Coretta Scott King Analysis

One of the biggest book awards to receive is the Coretta Scott King Award. The Coretta Scott King Book Award is given annually to outstanding African American authors and illustrators of books for children and young adults that demonstrate an appreciation of African American culture and universal human values. The award commemorates the life and work of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and honors his wife, Mrs. Coretta Scott King, for her courage and determination to continue the work for peace and world brotherhood (ala.org). This award was established in 1969 and the award for illustrators was added in 1979. In 2010, “My People,” written by Langston Hughes and illustrated by Charles R. Smith won the Coretta Scott King Award due to its illustrations and powerful message. Langston Hughes chose to write a short poem using simple words to describe the African American race. And Charles R. Smith uses illustrations of everyday people of all shades, ages, and sex of the African American race to teach self-confidence, appreciation, and diversity of their race. Hughes poem pays appreciation for blacks who have been admired for generations. The poem and book together just shows how special and unique everyone is despite the fact that you are different shades and have different ages. In this …show more content…
Photographer Charles R. Smith Jr. uses sepia-toned photos that, when paired with the classic Langston Hughes poem "My People," create an intense montage. The back splashes of the photos are black. Then writer states that, Smith said the images are printed on watercolor paper because it gives richness to the photos. He goes on and states the people in the images are people that he know, for instance like his kids and people who train at the gym with him. This is great info that he used people that he know and work with to bring about these powerful images in this