The Carter G. Woodson Book Award is an American literary award created in 1973 by the Racism and Social Justice Committee of the National Council for the Social Studies to promote cultural literacy in children and young adults.

First presented in 1974, the award is named for American historian, author, and journalist Carter G. Woodson. Currently awarded at three levels – elementary, middle, and secondary – middle was added in 2001 after the other two divisions began in 1989.

In addition to announcing winners, the award recognizes honor books, referred to from 1980 to 1996 as those having "outstanding merit". An accompanying seal, with a likeness of Woodson, was introduced in 1999 with gold seals applied to winning book covers and silver seals on honor books.

, Brent Ashabranner is the only author whose books have received the award three times, as well as the only to have winning books two years in a row. Don Tate, who first had a book win the Woodson award in 2016, illustrated a second title that also (uniquely) won that year.

Award recipients +General winners (1974–1988)YearAuthorTitleSubject1974 Rosa Parks 1975 Make a Joyful Noise Unto the Lord: The Life of Mahalia Jackson, Queen of the Gospel Singers 1976 Dragonwings Chinese Americans 1977 The Trouble They Seen African Americans 1978 The Biography of Daniel Inouye 1979 Native American Testimony: An Anthology of Indian and White Relations Native Americans 1980 War Cry on a Prayer Feather: Prose and Poetry of the Ute Ute people 1981 The Chinese Americans Chinese Americans 1982 and Paula McGuire Coming to North America from Mexico, Cuba and Puerto Rico Immigration to the U.S. 1983 Morning Star, Black Sun Northern Cheyenne tribe 1984 Mexico and the United States Mexico–U.S. relations 1985 To Live in Two Worlds: American Indian Youth Today Native Americans 1986 Dark Harvest: Migrant Farmworkers in America Migrant workers 1987 Happily May I Walk Native Americans 1988 Black Music in America: A History Through Its People African-American music

+Secondary level winners (grades 7–12, since 1989)YearAuthorTitleSubject1989 Marian Anderson 1990 Paul Robeson 1991 Sorrow's Kitchen: The Life and Folklore of Zora Neale Hurston 1992 Native American Doctor: The Story of Susan LaFlesche Picotte 1993 Mississippi Challenge African Americans in Mississippi 1994 The March on Washington March on Washington 1995 Till Victory is Won: Black Soldiers in the Civil War African Americans in the Civil War 1996 A Fence Away from Freedom: Japanese Americans and World War II Internment of Japanese Americans 1997 The Harlem Renaissance Harlem Renaissance 1998 Langston Hughes 1999 Edmonia Lewis: Wildfire in Marble 2000 Princess Ka'iulani: Hope of a Nation, Heart of a People Kaʻiulani 2001 Tatan'ka Iyota'ke: Sitting Bull and His World Sitting Bull 2002 Multiethnic Teens and Cultural Identity Multiracial people 2003 The "Mississippi Burning" Civil Rights Murder Conspiracy Trial: a Headline Court Case Murders of Chaney, Goodman, and Schwerner 2004 Early Black Reformers African-American history 2005 (editor) The Civil Rights Act of 1964 Civil Rights Act of 1964 2006 No Easy Answers: Bayard Rustin and the Civil Rights Movement 2007 Dear Miss Breed: True Stories of the Japanese-American Incarceration During World War II and a Librarian Who Made a Difference Internment of Japanese Americans 2008 with Anni Beach Don't Throw Away Your Stick Till You Cross the River: The Journey of an Ordinary Man Race and ethnicity in the U.S. 2009 Reaching Out Immigration to the U.S. 2010 Denied, Detained, Deported: Stories From the Dark Side of American Immigration Immigration to the U.S. 2011 An Unspeakable Crime: The Prosecution and Persecution of Leo Frank 2012 Black and White: The Confrontation between Reverend Fred L. Shuttlesworth and Eugene "Bull" Connor and Bull Connor 2013 and Dennis Fradin Stolen into Slavery the True Story of Solomon Northup, Free Black Man 2014 no award presented 2015 The Port Chicago 50: Disaster, Mutiny, and the Fight for Civil Rights Port Chicago disaster 2016 Passenger on the Pearl: The True Story of Emily Edmonson's Flight from Slavery 2017 , Andrew Aydin, and Nate Powell March (Trilogy) Civil rights movement 2018 Twelve Days in May—Freedom Ride 1961 Freedom Riders 2019 A Few Red Drops Chicago race riot of 1919 2020 Infinite Hope: A Black Artist's Journey from World War II to Peace African Americans in World War II 2021 Lifting as We Climb: Black Women's Battle for the Ballot Box Black Suffrage in the U.S. 2022 and Rich Wallace Race Against Time and the Elaine 12 2023 Days of Infamy: How a Century of Bigotry Led to Japanese American Internment Internment of Japanese Americans 2024 Family Style: Memories of an American from Vietnam Vietnamese Americans 2025 Stealing Little Moon: The Legacy of the American Indian Boarding Schools American Indian boarding schools and cultural assimilation

