Coretta Scott King focused her life on ensuring civil rights for African-Americans and other minorities, but one of her most enduring legacies may be extending the boundaries of children's literature.

Each year, the Coretta Scott King Awards are given to the best books for children by African-American authors and artists published in the previous year. Like the better-known Newbery and Caldecott Medal-winning books, the Coretta Scott King books are easy to spot in a bookstore or library because of the shiny foil sticker on their covers.

Because they are announced the same day as the Newbery and Caldecott Medal winners, however, the Coretta Scott King Awards generally don't receive as much public recognition.

Yet children's book experts say the awards have been vitally important in developing a body of children's literature by talented African-Americans and helping to pave the way for more multicultural books that reflect the lives and experiences of all children.

"The impact of the Coretta Scott King Awards has been immeasurable in terms of introducing a range of valuable work by talented authors and illustrators to a wider audience than they might have attracted otherwise," said Jabari Asim, deputy editor of The Washington Post Book World.

When the awards were created in 1970, with a selection committee comprising librarians, there were few children's books focused on African-Americans, and there were only a handful of African-American children's book authors and illustrators.

The first winner of the Coretta Scott King wards was "Martin Luther King, Jr.: Man of Peace" by Lillie Patterson. It was one of three books eligible for the award that year, said Fran Ware, current chair of the Coretta Scott King Awards Committee and the library manager at the Wheaton, Md., Regional Library.

Sparked in part by the awards, interest in children's books by African-Americans and other minorities has boomed over the years, and now those serving on the Coretta Scott King Awards Committee sift through as many as 85 or 90 books annually.

"Publishers are seeing the power of the African-American consumer," said Andrea Davis Pinkney, an author who founded the first African-American children's book imprint -- Jump at the Sun -- at Hyperion Books several years ago.

"The Coretta Scott King Awards have distinguished themselves by selecting the best of the best of African-American literature for children, and consumers look for that. These books are very popular with parents and teachers and librarians," said Ms. Pinkney, who now is Scholastic's vice president and publisher of trade hardcovers and early childhood books.

Sharon Flake said that winning the "new talent" Coretta Scott King Award in 1999 for her debut novel, "The Skin I'm In," jump-started her career as popular young adult writer.

"To have [Mrs. King's] name affiliated with a literary award really gives your book cachet,'' said Ms. Flake, a Pittsburgh resident who also has won two Coretta Scott King honors for her novels "Money Hungry'' and "Who Am I Without Him?"

"People start to take you seriously. Librarians start to recommend your books, and teachers are more likely to want your books in their classrooms."

The idea for the awards grew out of a chance conversation in 1969 between two school librarians, Mabel McKissick and Glyndon Greer, who were concerned with the lack of representation of African-American authors and illustrators in children's literature.

The two women joined forces with John Carroll, a publisher, and the trio created the Coretta Scott King Awards as a way of promoting African-American children's literature.

"Glyndon Greer had great admiration for Coretta Scott King and wanted to name the awards for her," Ms. Ware said.

Although Mrs. King, who died this week at the age of 78, was initially reluctant to lend her name to the project, "she finally gave her permission, just because Glyndon Greer was so persistent," Ms. Ware said. "In 2002 [the last time Mrs. King attended the awards ceremony], she told us how glad she is that she did that."

Three major Coretta Scott King Awards are given each year: for the best-written book, the best-illustrated book, and the best book written or illustrated by a newcomer. Several "honor" books also are named each year.

To be eligible for the awards, books must be written and illustrated by African-Americans, and they must portray some aspect of the African-American experience.

"The awards are given to distinguished literature that crosses all genres -- picture books, nonfiction, fiction, easy readers," said Chrystal Carr-Jeter, youth services director of the Cleveland Public Library, who serves on the committee overseeing the Coretta Scott King Awards.

"That's something that librarians appreciate. There's something for every reader here, books that have been deemed distinguished -- and they are."

At the time the awards were established in 1970, no African-American had ever won a Newbery Medal, given for the best-written children's book, or the Caldecott Medal, awarded for the best-illustrated book.

Since the creation of the Coretta Scott King Awards, an interracial couple, Leo and Diane Dillon, won the Caldecott Medal in both 1976 and 1977. Three African-American authors -- Virginia Hamilton, Mildred Taylor and Christopher Paul Curtis -- have won the Newbery Medal since 1970. Mr. Curtis, in fact, won both the Newbery Medal and the Coretta Scott King Author's Award in 2000 for his novel, "Bud, Not Buddy."

Sherry York, a school librarian whose most recent book is "Ethnic Book Awards," said she believes that Mrs. King's "greatest lifetime achievement is the Coretta Scott King Award.

"Librarians and readers will remember her not only as a civil rights worker and the widow of a martyr, but as a remarkable woman who had a vision for the future -- a vision that has put children and books together to create a better future, one child at a time and one book at a time."