{"id":393,"date":"2018-02-27T14:55:00","date_gmt":"2018-02-27T14:55:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/olos.ala.org\/csk\/?p=393"},"modified":"2021-10-28T03:52:26","modified_gmt":"2021-10-28T03:52:26","slug":"explore-the-westward-expansion-with-csk-award-winning-titles","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/olos.ala.org\/csk\/2018\/02\/27\/explore-the-westward-expansion-with-csk-award-winning-titles\/","title":{"rendered":"Explore the Westward Expansion with CSK Award-Winning Titles"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\u201cThere are Black American stories somewhere between slavery and ghetto that deserve telling.\u201d<\/p>~Joyce Carol Thomas<\/a>, author, playwright, and CSK Honor Award winner<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

The Underground Railroad and Canada are well known for their part in African Americans\u2019 escape from bondage. However, in their search for peace and freedom, escaped and freed slaves left virtually no land untrod.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Though the story is often marginalized, regions west of the Mississippi River were a Promised Land for African Americans after Reconstruction. The call beckoned as strongly to Black whalemen<\/a> of Nantucket and New Bedford as it did to hands that harvested cotton, sugar, and tobacco in the Deep South. And while stories about the roles of people of color in the American West are comparatively few, they do exist.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Below is a roundup of outstanding resources. It includes CSK Award-winning titles and other support materials useful in building an enriched and inclusive curriculum.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Black Cowboys, Wild Horses<\/em><\/strong> tells the story of Bob Lemmons, the legendary Texas horse tracker.\u00a0This true account was written by Julius Lester and illustrated by Jerry Pinkney, both CSK Award- winners. Similarly, Black Frontiers: A History of African American Heroes in the Old West<\/em><\/strong> by Lillian Schlissel is a collection of powerful photographs that give testament to the mettle of this forgotten band of migrants. Before delving into these texts, teachers can have their students read the Junior Scholastic<\/em> article, \u201cThe Other Pioneers: African Americans on the Frontier.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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I Have Heard of a Land<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0by Joyce Carol Thomas centers on an African American woman pioneer and is a poetic tribute to African Americans who migrated to the Oklahoma territory. Floyd Cooper illustrated the text with quiet, muted tones that harmoniously blend with the author\u2019s voice, an African American writer who had ancestral connections to the region. It beautifully complements Pappy\u2019s Handkerchief<\/em><\/strong>. <\/em>The latter is by Devin Scillian (illustrated by Chris Ellison) and centers specifically on the Oklahoma Land Rush. Visit this link<\/a> for a teacher\u2019s guide for Pappy\u2019s Handkerchief.\u00a0<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

CSK Award-winning author Patricia McKissack\u2019s middle-grade book Scraps of Time: Away West<\/em><\/strong> is an intergenerational family saga alternating between modern times and the Reconstruction era of the 1870s.\u00a0For early elementary school readers, Barbara Brenner\u2019s Wagon Wheels (illustrated by Don Bolognese)\u00a0offers\u00a0an adventure that charts the odyssey of a father and his sons as they make their way to Kansas. This\u00a0teacher\u2019s guide, along with Nicodemus: The Black Experience Moving West<\/em><\/a>, a short video produced by the National Park Service, pair well with these texts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Vaunda Micheaux Nelson\u2019s Bad News for Outlaws: The Remarkable Life of Bass Reeves<\/em><\/strong>, Deputy U.S. Marshal,<\/strong><\/em> tells the story of a man whose life and career took him from a plantation in Arkansas then on to Texas, what would eventually become Oklahoma. Bad News for Outlaws<\/em><\/strong> was awarded the 2010 Coretta Scott King Author Award. Gregory Christie, the book\u2019s illustrator, was awarded a Coretta Scott King Illustrator Honor. Another with a similar setting and feel is Thunder Rose<\/strong><\/em>, written by Jerdine Nolen and illustrated by Kadir Nelson. Nelson was recognized for this work with the 2008 Coretta Scott King Illustrator Honor. It\u2019s an amusing tall tale with dense text and lovely illustrations that evoke the grace and grit woven into prairie life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Librarians and educators wishing to expand their coverage of this complicated segment of United States history can enrich their collections and class content with these books that explore the African American experience and contribution to Westward Expansion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Post by Jen\u00e9 Watson<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jen\u00e9 Watson works as a public librarian at a system in suburban Atlanta, where she coordinates Books in the Barbershop and family meditation programs.\u00a0She is the author of\u00a0The Spirit That Dreams: Conversations with Women Artists of Color<\/strong> (indigopen.com).<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cThere are Black American stories somewhere between slavery and ghetto that deserve telling.\u201d ~Joyce Carol Thomas, author, playwright, and CSK Honor Award winner The Underground Railroad and Canada are well known for their part in African Americans\u2019 escape from bondage. However, in their search for peace and freedom, escaped and freed slaves left virtually no … Continue reading Explore the Westward Expansion with CSK Award-Winning Titles<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30,14],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-393","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-book-reviews-recommendations","category-programming-ideas"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/olos.ala.org\/csk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/393","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/olos.ala.org\/csk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/olos.ala.org\/csk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olos.ala.org\/csk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olos.ala.org\/csk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=393"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/olos.ala.org\/csk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/393\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1482,"href":"https:\/\/olos.ala.org\/csk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/393\/revisions\/1482"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/olos.ala.org\/csk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=393"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olos.ala.org\/csk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=393"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olos.ala.org\/csk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=393"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}