An illustrated poem about two best friends, one white and one black, in the 1970s--when eating together at a lunch counter on a lazy summer afternoon is no big deal. A Gift from Greensboro is an elegy, a celebration of the magic of childhood friendship, and a meditation on growing up in the wake of the sit-ins that ushered in the Civil Rights Movement. Paired with eye-catching, layered illustrations, this poem recognizes that true friendship knows no boundaries and that love drives positive change. Read alongside Sit-In: How Four Friends Stood Up by Sitting Down by Andrea Davis Pinkney and Freedom on the Menu: The Greensboro Sit-Ins by Carole Boston Weatherford for a well-rounded lesson about a significant, igniting moment in our country's civil rights history.

Author Biography

Quraysh Ali Lansana is the author of eight poetry books, three textbooks, three children's books, editor of nine anthologies, and coauthor of a book of pedagogy. A former faculty member of the Creative Writing Program of the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, he lives and works in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Skip Hill was born in Texas and lives in Oklahoma. Hill's body of art is comprised of illustrations, murals, collage paintings, and drawings that weave a rich tapestry of styles, languages, and philosophies rooted in cultures around the world. He also illustrated How to Tie a Shoe with Penny Candy Books and spends his days painting and drawing in Normal, Oklahoma.