Black History Month: Newbery Award Winner: Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry

 

Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry by Mildred D. Taylor 1977

Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry by Mildred D. Taylor is a novel for young people that is a first person narrative in an historical fiction format. It takes place during the Great Depression in the Deep South. Published the year that the mini-series "Roots" debuted,  the author gives us a similar revelation of her family--this is based on her father's reminiscences-- but in a fictional context. 

There are no stereotypes in this story, as both white and black folks are seen as portraying positive and negative character traits. Our main character, Cassie, is a preteen, the only daughter in a family of four kids, that actually owns a farm. She is an intelligent and forthright girl, and we see, from Cassie's perspective, that white folks in her town are condescending at the very least, and that there are violent KKK types in the area at worst. Her father's brother, who fought bravely in WWI, has relocated to Chicago, and visits his family in the South as well as revisiting his bitterness against the racist treatment. Cassie's mother is a teacher in the school for the black children, where Cassie and her brothers attend. Grandma supports the family at home.  Her father works away from home, but sends Mr. Morrison--his trusted workmate and friend--the help and protect the family. Her father becomes embroiled in the troubles in the area. That is the highpoint of the story.

Of course, the plot thickens and gets more and more terrifying from Cassie's perspective. Taylor has written other books about this family, so the reader can continue the adventures in American history from Cassie's point of view.

Levar Burton as Kunta Kinte

If you or your students have not viewed Roots, at least expose them to the Kunte Kinte beginning episodes. Read portions of Alex Haley's book, maybe "My Furthest-Back Person: The African."

 "My Furthest-Back Person- The African"
(The Inspiration for Roots)
by Alex Haley
[Adapted and abridged from the essay by Alex Haley,

http://www.jefftwp.org/middleschool/CoreTeams/LA/Required_reading/adapted%20Furthest-back%20person.pdf 

I believe Haley may well have written the most phenomenal book of the last century. The fact that his grandmother still had memorized information about Kunta after about two hundred years, and this led Haley to Ghana and a group of people still repeating the same story--wow, what a story.