Getting Away with Murder: The True Story of the Emmett Till Case

Crowe, Chris. Getting Away with Murder: The True Story of the Emmett Till Case. Dial, 2003. 128pp. Lexile 1210.

Emmett Till would have been 74 this year.  He was born in 1941 and killed on August 28th, 1955.  The murder of Emmett Till and the trial in which his killers, who later confessed, were acquitted had a profound effect on the Civil Rights Movement.  This painful but important story concerns Till, a fourteen-year-old African-American boy from Chicago, visiting his relatives in small-town Mississippi in 1955. Having allegedly called a white woman “baby,” he was kidnapped, tortured and murdered by local white men.  Crowe conveys the vicious prejudice and the sense of white superiority that led to Till’s death.  The straightforward writing lets facts and quotes speak for themselves.  It sets the murder and trial in context, shortly after Brown v. Board of Education was decided, and at a time when blacks and women could not serve on Mississippi juries.  The country’s stunned reaction to the photographs of Till’s body and the unjust trial come across as well.  Black-and-white photographs, a timeline, lists of further reading and websites, and a bibliography enrich the book.

Fiction, Poetry, & Drama Tie-ins:  Crowe lists several responses in art to the Till story: plays by Toni Morrison and James Baldwin, a Bob Dylan song, and a Gwendolyn Brooks poem.  Crowe has also written a novel, Mississippi 1955, that tells the story of Till’s murder and trial through the viewpoint of a white teenager.  Pair any of these with the nonfiction book to show different approaches to the same subject.  Older readers may appreciate the beautiful, intricate sonnets in Marilyn Nelson's A Wreath for Emmett Till.

Little Rock Girl 1957: How a Photograph Changed the Fight for Integration

Tougas, Shelley. Little Rock Girl 1957: How a Photograph Changed the Fight for Integration. Compass Point, 2012. 64pp. Lexile 1010.

This is an entry in a terrific series called Captured History, in which each book focuses on a photograph that changed American history: the Migrant Mother photograph from the Great Depression; raising the flag at Iwo Jima; Neil Armstrong stepping on the moon; black children being sprayed with water by police in Birmingham, 1963; and a Lewis Hine photo of boy miners.  In each book, short chapters provide background and then explore the significance of the photograph and the impact it made.  In Little Rock Girl 1957, the photograph is of Elizabeth Eckfort, one of the nine students to integrate Little Rock High. Because she didn't get a phone message, she ended up walking into the school alone, surrounded by angry whites.  The photograph alerted the world to the ugliness of racial hatred, even against a teen wanting better education.  Eckfort and the screaming white girl behind her met years later in a temporary highly publicized reconciliation, prompted in part by the photographer, covered in one chapter.  The book also addresses inequality in schools at that time and now.  Sidebars and many more photographs add information throughout.  This is an excellent, accessible book for students at a range of reading levels, that can serve as an introduction to the civil rights movement and the story of a courageous teen.  Available in hardcover and paperback

Reading Std #7:  Integrate and evaluate content presented in diverse media and formats, visually and quantitatively, and in words.  The entire series addresses this facet of the CC standards, speaking to the power of visual images.  The book would lend itself to any response--discussion, debate, essay writing--on the topic.  It could also be easily compared and contrasted with other books in the series.

Marching for Freedom: Walk Together, Children, and Don't You Grow Weary

Partridge, Elizabeth. Marching for Freedom: Walk Together, Children, and Don't You Grow Weary. Viking, 2009. 80pp. Lexile 960.

“The first time Joanne Blackmon was arrested, she was just ten years old,” opens this powerful tribute to young people who participated in the Civil Rights movement.  Blackmon was arrested when she accompanied her grandmother who was trying to register to vote as an African-American in Selma, Alabama, in 1963.  From this gripping incident, Partridge takes readers to 1965, when Martin Luther King, Jr., came to Selma to further the cause.  Based in part on extensive interviews, the book dramatically documents the role of children and teenagers in protest marches where they were attacked by dogs, tear gas, clubs, and even cattle prods.  Three thousand young people were arrested, yet they continued to practice non-violence.  Their fear and determination come across in the narrative, quotes, and photographs, some of which show the violence.  Notes, bibliography, index.  A remarkable book about the role of courageous young people in our history.

Reading Std #2: Determine central ideas or themes and analyze their development; summarize key supporting details and ideas.  One key theme throughout this moving book is the role of music including spirituals and protest songs in keeping up the spirits of the young people involved.  Have students find specific evidence of this theme to see how Partridge develops it.

