McKissack, Fredrick (1939-2013), was an African American author of children’s books. McKissack and his wife, Patricia (1944-2017), wrote more than 100 books together, most on African American history and race relations. These books explore such topics as the arts, politics, science, and sports in African American life. Many of the books were published as part of a series of biographies called “Great African Americans.”
The McKissacks shared the 1990 Coretta Scott King Award for A Long Hard Journey: The Story of the Pullman Porter (1989). They won the award again in 1995 for Christmas in the Big House, Christmas in the Quarters (1994). The book describes holiday celebrations of both enslaved people and slaveholders on a Southern plantation in 1859, shortly before the outbreak of the American Civil War (1861-1865). They also shared the 2014 Coretta Scott King-Virginia Hamilton Lifetime Achievement Award. The Coretta Scott King Awards annually honor African American authors and illustrators of outstanding books portraying the Black experience for young readers.
Fredrick Lemuel McKissack was born in Nashville on Aug. 12, 1939. He graduated from what is now Tennessee State University in 1964 with a B.S. degree. That same year he married Patricia Carwell. Fredrick worked as a civil engineer from 1964 to 1974 and operated a general contracting company from 1974 to 1982.
The first McKissack collaboration was Look What You’ve Done Now, Moses (1984). Their other works together include W. E. B. Dubois (1990); Sojourner Truth: Ain’t I a Woman? (1992); Let My People Go: Bible Stories Told by a Freeman of Color to His Daughter, Charlotte, in Charleston, South Carolina 1806-1816 (1998); Black Hands, White Sails: The Story of African-American Whalers (1999); and Days of Jubilee: The End of Slavery in the United States (2003). The McKissacks also created a series of books for beginning readers that feature a little girl named Messy Bessey. The series began with Messy Bessey (1987). Fredrick alone wrote Black Hoops: The History of African Americans in Basketball (1999). Fredrick McKissack died on April 28, 2013.
