Established 1969. Designed to commemorate the life and work of the late Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and to honor Mrs. Coretta Scott King for her courage and determination in continuing to work for peace and world brotherhood. Presented annually to a black author and to a black illustrator for an outstandingly inspirational and educational contribution published during the previous year. The separate award for illustrator was added in 1979.


1997 Text - Walter Dean Myers  Slam!
Illustration - Jerry Pinkney Minty: A Story of Young Harriet Tubman

1996 Text - Virginia Hamilton  Her Stories (illustrated by Leo and Diane Dillion)
Illustration - Tom Feelings The Middle Passage: White Ships Black Cargo

1995 Text - Patricia and Frederick McKissack Christmas in the Big House, Christmas in the Quarters
Illustration - James Ransome The Creation (Text: James Weldon Johnson)

1994 Text - Angela Johnson Toning the Sweep
Illustration - Tom Feelings Soul Looks Back in Wonder

1993 Text - Patrica McKissack The Dark-Thirty: Southern Tales of the Supernatural
Illustration - Kathleen Atkins Wilson The Origin Of Life on Earth: An African Creation Myth (Text: David A. Anderson)

1992 Text - Walter Dean Myers Now Is Your Time! The Africian-Americian Struggle for Freedom
Illustration - Faith Ringgold Tar Beach

1991 Text - Mildred D. Taylor The Road To Memphis
Illustration - Leo and Diane Dillon Aida (Text: Leontyne Price)

1990 Text - Patricia and Frederick McKissack A Long Hard Journey: The Story of the Pullman Porter
Illustration - Jan Spivey Gilchrist Nathaniel Talking (Text: Eloise Greenfield)


1989 Text - Walter Dean Myers Fallen Angels
Illustration - Jerry Pinkney Mirandy And Brother Wind (Text:Patricia McKissack)

1988 Text - Mildred D. Taylor The Friendship
Illustration - John Steptoe Mufaro's Beautiful Daughters: An African Tale

1987 Text - Mildred Pitts Walter Justin And The Best Biscuits In The World
Illustration - Jerry Pinkey Half A Moon And One Whole Star (Text: Crecent Dragonwagon)

1986 Text - Virgina Hamilton The People Could Fly: American Black Folktales
Illustration - Jerry Pinkney The Patchwork Quilt (Text: Valerie Flournoy)

1985 Text - Walter Dean Myers Motown and Didi
Illustration - No award given.
1984 Text - Lucille Clifton Everett Anderson's Goodbye
Illustration - Pat Cummings My Mama Needs Me (Text: Mildred Pitts Walter)

1983 Text - Virgina Hamilton Sweet Whispers, Brother Rush
Illustration - Peter Magubane Black Child

1982 Text - Mildred D. Taylor Let the Circle Be Unbroken
Illustration - John Steptoe Mother Crocodile: An Uncle Amadou Tale From Senegal (Text adapted by Rosa Guy)

1981 Text - Sidney Poitier This Life
Illustration - Ashley Bryan Beat The Story-Drum, Pum-Pum

1980 Text - Walter Dean Myers The Young Landlords
Illustration - Carole Byard Cornrows (Text: Camille Yarbrough)


1979 Text - Ossie Davis Escape To Freedom: A Play about Young Frederick Douglass
Illustration - Tom Feelings Something On My Mind (Text: Nikki Grimes)

1978 Eloise Greenfield, text, and Carole Byard, illustration Africa Dream

1977 James Haskins The Story Of Stevie Wonder

1976 Pearl Baily Duey's Tale

1975 Dorothy Robinson, text, and Herbert Temple, illustrationThe Legend Of Africania

1974 Sharon Bell Mathis, text, and George Ford, illustration Ray Charles

1973 Jackie Robinson, as told to Alfred Duckett I Never Had It Made: The Autobiography of Jackie Robinson

1972 Elton C. Fax Seventeen Black Artists

1971 Charlemae H. Rollins Black Troubador: Langston Hughes

1970 Lillie Patterson Martin Luther King, Jr.: Man of Peace

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