The Carter G. Woodson Book Award is an American literary award created in 1973 by the Racism and Social Justice Committee of the National Council for the Social Studies to promote cultural literacy in children and young adults. [1]
First presented in 1974, the award is named for American historian, author, and journalist Carter G. Woodson. Currently awarded at three levels – elementary, middle, and secondary – middle was added in 2001 after the other two divisions began in 1989. [2]
In addition to announcing winners, the award recognizes honor books, referred to from 1980 to 1996 as those having "outstanding merit". [2] An accompanying seal, with a likeness of Woodson, was introduced in 1999 with gold seals applied to winning book covers and silver seals on honor books. [2]
As of 2024 [update] , Brent Ashabranner is the only author whose books have received the award three times, as well as the only to have winning books two years in a row. Don Tate, who first had a book win the Woodson award in 2016, illustrated a second title that also (uniquely) won that year.
| Year | Author | Title | Subject | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1974 | Eloise Greenfield | Rosa Parks | Rosa Parks | [3] |
| 1975 | Jesse C. Jackson | Make a Joyful Noise Unto the Lord: The Life of Mahalia Jackson, Queen of the Gospel Singers | Mahalia Jackson | [4] |
| 1976 | Laurence Yep | Dragonwings | Chinese Americans | [5] |
| 1977 | Dorothy Sterling | The Trouble They Seen | African Americans | [6] |
| 1978 | Jane Goodsell | The Biography of Daniel Inouye | Daniel Inouye | [7] |
| 1979 | Peter Nabokov | Native American Testimony: An Anthology of Indian and White Relations | Native Americans | [8] |
| 1980 | Nancy Wood | War Cry on a Prayer Feather: Prose and Poetry of the Ute | Ute people | [9] |
| 1981 | Milton Meltzer | The Chinese Americans | Chinese Americans | [10] |
| 1982 | Susan Carver and Paula McGuire | Coming to North America from Mexico, Cuba and Puerto Rico | Immigration to the U.S. | [11] |
| 1983 | Brent Ashabranner | Morning Star, Black Sun | Northern Cheyenne tribe | [12] |
| 1984 | E.B. Fincher | Mexico and the United States | Mexico–U.S. relations | [13] |
| 1985 | Brent Ashabranner | To Live in Two Worlds: American Indian Youth Today | Native Americans | [12] |
| 1986 | Brent Ashabranner | Dark Harvest: Migrant Farmworkers in America | Migrant workers | [12] |
| 1987 | Arlene Hirschfelder | Happily May I Walk | Native Americans | [14] |
| 1988 | James Haskins | Black Music in America: A History Through Its People | African-American music | [15] |
| Year | Author | Title | Subject | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1989 | Charles Patterson | Marian Anderson | Marian Anderson | [16] |
| 1990 | Rebecca Larsen | Paul Robeson | Paul Robeson | [17] |
| 1991 | Mary E. Lyons | Sorrow's Kitchen: The Life and Folklore of Zora Neale Hurston | Zora Neale Hurston | [18] |
| 1992 | Jeri Ferris | Native American Doctor: The Story of Susan LaFlesche Picotte | Susan LaFlesche Picotte | [19] |
| 1993 | Mildred Pitts Walter | Mississippi Challenge | African Americans in Mississippi | |
| 1994 | James Haskins | The March on Washington | March on Washington | |
| 1995 | Zak Mettger | Till Victory is Won: Black Soldiers in the Civil War | African Americans in the Civil War | |
| 1996 | Ellen Levine | A Fence Away from Freedom: Japanese Americans and World War II | Internment of Japanese Americans | |
| 1997 | James Haskins | The Harlem Renaissance | Harlem Renaissance | |
| 1998 | Milton Meltzer | Langston Hughes | Langston Hughes | |
| 1999 | Rinna Evelyn Wolfe | Edmonia Lewis: Wildfire in Marble | Edmonia Lewis | |
| 2000 | Sharon Linnea | Princess Ka'iulani: Hope of a Nation, Heart of a People | Kaʻiulani | |
| 2001 | Albert Marrin | Tatan'ka Iyota'ke: Sitting Bull and His World | Sitting Bull | |
