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Principal
Kafele's “Must Read” Books for
Educators
of African American Children
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PRINCIPAL KAFELE'S COMMENTARY
To all educators (building level,
central office level and consultants) who are responsible for the
education of African American children, you have chosen a very noble
profession in which to work. At the core of your practice must
be reading. It doesn’t matter if your personal library is
comprised of over 10,000 books in the field of education. If
your personal library is not well stocked with books specifically
written for educating African American children, your library is
virtually worthless to your practice. If you are going to
successfully educate African American children, you must read, study
and apply culturally relevant, culturally appropriate and culturally
responsive reading material that addresses the specific needs of
African American learners. Anything less amounts to what Dr.
Carter G. Woodson said many years ago - MISEDUCATION! Although
it may not be possible to read all of the books listed below, it is
incumbent upon all of us to read, study and apply as many as we can.
The continued application of generic methodology for African
American children will continue to produce the dismal and
disappointing results that we see reflected in current state and
national achievement data.
The biggest challenge will be obtaining
many, if not most of these books. Mainstream bookstores
typically either do not or will not carry titles of this nature.
Their rationale is that there is no demand for them. It
doesn’t take a wise man to figure out that there can’t be a demand
for something that you don’t know exists! If the mainstream
bookstores were to stock these books on their shelves, educators
would be provided with the opportunity of learning of their
existence and thereby the opportunity of making their own purchasing
decision. I refer to the existing reality as the “deprivation
of information.” The book industry, which we can refer to as
the “information industry” is unfortunately reflective of many
aspects of our society relative to unequal exposure and unequal
opportunity. The way to correct this is by you, the reader of
this commentary demanding that mainstream bookstores stock the
shelves in their education sections with not only books that are
written by non-African American writers, scholars and educators, but
providing equal exposure to the works of African American writers,
scholars and educators as well. Once educators of African
American children are armed with a broader spectrum of research
materials for raising the achievement levels of their African
American students, then we will see African American children begin
to make the breakthroughs in all walks of life that we know they are
capable of making.
If the books you are looking for are
not available in your local bookstore, you should be able to obtain
them on the internet by simply typing the authors’ names in an
internet search engine.
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African History
1.
Black Man of the Nile
- Yosef ben-Jochannan
2.
Introduction to
African Civilizations - John G. Jackson
3.
The African Origins
of Civilization - Cheik Anta Diop
4.
The Cultural Unity of
Black Africa - Cheik Anta Diop
5.
Stolen Legacy -
George G. M. James
6.
Destruction of Black
Civilization - Chancellor Williams
7.
World’s Great Men of
Color, Vols. I and II - J. A. Rogers
8.
Sex and Race, Vols.
I-III - J. A. Rogers
9.
Nile Valley Contributions to
Civilization - Anthony T. Browder
10.
Nile Valley Civilizations - Ivan
Van Sertima
African American History
1.
Before the Mayflower
- Lerone Bennett, Jr.
2.
From Slavery to
Freedom - John Hope Franklin
3.
Notes For An African
World Revolution - John Henrik Clarke
4.
African American
History: A Journey to Liberation - Molefi K. Asante
5.
How Europe
Underdeveloped Africa - Walter Rodney
6.
They Came Before
Columbus - Ivan Van Sertima
7.
Blacks in Science -
Ivan Van Sertima
8.
Black Inventors of
America - McKinley Burt, Jr.
9.
Great Negroes: Past
and Present - Russell Adams
10.
Introduction to Black
Studies - Maulana Karenga
11.
What They Never Told
You in History Class - Kush
12.
The Black Holocaust
for Beginners - Sam Anderson
13.
Peculiar Institution
- Kenneth Stampp
14.
Africa’s Gift to
America - J. A. Rogers
15.
Philosophy and
Opinions of Marcus Garvey - Amy Jacques Garvey
16.
Marcus Garvey, Hero -
Tony Martin
17.
Marcus Garvey and the
Vision of Africa - John Henrik Clarke
18.
Up From Slavery -
Booker T. Washington
19.
Life and Times of
Frederick Douglass - Frederick Douglass
20.
Harriet Tubman - Ann
Petry
21.
Autobiography of W.
E. B. DuBois
22.
Autobiography of
Malcolm X - Alex Haley
23.
Malcolm X Speaks -
George Brietman
24.
Malcolm X, The Man
and His Times - John Henrik Clarke
25.
King, A Biography -
David Lewis
African American Education
1.
Miseducation of the
Negro - Carter G. Woodson
2.
Afrocentricity -
Molefi Kete Asante
3.
Black Students Guide
to Positive Education - Zak Kondo
4.
African Centered
Rites of Passage and Education - Lathardus Goggins II
5.
Issues in African
American Education - Walter Gill
6.
For the Children -
Madeline Cartwright
7.
Africa Counts - Claudia
Zaslavsky
8.
SBA: The Reawakening
of the African Mind - Asa G. Hilliard III
9.
Maroons Within Us -
Asa G. Hilliard III
10.
Young, Gifted and
Black - Asa G. Hilliard III, Theresa Perry, Claude Steele
11.
Infusion of African
and African American Content in the School Curriculum - Asa G.
Hilliard III,
12.
