whose talents helped turn the march from a dream into an unprecedented success. This work's greatest contribution is its unflinching honesty in demonstrating the backlash Rustin faced for being gay, both from White America and his own Black colleagues within the movement, who felt that his sexuality would detract from its success. A joyful tribute to the work of an important American hero. Kirkus Reviews, Starred Review

* The 1963 March on Washington and Martin Luther King's iconic 'I Have a Dream' speech would never have happened if not for Bayard Rustin, the individual behind the conception, organization, and management of the event. [This] picture book thoughtfully addresses basic human rights and introduces young readers to an important behind-the-scenes hero. - Booklist, Starred Review

Incredible. TEACH Magazine

This beautifully illustrated book makes it clear that peaceful change is possible. I am grateful Bayard's life continues to inspire young people to work for change and to build the beloved community. Walter Naegle, Partner of Bayard Rustin

Bayard Rustin was a troublemaker. He spent his life disrupting racism and prejudice with nonviolent direct action. He organized protests against war, nuclear weapons, racial segregation and discrimination. He was a friend and mentor to Martin Luther King Jr., and he was unapologetically gay and Black.

When Bayard and his mentor, A. Philip Randolph, set out to organize the historic March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, Bayard was targeted by those who wished to see the movement fail. But Bayard Rustin would not be stopped. With the support of Dr. King and future congressman John Lewis, Bayard organized the largest protest in civil rights history.

This stunning picture book, written by Rustin scholar Michael G. Long and illustrated by the New York Times bestselling artist Bea Jackson, tells the incredible story of how Bayard Rustin led over 250,000 people to the doorstep of the United States government demanding change.

2024 Outstanding Academic Title, given by Choice Reviews

Celebrates the life and legacy of Bayard Rustin, the civil rights leader behind the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom

While we can all recall images of Martin Luther King Jr. giving his I Have a Dream speech in front of a massive crowd at Lincoln Memorial, few of us remember the man who organized this watershed nonviolent protest in eight short weeks: Bayard Rustin.

This was far from Rustin's first foray into the fight for civil rights. As a world-traveling pacifist, he brought Gandhi's protest techniques to the forefront of US civil rights demonstrations, helped build the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, led the fight for economic justice, and played a deeply influential role in the life of Dr. King by helping to mold him into an international symbol of nonviolent resistance. Rustin's legacy touches many areas of contemporary life--from civil resistance to violent uprisings, democracy to socialism, and criminal justice reform to war resistance.

Despite these achievements, Rustin was often relegated to the background. He was silenced, threatened, arrested, beaten, imprisoned, and fired from important leadership positions, largely because he was an openly gay man in a fiercely homophobic era. With expansive, searching, and sometimes critical essays from a range of esteemed writers--including Rustin's own partner, Walter Naegle--this volume draws a full picture of Bayard Rustin: a gay, pacifist, socialist political radical who changed the course of US history and set a precedent for future civil rights activism, from LGBTQ+ Pride to Black Lives Matter.

Act up! Fight back! Fight AIDS!

This was the slogan for ACT UP--or AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power--an activist organization that emerged in the 1980s during the height of the AIDS epidemic. The group was loud, direct, and confrontational as it fought for access to treatment, compassionate care, and recognition for everyone with HIV and AIDS.

Tracing the history of the LGBTQ+ community from the Stonewall Riots and gay liberation movements to the groundbreaking protests of the 1980s and 1990s, Fight AIDS! is a gripping narrative of the AIDS epidemic for young readers, told through the lens of the activism it fostered. Focusing on the people most directly affected by the crisis and on the individuals who fought for justice, it is an intimate and humane account of one of the most devastating eras in United States history and an electrifying celebration of the power ordinary citizens have to enact meaningful change.

One line straight down. One line to the right. One line to the left, then a circle. That was all--just three lines in a circle.

This bold picture book tells the story of the peace symbol--designed in 1958 by a London activist protesting nuclear weapons--and how it inspired people all over the world. Depicting the symbol's travels from peace marches and liberation movements to the end of apartheid and the fall of the Berlin Wall, Three Lines in a Circle offers a message of inspiration to today's children and adults who are working to create social change. An author's note provides historical background and a time line of late twentieth-century peace movements.

Explores Jackie Robinson's compelling and complicated legacy

Before the United States Supreme Court ruled against segregation in public schools, and before Rosa Parks refused to surrender her bus seat in Montgomery, Alabama, Jackie Robinson walked onto the diamond on April 15, 1947, as first baseman for the Brooklyn Dodgers, making history as the first African American to integrate Major League Baseball in the twentieth century. Today a national icon, Robinson was a complicated man who navigated an even more complicated world that both celebrated and despised him.

Many are familiar with Robinson as a baseball hero. Few, however, know of the inner turmoil that came with his historic status. Featuring piercing essays from a range of distinguished sportswriters, cultural critics, and scholars, this book explores Robinson's perspectives and legacies on civil rights, sports, faith, youth, and nonviolence, while providing rare glimpses into the struggles and strength of one of the nation's most athletically gifted and politically significant citizens. Featuring a foreword by celebrated directors and producers Ken Burns, Sarah Burns, and David McMahon, this volume recasts Jackie Robinson's legacy and establishes how he set a precedent for future civil rights activism, from Black Lives Matter to Colin Kaepernick.

