The Girl From The Tar Paper School by Teri Kanefield

In 1951, fifteen-year-old Barbara Rose Johns and her sister Joan attended Robert R. Moton High School - a high school for black students - in Farmville, Virginia. In the 1950's, segregation which kept black and white Americans separate in schools, restaurants, theatres, and in most public areas, was legal in the United States. The high school, for students from the black community, consisted of a main brick building surrounded by temporary classrooms constructed of wood and covered with tar paper. In rainy weather, these wooden "chicken coops" as the students called them, leaked. In cold weather they were heated unevenly by the pot-bellied stoves, meaning those students near the stove were warm while those further away shivered from the cold. In contrast, the school for white students, Farmville High School, "had modern heating, an industrial-arts shop, locker rooms, an infirmary, a cafeteria, and a real auditorium complete with sound equipment."

Barbara questioned her music teacher, Miss Inez Davenport whom she had come to trust, about the unfair conditions of their school. Miss Davenport challenged Barbara to act. Barbara, who lived in Darlington Heights with her parents, considered the problem of the tar paper shacks. Eventually, Barbara came up with the idea of leading her fellow students on a strike to protest the terrible conditions and the lack of action by both the school board and the town officials. The next day Barbara called together students she felt were important leaders in the student community including John and Carrie Stokes (vice president and president of the 1951 graduating class respectively) and John Watson (school newspaper editor-in-chief and member of the school business club). The students decided to strike in the spring in an attempt to force the school board and city to act.

On April 23, 1951 the students of Robert Russa Moton High walked out of class, led by Barbara Johns. The students kept their plans secret knowing that if parents or teachers were aware of the possible strike they might lose their jobs or face other repercussions. Principal Boyd Jones was lured into town by a telephone call informing him that black students were causing trouble in the town. Once Principal Jones had left the school, notes written by Barbara informing the teachers in each class that there was an assembly in the school auditorium distributed. Once the teachers and their classes assembled in the auditorium, Barbara took the stage and asked the teachers to leave. Barbara's speech focused on the terrible conditions at the school, the inability of the parents and the city to deal with this problem and how they had to the right to the same facilities that the Farmville white students enjoyed.

Principal Boyd returned to the school and urged Barbara and the students to quit their strike, telling them that a new school was being worked on. But Barbara asked him to leave and she then led the students on a picket in front of the school. After meeting with Reverend L. Francis Griffin, the pastor at the First Baptist Church in Farmville, Barbara called the NAACP in an attempt to get them involved but they were reluctant, telling her to write a letter.

Some of the Moton High School students who attended the strike.

The (white) superintendent of Prince Edward County Schools, T. J. McIlwaine refused to meet with Barbara and the students, so she along with several other students walked to his office and met with him in the county courthouse. He refused Barbara's demands for black students to join their white counterparts at Farmville High and insisted that a new school was in the works. He also stated there was no difference in quality between the two high schools.

Three days into the strike, on April 25, 1951, two NAACP lawyers, Spottswood Robinson and Oliver Hill arrived to speak with Barbara and the striking students. They encouraged the students to go back to class because their strategy had changed. Instead of seeking schools of equal quality for black students, they were now working towards desegregation. Barbara's goal for the strike was a new building. Instead, the student strike at Robert R. Moton High would become part of a much larger push to achieve desegregation. Barbara Johns' initiative to improve schools for black students had suddenly blossomed into a much larger effort, the beginning of the struggle to end segregation of black students in America.

Discussion

The Girl From The Tar Paper School, which was written for children and teens, does an excellent job of recounting this important event which marked the beginning of efforts to desegregate schools in the United States.

Kanefield begins by describing the school that Barbara Johns and other black Americans in Farmville, Virginia must attend, and her decision to do something about the inequality experienced by black students in the county.

To help readers understand the factors that may have molded Barbara Rose Johns and motivated her to act, Kanefield delves into her family history. Readers get the sense of a close-knit family helping one another, with deep roots in Prince Edward County. Barbara, through the efforts of her Uncle Vernon Johns, a Baptist minister, learned about black history and was most definitely exposed to his volatile preaching which called out both blacks and whites. Like many black Americans, Barbara experienced racial prejudice, some of which is recounted.

Like her Uncle Vernon, Barbara "...put into words what needed to be said..." at the very beginning of the strike. Barbara's actions stunned her fellow students "...who saw her as reserved and something of a loner..." Her leadership qualities were very much in evidence during the initial stages of the strike. She boldly confronted the white superintendent, Mr. McIlwaine,

Accompanying Kanefield's narrative are a few family photographs - most were lost when the family home burned down in 1955 - as well as photographs of important lanmarks and areas that were important to Barbara and her story.

