How Do You Spell Unfair? MacNolia Cox and the National Spelling Bee

This account follows MacNolia Cox, an eighth grader who won her school and city spelling bees in Akron, Ohio, before traveling to Washington, D.C., for the 1936 National Spelling Bee. She was the first African American winner of Akron’s contest. The journey exposes the segregation facing MacNolia and her mother: they are made to change train cars in Maryland, cannot stay at the contestants’ hotel, and must use stairs rather than the banquet elevator. At the competition, MacNolia and another Black contestant sit apart from the white participants.