His work also included many biographical subjects, ranging from Lena Horne and Hank Aaron to Scatman Crothers and Malcolm X.
He wrote on a great variety of subjects that introduced young people to the language and cultures of other continents, especially Africa.
After graduation, before he decided to become a teacher, Haskins moved to New York City and worked as a stock trader on Wall Street.
[1] Haskins is an Alabama Native who was born in the year of 1941 he grew up in a loving community with his aunts and uncles.
Haskins's hometown is Demopolis,Alabama growing up he experienced segregation in the public school system.
He also has recordings from his interview with Rosa Parks he and his fellow peers would be labeled as rabble-rousers for trying to sit in the white-only section of the lunch rooms.
The characters in his stories cover the gamut of African American role models, from Rosa Parks to the black members of the Hannibal Guards, a military organization in Pittsburgh during the Civil War.
The book followed the success of his first work, Voodoo and Hoodoo: The Craft as Revealed by Traditional Practitioners, published some 20 years prior.
Several of Haskins' books were Coretta Scott King Author Honor titles, including Barbara Jordan, Lena Horne, and Black Dance in America.
Black Music in America won the 1988 Carter G. Woodson Book Award of the National Council for the Social Studies.
[5] His four-book Count Your Way series (Arab World, China, Japan, and Russia) won the Alabama Library Association Award for best work for children in 1988.