How Do You Spell Unfair?: MacNolia Cox and the National Spelling Bee

Download or read book How Do You Spell Unfair?: MacNolia Cox and the National Spelling Bee written by Carole Boston Weatherford and published by Candlewick Press. This book was released on 2023-04-11 with total page 43 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A Coretta Scott King Author Honor Book "This moving picture book portrays a girl who met injustice with dignity and excelled."—Booklist (starred review) From a multi-award-winning pair comes a deeply affecting portrait of determination against discrimination: the story of young spelling champion MacNolia Cox. MacNolia Cox was no ordinary kid. Her idea of fun was reading the dictionary. In 1936, eighth grader MacNolia Cox became the first African American to win the Akron, Ohio, spelling bee. And with that win, she was asked to compete at the prestigious National Spelling Bee in Washington, DC, where she and a girl from New Jersey were the first African Americans invited since its founding. She left her home state a celebrity—right up there with Ohio’s own Joe Louis and Jesse Owens—with a military band and a crowd of thousands to see her off at the station. But celebration turned to chill when the train crossed the state line into Maryland, where segregation was the law of the land. Prejudice and discrimination ruled—on the train, in the hotel, and, sadly, at the spelling bee itself. With a brief epilogue recounting MacNolia’s further history, How Do You Spell Unfair? is the story of her groundbreaking achievement magnificently told by award-winning creators and frequent picture-book collaborators Carole Boston Weatherford and Frank Morrison.