How Do You Spell Unfair?: MacNolia Cox and the National Spelling Bee
HOW DO YOU SPELL UNFAIR MacNolia Cox and the National Spelling Bee DICTIONARY DICTIONARY DICTIONARY CAROLE BOSTON WEATHERFORD illustrated by FRANK MORRISON CANDLEWICK PRESS
For every kid who's ever broken a spelling rule or had their name misspelled or mispronounced And in honor of my mother who drilled me for spelling tests and my dad whose spelling dictionary is my well of words CBW To my bottle-of-energy grandson Miro my man FM
FOREWORD THE SCRIPPS NATIONAL SPELLING BEE is a big event Contestants representing diverse cultures and nationalities look like a little United Nations But spelling bees were not always open to anyone who could rise through the ranks In areas where segregation was the law citywide spelling bees were whites-only The first time that Black and white spellers competed nationally the white grown-ups were sore losers In 1908's National Education Association Spelling Bee fourteen-year-old Marie Bolden a Black girl from Ohio led her team to defeat competitors from other cities around the country including the all-white team from New Orleans A writer for the New Orleans Picayune newspaper claimed that Marie who correctly spelled four hundred words in writing and another one hundred words orally had bested white spellers because they were distracted by her presence Angry white readers wrote to the Picayune calling for the school superintendent to be fired for putting white students in such an embarrassing situation But for Booker T. Washington the famous African American educator Marie's achievement was a sign of progress You will admit that we spell out of the same spelling book that you do he said And I think you will admit that we spell a little better If Black children out-spelled whites in competition it would prove that Blacks were just as smart as whites and were not inferior as racists contended And that's exactly why Blacks were barred from many local spelling bees There would not be another Black finalist at a national spelling bee until 1936 This is her story
