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.

Civil rights kept me up until the wee hours.....

The Lions of Little Rock by Kristen Levine came highly recommended, and that worried me.  I have often found that I am disappointed when I expect too much.  I must admit, as I started the story, I thought it this would disappoint.  It is told from the point of Marlee, a thirteen-year-old girl living in Little Rock in 1958.  She is afraid of heights and terrified of speaking....period.  In fact, her older sister challenges her to say 5 words, in complete sentences, on her first day of school.   Marlee surprises herself by not only accomplishing it, but by doing so in meeting the new girl, Elizabeth.  Elizabeth seems to be all that Marlee isn't:  funny, talkative, engaging.  And yet, they become best friends.  This is the point when I worry the book won't live up to the hype.  It seemed like a girly sort of friendship book.

Luckily, history takes over and the book lives up to the hype.  1958 is called "The Lost Year" in Little Rock.  It was a year in which none of the public high schools opened to protest the forced integration that the federal government had imposed the previous year when the "Little Rock Nine," nine black students, had attended an all-white public school.  Marlee's older sister is left home while Marlee attends Junior High.  Soon, her family, and her friendship with Elizabeth is thrown into the escalating conflict over integration.  Unable to watch the unfair discrimination she witnesses, Marlee finds her voice, risking not only her newly found friendship, but also her safety.

It is a story about standing up for what is right, even when it scares you.  And, it also deals realistically with the consequences of such bravery.  I literally couldn't put it down....finishing it in one late-night reading marathon.

Civil Rights from the point of view of a twelve-year-old

I finished Glory Be, written by Augusta Scattergood, a woman after my own heart....librarian, book reviewer, now author of books for young people.  My hero!  

Glory, which is short for Gloriana, lives in Hanging Moss, Mississippi.  It is 1964 and she is eagerly awaiting her 12th birthday celebration to be held at the town pool, just like always, on the 4th of July.  Suddenly, things are changing.  Her best friend, Frank, is suddenly talking badly about the "Yankee troublemakers," which Glory thinks is just plain mean.  In fact, their friendship takes a turn for the worse when she becomes friends with one.  Glory learns to look at segregation with new eyes, and finds that change can bring out the best, and the worst, from people that she thought she knew.  She must take a stand when her beloved pool is shut down, but, will her daddy, the preacher, support her?  

On a personal level, I love that the center of this town, and of inclusion, is the library.  One of my favorite quotes, "Libraries are about books.  Books have no color.  And they don't care who reads them."