The fight for the right to vote has been an ongoing struggle in the United States since this country's founding, and continues to this day. Right now, we are living in the midst of an important historical moment in our country’s fight for democracy, and I hope this blog can offer parents and students resources for understanding the past and our present history. I found The Georgia Public Broadcasting’s “Things Explained: The History of U.S. Voting Rights” video to be a helpful, condensed kid-friendly video that explains this country’s voting rights struggles (especially the struggles of our country’s Black citizens).

The 2020 election high-voter turnout was historic, but the backlash has come swiftly. In its article, “Voting Laws Round-Up: March 2021,” The Brennan Center for Justice reports that as of March 24, legislators have introduced 361 bills with restrictive voting provisions in 47 states. The states that have seen the largest number of restrictive bills introduced are Texas (49 bills), Georgia (25 bills), and Arizona (23 bills). New York, however, is not immune to this trend-for example, New York Senate Bill S264 passed by the New York Assembly and Senate shortens absentee voting application deadlines for future voters in New York. Congress’s For the People Act (House H.R. 1 and Senate S1) could transform and expand voting rights nationwide, and reverse many of the states’ restrictions. For further reading on the For the People Act, I recommend the Brennan Center for Justice’s article, “Congress Must Pass the For the People Act.” Will the For the People Act be passed? Will voting rights expand, or be restricted in the years to come? Will we as a country be able to make systemic changes to diminish inequalities that exist in our society, or will they worsen? Below you will find books (nonfiction and fiction) for children – both eBooks on Overdrive and Hoopla and books in the Westchester libraries – that help to explore our country’s history of voting rights struggles, and help understand the current fight:

One Person, No Vote: How Not All Voters Are Treated Equally by Carol Anderson & Tonya Bolden
(Grades 6 & Up)
OverDrive
Library Catalog

The Story of the Selma Voting Rights Marches in Photographs by David Aretha
(Grades 4-8)
OverDrive
Library Catalog

Finish the Fight: The Brave and Revolutionary Women Who Fought for the Right to Vote by Veronica Chambers
(Grades 4-8)
OverDrive
Library Catalog

Martin Luther King: The Peaceful Warrior by Ed Clayton & Donald Bermudez
(Grades 4-7)
OverDrive
Library Catalog

Equality’s Call: The Story of Voting Rights in America by Deborah Diesen & Magdalena Mora
(Grades K-2)
OverDrive
Library Catalog

Lifting As We Climb: Black Women’s Battle for the Ballot Box by Evette Dionne
(Grades 5-7)
OverDrive
Hoopla
Library Catalog

Stella by Starlight by Sharon M. Draper
(Grades 4-8)
OverDrive
Hoopla
Library Catalog

V Is for Voting by Kate Farrell & Caitlin Kuhwald
(Preschool-Grade 3)
OverDrive
Library Catalog

The Power Book: What Is It? Who Has It and Why? by Roxane Gay
(Grades 3-7)
Hoopla
Library Catalog

John Lewis in the Lead: A Story of the Civil Rights Movement by Jim Haskins & Benny Andrews
(Grades K-4)
OverDrive
Library Catalog

This Book Is Anti-Racist: 20 Lessons on How to Wake Up, Take Action, and Do the Work by Tiffany Jewell & Aurelia Durand
(Grades 4 & Up)
OverDrive
Library Catalog

John Lewis: Get to Know the Statesman Who Marched for Civil Rights by Jehan Jones-Radgowski
(Grades 4-8)
OverDrive
Hoopla
Library Catalog

Women Win the Vote!: 19 for the 19th Amendment by Nancy B. Kennedy & Katy Dockrill
(Grades 5-8)
OverDrive
Hoopla
Library Catalog

Turning 15 on the Road to Freedom: My Story of the 1965 Selma Voting Rights March by Lynda Blackmon Lowery & Elspeth Leacock
(Grades 4-8)
OverDrive
Library Catalog

Lift As You Climb: The Story of Ella Baker by Patricia Hruby Powell & R. Gregory Christie
(Grades K-3)
OverDrive
Library Catalog

Black Voter Suppression: The Fight for the Right to Vote by Dr. Artika R. Tyner
(Grades 3-7)
OverDrive
Hoopla
Library Catalog

The Teachers March!: How Selma’s Teachers Changed History by Sandra Neil Wallace & Rich Wallace
(Grades K-4)
OverDrive
Library Catalog

Voice of Freedom: Fannie Lou Hamer by Carole Boston Weatherford
(Grades 3-6)
OverDrive
Hoopla
Library Catalog

Lillian's Right to Vote: A Celebration of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 by Jonah Winter & Shane W. Evans
(Grades K-4)
OverDrive
Library Catalog

Roses and Radicals: The Epic Story of How American Women Won the Right to Vote by Susan Zimet, Todd Hasak-Lowy
(Grades 5-8)
OverDrive
Library Catalog