Black Is Brown Is Tan

People, Identity & Culture

XX min read

Author(s)	Arnold Adoff
Illustrator(s)	Emily Arnold McCully
Age Group	4-8
Publisher	HarperCollins Children’s Books
ISBN	978-0064436441
Year	2004

Originally published in 1973, Black Is Brown Is Tan was the first children's book to feature an interracial family. The author uses lyrical text--an African American mother, "the skin color of chocolate," and a Caucasian father, "who's skin is not white, but light in color with tans and pinks and all the colors of the rainbow," --to paint a portrait of a loving and natural family setting.

Monthly Featured Book

Unstoppable: How Bayard Rustin Organized the 1963 March on Washington

By Michael G. Long

Bayard Rustin was a "troublemaker." He spent his life disrupting racism and prejudice with nonviolent direct action. He organized protests against war, nuclear weapons, racial segregation and discrimination. He was a friend and mentor to Martin Luther King Jr., and he was unapologetically gay and Black. When Bayard and his mentor, A. Philip Randolph, set out to organize the historic March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, Bayard was targeted by those who wished to see the movement fail. But Bayard Rustin would not be stopped. With the support of Dr. King and future congressman John Lewis, Bayard organized the largest protest in civil rights history.

Learn more