Central Kansas Library System

When Harriet Tubman was born a plantation slave in 1820, her parents hoped she could learn a trade and be spared from working in the fields. But because she defended a slave against an overseer, she became a field hand anyway. As she learned to survive in the woods and find her way by the North Star, she dreamed of freedom. When she was almost 30, she finally made her escape-but securing her own freedom wasn't enough. Risking life and limb, she became...

"The true story of Effa Manley, the first and only woman in the Baseball Hall of Fame, and her ownership role in the Negro Leagues leading up to the integration of Major League Baseball"-- Before Jackie Robinson broke Major League Baseball's color barrier in 1947, Black athletes plated in the Negro Leagues, on teams coached by Black managers, cheered on by Black fans. Those leagues owed their existence and success to savvy businesspeople like Effa...

"A picture book biography sharing the inspiring and incredible true story of the nation's oldest student, Mary Walker, who learned to read at the age of 116"--

Meet Katherine Johnson, a brilliant mathematician who worked at NASA in the early 1950s until retiring in 1986. Katherine's unparalleled calculations (done by hand) helped plan the trajectories for NASA's Mercury and Apollo missions (including the Apollo 11 moon landing). She is said to be one of the greatest American minds of all time.

A lyrical biography of Harriet Tubman honors the woman of humble origins whose courage and compassion make her larger than life, discussing her roles as a slave, a conductor on the Underground Railroad, a nurse, a Union spy, and a suffragist.

"Born enslaved, Harriet Tubman rose up to become one of the most successful, determined and well-known conductors of the Underground Railroad. With her family's love planted firmly in her heart, Harriet looked to the North Star for guidance--and its light helped guide her way out of slavery. Her courage made it possible for her to help others reach freedom too." -- Amazon.com.

Introduces young readers to Dorothy Height, who, growing up as a Black girl in the 1920s and 30s, persisted in pushing for change, becoming a seminal figure in both the civil rights and women's rights movements and receiving the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

Explores the previously uncelebrated but pivotal contributions of NASA's African American women mathematicians to America's space program, describing how Jim Crow laws segregated them despite their groundbreaking successes. Includes biographies on Dorothy Jackson Vaughan (1910-2008), Mary Winston Jackson (1921-2005), Katherine Colman Goble Johnson (1918-), Dr. Christine Mann Darden (1942-).

"This picture book biography focuses on critically acclaimed talk show host Oprah Winfrey, who used her struggles in childhood as motivation to become "Queen of All Media.""--

"Graphic biography detailing Harriet Tubman's escape from slavery and her efforts with other abolitionists to rescue dozens of those still enslaved"--