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A Song for the Unsung

A Song for the Unsung:

Bayard Rustin, the Man Behind the 1963 March on Washington

By Carole Boston Weatherford and Rob Sanders

Illustrated by Byron McCray

Henry Hold and Company

November 8, 2022

ISBN-10: 1250779502

ISBN-13: 978-1250779502

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Awards & Recognitions:

  • 2024 Jane Addams Children’s Picture Book Award

  • Finalists for 2023 Lammy Award, Children’s/Middle Grade Category

  • Junior Library Guild Selection

  • Finalist Living the Dream Award

  • ALA 2023 Rainbow Book List

  • ALA 2023 Rainbow Book List—Top 10​​

Reviews:

“A rare tribute to a heroic figure of the civil rights movement. Effectively raises the profile of an African American crusader who was stigmatized for more than his race alone. Notable in the generous backmatter is an image of the march’s official program and an excerpted history of peaceful protest (post-Thoreau).”

— Kirkus

Jane Addams Peace Commitee Award
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About

 

A singular, richly illustrated picture book biography of Bayard Rustin, the gay Black man behind the March on Washington of 1963, by the acclaimed authors of Unspeakable: the Tulsa Race Massacre and Pride: The Story of Harvey Milk and the Rainbow Flag.

 

On August 28, 1968, a quarter of a million activists and demonstrators from every corner of the United States convened for the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. It was there and then that they raised their voices in unison to call for racial and economic justice for all Black Americans, to call out inequities, and ultimately to advance the Civil Rights Movement.

 

Every movement has its unsung heroes: individuals who work in the background without praise or accolades, who toil and struggle without notice. One of those unsung heroes was at the center of some of the most important decisions and events of the Civil Rights Movement. That hero was a quiet man, a gay African American man. He was Bayard Rustin. 

 

Authors Carole Boston Weatherford and Rob Sanders combine their tremendous talents with illustrator Byron McCray for a singular picture book biography.

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Byron McCray and Rob Sanders at the 2024 Jane Addams Book Awards.

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