Drawing Humanity: How Picturebook Illustrations Counter Antiblackness

This chapter considers how Black illustrators fight bigotry and hatred through visual depictions of Black childhood. Data consists of four picturebooks: Crown: An Ode to the Fresh Cut (2017) written by Derrick Barns and illustrated by Gordon C. James; I Am Enough (2018) written by Grace Byers and illustrated by Keturah A. Bobo; Uptown (2000) written and illustrated by Bryan Collier; and I Love My Hair (1998) written by Natasha Tarpley and illustrated by E.B. Lewis. Illustrations within each of the books were read using the analytical tools for visual analysis, with particular attention to mechanisms within the interpersonal metafunction. At the same time, the analysis relied on Critical Race Theory (CRT) and emerging scholarship about antiblackness to consider how these works might disrupt racist ideologies and also affirm the humanity of Black children.