Books Race & Racism

BHM Series #5: Core Values (and Books!) to Celebrate During Black History Month

In honor of Black History Month, I’m reposting a previous series. A few years ago, (2015 to be exact!) I challenged myself to write 28 posts highlighting African-American History. This year I finally reached my goal!!! Check out my original post below which appeared on February 17, 2015. To see more posts in this series, click here.


Celebrating Black History isn’t about cut and paste activities, or eating sweet-potatoes and calling it a day. How do you ensure you are celebrating Black History in a way that values the cultural contributions of a people within a wider social and historical context?

Here’s is a start…

Core Values to Celebrate During BHM: 7 Core Values to Celebrate During Black History Month from Lee & Low Books

This book list from Lee & Low is organized under 7 Key Values: Perseverance, Determination, & Grit, Leadership & Courage, Teamwork & Collaboration, Responsibility & Commitment,  Optimism & Hope, Compassion & Love, Passion & Pride

Core Values to Celebrate During BHM: There are also suggested discussion questions

  1. How does/do the character(s) show (core value)?
  2. What positive effects are associated with having/showing (core value)?
  3. How do you show (core value)?
  4. How can you work towards having/showing (core value)?
  5. What core values do you think are important to apply in our classroom? Why?

Included as well are helpful links to other resources including an 8-step checklist for building an inclusive book collection that reflects the diversity of the human experience and “dos and don’ts” for teaching Black History from Teaching Tolerance.

Read more from this awesome book list…


Want more ideas? Check out these related reads: Diversify your Child’s Toy ChestWhat Color Crayons are in Your Coloring Box?Books that Get the Conversation Started

How are you actively exposing yourself and your children to positive African-American role-models? Please share your ideas, resources and comments below!


Core Values to Celebrate During BHM: My homework assignment; Inspired by an SNL’s skit, I challenged myself to write 28 posts highlighting African-American culture and heritage (roughly one for each day of the month)… Do you have a great resource to share? Post it in the comments or email me!

If you found this post informative, can you please share it? Thank you!

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