Carole Boston Weatherford

“My story is a fairy tale.”

So opens this empowering biography of trailblazing style maker André Leon Talley (1948-2022), the first Black man to serve as Vogue’s editor-at-large, creative director, and fashion news director. But this fantasy wasn’t born from lucky happenstance or serendipitous privilege; Talley’s talent and tenacity conjured the magic that colors his story. Growing up in Jim Crow–era North Carolina, Talley endured racism, homophobia, and sexual abuse, all the show more while shrouded in his grandmother’s unconditional love. Fashion offered escape, and Talley took it, doggedly pursuing the work that would eventually land him an (unpaid) gig under Diana Vreeland, former editor for Vogue. Talley rose to prominence, setting trends, challenging convention, and standing tall against hatred; as he put it, he “scorched the earth” with his singular vision, forever transforming the fashion industry with gifts cultivated under his grandmother’s care. Weatherford and Sanders’ text, interspersed with Talley’s own words, renders a detailed portrait of the legendary figure, offering extensive proof of his initiative and resilience. The beauty of Blackness is named explicitly throughout, but Talley’s sexual identity is broached only obliquely; while the subtlety may elude younger readers, this ambiguity will allow others to recognize their own experiences. O’Neal cleverly evokes sewing patterns of yore, a visual boon. And while both authors and illustrator pay homage to similarly magical myths—among them Cinderella and Little Red Riding Hood—the narrative roughs out a real-life road map for readers who see themselves in the hero.

Affirming and important. (authors' note, information on people referenced, glossary, note about HIV/AIDS, sources for quotes, bibliography) (Picture-book biography. 9-12)

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Weatherford infuses the lyrics of a traditional spiritual with pivotal events in African American history.

In four-line stanzas, references to the unseen narrator (“It’s me, it’s me, O Lord”), the ancestors, and present-day children alternate with the line “Standing in the need of prayer.” From “families enslaved and sold apart,” “a band of rebels,” and “freedmen seeking kin at Emancipation” to Black students integrating all-White schools, athletes breaking records, show more and choirs singing of justice and freedom, African Americans from across the eras and generations are humbled before God as they face mighty obstacles with brave resistance and endurance. Readers don’t need to know the song to enjoy this book; the repeated lines have the power of an incantation, inducing a meditation on all that Black people have survived and how they have thrived. Morrison’s elegant, emotional, painterly illustrations highlight the beauty, dignity, and grace of the people throughout difficult and degrading circumstances. Rich earth tones, texture, and light invite the eye to linger on the varied, portrait-style compositions. Not just for faithful homes, this is a book that can spark conversations about Black history from a strengths-based lens, with culture and coping as the focus. Brief notes discuss the figures and topics referenced in the main text, and an author’s note explains the importance of spirituals to the culture and to Weatherford personally. (This book was reviewed digitally.)

Gorgeous and enlightening, nourishing both mind and soul. (online resources) (Historical picture book. 4-10)

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Kenneth Clark, developer of “the doll test,” was a psychologist, educator, and social reformer dedicated to the cause of racial justice. In 1940, Clark became the first African American to receive a doctorate in psychology from Columbia University. Two years later, Clark was appointed as the first Black permanent professor at City College of New York, where he remained until his retirement in 1975.

Clark and his wife and collaborator Mamie conducted many studies on the effects of racism show more on child development, famously testing whether young Black children preferred white or Black dolls.

Weatherford writes that she wanted to show how their findings helped nudge the nation toward equality.

She begins by reviewing the nature of racial segregation in the US in 1940 when the studies began. There were “whites-only restaurants, restrooms, water fountains, theaters, and beaches. Even separate schools.” The white schools, she points out, had newer buildings and better supplies.

She then introduces the Clarks, explaining that they used baby dolls, identical except for color, to test children’s racial perceptions. The subjects (they surveyed 253 Black children between the ages of three to seven), were asked to identify which of the mix of races of dolls they liked best and which dolls were “nice.” They picked the white dolls.

When asked which doll “looks bad,” they chose the dolls that looked like Black children. Then they requested that the children present them with the doll that looked like them. Some children left the room crying rather than acknowledging they resembled the doll they had identified as “bad.”

The Clarks replicated the studies all over the country, from North to South, and always got the same results. Weatherford writes: “Dr. Clark concluded that school segregation made Black children feel as if they were not as good as white children.”

In 1952, this study was cited by the U.S. Supreme Court in the landmark 1954 decision Brown v. Board of Education, which declared segregated education unconstitutional. Chief Justice Earl Warren wrote,

“Segregation of white and colored children in public schools has a detrimental effect upon the colored children . . . To separate [schoolchildren] solely because of their race . . . may affect their hearts and minds in a way unlikely ever to be undone.”