Social change is always difficult and often not without resistance. In the chapter titled, The Lost Generation, Kanefield recounts one of the unintended consequences of the fight to desegregate schools. Many readers will be shocked to learn that when desegregation was determined to be unconstitutional through the 1954 decision in Brown v. Board of Education, the Prince Edward County school board refused to desegregate even though they were ordered to in 1959 by the Federal District Court. They closed all the Prince Edward County schools meaning that black children had no means of education while white students were able to attend a private school. This mean spirited action meant no schooling for black students until 1964, a situation that affected these families for years to come. Amazingly it took a Supreme Court decision to force the schools to reopen and "it was not until the 1980s that Prince Edward County schools were fully integrated and funded adequately enough so all children in the county could be educated."

If anything, The Girl From The Tar Paper School, helps young readers understand how racial prejudice can be so harmful both to those who hold these beliefs and to those who are victims of such prejudice. Kanefield portrays the extraordinary efforts black Americans had to go to simply to achieve the right to attend schools like other Americans and how these efforts were often peaceful and required great determination and courage.

The back matter contains an extensive Author's Note, A Select Civil Rights Timeline, Endnotes detailing the sources of quotes, a Sources page listing resources used, Image Credits and an Index. Well-written, enlightening and very moving.

image credit: http://www.newseum.org/2015/02/26/unsung-heroes-farmville-student-strike/

Book Details:

The Girl From The Tar Paper School: Barbara Rose Johns and the Advent of the Civil Rights Movement  by Teri Kanefield
New York: Abrams Books For Young Readers    2014
56 pp.

Meet Viola Desmond by Elizabeth MacLeod

On November 18, 2018 a new ten dollar bill was released, featuring for the first time the image of a Canadian woman. For some time, the Royal Canadian Mint has faced pressure to put a Canadian woman on the country's currency instead of a Canadian man or British royalty. After public consultation, it was decided that the new bank note would feature Viola Desmond, a black Canadian businesswoman and civil rights activist. It was no surprise that few Canadians had ever heard of Viola Desmond which made her the perfect choice for the new bank note.

Viola Irene Desmond was born on July 6, 1914 in Halifax, Nova Scotia to Gwendolin and James Davis, a biracial couple (Viola's mother was white). The Davis's had a large family of ten children and were active in their community.  Like many African Canadians, Viola was treated differently than people who were white. She wanted to train as a hairdresser (her father was a barber) but no beauty school in Halifax would accept her, so she had to attend school in Montreal as well as New York and New Jersey.

Viola Desmond in her beauty salon.

When she returned to Halifax she opened both her own beauty salon as well as a beauty school known as Desmond School of Beauty Culture. The beauty school was dedicated to training other African Maritime women so they could open their own businesses in New Brunswick, Nova Scotia and Quebec.

Viola once again experienced the racism that seemed so prevalent and tacitly accepted. On the evening of November 8, 1946, while travelling from Halifax to Sydney, Nova Scotia, Viola's car broke down in New Glasgow. While waiting for her car to be repaired, Viola decided to catch a movie,  at the Roseland Theatre. At this time theatres like many other venues were segregated, (although there were no segregation laws in effect in Halifax) with whites seated downstairs and black patrons seated in the upstairs balconies. Viola requested a downstairs ticket but was given a ticket to the balcony. She tried to take a seat in the downstairs section reserved for whites, only to be prevented by a theatre employee. Viola returned to the cashier believing she had been given the wrong ticket and requested a ticket for the main floor of the theatre but cashier Peggy Melanson told her she could only sell her a ticket for the upstairs. The reason Viola was given, was that she was black.

Viola knew that she was being discriminated against and attempted to return to the main floor of the theatre. She was confronted by the manager of the theatre, Henry MacNeil but Viola pointed out that she had a ticket and offered to pay the difference between the two tickets but was refused. Eventually police were called and Viola was forcibly removed from the theatre and taken to jail where she spent the night. The experience was frightening and infuriating.

The next morning she was brought into court, charged and convicted on the trumped up charge of tax evasion of one dollar - the difference in price between the two tickets. She was fined a total of twenty-six dollars. Viola's civil rights were ignored as she  had no counsel and was never advised of her right to an adjournment to prepare a defense. She was convicted simply because of the colour of her skin. When she returned home, her case was taken up by the NSAACP (Nova Scotia Association for the Advancement of Coloured People) and although the case was lost on a technicality in the provincial Supreme Court, it did much to raise awareness of racial intolerance in Nova Scotia.

Discussion

Meet Viola Desmond is a picture book that introduces Viola Desmond to younger readers in an appealing comic book style. Her story is told in a straightforward way with a narrative below each comic book style illustration. MacLeod who has written many other biographies, effectively captures the frustration, anger and determination that Viola felt about her situation. The colourful illustrations effectively aid in conveying all of these emotions.

