Belated birthday wishes Kadir Nelson! Born May 15, Kadir Nelson is an award winning author, illustrator, and artist. His work has appeared on several New Yorker covers. He is the 2026 Virginia Hamilton Lifetime Achievement Award for his body of artwork. Here are some of his notable works:
Happy birthday Ethel Morgan Smith! Born April 11, 1952, Ethel Morgan Smith is an author and professor. She was also the 2023 Eudora Welty Prize Scholar for her book, Path to Grace Reimagining the Civil Rights Movement.
Blessed heavenly birthday Booker Taliaferro Washington! Born April 5, Booker T. Washington was an educator, author, founder and first president of what is now Tuskegee University. Known for Up From Slavery, Booker T. Washington wrote several books. Here are just a few:
Born March 15, Harriet E. Wilson was the first African American to publish a novel in North America. Her novel, Our Nig, Sketches From the Life of a Free Black, published in 1859, is an autobiographical narrative that stands as one of the most important accounts of the life of a black woman in the antebellum North.
Born March 3, Lawrence Dunbar Reddick was an African American historian, professor, and author of the first biography of Martin Luther King, Jr.
W.E.B. Du Bois is another author born on February 23. Author of the classic, The Souls of Black Folk, Dr. Du Bois continued writing many more books on African Americans. Read more about this scholarly professor, writer, and civil rights activist here.
John Lewis was born February 20. Posting books about his life and legacy. Read more about him here.
Here are just a few books written by and about him.
T. Thomas Fortune was a journalist and editor. He wrote about civil rights and other issues. Read more about his life and writings here. Some of his more notable books are below:
At the Sherwood Forest Branch Library, I saw a documentary film about Dorothy Foreman Cotton, an activist, educator, and unsung hero in the civil rights movement. She taught voting education to people in the South during the civil rights movement. More information about her film can be found here:
She wrote a book titled “If Your Back’s Not Bent”
2019 Author Winner: A Few Red Drops by Claire Hartfield
2019 Illustrator Winner: The Stuff of Stars; illustrated by Ekua Holmes
2019 Author Honor Title: The Parker Inheritance by Varian Johnson
2019 Illustrator Honor Title: Memphis, Martin, and the Mountaintop; illustrated by R. Gregory Christie
