PICTURE BOOKS REVISIT JIM CROW ERA
In Martin Luther King Jr.’s "Letter from a Birmingham Jail," the civil rights leader notes his despair upon seeing his daughter cry to go to Funtown, a whites-only amusement park advertised on television. King’s lament inspired "Martin’s Letter" a poem from my collection Remember the Bridge: Poems of a People.
Due in part to King’s leadership, the Civil Rights Movement sounded the death knell for legalized segregation. Two generations later, however, memories of the Jim Crow era are fading. Without context for the freedom struggle, young people fail to fathom segregation’s brutality and inhumanity and the incredible sacrifices necessary to win equality.
This knowledge gap makes picture books set during the Jim Crow era all the more vital. Through the lens of historical fiction, recent picture books for middle readers not only expose hatred and inequities but also show how ordinary people persevered and overcame.
Poignant and poetic, The Other Side, by Jacqueline Woodson with shimmering watercolors by E. B. White, uses a fence as a metaphor for racial separation in a southern town. Clover, an African American girl, and Annie, a white girl, are both forbidden to play on the other side of the fence. For weeks, the girls watch each other from afar until they dare to sit on the fence together. The two new friends envision a day when fence is torn down.
Partly biographical, Goin’ Someplace Special, by Patricia McKissack with illustrations by Jerry Pinkney, follows an African American girl on a trip downtown alone. Around town, ‘Tricia Ann navigates the color line and is barred from many places. When she encounters discrimination, caring adults uplift her. Finally, she reaches her destination—the public library—where all are welcome. Like ‘Tricia Ann, Pinkney’s sunny palette exudes optimism.
A bittersweet story, Freedom Summer, by Deborah Wiles with illustrations by Jerome Lagarrigue, shows that attitudes cannot be legislated. In summer 1964, after passage of the Civil Rights Act, two boys—one black and one white—are eager to swim in the newly desegregated public pool. However, town leaders fill the pool with tar rather than opening it to blacks. Despite disappointment, the boys’ friendship endures. Lagarrigue’s dark palette evokes the somber mood.
With poetic text and vivid imagery, A Sweet Smell of Roses, by Angela Johnson with illustrations by Eric Velasquez, follows two sisters as they sneak off to march with Martin Luther King. The story hints at how young people were empowered by "the scent of freedom carried aloft by the winds of change." Velasquez’s stirring drawings pay homage to Harvey Dinnerstein and Burton Silverman, artists who chronicled the Civil Rights Movement.
Night Golf by William Miller with illustrations by Cedric Lucas, sheds light on how discrimination affects an aspiring young athlete. A natural at golf, James is barred from playing at the whites-only course. So, he becomes a caddy to be near the sport. Thanks to another African American caddy, James finds a way to play golf—at night.
My recent book, Freedom on the Menu: The Greensboro Sit-Ins, offers a child’s-eye view of efforts to desegregate downtown lunch counters. Two years before the book’s release, while illustrator Jerome Lagarrigue toiled at his easel, I shared the story—minus his striking oil paintings—with an ethnically diverse student body. The young audience’s response could not have been more appropriate if I had scripted it. The children were shocked that segregation was once the status quo. To them, racism is not just cruel, but crazy. If only grown-ups had been so wise.
Links to Lesson Ideas and Classroom Activities
Literature as a Catalyst for Social Action: Breaking Barriers, Building Bridges
Teacher's Guide for Night Golf
Teacher’s Guide for A Sweet Smell of Roses
Civil Rights (Five lessons for 2nd grade)
Other Online Resources
International Civil Rights Museum
A Sampling of "Jim Crow" Laws (several applying to facilities frequented by children)
The Rise and Fall of Jim Crow (PBS series) – A Century of Segregation (interactive timeline)
Photographs of Signs Enforcing Discrimination (Library of Congress)
Bibliography
Johnson, Angela, ill. by Eric Velasquez. A Sweet Smell of Roses. New York: Simon &
Schuster, 2005.
McKissack, Patrica, ill. by Jerry Pinkney. Goin’ Someplace Special. New York:
Atheneum, 2001.
Miller, William, ill. by Cedric Lucas. Night Golf. New York: Lee & Low, 1999.
Ringgold, Faith. If a Bus Could Talk: The Story of Rosa Parks. New York: Simon &
Schuster, 1999.
Weatherford, Carole Boston, ill. by Jerome Lagarrigue. Freedom on the Menu: The
Greensboro Sit-Ins. New York: Dial, 2005.
Weatherford, Carole Boston. Remember the Bridge: Poems of a People. New York:
Philomel, 2002.
Wiles, Deborah, ill. by Jerome Lagarrigue. Freedom Summer. New York: Atheneum,
2001.
Woodson, Jacqueline, ill. by E. B. Lewis. The Other Side. New York: G. P. Putnam’s
Sons, 2001.