Little Rock Girl, 1957 by Shelley Tougas

My daughters and I found this book during a trip to the library, and it has been a wonderful opportunity to share history with them as well as talk about the destructive nature of racism. The first thing that they noticed from the cover was Hazel Bryan's distorted face as she spewed racial slurs at Elizabeth Eckford, one of the Little Rock Nine. My response to them was, "Isn't it terrible that this young girl will always be remembered for her hatred towards another person?" And, one daughter responded, "She should have tried to be Elizabeth's friend." Such a simple response, yer so few people could fathom it in 1957.

As I read this book with my daughters and explained the Civil Rights Movement, they were appalled that people were beaten and murdered simply because they wanted equality. Although the book isn't written to be emotional, there were times that I caught myself choking up at the sheer cruelty that people, "Christian" people, showed African Americans during this time. To know that Elizabeth Eckford was fifteen at the time, and grown adults (mothers, even) shouted to string her up in a tree to prevent her from entering Central High School, makes my skin crawl.

I know that many people like to pretend that racism doesn’t exist today. Maybe minority women aren’t kicked off of buses anymore for refusing to give up their seats, but racism exists in many forms. I just hope that there are enough of us teaching our children to look at the content of a person’s character rather than the color of skin to offset the consuming hatred that fuels bigotry.

Mississippi Trial, 1955

Hiram Hillburn loves Mississippi; he loves the neighborly community, the slow-paced atmosphere, and, most of all, his grandpa. But, there is an undercurrent of racism that is about to explode that he never knew existed until he's right in the middle of it.

Chris Crowe uses the voice of a sixteen-year-old boy, Hiram Hillburn, to relay the events of the true story surrounding the murder of a fourteen-year-old black boy, Emmett Till, which spurred the Civil Rights Movement. Emmett Till was born and raised in Chicago, IL, and was unaware of the intense racism and hatred that whites held for blacks in the South when he went to visit his relatives in Mississippi during the summer of 1955. In a spur-of-the-moment decision to show off for his cousins, Emmett thought it would be funny to whistle at a white woman, and it cost him his life. Four days after the incident, his body was found floating in the Tallahatchi River, beaten, mutilated, with a bullet to the head. Even though the quiet community of Money, Mississippi, was shocked at such brutal treatment of a child, they weren't going to let two white men go to prison for the death of a black. 

This story begins slowly because the author is trying to set up the plotline of the sixteen-year-old narrator and how he came to know Emmett "Bobo" Till during the very brief time they were in Mississippi. Even though Hiram Hillburn never existed, all of the newpaper references and court scenes are from actual documents, which leave the reader in utter shock at how corrupt the Southern jury was as well as the court system as a whole when it came to the murder/lynching of blacks. This book will open the eyes of every reader who gazes upon its pages, and make them mourn for all of the innocents that racism has killed. 

This is not the most action-packed novel. It is written as historical fiction, but it's an excellent piece of literature that teachers could implement into their classrooms to set up the context of the Civil Rights Movement. Be aware, however, that the author uses the "N" word throughout the novel to give it authenticity to reflect the Southern dialect and mindset during that time