Portraits of African American Heroes

A number of nonfiction texts give voice to important historical events and figures. Visually captivating and rich in detail, Portraits of African-American Heroes by Tonya Bolden, illus. by Ansel Pitcairn, traces the lives and achievements of 10 iconic African-Americans. Bolden selects men and women from periods throughout American history, from Frederick Douglass and W.E.B. Du Bois to Malcolm X and Ruth Simmons. Pitcairn captures the heroic personages of Bolden's subjects, activists and artists, intellectuals and explorers in b&w paintings (a portrait of Matthew Henson depicts him, fittingly, with a parka, as he accompanied Admiral Peary; they were the first two explorers to set foot on the North Pole).