In honor of Black History Month, Yolanda Renee King talks with host Suzanne McCabe about her new picture book, We Dream A World: Carrying the Light From My Grandparents Martin Luther King Jr. and Coretta Scott King. Yolanda is joined in the studio by her editor, Andrea Davis Pinkney, who is vice president and executive editor of Scholastic Trade Publishing.

Yolanda is only 15 years old. Already, she is following in her grandparents’ footsteps as an activist and author. “Leaders are those who ask the questions, who challenge things,” she says. 

We Dream a World, which is illustrated by Nicole Tadgell, evokes the legacy of Yolanda’s grandparents and exhorts members of her generation to follow their own dreams for “liberty, justice, and food for all.”

We Dream a World: Learn more about 15-year-old activist and author Yolanda Renee King and her “love letter” to her grandparents.

Share Black Stories: These works of fiction and nonfiction showcase the many facets of Black life in America.  

Realize the Dream: Get involved in the movement to rally communities to perform 100 million hours of service by the 100th anniversary of Dr. King’s birth.

Meet Andrea Davis Pinkney: The award-winning author and editor has written and edited dozens of books celebrating the Black experience, including Martin Rising: Requiem for a King.

Yolanda Renee King, author, We Dream a World: Carrying the Light From My Grandparents Martin Luther King Jr. and Coretta Scott King

“Learning about [my grandparents’] perseverance and all that they had to endure, that’s what my parents taught me.”

“A lot of people forget that throughout my grandfather’s life, he was one of the most disliked men on Earth and one of the most critiqued.”

“[My grandmother] was perceived . . . as Dr. King’s widow, as the wife who didn’t do anything. Without her efforts, there would be no King legacy, and his message and the dream would have been gone with him.”

Andrea Davis Pinkney, vice president and executive editor, Scholastic Trade Publishing

“No matter your age, your race, where you live, what you believe, the family that you come from, you can make a difference, big or small.”

“[Tadgell’s art] presents this canvas of what dreaming a world can be. The colors are vibrant. They’re imaginative. They’re filled with hope.”

Producer: Maxine Osa

Sound engineer: Daniel Jordan

Music composer: Lucas Elliot Eberl

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