| 2002 | Barbara C. Cruz | Multiethnic Teens and Cultural Identity | Multiracial people | |
| 2003 | Harvey Fireside | The "Mississippi Burning" Civil Rights Murder Conspiracy Trial: a Headline Court Case | Murders of Chaney, Goodman, and Schwerner | |
| 2004 | James Tackach | Early Black Reformers | African-American history | |
| 2005 | Robert H. Mayer (editor) | The Civil Rights Act of 1964 | Civil Rights Act of 1964 | |
| 2006 | Calvin Craig Miller | No Easy Answers: Bayard Rustin and the Civil Rights Movement | Bayard Rustin | |
| 2007 | Joanne Oppenheim | Dear Miss Breed: True Stories of the Japanese-American Incarceration During World War II and a Librarian Who Made a Difference | Internment of Japanese Americans | |
| 2008 | Vincent Collin Beach with Anni Beach | Don't Throw Away Your Stick Till You Cross the River: The Journey of an Ordinary Man | Race and ethnicity in the U.S. | |
| 2009 | Francisco Jiménez | Reaching Out | Immigration to the U.S. | |
| 2010 | Ann Bausum | Denied, Detained, Deported: Stories From the Dark Side of American Immigration | Immigration to the U.S. | |
| 2011 | Elaine M. Alphin | An Unspeakable Crime: The Prosecution and Persecution of Leo Frank | Leo Frank | |
| 2012 | Larry Dane Brimner | Black and White: The Confrontation between Reverend Fred L. Shuttlesworth and Eugene "Bull" Connor | Fred Shuttlesworth and Bull Connor | |
| 2013 | Judith Fradin and Dennis Fradin | Stolen into Slavery the True Story of Solomon Northup, Free Black Man | Solomon Northup | |
| 2014 | no award presented | |||
| 2015 | Steve Sheinkin | The Port Chicago 50: Disaster, Mutiny, and the Fight for Civil Rights | Port Chicago disaster | |
| 2016 | Winifred Conkling | Passenger on the Pearl: The True Story of Emily Edmonson's Flight from Slavery | Emily Edmonson | |
| 2017 | John Lewis , Andrew Aydin, and Nate Powell | March (Trilogy) | Civil rights movement | |
| 2018 | Larry Dane Brimner | Twelve Days in May—Freedom Ride 1961 | Freedom Riders | |
| 2019 | Claire Hartfield | A Few Red Drops | Chicago race riot of 1919 | |
| 2020 | Ashley Bryan | Infinite Hope: A Black Artist's Journey from World War II to Peace | African Americans in World War II | |
| 2021 | Evette Dionne | Lifting as We Climb: Black Women's Battle for the Ballot Box | Black Suffrage in the U.S. | |
| 2022 | Sandra Neil Wallace and Rich Wallace | Race Against Time | Scipio Jones and the Elaine 12 | |
| 2023 | Lawrence Goldstone | Days of Infamy: How a Century of Bigotry Led to Japanese American Internment | Internment of Japanese Americans | |
| 2024 | Thien Pham | Family Style: Memories of an American from Vietnam | Vietnamese Americans | |
| Year | Author | Title | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2001 | Andrea Davis Pinkney | Let it Shine: Stories of Black Women Freedom Fighters | |
| 2002 | Alice Hinkel | Prince Estabrook: Slave and Soldier | |
| 2003 | Michael L. Cooper | Remembering Manzanar: Life in a Japanese Relocation Camp | |
| 2004 | Kimberly Komatsu and Kaleigh Komatsu | In America's Shadow | |
| 2005 | Russell Freedman | The Voice that Challenged a Nation: Marian Anderson and the Struggle for Equal Rights | |
| 2006 | Bárbara Cruz | César Chávez: A Voice for Farmworkers | |
| 2007 | Russell Freedman | Freedom Walkers: The Story of the Montgomery Bus Boycott | |
| 2008 | John Fleischman | Black and White Airmen: Their True History | |
| 2009 | James Haskins and Kathleen Benson with Virginia Schomp | Drama of African-American History: The Rise of Jim Crow | |
| 2010 | Phillip Hoose | Claudette Colvin: Twice Toward Justice | |
| 2011 | no award presented | ||
| 2012 | Susan Goldman Rubin | Music Was It: Young Leonard Bernstein | |
| 2013 | Ann Bausum | Marching to the Mountaintop: How Poverty, Labor Fights, and Civil Rights Set the Stage for Martin Luther King, Jr.'s Final Hours | |
