One of Sam Cooke’s best-known songs is getting a picture book adaptation.
Illustrator Nikkolas Smith will bring the King of Soul’s “A Change Is Gonna Come” to the page in a new book published by Little Bee Books, People magazine reports.
Cooke’s protest song, a track on his 1964 album Ain't That Good News, had its roots in several racist incidents Cooke endured as a Black man in the mid-20th century. It was released as a single in December 1964, 11 days after Cooke was shot to death in a Los Angeles motel. The song is now considered an anthem of the Civil Rights Movement.
Smith is known for illustrating children’s books including Born on the Water, written by Nikole Hannah-Jones and Renée Watson; I Am Ruby Bridges, written by Ruby Bridges; and That Flag, written by Tameka Fryer Brown.
In A Change Is Gonna Come, Little Bee says, Smith “powerfully references civil rights milestones and Black freedom fighters, empowering all of us to continue the mission of change.”
Smith announced the book on Instagram, writing, “Guided by the timeless ‘Change’ lyrics, I created a new visual story that follows a young boy in the 1960s who uses the gift of photography to guide him throughout life, documenting the highs, lows, fears, and hopes of the civil rights era. It is my honor to bring this beloved civil rights anthem to life in a new way.”
A Change Is Gonna Come is slated for publication on Sept. 2.
Michael Schaub is a contributing writer.
