A thoughtfully rendered book of poems, accompanied by striking paintings by Ron Brown, that chronicles the violence of racism, the struggle for civil rights, and the power of the human spirit.

This book would be appropriate for 8th-12th grade as it contains curse words and is composed of poetry that is not easy to understand. They are learning about black history, Civil Rights, poems, and different dialects which is why this book would be appropriate for this age. Most students at this age are not likely to pick up a picture book, so it would be best to use as an interactive read-aloud, especially since it is easy to get lost in the words of some of the poems.

This book is both history and poetry and its beautiful. Each page is about a famous person or event in black history. It goes over events like Brown V. Board of Education, and what happened at the the Lorraine Motel, and in Birmingham Alabama. It has poems about people like Rosa Parks, Malcolm X, Martin Luther King, and Bull Conner. It has a page covering the evil KKK. Each page is covered in beautiful illustrations that depict the oppression suffered by black people in the sixties. I loved this book because the poetry was beautiful and simple. It would be a great book to use when talking about black history and the ugliness of racism in this country while also adding a literary element. This can also be used for an English class studying poetry.

Summary: This book is about the racism and discrimination back in the 1940s-1960s. These poems are not only poems but they describe the mass interrogations that blacks had to go through back in the day. This book gives explanations of how people would simply have a meaning to why colored and whites used different water fountains, when really all the water came from the same place. It described how protests went and how white police officers would use batons and attack dogs on those who would protests against equal rights. It explained how important Rosa Parks was to those who always used the bus for transportation. It explained how much of a voice Martin Luther King Jr. had on everyone who listened. It showed the qualities of Malcolm X had on the black societies.

Personal Reaction: This book just brings back how my dad used to always explain to me how bad racism was when he was growing up. He used to always explain to me how the world was going to repeat itself, and when I was younger I never knew what he was talking about. Now that I am older I see what he means. Racism is never going to anywhere that is going to be one thing that will stay with everyone until the very end. Yes, we do have those that do want to make a difference but we also have those that do not care if a difference is made or not. This book just gave me an open view to what the world is really about.

Classroom Extinctions: 1.) Depending on the age group of the class, first question I would ask is if the class knows what racism means.
2.) Then I would ask the class to give me their feedback on what they think of racism.

I liked this book a lot. First of all was the way the book was written. This book has a bunch of poems, The author uses the poems to go into the certain situations that African Americans were put through and how they persevered. The point of view of all the poems is through African Americans speaking about the activist or the hard times. They talk about Malcolm and MLK and Rosa Parks. I liked this because they thanked these people for all the work they put in to make life better for their people. The uses hard working African Americans along with certain mistreating’s of African Americans during the time period. There are poems about African Americans going through colored entrances, the KKK, and also hangings. The characters are well developed through the words in the poems and the illustrations. The words are very strong. In one poem they use the words “til the WHITE ONLY signs go away”. I feel like the author is real in this book and really writes about what they want to. The illustrations enhance the writing very much with the use of dark and light colors. The dark colors show a rough time and the light in the pictures shows improvements and positivity. The big idea of this book is to show the reader that no one should give up and even when your getting push down, DON’T FALL!