I Have Heard of a Land

National Book Award winner Joyce Carol Thomas draws on her own family history to bring to life a fascinating piece of America's little-known past. In the late 1880s, thousands of pioneers rushed to the Oklahoma Territory where land was free for the taking. Because the Oklahoma Land Runs were open to everyone, many African Americans newly freed from slavery made the arduous journey west to carve out a new life in the Oklahoma soil. Richly illustrated by Coretta Scott King Honor Award-recipient Floyd Cooper, and complete with an author's endnote, I Have Heard of a Land is a lyrical, moving portrait of a few of the men and women who dared to act on their dreams.