Newsweek, Lit Hub, The Philadelphia Inquirer, and The Atlanta Journal Constitution pick Race Man by Julian Bond as one of their Most-Anticipated Books of 2020!

This compilation of works by social activist and civil rights leader Julian Bond should be required reading in 2020.--Juliana Rose Pignataro, Newsweek

Bond's essays, speeches and interviews were powerful weapons in his lifelong fight for civil rights.--The New York Times

Justice and equality was the mission that spanned his life. Julian Bond helped change this country for the better. And what better way to be remembered than that.--President Barack Obama

An inspiring, historic collection of writings from one of America's most important civil rights leaders.

No one in the United States did more to advance the legacy of Martin Luther King Jr. than Julian Bond. Race Man--a collection of his speeches, articles, interviews, and letters--constitutes an unrivaled history of the life and times of one of America's most trusted freedom fighters, offering unfiltered access to his prophetic voice on a wide variety of social issues, including police brutality, abortion, and same-sex marriage.

A man who broke race barriers and set precedents throughout his life in politics; co-founder of the Southern Poverty Law Center and long-time chair of the NAACP; Julian Bond was a leader and a visionary who built bridges between the black civil rights movement and other freedom movements--especially for LGBTQ and women's rights. As we enter the third decade of the twenty-first century, there is no better time to return to Bond's works and words, many of them published here for the first time.

Endlessly grateful for this collection of work that shows the expansive nature of Julian Bond's ideas of black liberation, and how those ideas are woven into the fabric of both resistance and uplift. Race Man is the map of a journey that was not only struggle and not only triumph.--Hanif Abdurraqib, author of They Can't Kill Us Until They Kill Us: Essays

Race Man is the essential collection of Julian Bond's wisdom--and required reading for the organizers and leaders who follow in his footsteps today.--Marian Wright Edelman, President Emerita, Children's Defense Fund

Race Man is a staggering collection that offers a genealogy of Bond's freedom-oriented politics and soul work as captured in his written words. Race Man is a book that looks back and speaks forward. It is a timely example of what movement building can look like when servant leaders refuse to leave the most vulnerable out of their visions for Black freedom. We need that reminder, like never before, today.--Darnell L. Moore, author of No Ashes in the Fire: Coming of Age Black & Free in America

[An] essential volume that will appeal to a broad audience of readers interested in the civil rights movement and human rights overall . . .--Library Journal, Starred Review

Bond's years as an activist also offer a guide through the intellectual and political history of the left in the second half of the 20th century . . . Bond's essays capture the intellectual world that inspired him and that he helped inspire in turn.--Robert Greene II, The Nation

Jackie Robinson is one of the most revered public figures of the twentieth century. He is remembered for both his athletic prowess and his strong personal character. The world knows him as the man who crossed baseball's color line, but there is much more to his legacy. At the conclusion of his baseball career, Robinson continued in his pursuit of social progress through his work as a writer. Beyond Home Plate, an anthology of Jackie Robinson's columns in the New York Post and the New York Amsterdam News, offers fresh insight into the Hall of Famer's life and work following his historic years on the baseball diamond.

Robinson's syndicated newspaper columns afforded him the opportunity to provide rich social commentary while simultaneously exploring his own life and experiences. He was free to write about any subject of his choosing, and he took full advantage of this license, speaking his mind about everything from playing Santa to confronting racism in the Red Sox nation, from loving his wife Rachel to despising Barry Goldwater, from complaining about Cassius Clay's verbosity to teaching Little Leaguers how to lose well.

Robinson wrote to prod and provoke, inflame and infuriate, and sway and persuade. With their pointed opinions, his columns reveal that the mature Robinson was a truly American prophet, a civil rights leader in his own right, furious with racial injustice and committed to securing first class citizenship for all. These fascinating columns also depict Robinson as an indebted son, a devoted husband, a tenderhearted father, and a hardworking community leader. Robinson believed that his life after his baseball career was far more important than all of his baseball exploits. Beyond Home Plate shows why he believed this so fervently.

Perhaps no individual has had more of an effect on twentieth-century American Christianity than the renowned evangelist Billy Graham, whose work has been widely influential in arenas from the rising evangelical movement to the White House. Although Graham's influence on evangelicalism has long been recognized, Michael G. Long's The Legacy of Billy Graham is the first book to examine his impact on mainline Christianity and on American civil religion. With noted contributors including John B. Cobb Jr., Harvey Cox, Gary Dorrien, Karen Lebacqz, Thomas G. Long, Mark Lewis Taylor, and J. Philip Wogaman, this critical but generally appreciative volume assesses Graham's career from the perspectives of preaching and theology, social issues, and his engagement with his contemporaries and then concludes with two retrospectives on his legacy.

