| Titles | Order |
| People Are Important by Eva Knox Evans | 1953 |
| Stick-in-th-Mud by Jean Ketchum | 1954 |
| Rainbow Round the World: A Story of UNICEF by Elizabeth Yates | 1955 |
| Story of the Negro by Arna Bontemps | 1956 |
| Blue Mystery by Margot Benary-Isbert | 1957 |
| The Perilous Road by William O. Steele | 1958 |
| Champions of Peace by Edith Patterson Meyer | 1960 |
| What Then, Raman? by Shirley L. Arora | 1961 |
| The Road to Agra by Aimée Sommerfelt | 1962 |
| The monkey and the wild, wild wind by Ryerson Johnson | 1963 |
| Profiles in Courage by John F. Kennedy | 1964 |
| Meeting With a Stranger by Duane Bradley | 1965 |
| Berries Goodman by Emily Cheney Neville | 1966 |
| Queenie Peavy by Robert Burch | 1967 |
| The Little Fishes by Erik Christian Haugaard | 1968 |
| The Endless Steppe: Growing Up in Siberia by Esther Hautzig | 1969 |
| The Cay by Theodore Taylor | 1970 |
| Jane Addams, Pioneer for Social Justice; A Biography, by Cornelia Meigs | 1971 |
| The Tamarack Tree by Betty Underwood | 1972 |
| The Riddle of racism by S. Carl Hirsch | 1973 |
| Nilda by Nicholasa Mohr | 1974 |
| The Princess and the Admiral by Charlotte Pomerantz | 1975 |
| Paul Robeson by Eloise Greenfield | 1976 |
| Never to Forget: The Jews of the Holocaust by Milton Meltzer | 1977 |
| Child of the Owl by Laurence Yep | 1978 |
| Amifika by Lucille Clifton | Special Recognition, 1978 |
| The wheel of King Asoka by Ashok Davar | Special Recognition, 1978 |
| Many Smokes, Many Moons: A Chronology of American Indian History Through Indian Art by Jamake Highwater | 1979 |
| The Road From Home: A True Story of Courage, Survival and Hope by David Kherdian | 1980 |
| Natural History by M. B. Goffstein | Special Recognition, 1980 |
| First Woman in Congress: Jeannette Rankin by Florence Meiman White | 1981 |
| A Spirit to Ride the Whirlwind by Athena V. Lord | 1982 |
| Hiroshima No Pika by Maruki Toshi | 1983 |
| All the Colors of the Race by Arnold Adoff | Special Recognition, 1983 |
| Children as Teachers of Peace by Gerald G. Jampolsky | Special Recognition, 1983 |
| Rain of fire by Marion Dane Bauer | 1984 |
| The Short Life of Sophie Scholl by Hermann Vinke | 1985 |
| Ain't Gonna Study War No More: The Story of America's Peace Seekers by Milton Meltzer | 1986 |
| Nobody Wants a Nuclear War: Story and Pictures by Judith Vigna | 1987 |
| Waiting for the Rain by Sheila Gordon | 1988 |
| Anthony Burns: The Defeat and Triumph of a Fugitive Slave by Virginia Hamilton | tie, 1989 |
| Looking Out by Victoria Boutis | tie, 1989 |
| A Long Hard Journey: The Story of the Pullman Porter by Pat McKissack | 1990 |
| The Wednesday Surprise by Eve Bunting | Honor Book, 1990 |
| The Big Book for Peace by Ann Durell | 1991 |
| Journey of the Sparrows by Fran Leeper Buss | 1992 |
| Taste of Salt: A Story of Modern Haiti by Frances Temple | Book for Older Children, 1993 |
| Aunt Harriet's Underground Railroad in the Sky by Faith Ringgold | Picture Book, 1993 |
| Freedom's Children: Young Civil Rights Activists Tell Their Own Stories by Ellen Levine | Book for Older Children, 1994 |
| This Land Is My Land by George Littlechild | Picture Book, 1994 |
| Kids at Work: Lewis Hine and the Crusade Against Child Labor by Russell Freedman | Book for Older Children, 1995 |
| Sitti's Secrets by Naomi Shihab Nye | Picture Book, 1995 |
| The Middle Passage: White Ships/Black Cargo by Tom Feelings | Special Commendation, 1995 |
| The Well by Mildred D. Taylor | Book for Older Children, 1996 |
| Growing Up in Coal Country by Susan Campbell Bartoletti | Book for Older Children, 1997 |
| Wilma Unlimited: How Wilma Rudolph Became the World's Fastest Woman by Kathleen Krull | Picture Book, 1997 |
| Habibi by Naomi Shihab Nye | Book for Older Children, 1998 |
| Seven Brave Women by Betsy Hearne | Picture Book, 1998 |
