More stories about white people who have participated in actions to end slavery and discrimination and present-day racism are needed so that children will have stories to expand their thoughts and memories about the issues of this vital debate. White children, I believe, will welcome characters like them who will inspire them, answer their questions, and speak to their confusion, fears, and guilt about racism. There are too few white characters like Harper Lee’s Jean Louise, Jem, and Atticus Finch in To Kill a Mockingbird. But what about the heroes, heroines, protagonists, and antagonists who have all lived in this nation where slavery existed and racism still exists? Where are the stories about white people like John Brown, Thaddeus Stevens, Charles Sumner, Michael Schwerner and Andrew Goodman, Frances Ann (Fannie) Kemble, Virginia Foster Durr, and the little-known young girl who, under threats, gave water to wounded Freedom Riders when their bus was bombed? and Fannie Lou Hamer and stories such as Words by Heart, Amazing Grace, and The Moves Make the Man. There are white writers who have explored this subject of racism and racial superiority but through the eyes of African Americans: biographies of Martin Luther King Jr. I wanted to emphasize that white writers must attack this subject for young white readers.

I talked about the struggle to end racism and racial superiority. In 1996, during the twenty-fifth anniversary of the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators (SCBWI), I spoke to the group about writing and the definitions of black and white in this country. Today when there is so much media discussion about “critical race theory” and the attitudes that have brought much division in the nation, I wonder if those white children were asking me to give them images of people like them who were also acting for change.

But I was often asked, “Why don’t you write about white people?” My answer: “I write about what I know best.”

Two of my books - Lillie of Watts Takes a Giant Step, in which Lillie gets into trouble at school for talking about Malcolm X, and Justin and the Best Biscuits in the World (winner of the 1987 Coretta Scott King Author Award), where Justin is hurt to know that his great-grandfather had been called a nigger (plus “The Silent Lobby,” a short story about Mississippi voting rights) - always brought about discussion and many questions. The children were interested in my work and the images that were all of African Americans. Most of the students, in the third to sixth grades, were white. While I was an active writer in the 1970s and 1980s, I was invited to speak to children in many elementary schools around the country.

Because We Are by Mildred Pitts Walter