According to the description in the back by the publisher, illustrator Mike Deas created the drawings "using a blend of digital tools with traditional media. Sketches were created with a Wacom tablet and Photoshop, then traced onto watercolour paper, where colour and texture were added using gouache and watercolour paints. Ink was used to add the black line to finish the art."

MacLeod has included a two page timeline of Viola Desmond's life along with some photographs and a stamp issued in her name. At the right is an image of the ten dollar bank note issued with Viola Desmond's image. It is unusual in that it has her portrait placed vertically on the bank note.
Readers can learn more about Viola from the online Canadian Encyclopedia: https://thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/viola-desmond   Image credits: https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/viola-desmond

Book Details:

Meet Viola Desmond by Elizabeth MacLeod
Toronto: Scholastic Canada Ltd. 2018
31 pp.

It All Comes Down To This by Karen English

It All Comes Down To This is a story set in the summer of 1965 in Los Angeles. Sophia LaBranche is a twelve-year-old black girl who lives with her older sister Lily and her father who is a lawyer and her mother who is the director of an art gallery. Their family moved to Montego Drive in the spring. Sophie's family were the first colored family on their block; they were ignored by everyone. But a week after they moved in, Jennifer Abbott knocked on the LaBranche's door, asking to meet Sophie. Despite the fact that Jennifer is a white girl, she and Sophie discovered that they had a lot in common; they both skipped a grade and would soon be thirteen going into grade nine, they loved the Beatles, and they loved to read.

However Sophie begins to discover that life is uncertain for a person of color in their new neighbourhood, something her family's new housekeeper reminds her. Sophie's sister, Lily decides she will apply to work at Marcia Stevens, a boutique store, despite Sophie's skepticism because she's never seen any colored people working at the store. Lily tells her they don't actually know if they won't hired colored.

Sophie tells Lily her own experience a few days prior. Her new friend Jennifer wanted to to swimming at the Baker family's pool. The Bakers are a white family with three girls; Marcy, Deidre, and Jilly. However, when Jennifer and Sophie arrive at the Baker's, Jennifer is told she may swim, but Sophie cannot. Although Sophie encourages Jennifer to stay and swim, she refuses. Instead Jennifer tells the Baker girls they are prejudiced and she and Sophie leave.

As the summer progresses Sophie's life becomes more and more complicated. One afternoon while exploring her father's study, she finds a suspicious letter from an unknown woman, Paula Morrisy. She doesn't read the unopened letter but suspects that her father might be involved with another woman. This is confirmed later while out with Jennifer and her mother, Sophie sees her father in a small coffee shop with another woman, holding hands. Sophie is convinced this woman is Paula.

Sophie and Jennifer discover that the community center will be hosting a play called That Talk. Sophie is determined to win the part of Olivia, while Jennifer wants the part of the villain, Julie. They get copies of the script and begin studying their lines for the audition later in the summer. Meanwhile, Sophie's older sister becomes involved with Nathan Baylor, Mrs. Baylor's son, against the wishes of her mother who believes she is just "toying" with him. However Lily disregards her mother's warning and begins to date Nathan.

Then Sophie's summer is shattered when her mother walks out on her father. This is precipitated by her father's mistress calling their home and her mother discovering a credit card charge for a motel room. Sophie's mother tells her and Lily she is going to stay with Aunt Rose in Elsinore.  Sophie must cope with the stress of her parents marriage crisis, her sister's difficult relationship with Nathan, racial prejudice from her neighbours and community and the rebellion in Watts. It is a summer that forever changes Sophie's perception of her identity.

Discussion

It All Comes Down To This is a novel that brilliantly captures the undercurrent of racial tension between blacks and whites in suburban Los Angeles in the mid-1960's. It is a summer where twelve-year-old Sophie LaBranche comes to the realization that the world is a different place for people who are dark-skinned. Her family is the first "colored family" on their block, suggesting that the neighbourhood is undergoing a gradual change, becoming integrated. The fact that they are ignored and not welcomed suggests that people are not happy to see a black family move in.

English sets the tone of what it was like in 1965 Los Angeles to be a young black girl growing up in a predominantly white community by capturing what Sophie calls "a sneaky kind of hate", small, covert incidents of racial prejudice. This happens when Sophie goes to lunch at Sutton's with Jennifer and her mother after shopping. After their meal when Sophie and Jennifer choose a glitter pen from the restaurant's treasure chest, the hostess accuses Sophie of  taking an extra prize. The hostess tells Mrs. Abbott  who questions why her on why she thinks Sophie stole a pen,
" 'Well,' she said with a smile, as if she and Mrs. Abbott were secret friends, 'You know how they are. They'll steal at the drop of a pin.' " This makes Mrs. Abbott furious.

