Another page in America's struggle for civil rights

Rarely have I accidentally picked up a book that so completely dovetails with events on my mind.  In the wake of the violence in Ferguson, with this being the eve of Martin Luther King, Jr. day, and having just seen the movie Selma, civil rights is on my mind.  Into that comes Sylvia & Aki by Winfred Conkling.  This story tells the story of  two different civil rights struggles set during World War II.  One, the internment of Japanese-Americans in camps, the other, the struggle for desegregation of schools in California by Mexican Americans.  One I knew of, one was new to me.

Sylvia and Aki's stories intersect on a farm in Orange County.  Aki's family, who owns the farm, is forced into a camp because they are Japanese.  We learn of their distress over leaving their hard-earned life, the outrage of undeserved mistrust, and of life in the camps.  Before Aki's family leaves, they lease the farm to Sylvia's family, who are of "Mexican" descent.  They, too, work hard to keep the farm.  Sylvia is looking forward to third grade in her new community.  But when they try to register, they are told they can't, and must, instead, go across town to the Mexican school.  Her father's outrage at the inequality begins his battle to end segregation, which leads to the historic legal battle Gonzalo Mendez v. Westminster School District of Orange County.  This court case became the benchmark for the later battle for black students, Brown v Board of Education. Big events are told through the eyes of young girls, in a way that makes them very real.

The young girls in this story are real people, and the events really happened.  The chapter on the court case uses actual words from the transcript, highlighting the injustice of segregation.  It is also a testament to how to respond with grace and with courage.  For those who want to dig deeper ther is a list of grade-school age resources about civil rights.