These lists present stories with African American characters as leading characters and illustrate African American history, biography and culture. Caregivers and educators can encourage reading books with racially diverse characters and begin or continue conversations about African American history with these lists.

Sharing stories with diverse characters and pictures of people of diverse races and cultures promotes positive racial identity development in young children. To learn more about positive racial identity development in early education, take a look at the University of Pittsburgh’s Understanding PRIDE in Pittsburgh report.