Bea Breaks Barriers! How Florence Beatrice Price’s Music Triumphed over Prejudice

Florence Beatrice Price (1887–1953) grew up in Little Rock, Ark., listening to “Juba dance and jammin’ banjo rhythms.” Leaving the segregated South to pursue opportunity, she attended the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston, one of only two Black students at the time. There, she “crammed in music theory and harmony... Dug deep into her roots... And spun a classical music style all her own.” Across experiences of prejudice and violence, and the Great Depression, Bea continued writing and teaching music—eventually connecting with legendary contralto Marian Anderson, who brought Bea’s work to the limelight. Through snappy sentences and sonorous diction, DeLems imbues this text with musicality, while Engel’s acrylic and oil paintings emphasize movement and light in a biography that zooms in on the figure’s career triumphs. Creator notes and more conclude. Ages 7–10. (Oct.)