| 2014 | Tonya Bolden | Emancipation Proclamation: Lincoln and the Dawn of Liberty | |
| 2015 | Teri Kanefield | The Girl from the Tar Paper School: Barbara Rose Johns and the Advent of the Civil Rights Movement | |
| 2016 | no award presented | ||
| 2017 | no award presented | ||
| 2018 | Laura Atkins and Stan Yogi | Fighting for Justice—Fred Korematsu Speaks Up | |
| 2019 | Wendy Ewald | America Border Culture Dreamer: The Young Immigrant Experience From A to Z | |
| 2020 | Ashley Bryan | Infinite Hope: A Black Artist's Journey from World War II to Peace | |
| 2021 | James Otis Smith | Black Heroes of the Wild West | |
| 2022 | Carole Boston Weatherford | Unspeakable: The Tulsa Race Massacre | |
| 2023 | Candacy Taylor | Overground Railroad: The Green Book and The Roots of Black Travel in America (The Young Adult Adaptation) | |
| 2024 | Traci Sorell | Contenders: Two Native Baseball Players, One World Series | |
| Year | Author | Title | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1989 | Jeri Ferris | Walking the Road to Freedom | |
| 1990 | Aylette Jenness and Alice Rivers | In Two Worlds: A Yup’ik Eskimo Family | |
| 1991 | Catherine Scheader | Shirley Chisolm | |
| 1992 | Fay Stanley | The Last Princess: The Story of Princess Ka’iulani of Hawai’i | |
| 1993 | Patricia and Fredrick McKissack | Madam C.J. Walker | |
| 1994 | Mary E. Lyons | Starting Home: The Story of Horace Pippin, Painter | |
| 1995 | Jeri Ferris | What I Had Was Singing: The Story of Marian Anderson | |
| 1996 | Monty Roessel | Songs from the Loom: A Navajo Girl Learns to Weave | |
| 1997 | Suhaib Hamid Ghazi | Ramadan | |
| 1998 | Leon Walter Tillage | Leon's Story | |
| 1999 | John Duggleby | Story Painter: The Life of Jacob Lawrence | |
| 2000 | Ruby Bridges | Through My Eyes | |
| 2001 | Carole Boston Weatherford | The Sound that Jazz Makes | |
| 2002 | Nanette Mellage | Coming Home: A Story of Josh Gibson, Baseball's Greatest Home Run Hitter | |
| 2003 | Richard Griswold del Castillo | Cesar Chavez: The Struggle for Justice / Cesar Chavez: La lucha por la justicia | |
| 2004 | Liselotte Erdrich | Sacagawea | |
| 2005 | Joseph Bruchac | Jim Thorpe's Bright Path | |
| 2006 | Margot Theis Raven | Let Them Play | |
| 2007 | Jim Haskins and Kathleen Benson | John Lewis in the Lead: A Story of the Civil Rights Movement | |
| 2008 | Bill Wise | Louis Sockalexis: Native American Baseball Pioneer | |
| 2009 | Nikki Giovanni | Lincoln and Douglass: An American Friendship | |
| 2010 | Paula Yoo | Shining Star: The Anna May Wong Story | |
| 2011 | Andrea Davis Pinkney | Sit In: How Four Friends Stood Up By Sitting Down | |
| 2012 | Gina Capaldi and Q. L. Pearce | Red Bird Sings: The Story of Zitkala-Ša, Native American Author, Musician, and Activist (adapted) | |
| 2013 | Jabari Asim | Fifty Cents and a Dream: Young Booker T. Washington | |
| 2014 | Anne Rockwell | Hey Charleston!: The True Story of the Jenkins Orphanage Band | |
| 2015 | Duncan Tonatiuh | Separate Is Never Equal: Sylvia Mendez and Her Family's Fight for Desegregation | |
| 2016 | Don Tate | Poet: The Remarkable Story of George Moses Horton | |
| Chris Barton | The Amazing Age of John Roy Lynch | ||
| 2017 | Annette Bay Pimentel | Mountain Chef: How One Man Lost His Groceries, Changed His Plans, and Helped Cook Up the National Park Service | |
| 2018 | Cynthia Levinson | The Youngest Marcher—The Story of Audrey Faye Hendricks, a Young Civil Rights Activist | |
| 2019 | Mélina Mangal | The Vast Wonder of the World: Biologist Ernest Everett Just | |
| 2020 | Kwame Alexander | The Undefeated | |
| 2021 | Don Tate | William Still and His Freedom Stories | |
| 2022 | Martha Brockenbrough and Grace Lin | I Am an American: The Wong Kim Ark Story | |
| 2023 | Diane Wilson, Sun Yung Shin, Shannon Gibney, and John Coy | Where We Come From | |
| 2024 | Carole Lindstrom | My Powerful Hair |