Sophie discovers an old Jet magazine from 1955 and reads about the horrific murder of Emmett Till by two white men in Mississippi. Sophie is completely overwhelmed by what she reads and attempts to understand this senseless crime. " We didn't live in Mississippi but hate was under the surface everywhere. Wasn't it? Even if it was a sneaky kind of hate. It made people look at me and automatically think they were superior. It made them think I was a thief or maybe I'd do something to their swimming pool."

In Los Angeles in the 1960's it was very common for black men to be pulled over by the police and questioned and patted down. This happens to Lily's boyfriend Nathan in an incident that is both scary and humiliating for him, Lily and Sophie. After checking his identification, patting  him down, handcuffing him and forcing him to sit on the curb, the officer questions Lily, "Just what are you doing with that n*****?" and who Sophie is. They are allowed to leave when Lily who is light-skinned tells the officer Sophie is her sister and that Nathan is NOT a n*****.

Sophie experiences more discrimination when she pays a visit to the community center and finds herself accused of stealing someone's wallet - a wallet that has been missing for some time. Sophie wishes that her friend Jennifer was with her because as a white person she could vouch for Sophie. An unsettling realization begins to dawn on Sophie: "Something really unsettling crossed my mind, then. What if I had to go through this for the rest of my lie? Always, people looking at me -- with suspicion." Sophie recounts to Nathan what happened at the community center and expresses her worry that the woman who accused her of stealing will likely be one of the judges for the auditions. "...she's going to think I'm a thief and not let them pick me." Nathan encourages her to audition anyway. "Always just do things like that anyway."

When the audition goes as Sophie feared - she is never considered a serious candidate - she is discouraged but Mrs. Baylor encourages her to persevere,  "You gonna have to develop a thick skin and don't let nothin' stop you. You keep on pushing and you keep on tryin' and you'll get what you workin' for." In a chapter titled It All Comes Down To This, Sophie realizes all her hard work, memorizing ALL the parts of the play, doesn't matter, because only the colour of her skin mattered.

The turning point of the novel is the Watts Rebellion which begins when a young black motorist, Marquette Frye is pulled over by a white police officer for driving while intoxicated. The growing number of spectators in the predominantly black neighbourhood believe that this is yet another incident of racial prejudice and they begin to fight and scuffle with police. Years of frustration over inadequate city services, poor housing conditions and racism boil over.

This incident, the tumultuous relationship between Lily and Nathan, the arrest of Nathan by the police, her parents' marriage crisis and the pain Sophie experiences over her only friend Jennifer becoming friends with Linda Cruz whose family is prejudiced towards blacks, leads Sophie to realize she is "going to go through a rough lonely patch."

Despite everything, Sophie begins to discover an inner strength. Angry that the television coverage by white people is placing the blame on the black citizens of Watts, that assumptions are made about her by people like Jilly and Deidre Baker, Sophie begins to stand up for herself and in doing so, realizes that she can take care of herself. And things do begin to work out for her; she meets a new girl, Charlotte who is thirteen and like Sophie, new to their school, her father returns home, and Nathan and Lily seem to have worked out some kind of compromise. She learns from Lily's experience with Nathan that "You can't force something to happen. If it's meant to happen,

In what could have been a harsh and heavy subject for a middle grade novel, English is gentle in her portrayal, never getting too dark, yet offering her young readers the opportunity to think a bit deeper on the events she portrays. Besides the characteristic racism Sophie experiences and the Watts Rebellion, there are other aspects to explore. For example, English touches on the colorism that existed within the black community. Sophie's mother doesn't like Lily dating Nathan, because he is dark skinned. Lily is furious because Nathan is attending Berkeley and is a responsible, hard-working person. Sophie recognizes that they have their own prejudice within the black community against darker skinned people. She attempts to explain this to her friend Jennifer. "I didn't want to tell Jennifer the other reason. It felt shameful and embarrassing -- something white people wouldn't understand. But I blurted it out anyway. 'He's dark skinned.' ...It's hard to explain.' It was the kind of thing nobody talked about openly. It felt like I was letting her in on a secret. 'See light-skinned colored people almost always marry light-skinned colored people on purpose. So they'll have light-skinned kids.' "
It All Comes Down To This is a touching story about one girl's struggle to understand the world around her and her place in it. It is historical fiction that provides some background to those interested in the American Civil Rights movement. English drew from her own personal experiences to pen this engaging story.

For more information on the Watts Rebellion of 1965, check out the Civil Rights Digital Library website.

Book Details:

It All Comes Down To This by Karen English
New York: Clarion Books 2017
355 pp.

