After the recent Baltimore riots, students from Edgewood Elementary School, my alma mater, wrote essays expressing their hopes and fears:
Baltimore’s children say they have hope for their city’s future. @RehemaEllis reports: http://t.co/ZJXRIxHR4h
— NBC Nightly News (@NBCNightlyNews) May 2, 2015
When I saw them on a news segment, I saw myself — a little black girl at an all-black school in the 1960s, witnessing riots and assassinations and writing my first poems. I was so moved by the students’ responses to the violence in my hometown that I arranged to pay the school an author visit.
During the visit, I shared not only readings of my books, but also a surprise donation of more than 200 books from my various publishers and from my personal library. The book-loving students and faculty were excited and most grateful.
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Carole Boston Weatherford is the author of many books for children, including The Beatitudes: From Slavery to Civil Rights. Carole makes her home in North Carolina. Learn more on her website: www.cbweatherford.com.
