‘Reading Rainbow’ to return, with viral librarian Mychal Threets as its host

Explore Our Galleries

An NAACP flyer campaigning for the Dyer Anti-Lynching Bill, which passed the U.S. House of Representatives in 1922, but was filibustered to defeat in the Senate. Dyer, the NAACP, and freedom fighters around the country, like Flossie Baily, struggled for years to get the Dyer and other anti-lynching bills passed, to no avail. Today there is still no U.S. law specifically against lynching. In 2005, eighty of the 100 U.S. Senators voted for a resolution to apologize to victims' families and the country for their failure to outlaw lynching. Courtesy of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP).

Some Exhibits to Come – One Hundred Years of Jim Crow

Bibliography – One Hundred Years Of Jim Crow

Claude, age 23, just months before his 1930 murder. Courtesy of Faith Deeter.

Freedom’s Heroes During Jim Crow: Flossie Bailey and the Deeters

Souvenir Portrait of the Lynching of Abram Smith and Thomas Shipp, August 7, 1930, by studio photographer Lawrence Beitler. Courtesy of the Indiana Hisorical Society.

An Iconic Lynching in the North

Claxton Dekle – Prosperous Farmer, Husband & Father of Two

Ancient manuscripts about mathematics and astronomy from Timbuktu, Mali

Some Exhibits to Come – African Peoples Before Captivity

Shackles for Adults & Children from the Henrietta Marie

Some Exhibits to Come – The Middle Passage

What I Saw Aboard a Slave Ship in 1829

Life After Hate: A Former White Power Leader Redeems Himself

Breaking News!

Today's news and culture by Black and other reporters in the Black and mainstream media.

Click Here

Ways to Support ABHM?

Click Here

September 30, 2025

By Marquise Francis

The show, which LeVar Burton previously hosted on PBS, was canceled in 2006.

Michael Thweets, a young Black man in button down shirt featuring comic panels — Michael Thweets in 2024 (CC BY-SA 4.0, Link)

Young readers can once again be like butterflies in the sky.

“Reading Rainbow,” a show that previously aired on PBS and was hosted by the beloved actor LeVar Burton, is returning nearly two decades after it ended its original run.

This time around, a new host is taking the helm: Mychal Threets, the internet’s favorite librarian and literacy advocate.

Threets, the former Solano County, California, library supervisor who has gained a massive following online in recent years, became known for sharing daily interactions at the library and talking openly about his mental health challenges.

Launched in July 1983, “Reading Rainbow” was created to motivate children to find joy in reading during summer recess from school, according to ReadingRainbow.org. It won a Peabody Award and multiple Daytime Emmy Awards. After 21 seasons and 155 episodes, it was canceled in November 2006.

Keep reading to see how the show was announced.

Check out these books recommended by Black teachers.

More recent Black news.

Comments Are Welcome

Note: We moderate submissions in order to create a space for meaningful dialogue, a space where museum visitors – adults and youth –– can exchange informed, thoughtful, and relevant comments that add value to our exhibits.

Racial slurs, personal attacks, obscenity, profanity, and SHOUTING do not meet the above standard. Such comments are posted in the exhibit Hateful Speech. Commercial promotions, impersonations, and incoherent comments likewise fail to meet our goals, so will not be posted. Submissions longer than 120 words will be shortened.

See our full Comments Policy here.