[Sadly, the past is not even past. Segregation may have been declared unconstitutional, but it has actually increased, because of rigidly segregated residential subdivisions. As a Harvard article observes:

"Cities across America remain largely segregated, residentially, along race and socioeconomic status lines. This has often resulted in continued de facto segregation across schools and significant inequities across race and socioeconomic status in access to high-quality schools."

School districts are almost entirely funded by local taxes, meaning wealthier districts, the majority of which are white, have more money to invest in things like building improvements, extracurricular classes, and better teachers.

And of course, there is the the bigger problem as Nikole Hannah-Jones, New York Times Magazine writer and recipient of a prestigious “genius grant,” recently stated: "Schools are segregated because white people want them that way. ... We won't fix this problem until we really wrestle with that fact.”]

Illustrator David Elmo Cooper used digital illustrations to incorporate collaged images of the dolls the Clarks actually used in their tests. He combined these with “an abstract, distorted portrayal of the scenes (from a challenging period in American history) . . . reminiscent of a memory flashback."

At the back of the book, there is additional historical background, some photographs (including one of a Black child selecting a white doll), and a list of sources for further reading.

Discussion: Is it really only segregation that is a problem? Racism has deep and persistent roots in America. When Nazis formulated racist laws, they looked to American models of racist legislation for guidance. Indeed, according to James Q. Whitman (Professor of Comparative and Foreign Law at Yale University) and author of Hitler’s American Model: The United States and the Making of Nazi Race Law, (available online here) “the ironic truth is that when Nazis rejected the American example, it was sometimes because they thought that American practices were overly harsh: for Nazis of the early 1930s, even radical ones, American race law sometimes looked too racist.”

Years of integration did not seem to have the desired impact. In 2020, Texas A&M Assistant Professor Toni Sturdivant decided to recreate the Clark’s experiment after her preschool-age daughter expressed dislike for being Black. She wrote:

"I knew from experience that the preference for whiteness that the Clarks found was not limited to just Black kids in segregated schools in the 20th century. It was affecting Black kids in integrated schools in the 21st century as well.”

She placed four racially diverse dolls (white, Latina, Black with lighter skin, and Black with medium skin) in a diverse preschool classroom and observed Black preschool girls as they played for one semester. The results of her observations are horrifying. In just a sample of their responses:

“The girls rarely chose the Black dolls during play. On the rare occasions that the girls chose the Black dolls, they mistreated them. One time a Black girl put the doll in a pot and pretended to cook the doll. That’s not something the girls did with the dolls that weren’t Black.”

As Sturdivant observed: “. . . schools serve as just one context for racial learning.”

Unfortunately, what kids are learning today about race isn’t encouraging.

It is notable that avowed Nazi sympathizer Nick Fuentes, who dined with Trump at Mar-a-Lago and has one million followers on twitter, recently maintained, inter alia, “Blacks need to be imprisoned for the most part, and we would live in paradise. It’s that simple.”

Why is it so important for some people to feel superior to others (with no empirical basis, needless to add). Does increased interaction with “the other” change this, or is some broader societal adjustment needed?

This book of course is not meant to address that issue, but it hovers over top of the story. One wishes it were just a story of times long gone by….

Evaluation: Carole Boston Weatherford has done so much to educate young readers in Black history. At this perilous time when many historical records are under threat lest they make whites “feel bad,” I am all the more grateful for this author and all her beautiful books. show less

Exquisitely understated design lends visual potency to a searing poetic evocation of the Birmingham church bombing of 1963. The unnamed fictional narrator relates the events of “[t]he year I turned ten,” this refrain introducing such domestic commonplaces as her first sip of coffee and “doz[ing] on Mama’s shoulder” at church. She juxtaposes these against the momentous events of the year: the Children’s March in Birmingham for which the narrator missed school, the March on show more Washington and the mass meetings at church that she found so soporific. The same matter-of-fact tone continues to relate what happened “[t]he day I turned ten:” “10:22 a.m. The clock stopped, and Jesus’ face / Was blown out of the only stained-glass window / Left standing. . . . ” Documentary gray dominates the palette, the only color angry streaks of red that evoke shattered window frames. The poems appear on recto accompanied by images of childhood—patent-leather shoes, pencils, bobby socks—while full-bleed archival photographs face them on verso. It’s a gorgeous memorial to the four killed on that horrible day, and to the thousands of children who braved violence to help change the world. (Poetry. 10-14)

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