This essay was originally published in Salon on May 15, 2021. RELATED: Why we need diverse YA books more than ever In "Meet Addy," I saw this young girl with a face like mine pluck worms from tobacco leaves, feel the fire from the crack of a whip across her back, and cry out when her father and her brother …
Addy Walker wasn't my first Black doll, but she was my last. But the white American Girls' fights for freedom were figurative; Addy's fight was literal. I didn't get to see Addy arrive at freedom in "Meet Addy"; when the book ends, she's hidden on a wagon to be smuggled onto a ship bound for Philadelphia. Addy was dressed in …
