2022 Winner of the Coretta Scott King Award for Authors
by Carole Boston Weatherford and Floyd Cooper
Celebrated author Carole Boston Weatherford and illustrator Floyd Cooper provide a powerful look at the Tulsa Race Massacre, one of the worst incidents of racial violence in our nation's history. The book traces the history of African Americans in Tulsa's Greenwood district and chronicles the devastation that occurred in 1921 when a white mob attacked the Black community.
News of what happened was largely suppressed, and no official investigation occurred for seventy-five years. This picture book sensitively introduces young readers to this tragedy and concludes with a call for a better future.
Though not recognized as an association award by the ALA until 1982, the Coretta Scott King Award had its inception in the late sixties. The award, commemorating Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and honoring his widow, Coretta Scott King, honors African American writers and illustrators and celebrates the African-American experience through artistic expression. It is presented annually by the Coretta Scott King Task Force of the American Library Association's Social Responsibilities Round Table.