Last week, I recommended three stunning novels that I hope you’ve leafed through or picked up for your middle-grader(s). This week, here are two complementary nonfiction titles that are just as stellar. Without further ado . . .
We've Got a Job: The 1963 Birmingham Children's March by Cynthia Levinson. During the first week of May, 1963, a previously unthinkable event occurred in Birmingham, Alabama. Approximately 4,000 African-American elementary, middle school, and high school students voluntarily went to jail after marching in the streets to protest segregation and racial inequality. In doing so, they accomplished what the adults in the community had been afraid, unwilling, or unable to do—they brought national attention to the killings, bombings, and other atrocities going on in one of the most violent cities in America at the time. In the words of one of the protestors: “I began to listen to the things that the men and women were saying about discrimination and having to make a change. I felt a sense of resolve. I had enough of the segregation, discrimination, hatred, violence, white signs, colored signs, all of it! Now was the time to confront it all.”
Focusing on the personal stories of four of the original participants whom she interviewed personally when conducting research for the book—Audrey Hendricks, Wash Booker, James Stewart, and Arnetta Streeter—Levinson enables modern readers to witness and understand the volatile circumstances surrounding the 1963 Birmingham Children’s March through the eyes and ears of kids their age. While middle-schoolers will be familiar with many reference points Levinson uses such as Plessy v. Ferguson, Rosa Parks’s bus protest, and the Greensboro Woolworth’s lunch counter sit-in, other lesser-known flash points are also described, such as the Selective Buying Campaign, the ACMHR, “Project C” and the 1963 bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church by the KKK. Levinson also takes great care in pointing out not only the opposing side’s point of view, but also the infighting and failures of the civil rights movement in addition to its successes, teaching kids the idea that within any push for change, there is always adversity—and nothing ever happens overnight.
Additional reference materials include an “afterworld” with details of the four protesters’ lives from 1963 onward, a moving author’s note, a helpful timeline (1944-1964), a map of Birmingham’s Downtown District in the 1950s and 1960s, source notes and a glossary of abbreviations used, a bibliography, a list of photo credits, and an index. Additional referential sidebars (an explanation of key segregation ordinances, a list of the 10 commandments of nonviolence, quotes from fellow Children’s March protesters as well as those from “White” Birmingham, newspaper headlines at the time, etc.) are sprinkled strategically throughout the book along with plenty of archival black-and-white photographs from the time period.
In my humble opinion, this treasure trove of information should be required reading in the classroom. Especially in our present time when many adults are disillusioned for various reasons which I won’t get into on this positive-leaning blog about books, it’s not a bad message to send to kids—that they actually can make a difference despite seemingly insurmountable odds.
Superman versus the Ku Klux Klan by Rick Bowers. It’s highly probable that comics and sci-fi/adventure zine fans will already be familiar with the story of Superman’s creation in the early 1930s by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, two geeky high school students from an affluent neighborhood in Cleveland, Ohio. Superman history buffs may also know that the impetus to create “a muscular, all-powerful, super human who could deflect bullets, bend steel in his bare hands, soar into the sky, and protect the little guy from thugs and hoodlums” was the sudden death of Jerry Siegel’s father during a robbery. But most kids will probably not be aware of the superhero’s prolonged battle with one of the most infamous clubs in history—the white hood-wearing, cross-burning, extra bigoted Ku Klux Klan. In 1946, The Adventures of Superman radio show covered just that in an effort to promote racial tolerance and to teach children the importance of speaking out against wrongdoing. The 16-episode “Clan of the Fiery Cross” featured information gathered by a man named Stetson Kennedy (The Klan Unmasked, Vol. 1), an esteemed journalist who worked with an embedded mole to go undercover and bring back the Klan’s secrets for use on the radio program. Passwords and the details of sacred rituals were leaked; Klan members were compared to the likes of Lex Luthor; and, in their outrage, kids nationwide began to raise awareness about the horrific nature of the group’s activities. While the show wasn’t the sole reason for the KKK’s eventual downfall, it certainly brought some of their despicable habits to light and generated a lot of bad press for the white robe-wearing racists.
A former journalist and editor for more than 15 years, Bowers (Spies of Mississippi) peppers his four-part account with salient background details kids can grasp—the effect of the Great Depression on FDR’s New Deal economy, the rise of new color printing press technologies making publications like comics possible, the origins of the Ku Klux Klan in 1866 and the history behind its resurgence in 1915 and subsequent boom in membership from that point forward until its decline in 1948. But connecting the dots might be tough for younger middle-graders due to sophisticated language and stacked historical details throughout (there are also mildly graphic descriptions of various types of KKK punishments). Therefore, careful guidance might be helpful when informing kids about this little-known yet fascinating piece of Civil Rights history. Additional reference materials include a bibliography, source footnotes, a four-page color insert, an afterword entitled “What Happened to Them?” and an index.
Note: While the book does have a place in classroom discussions about civil rights, it focuses more on the Klan’s anti-Semitic tendencies than its just-as-prevalent bigoted attitude toward African-Americans.
These are just two recently published nonfiction titles suitable for African-American History Month. What are others you’d recommend?
Like most bookworms, Alexis Burling has loved reading since she could crawl. She has worked in the publishing industry for over a decade and has reviewed both children's and adult books for prominent media outlets such as teenreads.com, Publishers Weekly, and the Washington Post.
