Dr. Dianne Johnson-Feelings
Under her penname Dinah Johnson, Dr. Dianne Johnson-Feelings has written ten books for children, all celebrating African American culture and community. This authorial trajectory is not surprising since the history of African American children’s literature was the subject of her doctoral dissertation at Yale University.
Her first children’s book, All Around Town: The Photographs of Richard Samuel Roberts, was published in 1998. Hair Dance, a 2008 Bank Street Best Children’s Book of the Year, focused on different African American hairstyles. In 2023, her book H Is for Harlem was named a Boston Globe Horn Book Honor Awardee; and the same year another of her books, Indigo Dreaming, was chosen to represent South Carolina in the Library of Congress’s Great Reads from Great Places program.
As a professor at the University of South Carolina, Dr. Dianne Johnson-Feelings studies, teaches, and writes about Black children’s literature and its history. She edited The Best of the Brownies Book (1996), a collection of writings and artwork from an influential 1920s Black children’s magazine. Without her research, that particular Harlem Renaissance-era publication would be forgotten. Her important work continues. An upcoming book entitled Black Barbie: The Story of Kitty Black Perkins, tells the story of a Black woman from Spartanburg who worked as the head clothing designer for Mattel/Barbie dolls for 28 years.
Her first children’s book, All Around Town: The Photographs of Richard Samuel Roberts, was published in 1998. Hair Dance, a 2008 Bank Street Best Children’s Book of the Year, focused on different African American hairstyles. In 2023, her book H Is for Harlem was named a Boston Globe Horn Book Honor Awardee; and the same year another of her books, Indigo Dreaming, was chosen to represent South Carolina in the Library of Congress’s Great Reads from Great Places program.
As a professor at the University of South Carolina, Dr. Dianne Johnson-Feelings studies, teaches, and writes about Black children’s literature and its history. She edited The Best of the Brownies Book (1996), a collection of writings and artwork from an influential 1920s Black children’s magazine. Without her research, that particular Harlem Renaissance-era publication would be forgotten. Her important work continues. An upcoming book entitled Black Barbie: The Story of Kitty Black Perkins, tells the story of a Black woman from Spartanburg who worked as the head clothing designer for Mattel/Barbie dolls for 28 years.