Loving vs Virginia by Patricia Hruby Powell

Loving vs. Virginia is touted as a "documentary novel" about the famous civil rights case which struck down laws prohibiting interracial marriage in the United States. Mildred Jeter, a young black woman of mixed ethnicity, married Richard Loving in Washington, D.C. in 1958. The returned to their home in Virginia and were arrested five weeks later. In 1967, their case went to the United States Supreme Court. The court's decision, issued on June 12, 1967, overturned their conviction of violating Virginia's laws on miscegenation. At the time of the ruling in 1967, all sixteen southern states had laws forbidding interracial marriage.

Patricia Mruby Powell's novel in verse tells Mildred and Richard's story while also presenting "bites" of background historical information in the form of pictures, quotes and brief articles. The story is told in the alternating narratives of Mildred and Richard.

The story opens in the fall of 1952 in Central Point, Caroline county, Virginia where Mildred Jeter lives with her mother, stepfather, her older sister Garnet and seven brothers.  Mildred attends Sycamore School, her brother Lewis is in grade 1, Garnet is in grade 7, and Mildred is in grade 6. It is a one room school with all the grades sharing. The Jeter ancestors have lives in Central Point for centuries; her parents are part Indian as well as descended  from African slaves and their owners. In the spring Mildred's family plants a garden of corn, string beans and greens, they have their own cow for milk and make their own butter, and slaughter their own hogs and chickens. On the weekends, folks come to the Jeter household: Mildred's big brother's Theo, Edward, Richard, George and James, Otha and their friends come. They play softball in the field. When darkness falls, Mildred's father brings out his banjo, and her brothers play guitar, fiddles and mandolins. Soon everyone is laughing and dancing as one of the fathers calls a square dance.

"If I stop and watch
I see young and old --
Indians, Negroes, Whites --
all mixed together.

Everyone likes each other
in our neighborhood.
Everyone dancing
TOGETHER."

During the fall of 1952, while driving home in his friend Ray's car, Ray and Richard are stopped by Sheriff R. G. Brooks. Sheriff Brooks hates "colored people" and he questions Ray calling him "boy" but Richard who is white is called "son". Brooks doesn't much like Richard either partly because he hangs around the coloreds and also because his father drives a truck for P.E. Boyd Byrd, a colored farmer known to be very good-natured.

In October 1955, Mildred is a freshman at Union High School. She loves school and plans to graduate, unlike her older brothers, Otha and Theo who have dropped out of school to work. At a dance at their neighbor's, the Fortunes, Mildred and Otha dance up a storm. Richard Loving notices Mildred and insists on driving her and her family home. That night Garnet suggests to Millie that Richard likes her. Her observation is proven when Richard takes everyone to the drive-in a few nights later. He tells Mildred that he offered to take everyone because he knew she might turn him down. They have their first kiss.

In the fall of October 1955, Richard and Millie's relationship continues to grow. In the spring of 1956 Millie is back at school. Richard comes regularly to see her. People don't like that Richard is with Millie and sometimes they hear comments, but Richard tells her that it would be worse if he was black and she was white. He would be lynched. In September 1958, Millie realizes she pregnant and she's terrified she will lose Richard. She tells him one night after she is refused entrance into a square dance Millie's father and brother's band are performing at. The dance is at Sparta school, the white elementary school Richard once attended. Richard is upset and drives her home. In January of 1957, with Richard's mother Lola Loving attending her, Millie gives birth to a beautiful little boy she names Sidney. In February 1957, Richard visits Millie, apologizing for abandoning her and asks her to take him back. He meets his little son.

In May of 1957 Sheriff Brooks harasses Richard and Millie, pulling them over when they are out driving. He warns Richard not to break the law and to "take that little Negress home where she belongs." Richard meets Millie's family in June of 1957. In April 1958 Millie finds herself pregnant once again. At first Richard seems upset but when Millie presses him, he tells her they need to find out her due date so they can make plans to marry. This makes Millie very happy because she knows Richard will stay.

Richard's decision to marry Millie doesn't sit well with his best friend Ray who encourages Richard to do what others have done and simply live next door to her. But Richard believes that Millie deserves better. Ray challenges Richard telling him he can't marry Millie because it's illegal and that the sheriff will never let it go.  Meanwhile Millie who is now five months pregnant, her baby due in October, quits school.

Richard and Millie along with family drive to Washington, D.C., first doing the paperwork at City Hall. They go to the preacher's house and are married. Richard knows Millie doesn't know they are breaking the law by getting married. He hopes that once they return home to Virginia they'll be forgotten. But on July 11, 1958, Richard and Millie go to bed on a hot, sticky Virginia summer night only to be awakened by Sheriff Brooks shining a light in their faces. Richard tells the sheriff they are married and points to the marriage certificate on the bedroom wall. The sheriff tells them not in Virginia and both Richard and Millie are taken to jail.

