S4Ep37: Standing In The Need of Prayer

This week Sarah and Mike talk with author Carole Boston Weatherford about her new book, Standing In The Need of Prayer.

From Carole Boston Weatherford, two-time NAACP Image Award winner and author of Unspeakable: The Tulsa Race Massacre, and Coretta Scott King-winning illustrator Frank Morrison comes STANDING IN THE NEED OF PRAYER (Crown Books for Young Readers; on sale September 20, 2022; 32 pages; Ages 6-9), a stunning and deeply moving picture book inspired by the spiritual. The classic lyrics have been reworked to chronicle the milestones, struggles, tragedies, and triumphs of African American history.

Starting from 1619 and stretching more than four hundred years, this book features pivotal moments such as the arrival of enslaved people in Jamestown, Virginia; Nat Turner's rebellion; the integration of the US military; the Selma to Montgomery marches; and present-day protests. It also celebrates the feats of African American musicians and athletes, such as Duke Ellington and Florence Griffith Joyner. Carole Boston Weatherford’s riveting text and Frank Morrison’s evocative and detailed paintings are informative reminders of yesterday, hopeful images for today, and aspirational dreams of tomorrow.

Carole Boston Weatherford is a two-time NAACP Image Award winner and the author of Unspeakable: The Tulsa Race Massacre, which won the Coretta Scott King Author and Illustrator Awards, a Caldecott Honor, and a Sibert Honor; the Newbery Honor book Box: Henry Brown Mails Himself to Freedom; and the Caldecott Honor books Freedom in Congo Square, Voice of Freedom: Fannie Lou Hamer, Spirit of the Civil Rights Movement, and Moses: When Harriet Tubman Led Her People to Freedom. Born in Baltimore, Weatherford now teaches at Fayetteville State University, in North Carolina.