Nonfiction Notable: A SONG FOR THE UNSUNG

I continue to read picture books extensively while enjoying the many beginning readers  and early chapter books I've been exploring for CYBILS AWARD consideration.  Some picture books are guaranteed to snag my attention due to the subject matter, the reliably high quality of the author and/or illustrator, and my own connections to prior readings and/or postings. This nonfiction biographic account of BAYARD RUSTIN is such a book on all strands of that appeal. 

Henry Holt & Company, 2023

A SONG FOR THE UNSUNG: BAYARD RUSTIN, the Man behind the 1963 March on Washington did not disappoint. This is written by multi-award-winning Carole Boston Weatherford and LGBTQIA advocate Rob Sanders, with impressively informative illustrations by Byron McCray. In an earlier post featuring another picture book focused on the 1963 March on Washington, here, I also featured a book aimed at older readers, one that profiled the largely unrecognized CIVIL RIGHTS leaded, Bayard Rustin. (That book is one of the sources cited in the bibliography for A SONG FOR THE UNSUNG.)

The title alone is brilliant, because it signals that Rustin was a talented and devoted singer for whom music played a central role throughout his life. The same can be said about the role of music in the Civil Rights Movement. Threaded throughout each double spread are scrolled lyrics from many different hymns/songs that reflect specific moments throughout his life and his role in the shaping of that movement. This includes the fact that Rustin's roots run deep in Quaker peace activism, including refusing to bear arms during WWII and his consequent imprisonment. 

The authors open on the eventful August day in 1963 with Rustin's perspective of the Washington mall, empty other than himself and a few reporters. His confident assertion that this unprecedented event would happen, would succeed, contrasts with the absence of evidence at that early morning moment. And yet Rustin, the organizer/coordinator behind the scenes, stood tall and sure. he had orchestrated every detail, from placement of portable potties to bus parking  to box lunches and the program itself. 

Each page turn that offers incredible details about his development of the strength and skill and talent that underpinned such confidence. As a relative "elder" in comparison to young Martin Luther King, Jr., his experiences with adherence to non-violent strategies for social change were rooted in studies with Gandhi and led to his later instruction and guidance for MLK,Jr. and the entire movement. 

An essential (and never denied or hidden) aspect of his identity is that he was a gay man. Thankfully, and despite immeasurable forces still attempting to discriminate against non-straight individuals and organizations, we have arrived at a time of greater openness and awareness that people are people and their sexual lives are not a matter of public concern. This was far from the case at the time of Rustin's life, making his willingness to be "out of the closet" another bold and honest example of his personal integrity. This fact, though, accounts for why so few folks know his name in comparison to others from those Civil Rights Movement years in the sixties. It was deemed necessary and advantageous to access Rustin's organization skills and network contacts to make a gathering of a quarter million people possible, yet leaders within the movement insisted that his public role should be minimal, fearing that his gay identity could undermine and detract from the greater goals. 

Very likely they were correct. Even so, it meant that Rustin's long history, credentials, and support of equal rights and social justice remained "appreciated" by insiders but "unsung" in the public accounts of this history-changing day and the entire movement surrounding it. There is no justice in that, at any level. Now, more than sixty years later, young people can access Rustin's life story through works for older readers but also through this gorgeous, dynamic, and lyrical account of a man who merits everyone's attention and admiration. 

I had some limited awareness of this remarkable figure in American history as a young person who viewed the march and speeches live on television, awed by the safe, civil, overwhelmingly effective gathering at our nation's capital at a time when few were willing to speak aloud the need for legal civil rights for all in a public venue. (My reflection on why CIVIL RIGHTS and the movement mean so much to me can be read an early post on that topic, HERE. Equality for all SHOULD connect with everyone, even a straight, white, privileged woman such as myself. And yet my connection to the subject matter runs deep, and I wish more folks would examine their own lives to see that success on behalf of the least protected among us elevates the quality of life for us all.)

I fear, though, that this very title will be among the extensive and absurd lists of books for kids that face censorship due to both aspects of his Rustin's life story: being Black and being gay. Please learn more about that misguided group that is comparatively small in numbers but powerful in political clout. Make it a point to read any books on the list for yourselves and then speak up for open access and rights to read! (For more on that topic, THIS LINK is from the American Library Association.)