Two formative events in Carole Boston Weatherford’s youth set her on the path to penning more than 60 children’s books. The first was her discovery of Countee Cullen’s poem “Incident,” published in his 1925 collection, Color, which tells the story of a young boy whose memories of Baltimore are tarnished when another child calls him the N-word. The second occurred in the eighth grade, when a teacher, after Weatherford had turned in a writing assignment, suggested she lacked the aptitude to compose such a skillful paper on her own.

Weatherford spent the first 20 years of her career at the National Bar Association, where she met Jesse Jackson, Justice Thurgood Marshall, and others engaged in civil rights work. Having children inspired her to try her hand at picture books. To date, she’s published a plethora of biographies on changemakers such as Aretha Franklin, Nancy Pelosi, Fannie Lou Hamer, Gordon Parks, and the Tuskegee Airmen. She has received many accolades for her work, including three Caldecott Honors and two NAACP Image Awards; her picture book with Floyd Cooper was a finalist for the Kirkus Prize last year.

Her newest book, Call Me Miss Hamilton: One Woman’s Case for Equality and Respect (Millbrook, Feb. 1), recounts the life of Mary Hamilton, a Freedom Rider and leader in the Congress of Racial Equality who insisted that she be addressed the same as White people, with her formal title, Miss, instead of her first name. After a White prosecutor refused to use her honorific in court, she sued the state of Alabama for racial discrimination. In 1964, the groundbreaking case went all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court, where Hamilton won.

I spoke over the phone with Weatherford, who was at home in Baltimore, and the book’s illustrator, her son Jeffery Boston Weatherford, from his home in Highpoint, North Carolina. The interview has been edited for length and clarity.

What compelled you to tell the story of Mary Hamilton?

Carole: Women of the civil rights movement played a key role but have been given short shrift. They were the backbone. They were on the front lines of marches and pickets, at the lunch counter sit-ins, and on Freedom Rides. Many kids are not familiar with the civil rights movement beyond Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., and other men. They usually only hear about Rosa Parks and sometimes Coretta Scott King.

I wanted to shine a light on another woman civil rights activist. Mary Hamilton was unsung. I wanted to lift her up. She was a schoolteacher who quit her job to join the movement. She is a model for commitment, sacrifice, and dignity in the face of struggle and oppression. She practiced civil disobedience and nonviolent resistance. Her courage is inspiring for young people who want to be activists.

Jeffery: Mary Hamilton needs to be brought to the forefront. The more heroes available for the youth to pull inspiration from, the better. There are so many more heroes during that time that need to be written about. The more kids learn about them, the more empowered they will be. Books about people like Mary Hamilton will help shape our youth’s sense of justice.

The world has hardened adults, but children are so interested in learning something they don’t understand. We’re seeing all these types of brutality, like police brutality. A picture book is a less stressful way to deliver information to children about the kinds of issues we face and the people involved in the movement.

How does Hamilton’s story highlight the racialized history of naming?

Carole: There’s a long history of Black people being called by their first names. At the core of the story is Mary Hamilton’s insistence that she be addressed with dignity.

My dad spent his early years on the Eastern Shore of Maryland, and my mother came from Appalachia. My parents never required me to say ma’am or sir because when my mother was a girl that’s how she had to address White people. She swore when she had her own kids she was not going to require them to say ma’am or sir.

I taught my own children that a name is very precious. When Jeffery was in middle school, at a parent-teacher conference his teacher kept calling him “J.B.” instead of Jeffery. The teacher said there was no room for his first name on the roll with a last name as long as Weatherford. I told Jeffery never to let anyone give him a nickname. The most specific nouns are proper names, and using one’s name properly is a form of respect. We have a right to make demands about the way people address us.

The illustrations are dimensional and have so much movement. What was the approach to creating them?

Jeffery: I used scratchboard for many of the images, especially the images of Mary Hamilton herself. Scratchboard is a subtractive form of art. I cover a page with black India ink and then scratch it away with a metal file to reveal the lightness and image. It’s almost the opposite of drawing and produces a graphic quality, like a comic. But with scratchboard there’s no way to correct a mistake. I have to know exactly what I’m doing. Scratchboard also makes the most sense for this time period. It reflects the black-and-white photographs from the civil rights movement.

Carole: I’m always blown away and always proud of Jeffery. I marvel at his talent.

Here’s another detail: On each page the text is on a white background. The white background recalls the signs used during that time that enforced segregation and discrimination.

I especially like the fact that Jeffery combined the scratchboard pictures with archival photographs. Children oftentimes can’t fathom the injustices that existed back then. When I visit schools, students often ask why Black people were treated so unfairly by White people. Jeffery’s scratchboard images and these primary source images help provide historical context and remind young readers that these events actually happened. They make that time period and setting more realistic.

What is it like to create books about the history of our racist past at a time when some people have become openly hostile to teaching this history in our schools?

Carole: I’ve been doing this for a long time, almost Jeffery’s entire life. He was 6 years old when I published my first book, about Juneteenth. I just do the work, and I know why I’m doing the work. Charles Hamilton Houston, Thurgood Marshall’s attorney and one of the strategists who brought down segregation, called himself a “race man.” I think of myself as a “race woman.” It doesn’t mean I’m against White people. It means I’m for my people.

And my books are for all people and all American children, so that they can learn a complete history of our shared past. We’ve got to make more of these books so we can fill in the gaps and set the record straight. The struggles have continued because the obstacles have persisted. They just change forms. But I know these books will find their ways into the hands of people seeking the truth.

Anjali Enjeti is the author of the essay collection Southbound and a novel, The Parted Earth. She lives near Atlanta.