A Voice of Hope: The Myrlie Evers-Williams Story
by Nadia Salomon; illus. by London Ladd
Primary    Philomel    40 pp.
9/24    9780593525913    $18.99
e-book ed.  9780593525920    $11.99

This picture-book biography begins with Evers-Williams (b. 1933), the first woman to chair the NAACP full time, speaking at President Barack Obama’s second inauguration in 2013. “Her voice—strong yet gentle. Soft—but powerful.” But in flashbacks, readers learn that she didn’t always feel comfortable speaking up. Evers-Williams was born and raised in Vicksburg, Mississippi, when “whites only” signs proliferated and “hate ran as deep as the Mississippi and Yazoo rivers.” Salomon’s lyrical prose makes some of the hard parts of Evers-Williams’s story easier to digest, such as when the future civil rights activist realizes that her dreams of becoming a concert pianist are unlikely to come true due to discrimination. Salomon shows restraint while discussing the assassination of Evers-Williams’s husband, civil rights icon Medgar Evers, but still effectively conveys the racism she lived with daily, in spare, straightforward language. Ladd’s illustrations, created with acrylic paint, cut paper, tissue paper, and colored pencils, capture the despair and determination of Evers-Williams in confronting racist bullies as a child and in the aftermath of her husband’s murder. Following his death, Evers-Williams finds her voice in working to bring his killer to justice and in continuing to fight for civil rights. Appended with an author’s note and a timeline.

From the ">November/December 2024 issue of The Horn Book Magazine.