Video: Diversity in Children's and Young Adult Publishing

The world of children's literature is the territory where values regarding race, class, citizenship rights and privileges, among others, are sown. The lack of books dedicated to children of color, and people of color generally, tells all children that Black people are not important, not an integral part of American society, not necessary to consider in the global community.

This discussion on Diversity in Children's and Young Adult Publishing at the Harlem Book Fair (C-Span) last summer, 2010, addresses issues related to representing children of color in literature, as well as the woefully underrepresented number of Black editors, writers, and publishers actively working in the publishing industry, and what to do about it.
(Image: Cheryl Hudson, (left) and Wade Hudson (right), founders of Just Us Books)

Panel includes Cheryl Hudson, Publisher, Just Us Books; Jerry Kraft, Cartoonist, Mama's Boyz; Zetta Elliott, author; Vanesse J. Lloyd-Sgambati, African American Children's Project, Founder and Director; Nick Burd, author, The Fields of Ordinary; Wade Hudson, Publisher, Just Us Books and panel moderator.

C-Span: Harlem Book Fair, Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, Langston Hughes Auditorium, July 17, 2010