Richard is put in a cell with other men and the next morning is bailed out by his sister. He is told if he bails Millie out he will be re-arrested. Millie is in a cell upstairs. Alone for days and pregnant she worries she might have her baby in the rat infested jail. She is visited by her mother who tells her that her brothers and father can't come because they believe they will be arrested. On her seventh day in jail Millie is bailed out by her daddy who pays her $1000 bond. Millie goes to live at her parents home, while Richard stays at his parent's home. She learns that she and Richard can't be married because race mixing is forbidden and illegal. Richard visits Millie secretly and tells her he will come again. This reassures Millie that he won't abandon her. In October Millie gives birth to a baby boy whom Richard names Donald. After her hearing Millie, Richard and their two children Sidney and Donald move to Washington, D.C. to live with Millie's cousin Alex.

In January, 1959 Mildred and Richard return to Virginia for their hearing at the Bowling Green Courthouse. On the advice of their lawyer, Mr. Beazley, they plead guilty and Judge Bazile sentences them to one year in jail or a suspended sentence for twenty-five years if they leave Caroline County and the state of Virginia immediately and do not return together for those twenty-five years. Upset, Millie asks Beazley if they can return in twenty-five years and he tells them likely not as they could be sentenced to another twenty-five years. He suggests they go visit their families but do not stay together overnight. However, when they try to return for Easter 1959, Richard staying at his parents and Millie along with the children at her parents, Sheriff Brooks forces them to come to the jail. Their lawyer talks to Judge Bazile and they are released but they must leave immediately.

Mildred and Richard spend the next years living in Washington, D.C. with Alex. Richard works in Caroline County. Millie delivers their third child, Peggy at her mother's home with the help of Lola Loving. In the summer of 1963, Millie, fed up with living in the city, missing her family and watching her husband have to commute daily, decides to act. Inspired by Dr. Martin Luther King, she decides to write Attorney General, Bobby Kennedy. He tells her to contact the ACLU in Washington. Mildred and Richard meet with an ACLU lawyer, Mr. Cohen and set in motion a course of action that ultimately changes their lives forever.

Discussion

Patricia Hruby Powell and illustrator Shadra Strickland have crafted a remarkable book that informs readers about the journey of Mildred Jeter Loving and Richard Loving to live their lives as they chose to - as husband and wife. Using interviews, print resources and speaking with friends and family of Richard and Mildred (both of whom have now passed away), Powell presents in historical context, the backstory behind the landmark Loving vs. Virginia case. Richard and Mildred narrate events in first person that occurred through the 1950's and 1960's leading up to the landmark case. Powell uses pages, separate from Richard and Mildred's story, to outline the struggle of African Americans to achieve equal rights.

The novel opens with a timeline beginning with Emancipation in 1865 (slaves are freed) to 1952 when Mildred and Richard's story begins. There is also a reproduction of the 1924 New Virginia Law to Preserve Racial Integrity. The 1950's decade during which Mildred and Richard were growing up was a period where the integration of schools in the United States was intensely opposed. Unbelievably, the state of Virginia chose to close schools rather than integrate black students into white schools. As the civil rights movement picks up steam in the early 1960's Powell has included photographs of sit-ins in white-only restaurants, explanations of the Freedom Riders of 1961 (students who rode public buses in mixed-race groups to protest continued segregation), and quotes and photographs from Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s speeches, letters and The March on Washington in 1963.

Mildred Jeter Loving and her husband Richard P. Loving
January 26, 1965

The time was ripe for defeating laws banning interracial marriages in the 1960's. The civil rights movement began building momentum during that decade aided by the determined and charismatic Martin Luther King Jr. When Mildred contacted the ACLU in Washington, she and Richard were contacted by two young, intelligent and inexperienced lawyers determined to win them the right to be married.  Loving vs. Virginia includes a photograph of Mildred and Richard with Bernard Cohen and Philip Hirschkop. Separate pages outline how Cohen and Hirschkop prepared each step of their case that ultimately led them to challenge the Loving's conviction under Virginia's racial purity law in the nation's Supreme Court.

The views of elected officials, most notably Governor George Wallace are presented. Some are quite remarkable to read.When Judge Bazile issued his ruling in the Loving case in January of 1965 he wrote, " Almighty God created the races, white, black, yellow, malay, and red and he placed them on separate continents. And but for the interference with his arrangement there would be no cause for such marriages. The fact that he separated the races shows that he did not intend for the races to mix."

