Recipients of the Coretta Scott King – Virginia Hamilton Award for Lifetime Achievement
| Year | Name | Profession |
| 2024 | Christopher Curtis | Author |
| 2023 | Dr. Claudette McLinn | Founder/Executive Director, Center for the Study of Multicultural Children’s Literature & Retired District Librarian |
| 2022 | Nikki Grimes | Author |
| 2021 | Dorothy Guthrie | Founder/Curator, African American Museum of History and Culture at Loray Mill |
| 2020 | Mildred D. Taylor | Author |
| 2019 | Dr. Pauletta Bracy | Professor of Library Science and Director of the Office of University Accreditation at North Carolina Central University |
| 2018 | Eloise Greenfield | Author |
| 2017 | Dr. Rudine Sims Bishop | Professor Emerita at The Ohio State University |
| 2016 | Jerry Pinkney | Artist & Illustrator |
| 2015 | Deborah D. Taylor | Coordinator of School and Student Services, Enoch Pratt Free Library, Baltimore |
| 2014 | Patricia & Fredrick McKissack | Children’s Authors |
| 2013 | Demetria Tucker | Family and youth services librarian for the Pearl Bailey Library, a branch of the Newport News (Va.) Public Library System |
| 2012 | Ashley Bryan | Storyteller, artist, author, poet, and musician |
| 2011 | Dr. Henrietta Mays Smith | Professor emerita at the University of South Florida, Tampa, School of Library and Information Science |
| 2010 | Walter Dean Myers | Author |