Interrogating the Language of Slavery and Civil Rights–Themed Children's Literature in Search of Truth

• In Event: Fairmont Roundtable Session Seventeen
  In Roundtable Session: When Blackness Speaks: Languaging Race in Ways That Disrupt How We Read Text (Table 3)

Abstract

This presentation focuses on the language usage of African Americans in Slavery and Civil Rights’ themed children’s literature. Forty-five books were analyzed to determine if the dialogue used by the protagonists was African American Language (AAL) or whether the authors register shifted the dialogue to that of Mainstream American English (MAE). We include the phonological and grammatical comparisons between AAL and MAE found in the texts and explain why AAL is a more direct, rule-governed language. Results revealed that few authors used AAL, although NOT all enslaved African Americans in the U.S. or during the Civil Rights era spoke MAE. As researchers call for linguistic justice, we must interrogate the authenticity of the language usage in children’s books.

Authors

• Ramona T. Pittman, Texas A&M University
  Presenting Author

• Rebekah Piper, Texas A&M University - San Antonio
  Presenting Author