Shadra Strickland illustrated the Loving's story using "a style of illustrative reporting from the Loving's time called visual journalism...Visual journalism was often characterized by a loose, impromptu drawing style that allowed lines to overlap and preserved the informal feeling of sketches in the final composition." Strickland used photographs of the Lovings from Life Magazine as well as from her own mother's childhood in the 1950's to create the illustrations in the novel.

Powell's narratives are believable, capturing the characters of Richard and Mildred. They are portrayed as simple, everyday folk who want to live their lives as they wish. Mildred's fears of being abandoned by Richard and Richard's determination to protect Millie and his love for her are well captured.  As Richard states in one of his narratives, "We just want to live as husband and wife in Virginia." After winning their case, Richard and Mildred were reluctant to attend a press conference, but were persuaded by their lawyers because of the importance of their case.

Despite their win change would continue to come slowly. In 1967 when the Supreme Court issued a ruling in the Loving vs. Virginia case, there were sixteen states which still had anti-miscegenation laws on the books. The last law against inter-racial marriages was finally struck off in 2000 in the state of Alabama.

Image credits:

1959 protest image: https://www.thechildrensbookreview.com/loving-vs-virginia-an-interview-with-patricia-hruby-powell/

Mildred and Richard Loving image: https://www.britannica.com/event/Loving-v-Virginia

Shadra Strickland illustration: https://www.thechildrensbookreview.com/loving-vs-virginia-an-interview-with-patricia-hruby-powell/

Book Details:

Loving vs. Virginia by Patricia Hruby Powell
San Francisco: Chronicle Books 2017
260 pp.

Stella by Starlight by Sharon M. Draper

Stella By Starlight tells the story of being a Negro American during the 1930's. The Civil War had ended only sixty-seven years earlier, outlawing slavery. But the bigotry rages on in a segregated south.

Ten year old Stella Mills lives with her father Jonah, her mother Georgia and her younger brother Jojo in the segregated south, in a town called Bumblebee, North Carolina, nestled in the Blue Ridge Mountains. Set in 1932, Bumblebee is segregated, meaning blacks live in one part of the town with their own school and church and white people live in another part of town. The black folks mostly work as cooks, maids and janitors, with few men allowed to work at the sawmill in town. The Negro families take care of one another, expecting little help from the white folk.

It all starts one night when Stella and Jojo witness a Klu Klux Klan meeting across Kilkenny Pond in the middle of the night. They secretly watch nine figures dressed in white robes with pointy hats burn a wooden cross. From their hidden spot, Stella is certain she recognizes the bridle of the horse belonging to the white doctor, Dr. Packard.

Stella and her brother Jojo tell their parents what they saw and their mom and dad convene a meeting immediately that night at their home of some of the Negro parents, including the only Negro doctor, Dr. Hawkins.  While the adults meet, Stella sits outside on the porch steps with Tony, Dr. Hawkins' son. Tony tells Stella that he runs on the track at the white school, something that is forbidden for a black boy. He tells her his dream of being like the "Midnight Express", Eddie Tolan who won two gold medals at the recent Los Angeles Olympics. Tony is determined to run someday in the Olympics. The two children are frightened by the night's events and try to figure out the meaning of the Klan's sudden reappearance in their town.

As her father reads the white and Negro newspapers the next morning Stella questions her father as to why they don't do more. She questions why the Negro paper, The Truth Unbridled, doesn't publish the Klan meeting her father tells her the situation is not as simple as it appears. "Never be afraid to be honest and stand up for what is right, Stella...Just remember to balance your courage with wisdom." He tells her trying to catch the Klan is "like nailing jelly to a tree".

Stella and Jojo and the other black children attend Riverside School for black students while the white students attend Mountain View. Mountain View, with its brick building and well manicured lawn, is known for its academic and sports successes. The students at Mountain View are better off, having shoes and warm coats for the winter while like most black children in the area, Stella and her brother walk to school barefoot. On their way to school they meet Carolyn Malone who is Stella's best friend, five of the thirteen Spencer children, Johnsteve Winston, Randy Bates and Tony Hawkins. The group stop at Mrs. Cathy Cooper's store, Cathy's Candy Store, the white proprietor whose friendliness towards the black children doesn't go unnoticed by Stella. She also allows the children to enter by the front door unlike most other store owners in Bumblebee. White children also enter the store, including Paulette Packard, Dr. Packard's daughter and Barbara Osterman whose father owns the mill. Barbara wonders why they have to attend separate schools, but a white boy, Kenneth, mocks the black children saying they will "never amount to anything."

Stella doesn't like to write because she finds writing challenging. Unable to complete her writing assignment at school, Mrs. Grayson tells her she needs to try harder and finish her work. To help her think better, Stella likes to sneak outside after everyone has gone to sleep.

