The Voice That Challenged a Nation

 

Title:  The Voice That Challenged a Nation

Author: Russell Freedman

Age: 9-14

Award: Newbery Medal 2005

 

This is a biography about Marian Anderson, but was also primarily about how black artists were treated in the 1930s and 1940s, so it went beyond just being a biography. Each page had at least one photography either of Marian Anderson, a program for one of her concerts, or a photo depicting Jim Crow laws and segregation in the south. There's an extensive bibliography in the back. It was really interesting and taught me about a very important event in 1939-- when the DAR wouldn't allow black performers to hold concerts in Constitution Hall in Washington D.C. It also dealt extensively with Eleanor Roosevelt's involvement with abolishing segregation, something I knew very little about.

The photographs that appear in this book I think are truly what make this book so well done and made it an award winner.  This was someone I knew very little about so it was eye opening.