Hezekiah Horton

By Ellen Tarry, Illustrated by Oliver Harrington

After winning the first Bank Street Negro Scholarship, Ellen Tarry went on to write several children’s books in the 1940s, some of the very first picturebooks created specifically for black children. While more plot heavy than Margaret Wise Brown’s work, Tarry’s books demonstrate a clear connection to The Bank Street pedagogy given their setting in urban neighborhoods and their focus on everyday objects—in this case, the automobile. Hezekiah Horton, illustrated by the notable cartoonist, Oliver Harrington, features a young black boy who is obsessed with Mr. Ed’s red convertible. Mr. Ed, a white man, befriends Hezekiah and gives him a ride. Other of Tarry’s picturebooks, like Janie Belle, are similarly interested in relationships between white and black neighbors.