Explores Jackie Robinson's compelling and complicated legacy

Before the United States Supreme Court ruled against segregation in public schools, and before Rosa Parks refused to surrender her bus seat in Montgomery, Alabama, Jackie Robinson walked onto the diamond on April 15, 1947, as first baseman for the Brooklyn Dodgers, making history as the first African American to integrate Major League Baseball in the twentieth century. Today a national icon, Robinson was a complicated man who navigated an even more complicated world that both celebrated and despised him.

Many are familiar with Robinson as a baseball hero. Few, however, know of the inner turmoil that came with his historic status. Featuring piercing essays from a range of distinguished sportswriters, cultural critics, and scholars, this book explores Robinson's perspectives and legacies on civil rights, sports, faith, youth, and nonviolence, while providing rare glimpses into the struggles and strength of one of the nation's most athletically gifted and politically significant citizens. Featuring a foreword by celebrated directors and producers Ken Burns, Sarah Burns, and David McMahon, this volume recasts Jackie Robinson's legacy and establishes how he set a precedent for future civil rights activism, from Black Lives Matter to Colin Kaepernick.

First, King understood the State to be reflective of and involved in the creating, preserving, and reconciling work of God. Long contends, the foundation of this view is King's christologically grounded vision of the beloved community. While King understood the State to be deeply sinful, he affirmed the role of the State in creating, preserving, and reconciling work of God. Like the individuals that make up the State, the State is not only a force of good, but also of evil.

Second, King's theological understanding of the State remained relatively constant in most of its fundamental elements but developed in substantive content and expression throughout his life. With this argument, Long counters King scholarship that posits a radical transformation between the first decade and the last three years of King's ministry.

Third, King's understanding of the state has its roots in the African-American tradition he experienced through his family and his Morehouse professors -- many of whom were Black Baptist preachers as well as in European-American religious and republican traditions. Identifying King's thought as that of a bricoleur -- a moralist who uses moral languages for his own use -- Long warns against a tendency to dismiss the interconnections between the African-American and European-American dimensions of King's education. King was a black bricoleur. Finally, the root of King's understanding of the State is not incivic republicanism, theological liberalism, Marxism, Niebuhrian realism, or in any other such school, but in the religious tradition he experienced at home and at college.

Christian Peace and Nonviolence is not only intellectually compelling but also inspirational. It is more than a reference work. It is a witness.

Jackie Robinson believed in a God who sides with the oppressed and who calls us to see one another as sisters and brothers. This faith was a powerful but quiet engine that drove and sustained him as he shattered racial barriers on and beyond the baseball diamond. Jackie Robinson: A Spiritual Biography explores the faith that, Robinson said, carried him through the torment and abuse he suffered for integrating the major leagues and drove him to get involved in the civil rights movement. Marked by sacrifice and service, inclusiveness and hope, Robinson's faith shaped not only his character but also baseball and America itself.

A highly relevant, inclusive collection of voices from the roots of resistance. . . . Empowering words to challenge, confront, and defy.--Kirkus Reviews

This book fights fascism. This books offers hope. We The Resistance is essential reading for those who wish to understand how popular movements built around nonviolence have changed the world and why they retain the power to do so again.--Jonathan Eig, author of Ali: A Life

This comprehensive documentary history of non-violent resisters and resistance movements is an inspiring antidote to any movement fatigue or pessimism about the value of protest. It tells us we can learn from the past as we confront the present and hope to shape the future. Read, enjoy and take courage knowing you are never alone in trying to create a more just world. Persevere and persist and win, but know that even losing is worth the fight and teaches lessons for later struggles.--Mary Frances Berry, author of History Teaches Us to Resist: How Progressive Movements Have Succeeded in Challenging Times

We the Resistance illustrates the deeply rooted, dynamic, and multicultural history of nonviolent resistance and progressive activism in North America and the United States. With a truly comprehensive collection of primary sources, it becomes clear that dissent has always been a central feature of American political culture and that periods of quiescence and consensus are aberrant rather than the norm. Indeed, the depth and breadth of resistant and discordant voices in this collection is simply outstanding.--Leilah Danielson, author of American Gandhi: A.J. Muste and the History of American Radicalism in the Twentieth Century

While historical accounts of the United States typically focus on the nation's military past, a rich and vibrant counterpoint remains basically unknown to most Americans. This alternate story of the formation of our nation--and its character--is one in which courageous individuals and movements have wielded the weapons of nonviolence to resist policies and practices they considered to be unjust, unfair, and immoral.

We the Resistance gives curious citizens and current resisters unfiltered access to the hearts and minds--the rational and passionate voices--of their activist predecessors. Beginning with the pre-Revolutionary era and continuing through the present day, readers will directly encounter the voices of protesters sharing instructive stories about their methods (from sit-ins to tree-sitting) and opponents (from Puritans to Wall Street bankers), as well as inspirational stories about their failures (from slave petitions to the fight for the ERA) and successes (from enfranchisement for women to today's reform of police practices). Instruction and inspiration run throughout this captivating reader, generously illustrated with historic graphics and photographs of nonviolent protests throughout U.S. history.