Hamilton published The Planet of Junior Brown, which was named a Newbery Honor Book and also won the Lewis Carroll Shelf Award in 1971.

[3] Three books have been published posthumously: Bruh Rabbit and the Tar Baby Girl (2003), Wee Winnie Witch's Skinny (2004), and Virginia Hamilton: Speeches, Essays, and Conversations, edited by Arnold Adoff and Kacy Cook (2010).

[10] The Virginia Hamilton Conference on Multicultural Literature for Youth has been held at Kent State University each year since 1984.

The Award pays tribute to the late Virginia Hamilton and the quality and magnitude of her exemplary contributions through her literature and advocacy for children and youth, especially in her focus on African American life, history and consciousness.

[8] In 1990 she received the Catholic Library Association's Regina Medal, given annually "for continued, distinguished contribution to children's literature".