The black community comes together when "Spoon Man", as Terence Oglethorpe, a traveling salesman is known, comes to visit Bumblebee. Spoon Man travels all over North Carolina, selling cookware, tools and trinkets. He tells them that the Depression has made everyone desperate for change especially in the upcoming presidential election and that he's heard about the reemergence of the Klu Klux Klan in the Bumblebee area. Stella's father indicates to Spoon Man that he wants to vote. "I live in this country and I oughta be allowed to vote!" Dr. Hawkins tells the men that there are now poll taxes and a literacy test about the Constitution before blacks can vote. The KKK are also informed of any black man who tries to register to vote. Hawkins suggests to Jonah that maybe he wait for a better time to push the right to vote but Jonah questions when that time will come.

At church on Sunday, Pastor Patton tells the congregation that he is going into Spindale to register to vote in the morning and he welcomes any man who wants to accompany him. That night at dinner Stella's parents argue about Jonah going to register, but the next morning he meets Pastor Patton along with Mr. Spencer at the Spindale Election office. However, the registrar, Mr. Amherst Pineville, is hostile towards the group and determined to do everything in his power to prevent them from registering. They are forced to pay two dollars to register and must also take a test, while white men who walk in are allowed to register immediately. Eventually they are registered but Pineville warns them that trouble will be coming their way. When trouble does come, Stella and her family and the rest of the black community must pull together to get through a devastating fire and an accident that almost kills Stella's mother.

Discussion

Sharon M. Draper is an award winning author, educator, poet and speaker. On her website, Draper states that she tries to take readers "along on my journey". Stella By Starlight does just that. It is a journey back to 1932 America, suffering through the beginnings of the Depression. Everyone is struggling to cope with poor economic conditions and a drought gripping the Midwest. Prejudice against the black community is on the rise. Society continues to be segregated with blacks having their own schools, churches and doctors. Many jobs are not open to blacks who tend to be in low income jobs. Few own the land they farm. They are not allowed to use the town library. Nor does the American Army want them (an attitude that will gradually change in World War II) It's also the year of the Olympics in Los Angeles and a presidential election. 

Even though black Americans are citizens, they did not have the right to vote until the passage of the Fifteenth Amendment in 1870.  Despite that change, poll taxes, literacy tests, state laws and even threats and intimidations made it almost impossible for many black Americans to even register to vote. In Stella by Starlight this is effectively portrayed by the author. It would not be until 1964 and 1965 that these injustices were prohibited.

Stella By Starlight reveals the depth of the prejudice in 1930's America when the Spencer's home is burned to the ground by the Klu Klux Klan, when Stella's mother almost dies from a poisonous snake bike because Dr. Packard, who treats "white patients" only, hardheartedly refuses to treat her, and when Tony Hawkins is set upon by a group of white boys who kick and punch him. However, Draper is careful to show that not all the white people are prejudiced. Cathy Cooper treats Stella and the other black children the same as the white children. Annie Lou Summers and her sister Mary Lou bring food and clothing from the white Bumblebee Baptist Church for the Spencer family after the fire.

More importantly Stella By Starlight is story about community, a place where everyone is knit together by their common history and their concern for one another. The loss of the Spencer's home sees the community donate so much clothing that Stella and Jojo finally get new clothes and shoes - because Mrs. Spencer is "glad to be able to give as well as take". When Stella's mother is dying from the snake bite, Mrs. Odom, who never "takes the car out for fear of getting dust on it" drives to Raleigh to get Dr. Hawkins and bring back the antivenom. It is this sense of family, the idea that "I am my brother's keeper", that helps everyone  endure the hard times and savor the good ones.

Stella By Starlight also demonstrates that children aren't born prejudiced - they learn it from adults and the society around them. Some of the children in Cathy's Candy Store believe its ridiculous that they must attend separate schools. They obviously recognize that regardless of skin colour, kids are kids. Draper often juxtaposes acts of kindness against acts of prejudice. For example, when Stella goes to get medicine for her sick brother at the general store, Mr. O'Brian allows her to pay for her purchases with what little money she has. Immediately after leaving the general store, she and Tony are set upon by a gang of white youths who beat up Tony accusing him of stealing the candy he paid for.

Draper has written a very good novel that captures the reality of life in America for African Americans in the 1930's. All of her characters are well drawn, believable and unique, from the heroine, Stella Mills, to the antihero, Dr. Packard. The seed for Stella By Starlight came from Draper's own grandmother, Estelle Twitty Mills Davis, who was forced to leave school in grade five but who spent her nights after everyone was asleep, outside writing in her journal.

Book Details:
Stella By Starlight by Sharon M. Draper
Toronto: Atheneum Books for Young Readers     2015
320 pp.