White Spaces and Missing Faces: Examining Black Representation in Caldecott Medal–winning Children’s Books through the Lens of the Racial Contract,1970–2020

Abstract

This study makes both substantive and methodological contributions to understanding racial representation in children’s literature. Methodologically, we develop a replicable framework that integrates Mills’s Racial Contract theory with quantitative content analysis, translating the political, moral, and epistemological dimensions of institutional racism into measurable variables. This approach enables rigorous empirical examination of how cultural institutions reproduce racial hierarchies and offers a model adaptable to other contexts of representation and recognition. Substantively, the study analyzes racial representation in Caldecott Medal–winning children’s books published between 1970 and 2020, examining how this prestigious award functions as a white space that perpetuates the Racial Contract—an ongoing agreement to sustain racial dominance through institutional practices. Drawing on a comparative sample of Caldecott Medal winners and Coretta Scott King Illustrator Award winners, we identify three interrelated patterns of exclusion that illustrate how the award operates as a gatekeeping mechanism within children’s literature. First, findings reveal visual erasure, with markedly fewer depictions of Black characters in award-winning texts. Second, creator exclusion is evident in the limited recognition of Black illustrators within the most prestigious award category. Third, narrative restriction constrains Black characters’ roles, particularly in relation to heroism and centrality. By moving beyond descriptive gaps to analyze institutional processes, this research demonstrates how award selection practices reinforce Mills’s concept of the white polity. Prestigious literary awards function not as neutral markers of excellence but as cultural mechanisms that reproduce and legitimize racial hierarchy.