+Middle level winners (grades 5–8, since 2001)YearAuthorTitleSubject2001 Let it Shine: Stories of Black Women Freedom Fighters Abolitionism in the United States, and the Civil rights movement 2002 Prince Estabrook: Slave and Soldier 2003 Remembering Manzanar: Life in a Japanese Relocation Camp Manzanar 2004 and Kaleigh Komatsu In America's Shadow Internment of Japanese Americans 2005 The Voice that Challenged a Nation: Marian Anderson and the Struggle for Equal Rights 2006 César Chávez: A Voice for Farmworkers 2007 Freedom Walkers: The Story of the Montgomery Bus Boycott Montgomery bus boycott 2008 Black and White Airmen: Their True History Racial segregation in the U.S. military 2009 and Kathleen Benson with Virginia Schomp Drama of African-American History: The Rise of Jim Crow 2010 Claudette Colvin: Twice Toward Justice 2011 no award presented 2012 Music Was It: Young Leonard Bernstein 2013 Marching to the Mountaintop: How Poverty, Labor Fights, and Civil Rights Set the Stage for Martin Luther King, Jr.'s Final Hours 2014 Emancipation Proclamation: Lincoln and the Dawn of Liberty Emancipation Proclamation 2015 The Girl from the Tar Paper School: Barbara Rose Johns and the Advent of the Civil Rights Movement 2016 no award presented 2017 no award presented 2018 and Stan Yogi Fighting for Justice—Fred Korematsu Speaks Up 2019 America Border Culture Dreamer: The Young Immigrant Experience From A to Z Immigration to the United States 2020 Infinite Hope: A Black Artist's Journey from World War II to Peace Racial segregation in the U.S. military, World War II2021 Black Heroes of the Wild West , Bass Reeves, and Bob Lemmons 2022 Unspeakable: The Tulsa Race Massacre Tulsa race massacre 2023 Overground Railroad: The Green Book and The Roots of Black Travel in America (The Young Adult Adaptation) The Negro Motorist Green Book 2024 Contenders: Two Native Baseball Players, One World Series and Chief Meyers 2025 The Doll Test: Choosing Equality School segregation and self-esteem

+Elementary level winners (grades K–6, since 1989)YearAuthorTitleSubject1989 Walking the Road to Freedom 1990 and Alice Rivers In Two Worlds: A Yup’ik Eskimo Family Yupik peoples 1991 Shirley Chisolm 1992 The Last Princess: The Story of Princess Ka’iulani of Hawai’i Kaʻiulani 1993 and Fredrick McKissack Madam C.J. Walker 1994 Starting Home: The Story of Horace Pippin, Painter 1995 What I Had Was Singing: The Story of Marian Anderson 1996 Songs from the Loom: A Navajo Girl Learns to Weave Navajo weaving 1997 Ramadan Ramadan 1998 Leon's Story 1999 Story Painter: The Life of Jacob Lawrence 2000 Through My Eyes 2001 The Sound that Jazz Makes African-American music 2002 Coming Home: A Story of Josh Gibson, Baseball's Greatest Home Run Hitter 2003 Cesar Chavez: The Struggle for Justice / Cesar Chavez: La lucha por la justicia 2004 Sacagawea Sacagawea 2005 Jim Thorpe's Bright Path 2006 Let Them Play Civil rights movement and Little League Baseball 2007 and Kathleen Benson John Lewis in the Lead: A Story of the Civil Rights Movement 2008 Louis Sockalexis: Native American Baseball Pioneer 2009 Lincoln and Douglass: An American Friendship and Stephen A. Douglas 2010 Shining Star: The Anna May Wong Story 2011 Sit In: How Four Friends Stood Up By Sitting Down Greensboro sit-ins 2012 and Q. L. Pearce Red Bird Sings: The Story of Zitkala-Ša, Native American Author, Musician, and Activist (adapted) Zitkala-Ša 2013 Fifty Cents and a Dream: Young Booker T. Washington 2014 Hey Charleston!: The True Story of the Jenkins Orphanage Band Jenkins Orphanage 2015 Separate Is Never Equal: Sylvia Mendez and Her Family's Fight for Desegregation 2016 Poet: The Remarkable Story of George Moses Horton The Amazing Age of John Roy Lynch 2017 Mountain Chef: How One Man Lost His Groceries, Changed His Plans, and Helped Cook Up the National Park Service 2018 The Youngest Marcher—The Story of Audrey Faye Hendricks, a Young Civil Rights Activist 2019 The Vast Wonder of the World: Biologist Ernest Everett Just 2020 The Undefeated African Americans 2021 William Still and His Freedom Stories 2022 and Grace Lin I Am an American: The Wong Kim Ark Story United States v. Wong Kim Ark 2023 , Sun Yung Shin, Shannon Gibney, and John Coy Where We Come From Cultural heritage 2024 My Powerful Hair Long hair, indigenous peoples, and racism 2025 The Rock in My Throat Linguistic discrimination

References

External links Carter G. Woodson Book Award and Honor Award Winners