When we were starting out as a press and had just one book in our catalog, we approached our friend Ashley Bryan and asked if he had any out-of-print books he wanted to bring back into print. Little did we know that he would offer us his two books of Black American Spirituals. The original edition of Walk Together Children, Black American Spirituals, Volume One was published in 1974 by Atheneum and earned an American Library Association Notable Book Award. In 1982 Atheneum published I’m Going To Sing, Black American Spirituals, Volume Two, which earned a Coretta Scott King Illustrator Honor.
We met with Ashley with a list of ideas about changes to the previous edition. One idea we presented was asking him to make color versions of several prints from the book for the front and back covers. After we spoke about the idea, he left the room and went upstairs to his studio and brought back with him three colorized versions of the original black and white prints. As it turned out, when Ashley hand rubbed a print, they didn’t always turn out perfectly and instead of destroying the print, he fixed it up by coloring it. Ashley was frequently full of surprises.
Both books are on sale for the month of June 2025.
Walk Together Children, Black American Spirituals Volume One