[2][3] Boston Weatherford has held many positions before beginning her writing career, including as an English teacher (1978); a field representative for the American Red Cross (1978–79); creator, producer, and host of the Black Arts Review radio show (1979); Art Litho Co. account executive (1981); National Bar Association communications director (1981–85); B & C Associates, Inc. vice president and creative director (1985–88).

In 1998, she co-authored Somebody's Knocking at Your Door: AIDS and the African American Church, and then published a collection of poetry, The Tar Baby on the Soapbox.

She said in a 2008 interview that one of the most important poems she has written was Moses: When Harriet Tubman Led Her People to Freedom: "Those inspired words came together with Kadir Nelson's soulful paintings and Ellice Lee's brilliant art direction in a perfect publishing storm.

[citation needed] In 2008, Weatherford published her first poetic novel for young adults, Becoming Billie Holiday, about the development of the artist who she refers to as her muse.

[9] As an author, Weatherford acknowledges her calling "to mine the past for family stories, fading traditions and forgotten struggles.

[12] Weatherford has written multiple articles attacking what she identifies as stereotyped caricatures of black people in East Asian popular culture, with two of the more prominent ones being geared toward anime, and another aimed at the name of a toothpaste brand.

Put another way, Jynx resembles an overweight drag queen incarnation of Little Black Sambo, a stereotype from a children's book long ago purged from libraries.

[13]In response to the controversy, Jynx's in-game sprites were given a purple skin color in the American versions of Pokémon Gold and Silver, released in late 2000.

Sixteen of Weatherford's books are Junior Library Guild selections: Before John Was a Jazz Giant (2008),[17] Freedom in Congo Square (2016),[18] Voice of Freedom (2016),[19] In Your Hands (2017),[20] Schomburg (2017),[21] How Sweet the Sound (2018),[22] The Roots of Rap (2019),[23] Beauty Mark (2020),[24] Box (2020),[25] By and By (2020),[26] Unspeakable (2021),[27] Call Me Miss Hamilton (2022),[28] How Do You Spell Unfair?