Overview
Though people such as Martin Luther King Jr. and Rosa Parks are often credited with the success of the civil rights movement, thousands of others staged their own grassroots campaigns to help and segregation in America.
In 1960, four students of North Carolina A&T university staged as sit-in at a whites-only lunch counter. Despite fears of arrest, beatings, or worse, the four spent the day at the counter, quietly and politely. The next day, they came back, with more protesters. Soon, they inspired sit-in movements throughout the South.
At the same time, a group of activists decided to challenge segregation on interstate buses by going on a Freedom Ride, a bus ride throughout the South to a number of segregated areas. Through they were frequently greeted by violent assault and their buses were burned and destroyed, they carried on. Their persistence and commitment to nonviolence grabbed headlines, as well as the attention of President John F. Kennedy and his attorney general brother Robert. Their courage helped strike of powerful blow against racism throughout America.
Synopsis
Though people such as Martin Luther King Jr. and Rosa Parks are often credited with the success of the civil rights movement, thousands of others staged their own grassroots campaigns to help and segregation in America.
In 1960, four students of North Carolina A&T university staged as sit-in at a whites-only lunch counter. Despite fears of arrest, beatings, or worse, the four spent the day at the counter, quietly and politely. The next day, they came back, with more protesters. Soon, they inspired sit-in movements throughout the South.
At the same time, a group of activists decided to challenge segregation on interstate buses by going on a Freedom Ride, a bus ride throughout the South to a number of segregated areas. Through they were frequently greeted by violent assault and their buses were burned and destroyed, they carried on. Their persistence and commitment to nonviolence grabbed headlines, as well as the attention of President John F. Kennedy and his attorney general brother Robert. Their courage helped strike of powerful blow against racism throughout America.
Children's Literature
On page 102 of this excellent addition to publisher Morgan Reynolds' "The Civil Rights Movement" series, the author writes: "Today's teachers credit Martin Luther King Jr., Rosa Parks, and other icons for fueling the civil rights movement. But much of the credit should go to the thousands of sit-in activists for getting the ball rolling and to the hundreds of Freedom Riders for keeping the buses going." This book seeks remedy. The author is dramatic in the best way: introducing new topics with stories full of quotations and real observations from the participants before launching into the facts behind the story. The author is never dramatic in the worst way, not for a moment hyperbolizing. Instead he quietly lays out his consistently shocking details without embellishment for the reader's examination. His attempt to illuminate the rationale behind Jim Crow laws is a particularly fine demonstration of his even hand. At 108 pages of text and black and white documentary photography divided into long chapters, this substantive book would be more handy to refer back to at report time with a few subtitles. A short glossary of the relevant names and initials would also have been helpful, especially to readers who put down the text for a day or two. On the other hand, the notes are exemplary, the bibliography, extensive. There is also a timeline and an index. Reviewer: Tracy Koretsky