Books About Voting Rights

by Maria Salvadore and Reneé Critcher Lyons

Following is a select list of books for children and young adults regarding voting rights:

Because They Marched: The People’s Campaign for Voting Rights That Changed America by Russell Freedman (Holiday House, 2014)
Ages 12-17, Grades 5 and up

Freedman reveals the role of Selma’s teenagers and children in the march to Selma and the eventual passing of the Voting Rights Act.

Declare Yourself: Speak. Connect. Act. Vote by various contributors (Greenwillow, 2008)
High school to adult

Over fifty well-known people, from actors to novelists, share their experiences and ideas to provide inspiration and a strong rationale for young people to become involved in the political process—and to vote.

Elizabeth Leads the Way: Elizabeth Cady Stanton and the Right to Vote by Tanya Lee Stone, illustrated by Rebecca Gibbon (Holt, 2008)
Grades K-3, ages 5-8

A young girl decided to stand up for her rights and became a leader in the fight for women’s voting rights. This gently-fictionalized picture book biography details the way things were.

Lillian’s Right to Vote: A Celebration of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 by Jonah Winter (Schwartz and Wade, 2015)
Ages 5-9, Grades K-4

As Lillian, in her older years, climbs the hill to the Courthouse to cast her ballot, she remembers what her ancestors endured so that she might exercise her right to vote.

Turning Fifteen on the Road to Freedom: My Story of the Selma Voting Rights March by Lynda Blackman Lowery (Dial Books, 2015)
Ages 12 and up, Grades 7 and up

Lowery provides her first-hand account of marching to Selma, Alabama to ensure her constitutional rights, on the way being arrested nine times before the age of fifteen.

With Courage and Cloth: Winning the Fight for a Woman’s Right to Vote by Ann Bausum (National Geographic, 2004)
Grades 7 to adult

Photographs and compelling text tell the story of the women’s suffrage movement in the early 20th century.

Vote! By Eileen Christelow (Clarion, 2003)
Grades 2-5, ages 7-10

One town’s mayoral election provides a lucid introduction to voting (including a recount). Includes additional information such as a voting timeline and a list of internet resources.