By Katherine Decker, Head of Circulation
Monday, January 19, 2026 is Martin Luther King, Jr. Day. It is a national day of service, and the long weekend provides a chance to focus on the importance of volunteerism. In addition to being an opportunity for individuals and groups to effect change in their various communities, it is also a chance to educate ourselves about MLK’s life and activism as well as about the civil rights struggles throughout history and those that continue to this day.
Check out the Meet Boston website for a list of events honoring Martin Luther King, Jr Day around the Boston Area. Boston was considered a second home for Dr. King and his wife, Coreeta Scott King.
Learn more by checking out some of the titles listed below that can be found throughout the NOBLE network.
Adult Books
Civil Rights Queen: Constance Baker Motley and the Struggle for Equality by Tomiko Brown-Nagin
The Movement Made Us: a Father, a Son, and the Legacy of a Freedom Ride by David J. Dennis Jr. in collaboration with David J. Dennis Sr
Moon U.S. Civil Rights Trail: A Traveler’s Guide to the People, Places, and Events That Made the Movement by Deborah D. Douglas
King: A Life by Jonathan Eig
Our History is the Future: Standing Rock Versus the Dakota Access Pipeline, and the Long Tradition of Indigenous Resistance by Nick Estes
Our Secret Society: Mollie Moon and the glamour, money, and power behind the civil rights movement by Tanisha C. Ford
Formidable: American Women and the Fight for Equality: 1920-2020 by Elisabeth Griffith
Young and Restless: the Girls Who Sparked America’s Revolutions by Mattie Kahn
Fight Like Hell: The Untold History of American Labor by Kim Kelly
March by John Lewis
His truth is marching on : John Lewis and the power of hope by Jon Meacham; Afterword by John Lewis
Essential: How the Pandemic Transformed the Long Fight for Worker Justice by Jamie K. McCallum
Awakening: #MeToo and the Global Fight for Women’s Rights by Rachel B. Vogelstein and Meighan Stone
Saying it loud: 1966–the year Black power challenged the civil rights movement by Mark Whitaker
The Agitators: Three Friends Who Fought for Abolition and Women’s Rights by Dorothy Wickenden
Young Adult Books
Unequal: a Story of America by Michael Eric Dyson
The Spirit of Freedom: powerful women of the Civil Rights Movement by Marty Gitlin
Rolling Warrior: the Incredible, Sometimes Awkward, True Story of a Rebel Girl on Wheels Who Helped Spark a Revolution by Judith Heumann with Kristen Joiner
Better Than We Found It: Conversations to Help Save the World by Frederick Joseph and Porsche Joseph
Girls Resist!: a guide to activism, leadership, and starting a revolution by KaeLyn Rich
Make good trouble: discover movements that sparked change by Jamia Wilson
Children’s Books
Fighting for YES!: the Story of Disability Rights Activist Judith Heumann by Maryann Cocca-Leffler
When the Schools Shut Down: A Young Girl’s Story of Virginia’s “Lost Generation” and the Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka Decision by Yolanda Gladden
We’ve Got a Job: the 1963 Birmingham Children’s March by Cynthia Levinson
American Civil Rights Movement by Emily Jankowski Mahoney
You are mighty: a guide to changing the world by Caroline Paul
All the Way to the Top: How One Girl’s Fight for Americans with Disabilities Changed Everything by Annette Bay Pimentel
What is the Civil Rights Movement? by Sherri L. Smith; illustrated by Tim Foley
Kid Activists: True Tales of Childhood from Champions of Change by Robin Stevenson
Who Was Martin Luther King, Jr.? by Bonnie Bader; illustrated by Elizabeth Wolf