Can You Spell U-p-l-i-f-t? The Power of Spelling to Level the Playing Field

Nowadays, the National Spelling Bee looks like a United Nations. In 2021, Zaila Avant-garde was the first African American to win the competition. But in the early 20^th century, bees were largely segregated. Nevertheless, MacNolia Cox, in 1936, became the first African American finalist in the national bee.

A. Van Jordan’s 2004 poetry book, M-A-C-N-O-L-I-A, introduced me to this pioneering spelling champ. Years later, I delved deeper into MacNolia’s story to create a children’s picture book. To create HOW DO YOU SPELL UNFAIR? MACNOLIA COX AND THE NATIONAL SPELLING BEE—my fifth collaboration with Frank Morrison—I researched newspaper stories about the 1936 bee and examined the competition’s segregated history. I found that MacNolia read the dictionary for fun and memorized 100,000 words.

As I drafted the manuscript, I recalled my early attempts at spelling and the pride I felt in earning perfect scores. In second grade, I boasted to my great aunt that I could spell “transportation”—a relatively big word at the time. Although I was a top speller in my class, my only experience with spelling bees would come later—as a mother. When my son was in middle school, I coached him for a grade-level bee. He placed second.

MacNolia’s local win in Akron, Ohio, brought gifts, celebrity well-wishers, and a sendoff complete with a marching band. But she would confront discrimination on her trip to Washington, D.C., for the national bee. At the Maryland line, she had to move to a Blacks-only train car. She was barred from the whites-only hotel where other spellers stayed. Instead, she stayed in the home of a local Black doctor. At the bee, she and the only other Black speller had to sit apart from the other competitors. And when she reached the finals, the judges threw her a curve—a word not on the official list: “nemesis.”

Throughout HOW DO YOU SPELL UNFAIR, I break the fourth wall and quiz the reader: Can you spell e-x-c-i-t-e-d? D-i-s-c-r-I m-i-n-a-t-i-o-n? This device engages young readers as they interrogate the racial inequities confronting MacNolia.

MacNolia’s poignant story hints at the power of spelling to build self-esteem. In some ways, spelling is more like mathematics than rhetoric. Both math and spelling rely on rules, memorization, and precision. In spelling as in math, there is usually only one correct answer. Thus, spelling has the potential to level the playing field—as long as the adults in charge play fair.

If spelling bees are the sport of language, then weekly spelling quizzes are qualifying rounds that demonstrate excellence.

In 2021, the U. S. Senate passed a resolution honoring MacNolia Cox.

Can you spell v-i-c-t-o-r-y?

Hailed by HuffPost as “a master of picture book nonfiction,” Coretta Scott King Award-winner Carole Boston Weatherford has authored over 60 books including the Newbery Honor winner, BOX: Henry Brown Mails Himself to Freedom, and four Caldecott Honor winners: Unspeakable: The Tulsa Race Massacre, Freedom in Congo Square, Voice of Freedom: Fannie Lou Hamer, and Moses: When Harriet Tubman Led Her People to Freedom. Her recent releases are Standing in the Need of Prayer: A Modern Retelling of the Classic Spiritual, You Are My Pride: A Love Letter from Your Motherland and Sugar Pie Lullaby: The Soul of Motown in a Song of Love. A two-time NAACP Image Award winner, she teaches at Fayetteville State University in North Carolina.

Follow her online at cbweatherford.com, @poetweatherford on Twitter and Facebook, and @caroleweatherford on Instagram.  

GIVEAWAY INFORMATION

• This giveaway is for a copy of HOW DO YOU SPELL UNFAIR? by Carole Boston Weatherford. Many thanks to Candlewick Press for donating a copy of the book to one of our commenters. 
• For a chance to win this copy of HOW DO YOU SPELL UNFAIR?, please leave a comment about this post by Saturday, April 29 at 6:00 p.m. EDT. Stacey Shubitz will use a random number generator to pick the winner, whose name she will announce at the bottom of this post, by Thursday, May 4. You must have a U.S. mailing address to enter the giveaway.
  • Please leave a valid e-mail address when you post your comment, so Stacey can contact you to obtain your mailing address if you win.
• If you are the book winner, Stacey Shubitz will email you the subject line of TWO WRITING TEACHERS – CBWEATHERFORD. Please respond to Stacey’s e-mail with your mailing address within five days of receipt. A new winner will be chosen if a response isn’t received within five days of the giveaway announcement.

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Congratulations to Amanda Potts, who will win a copy of Carole’s book.