American Girl premieres Civil Rights era doll

This summer, American Girl Doll will add another doll to its collection. Meet the nine-year-old African-American girl named Melody Ellison. She lived in Detroit during the 1960s Civil Rights era. 

In a statement to Mashable, the company says after experiencing racial inequality and seeing her family face prejudice, Melody uses her singing to "blend her voice with others in harmony." 

In an interview with CBS News, Vice President of Marketing Julia Prohaska described the responsibility for companies such as American Girl Doll to create dolls like Melody: "I think the doll industry has a very heavy responsibility in reflecting what is true about our society." 

"Melody decides to add her voice to those who are speaking up about inequality."

In the current BeForever line (dolls based around important time periods in American history), there are three other dolls of color: Addy, a former slave who escapes to her freedom, Kaya, a Native American doll whose story is set before European colonization, and Josefina, who lives on a ranch near Santa Fe, shortly after Mexico gained its independence.

"When we launched Addy, the universal feeling was that we needed to address the very difficult topic of slavery before we addressed any other experience in black history," Prohaska explained in her CBS interview. 

This is the company's third African-American doll since parent company Pleasant Company was founded in 1986. The brand faced criticism last year when it pulled four dolls, two of which were dolls of color, African-American Cécile Rey and Chinese-American Ivy Ling. By limiting the diversity of experiences in its doll collection, American Girl has been accused of "whitewashing" history.

Senior historian Mark Speltz headed the development of Melody's story, and a six-person advisory board consisting of historians, educators and late civil rights activist Julian Bond worked to make Melody's story as authentic as possible.

Style also played an important part in Melody's creation. Based on the advice of the panel, lead designer Heather Northrop and her team developed the unique texture of Melody's hair.

Melody's recording studio plays music from Motown, but will cost $900 for the full set. The doll, with included literature, will be available late this summer for $115.

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