We’re Better Than This: Young Readers’ Edition: My Fight for the Future of Our Democracy

Gr 3-7–The adults got (mostly) Laurence Fishburne, but Adam Lazarre-White is distinctly the softer, better choice for younger listeners to get to know the late congressman in his own words. Cummings was born to South Carolina sharecroppers who moved to Baltimore “looking for a better life.” His modest childhood provided early lessons on combatting racism; in 1962, at 11, he helped integrate the neighborhood pool. He remained firmly grounded in his community, active at New Psalmist Baptist Church. He was a lawyer before being elected to the Maryland House of Delegates, then the U.S. House of Representatives. His honesty made him a target of the 45th U.S. president, but Cummings refused to demean himself. At grave personal cost, he never stopped working for the people. Cummings’s beloved widow, Maya Rockeymoore Cummings, joins Lazarre-White near book’s end.