In 1963, Parks published his first novel, The Learning Tree.  A semi-autobiographical, coming-of-age story, the novel follows the journey of Newt Winger, a Black teenage descendant of Exodusters growing up in rural Kansas in the 1920s who learns through hard-won lessons how to navigate the injustices of systemic racism. The book’s title is derived from a cautionary word of advice given to Parks by his mother when he departed his hometown of Fort Scott, Kansas. It is later recounted in the book by Sarah Winger, Newt’s mother, during a long evening walk: “Some of the people are good and some of them are bad—just like the fruit on a tree…. No matter if you go or stay, think of it like that until the day you die—let it be your learning’ tree.”

To make visible and symbolic the book’s narrative arc, the year of the book’s publication Parks created a series of color photographs. They are remarkable for the simultaneously idyllic and threatening tone and compositions—echoing the novel’s own conflicted and wrenching narrative. A selection of these images appeared in the August 16, 1963 issue of Life magazine, under the title “How It Feels To Be Black,” accompanied by passages from the book.