Lucretia
Payton-Stewart, Larry Obadele Williams
13.
The Failure of Public
Education in the Black Community - Anyim Palmer
14.
The Crisis and
Challenge of Black Mis-Education in America - Gyasi A. Foluke
15.
African-Centered
Schooling in Theory and Practice - Diane S. Pollard
16.
The Education of
Black People - W.E.B. DuBois and Herbert Aptheker
17.
Going to School: the
African American Experience - Kofi Lomotey
18.
Nationbuilding:
Theory and practice in Afrikan-centered education - Kwame Agyei
Akoto
19.
Too Much Schooling,
Too Little Education - Mwalimu J. Shujaa
20.
Sailing Against the
Wind: African Americans and Women in U.S. Education - Kofi Lometey
21.
Educating Our Black
Children: New Directions and Radical Approaches - Richard Majors
22.
Unbank the Fire:
Visions for the Education of African American Children - Janice E.
Hale
23.
The White Architects
of Black Education: Ideology and Power in America, 1865-1954
- William H. Watkins
24.
Improving Schools for
African American Students: A Reader for Educational Leaders -
Sheryl Denbo
25.
Yurugu: An
African-Centered Critique of European Cultural Thought and Behavior
- Marimba Ani
26.
African-Centered
Pedagogy:Developing Schools of Achievement for African American
Children - Peter C. Murrell, Jr.
27.
Reversing
Underachievement Among Gifted Black Students - Donna Y. Ford
28.
Center Shift: An
African-Centered Approach for the Multi-Cultural Curriculum - Joan
D. Ratteray
29.
Why Are All The Black
Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria - Beverly Daniel
Tatum
30.
Learning to Survive:
Black Youth Look for Education and Hope - Atron A. Gentry
31.
A Black Parent’s
Handbook to Educating Your Children (Outside of the Classroom) -
Baruti K. Kafele
Teaching African American Children
1.
A Handbook for
Teachers of African American Children - Baruti K. Kafele
2.
A Talk With Jawanza -
Jawanza Kunjufu
3.
Black Students/Middle
Class Teachers - Jawanza Kunjufu
4.
Keeping Black Boys
Out of Special Education - Jawanza Kunjufu
5.
Black Children -
Janice Hale
6.
Learning While Black
- Janice Hale
7.
Marva Collins Way -
Marva Collins
8.
Ordinary
Children/Extraordinary Teachers - Marva Collins
9.
I Choose To Stay -
Salome Thomas-El
10.
Black Teachers on
Teaching - Michele Foster
11.
From Rage to Hope:
Strategies for Reclaiming Black and Hispanic Students - Crystal
Kuykendall
12.
African-Centered
Interdisciplinary Multi Level Hands-On Science - Bernida Thompson
13.
Positive Afrikan
Images for Children (Social Studies Curriculum) - Red Sea Press
14.
African American
Children: A Self-Empowering Approach to Modifying Behavior Problems
and Preventing Academic
15.
Failure - Carolyn M.
Tucker
16.
Heritage - Joyce
Jarrett
17.
How to Teach Math to
Black Students - Shahid Muhammad
18.
Teaching Reading to
Black Adolescent Males: Closing the Achievement
Gap - Alfred W.Tatum
Motivating / Inspiring African
American Children
1.
Awakening the Natural
Genius of Black Children - Amos N. Wilson
2.
Developing Positive
Self-Images and Discipline in Black Children - Jawanza Kunjufu
3.
To Be Popular or
Smart: The Black Peer Group - Jawanza Kunjufu
4.
Motivating and
Preparing Black Youth for Success - Jawanza Kunjufu
5.
Harvesting New
Generations: The Positive Development of Black Youth - Useni E.
Perkins
6.
Doing It My Way:
Decision-Making for College Students – Matt Stevens
7.
Doing It My Way: A
Decision-Making Workbook for Today’s Youth – Matt Stevens
Connecting With African American
Males
1.
Countering the
Conspiracy to Destroy Black Boys, Vols. I-IV - Jawanza Kunjufu
2.
Bringing the Black
Boy to Manhood: The Hare Plan - Nathan and Julia Hare
3.
Educating African
American Males: Detroit’s Malcolm X Academy Solution - Clifford
Watson & Geneva Smitherman
4.
Coming of Age - Paul
Hill
5.
African American
Males in School and Society - Vernon C. Polite
6.
Practical Application
of Social Learning Theories in Educating Young African American
Males - George R. Taylor
7.
Curriculum
Strategies: Social Skills Intervention for Young African Males -
George R. Taylor
8.
Kill Them Before They
Grow: The Misdiagnosis of African American Boys in
America’s Classrooms - Michael Porter
9.
The Trouble with
Black Boys - Pedro A. Noguera
Psychology
1.
Developmental
Psychology of the Black Child - Amos N. Wilson
2.
Chains and Images of
Psychological Slavery - Na’im Akbar
3.
African-Centered
Psychology: Cultural Focusing for Multi-Cultural Competence - Daudi
Ajani Ya Azibo
4.
Post Traumatic
Slavery Disorder – Omar Reid, Sekou Mims, Larry Higginbottom
5.
Post Traumatic Slave
Syndrome – Joy DeGruy Leary |