| Bat 6 by Virginia Euwer Wolff | Book for Older Children, 1999 |
| Marianthe's Story: Painted Words and Spoken Memories by Aliki | Picture Book, 1999 |
| Through My Eyes by Ruby Bridges | Book for Older Children, 2000 |
| Molly Bannaky by Chris K. Soentpiet | Picture Book, 2000 |
| Esperanza Rising by Pam Muñoz Ryan | Book for Older Children, 2001 |
| The Composition by Antonio Skármeta | Picture Book, 2001 |
| The Other Side of Truth by Beverley Naidoo | Book for Older Children, 2002 |
| Martin's Big Words: The Life of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. by Doreen Rappaport | Picture Book, 2002 |
| Parvana's Journey by Deborah Ellis | Book for Older Children, 2003; Special Recognition, 2004 |
| Patrol: An American Soldier in Vietnam by Walter Dean Myers | Picture Book, 2003 |
| Out of Bounds: Seven Stories of Conflict and Hope by Beverley Naidoo | Books for Older Children, 2004 |
| Harvesting Hope: The Story of Cesar Chavez by Kathleen Krull | Picture Book, 2004 |
| The Breadwinner by Deborah Ellis | Special Recognition, 2004 |
| The Breadwinner Trilogy by Deborah Ellis | Special Recognition, 2004 |
| Mud City by Deborah Ellis | Special Recognition, 2004 |
| With Courage and Cloth: Winning the Fight for a Woman's Right to Vote by Ann Bausum | Book for Older Children, 2005 |
| Let Me Play: The Story of Title IX: The Law That Changed the Future of Girls in America by Karen Blumenthal | Book for Older Children, 2006 |
| Delivering Justice: W.W. Law and the Fight for Civil Rights by Jim Haskins | Books for Younger Children, 2006 |
| Weedflower by Cynthia Kadohata | Book for Older Children, 2007 |
| A Place Where Sunflowers Grow by Amy Lee-Tai | Books for Younger Children, 2007 |
| We Are One: The Story of Bayard Rustin by Larry Dane Brimner | Book for Older Children, 2008 |
| The Escape of Oney Judge: Martha Washington's Slave Finds Freedom by Emily Arnold McCully | Books for Younger Children, 2008 |
| The Surrender Tree: Poems of Cuba's Struggle for Freedom by Margarita Engle | Books for Older Children, 2009 |
| Planting the Trees of Kenya: The Story of Wangari Maathai by Claire A. Nivola | Books for Younger Children, 2009 |
| Marching For Freedom: Walk Together Children and Don't You Grow Weary by Elizabeth Partridge | Books for Older Children, 2010 |
| Nasreen's Secret School: A True Story from Afghanistan by Jeanette Winter | Books for Younger Children, 2010 |
| Emma's Poem: The Voice of the Statue of Liberty by Linda Glaser | tie, Books for Younger Children, 2011 |
| A Long Walk to Water: Based on a True Story by Linda Sue Park | tie, Books for Younger Children, 2011 |
| Sylvia & Aki by Winifred Conkling | Books for Older Children, 2012 |
| The Mangrove Tree: Planting Trees to Feed Families by Susan L. Roth | Books for Younger Children, 2012 |
| We've Got a Job: The 1963 Birmingham Children's March by Cynthia Levinson | Books for Older Children, 2013 |
| Each Kindness by Jacqueline Woodson | Books for Younger Children, 2013 |
| Sugar by Jewell Parker Rhodes | Books for Older Children, 2014 |
| Brave Girl: Clara and the Shirtwaist Makers' Strike of 1909 by Michelle Markel | Books for Younger Children, 2014 |
| The Girl from the Tar Paper School: Barbara Rose Johns and the Advent of the Civil Rights Movement by Teri Kanefield | Books for Older Children, 2015 |
| Separate Is Never Equal: Sylvia Mendez and Her Family’s Fight for Desegregation by Duncan Tonatiuh | Books for Younger Children, 2015 |
| Turning 15 on the Road to Freedom: My Story of the 1965 Selma Voting Rights March by Lynda Blackmon Lowery | Books for Older Children, 2016 |
| New Shoes by Susan Lynn Meyer | Books for Younger Children, 2016 |
| Sachiko: A Nagasaki Bomb Survivor's Story by Caren Stelson | Books for Older Children, 2017 |
| Steamboat School by Deborah Hopkinson | Books for Younger Children, 2017 |
