At her confirmation, Ketanji Brown Jackson became the first Black female Supreme Court justice in the United States. Although the timing didn’t work out then, it did in 2022, when President Joe Biden nominated her.

In a letter to then-President Barack Obama, Leila Jackson made a case for her mother-Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson. Years later, in 2016, when she was a federal judge, a seat opened on the United States Supreme Court. As a child, Ketanji focused on her studies and excelled, eventually graduating from Harvard Law School. From the time their daughter was born, Ketanji Brown’s parents taught her that if she worked hard and believed in herself, she could do anything. Whatever she did, wherever she was, Ketanji Brown Jackson rose to the top. Award-winning author Carole Boston Weatherford tells her story of perseverance, dignity, and honor in this uplifting picture book biography filled with colorful and dynamic illustrations from Ashley Evans. Ketanji Brown Jackson, the first Black woman to serve on the Supreme Court, is an inspiration and role model to children of all ages. With a brief epilogue recounting MacNolia’s further history, How Do You Spell Unfair? is the story of her groundbreaking achievement magnificently told by award-winning creators and frequent picture-book collaborators Carole Boston Weatherford and Frank Morrison.

Prejudice and discrimination ruled-on the train, in the hotel, and, sadly, at the spelling bee itself. But celebration turned to chill when the train crossed the state line into Maryland, where segregation was the law of the land. She left her home state a celebrity-right up there with Ohio’s own Joe Louis and Jesse Owens-with a military band and a crowd of thousands to see her off at the station.

And with that win, she was asked to compete at the prestigious National Spelling Bee in Washington, DC, where she and a girl from New Jersey were the first African Americans invited since its founding. In 1936, eighth grader MacNolia Cox became the first African American to win the Akron, Ohio, spelling bee.

Her idea of fun was reading the dictionary. From a multi-award-winning pair comes a deeply affecting portrait of determination against discrimination: the story of young spelling champion MacNolia Cox.

By and By by Carole Boston Weatherford