The idea for the Coretta Scott King Award came from Glyndon Flynt Greer, a school librarian in
Englewood, New Jersey. At a meeting of the American Library Association in Atlantic City in 1969, Greer, librarian Mabel McKissick, and publisher John M. Carroll, lamented the lack of recognition for minority writers. No person of color had won either the
Newbery or
Caldecott Medals at that time. Before the conference ended, a group of African American librarians had formed to promote the creation of a new award. Among them were
Augusta Braxton Baker,
Charlemae Hill Rollins, and
Virginia Lacy Jones. The award's name was intentionally chosen to honor recently assassinated
Martin Luther King Jr. and his wife,
Coretta Scott King. The first Coretta Scott King Award was presented to
Lillie Patterson, a librarian in Baltimore, for her elementary level biography
Martin Luther King, Jr.: Man of Peace.With support from
Roger McDonough, the third annual Coretta Scott King Award was presented during the American Library Association's 1972 Annual Conference in Chicago, Illinois. The award was briefly sponsored by the School of Library and Information Studies at
Atlanta University from 1974 to 1976. In 1976, a separate awards committee and an advisory board of mostly local librarians were formed, co-chaired by
Ella Gaines Yates. Starting in 1978, the runner-ups for the author prize were listed as Honor Books, and beginning in 1981 the illustrator runner-ups were also listed as Honor Books. In 2022 The Coretta Scott King Book Award was designated an official ALA Round Table: the Coretta Scott King Book Awards Round Table. Dr.
Henrietta M. Smith edited four volumes, published by the American Library Association, that provide a history of the award. From 1996 on, the Coretta Scott King Awards program includes the John Steptoe Award for New Talent, optionally awarded to an author, an illustrator, or both. ==Recipients==