Tonya Bolden, Coretta Scott King Award Winner, on the power of knowing your history

Tonya Bolden is the author of more than 20 books, many of them works of African American history for young or young adult audiences. One of those books, Maritcha: A Nineteenth-Century American Girl, recently won a Coretta Scott King Author Honor Award from the American Library Association. Her most recent book, Cause! Reconstruction America, 1863-77 debut last month. She is currently at work on a young adult biography of Dr. Martin Luther King. We spoke about how Dr. and Mrs. King should be remembered, especially by young people:

"History makes me whole," Bolden says. In this part of our conversation, she reflects upon the message in her work, as well as the ways in which history can help us weather the challenges of this moment.

According to Bolden, the lives of our forbears can teach us that "the pursuit of happiness was not about a widescreen or plasma TV or an iPod. It was about developing your best self, spiritually and intellectually. When that's the prize that your eyes are on, then you can't be brainwashed. And you can also have some righteous indignation, that seems to be lacking in this country -- that people can't call wrong, wrong -- or don't seem to care."

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