Children’s Book on Birmingham’s First Black Mayor Penned UAB’s Hailey Mason

Times staff report When looking for a children’s book on a local African American hero, Hailey Mason initially couldn’t find one on Richard Arrington Jr., Ph.D., the first African American mayor of Birmingham, Alabama. Hailey Mason (UAB Photo) “I volunteered at some local [Birmingham] elementary schools and I wanted to do a segment on local Black history figures and I went to Amazon to find a children’s book on Dr. Arrington and I didn’t see one,” she said earlier this year. “That just kind of got my gears going and I started just thinking about ways I could reach out to him, how I could do the children’s book, how could I condense so much information down to a children’s level.” Mason said she became more inspired after meeting Arrington. “Through research, I came to know him as a prominent leadership figure and felt the children’s book was an avenue to tell his story.” Mason recently published, “A is for Arrington,” providing young readers insight into the life of the former mayor. Writing became a form of self-expression in high school, but Mason never imagined herself writing a children’s book, she said. After not finding a book on local Black...