Reading Std #9 for grades 6-8: Compare/contrast texts on similar themes or topics.:  Pair this with Cynthia Levinson's. We've Got a Job: The 1963 Birmingham Children's March. (Peachtree, 2012) to see how the two authors address similar material about children involved in civil rights.

Claudette Colvin: Twice toward Justice

Hoose, Phillip M. Claudette Colvin: Twice toward Justice. Melanie Kroupa Books, 2009. 144pp. Lexile 1000.

This is a great addition to the increasing number of books about teens who made a difference in our history.  Hoose spent years trying to get an interview with Claudette Colvin, who as a fifteen-year-old was arrested for, and convicted of, not giving up her bus seat to a white passenger in Montgomery in 1955.  Colvin was also one of the plaintiffs when civil rights leaders sued in federal court to end segregation on the buses.  Yet before the publication of Hoose’s book, Colvin was minimized in historical texts, sometimes mentioned as an unwed mother (she became pregnant after her conviction when she was isolated and scared).  When Colvin finally agreed to meet, Hoose interviewed her fourteen times.  Her words shine through in the text, providing an extraordinary character study of a brave teen set in the context of the civil rights movement.  Winner of the National Book Award as well as a Newbery Honor and Sibert Honor Award book.  Black-and-white photographs, sidebars, extensive bibliography/webliography, endnotes, and index.

Writing Std #3: Write narratives to develop real experiences or events using effective technique, well-chosen details and well-structured event sequences.  This book is an excellent model for research and writing.  It would be particularly helpful for students conducting oral interviews.  Hoose addresses the process of getting and conducting his interviews in his Author’s Note and the Notes section.  He also does an exemplary job of weaving the quotes into the text.

Students on Strike: Jim Crow, Civil Rights, Brown, and Me

Stokes, John A., with Lois Wolfe and Herman J. Viola. Students on Strike: Jim Crow, Civil Rights, Brown, and Me. 2008. 128pp. Lexile 1030.

In this powerful true story, black teenagers in 1951 Prince Edward County, Virginia, took a courageous stance on civil rights that led to extraordinarily unfair consequences.  John Stokes, who was one of those teenagers, uses a low-key, personal voice to tell of his role in a strike against the county schools.  The students initiated the strike because the all-black high school was so inferior to the all-white one; they weren’t asking for integration, they were asking for better schools.  But the NAACP would only get involved to fight for integration, a goal to which the students reluctantly agreed.  It was a hard choice because they had a sense of how they’d be mistreated at an integrated school; the students also had great respect for the teachers at the all-black school. The strike led to a lawsuit that was part of Brown v. Board of Education (which combined several lawsuits).  Shockingly, Prince Edward County reacted to the legal mandate for school integration by shutting down the public schools for five years and giving white students vouchers for private schools.  Although some black students moved out of the county for school, many more lost their chance for an education during those years, leading some to question whether the strike had been a good idea. A painful yet in some ways inspiring piece of American history.  Bibliography and suggested resources.

Reading Std #6: Assess how point of view or purpose shapes the content and style of a text.  Since this is a memoir, the author has a personal stake in the story.  Have students look for specifics that show Stokes’ viewpoint.  Does his personal role add to the emotional impact? 

Warriors Don't Cry: A Searing Memoir of the Battle to Integrate Little Rock's Central High

Beals, Melba Pattillo.  Warriors Don't Cry: A Searing Memoir of the Battle to Integrate Little Rock's Central High. 1995. 266pp. Lexile 1000.  Available in paperback.

  

In this gripping autobiography Melba Pattillo Beals recounts her experiences as one of the nine African-American students to integrate Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas, in 1957.  She vividly describes the violence against her, the other eight, and her family including physical and verbal attacks by other students, cruel telephone calls, threats, and more. A modern hero, Beals tells her story without bitterness, in well-crafted prose gracefully adapted from a longer book in this meaningful inside look at the Civil Rights movement through the eyes of a teenager.

Reading Std #8: Delineate and evaluate argument and specific claims in a text, assessing reasoning & evidence.  Compare this book with the PBS “Eyes on the Prize” segment on Southern School Desegregation, which includes an interview with Beals.  Available online at http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/eyesontheprize/story/03_schools.html#video.  An excerpt is available here: http://www.teachersdomain.org/resource/iml04.soc.ush.civil.beals/.