MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:
It's Black History Month, and some people are celebrating by reading books together.
TONYA PERRY: African American reading gives me joy. It's a place of community.
STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
Tonya Perry is president of the National Council of Teachers of English.
MARTIN: In 1990, the group launched annual gatherings where authors and others read out loud about the African American experience. More than 6 million people have participated.
PERRY: We share together in the reading of the literature. And everyone brought to the table their own experience and their own ability to understand and ask questions, and everyone is welcome to that table.
INSKEEP: Perry is also the provost at Miles College, which is a historically Black institution in Fairfield, Alabama.
PERRY: Having an opportunity to hear the perspective of diverse peoples is very important to the fabric of our country - and everyone playing a role in our history. It just allows all of our students to have access to understanding all of our diversity, all of the peoples who make our country the country that it is.
MARTIN: Carole Boston Weatherford is a professor and award-winning author of more than 80 books for young people.
CAROLE BOSTON WEATHERFORD: Children gravitate toward books where characters look like them and are touched by books where the characters look like them. All children deserve to see themselves in books. And of course, seeing yourself in a book makes you want to read more.
MARTIN: Weatherford also brings the readings to her students.
WEATHERFORD: Knowing your history is valuable, is powerful. You can't take it to the bank, but you can't lose it in the stock market either. Once you know it, no one can ever take it away from you.
INSKEEP: Jacqueline Woodson, who wrote "Brown Girl Dreaming," says the experience holds special meaning this year.
JACQUELINE WOODSON: I think the attempted erasure of Black history and so many histories in this country is very, of course, intentional, right? Because if we don't know where we come from, we won't know where we're going. And we won't know how to not repeat the mistakes of the past.
MARTIN: Some of Weatherford and Woodson's books have been banned or challenged, but Woodson persists.
WOODSON: No one can steal our stories, right? If we're not writing the stories down, we're going to be telling the stories. If we're not telling the stories, we're going to be singing the stories. We're going to be dancing the stories.
INSKEEP: If you're interested, you can find suggested books online at ncte.org.
(SOUNDBITE OF DUKE ELLINGTON & JOHN COLTRANE'S "MY LITTLE BROWN BOOK") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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