Coretta Scott King Awards honor African American authors and illustrators of outstanding books portraying the Black experience for young readers. The award is intended to encourage the artistic expression of the African American experience through literature and the graphic arts. This expression includes biographical, historical, and social history treatments by African American authors and illustrators.
The Coretta Scott King Award is presented annually by the Coretta Scott King Committee of the American Library Association’s Ethnic Multicultural Information Exchange Round Table. The award is named to commemorate the life and work of civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr., and to honor his wife, Coretta Scott King, for working for peace and world brotherhood following King’s death.
Each year, one African American author and one African American illustrator receives the award chosen by a jury of seven members. All jurors have backgrounds in children’s literature. Winning books must portray some aspect of the Black experience, past, present, or future. The books must be written or illustrated by an African American, meet standards of quality for young people from preschool to the twelfth grade, and be published in the year prior to the award. Honor books may also be named each year.
The award was founded by two school librarians, Glyndon Flynt Greer and Mabel McKissick, and book publisher John Carroll. They established the award while they were attending the American Library Association meeting in New Jersey in 1969. The first awards went only to authors. An illustrator category was added in 1974. A New Talent award was added in 1995 for authors and illustrators beginning their careers. Winners must have no more than three published works. The award was originally named the Genesis Award and was later changed to the Coretta Scott King John Steptoe Award for New Talent. In 2010, the Coretta Scott King-Virginia Hamilton Award for Lifetime Achievement was established. The award recognizes an African American author or illustrator for a body of published books for children and/or young adults who has made a significant and lasting literary contribution.
