Title
Author
Year
Length
Ebook available?
Audiobook
available?
Executive
Summary
Miles to Go for Freedom: Segregation & Civil Rights in the Jim
Crow Years
Linda Barrett Osborne
2012
110 p.
No
No
Explores the time of legal segregation in the US from 1896 to 1954,
including the source and purpose of such laws, the effects they had,
and how African Americans resisted them.
Cautions/Warnings Some instances of the n-word, though always presented as
“n_____” and always coming from quoted material
Features
Timeline; primary sources; maps
Illustrations
Period black & white photos & illustrations on almost every page
Key Structures
Timeline (order of events), Cause & Effect (how did Jim Crow laws
skirt national laws, what effects did they have, how did African
Americans and others respond to these laws, how did resistance to
these laws change them), compare & contrast (different regions of
the US, official vs. unwritten rules about segregation)
Key Themes
Justice vs. Law – how laws can be used to achieve unjust ends;
“separate is not equal”; codified vs. unwritten social rules;
Vocabulary
Jim Crow law; segregation; desegregation; integration;
discrimination; prejudice; poll tax
Preface (3
pages vii-ix)
Summary:
 Purpose of this book is to explore the time of legal segregation in
America from the Plessy v. Ferguson case of 1896 up to the Brown v
Board of Education Supreme Court Ruling in 1954: how did what
freedom they had prior disappear, what was the impact of segregation
on day-to-day life, was segregation restricted only to the south, how
did federal laws conflict with state laws on the issue, and how did
African Americans resist and fight back? Notes the unfortunate
necessity of using the word “race” when such concepts are inaccurate
and arbitrary.
Vocabulary:
 Segregation
 Jim Crow
 Public accommodations
 Civil rights
 Connote
 Subjective
 Arbitrary
Illustrations:
 African American children from the early Jim Crow era
Questions:
 Describe what is being contrasted in the first two paragraphs.
 What important questions are posed in the third paragraph?
 What era does this book cover (what event starts it and what event
ends it, according to the author)?
 According to the paragraph running from page viii to ix, what main
topics will this book cover?
 What attitudes or opinions can you gather about the author from the
first full paragraph on page ix?
 According to the author, what is the problem with using the word
“race”?
Interesting Topics:
 Author’s craft (what is the purpose of this introduction; how does she
immediately contrast the past with the present; how does she inject
emotion into the issue at the start; what attitudes and opinions are
clearly guiding her efforts)
 Sequence of Events (students may need to create a timeline of US
history with major events like American Revolution, Civil War, WWI,
Great Depression, WWII, etc. marked on it – they will need to know
when legal slavery ended, they will need to know there was a period
of relative freedom before 1896, and they will need to see that this
book covers 1896 to 1954)
Further Research:
 Fifteenth Amendment of the Constitution
Introduction
(pp. 1-13)
Summary:
 Segregation was a system of laws that existed in the South from the
1890s into the 1960s and was designed to keep whites and blacks in
separate facilities (public areas, businesses, etc.). These laws were
passed at the state and/or city level. There was also more sporadic
legalized segregation in other states, and there was discrimination of
other kinds (in housing, education, and jobs) all across the country.
Summarizes the events of the Civil War and Reconstruction. Right
after slavery was abolished in the 1860s, the south started passing
“black codes” that essentially enforced many of the same conditions as
slavery did. In response, the federal government passed civil rights
laws and constitutional amendments that guaranteed African American
citizenship and voting rights to black men. For a couple of decades,
rigid legal segregation did not exist. Blacks rode on integrated trains
and were elected to political office and had voting power. Some
whites who felt threatened by this situation joined violent terrorist
gangs of white supremacists. Others tried to find legal ways to keep
blacks from voting while still technically forbidding them to do so on
the basis of race. Southern states began to implement poll taxes and
literacy tests to keep frequently poor and illiterate black men from
voting. And without their power to vote, they could not stand against
segregation laws that started springing up in the south.
Vocabulary:
 Segregation
 Discrimination
 Sharecrop
 Poll tax
Illustrations:
 African American boy drinks from fountain marked “Colored.”
 Map of the US showing states where segregation was required by law,
where it was prohibited by law, and where there were no laws
 Diner with separate entrances for “White” and “Colored.”
 African Americans swimming at a lake in a park set aside for blacks
 Lithograph with illustrations celebrating the Fifteenth Amendment
 Illustration of black men voting for the first time
 An elegantly dressed African American woman near the end of the
1800s during a time when African Americans were beginning to lose
many of the rights the Civil War had won them
 Illustration depicts “Heroes of the Colored Race” including Frederick
Douglass and African American senators Blanche Kelso Bruce and
Hiram Rhoades Revels
Questions:
 Like the preface, this introduction starts with a quote. How are these
two quotes similar? How does this quote establish the main topic of
the book and this introduction?
 Give some examples of places you have been this week where
segregation would have been required by law if you had been in the
South during 1890-1960.
 When this book refers to “The South”, what do those states have in
common in terms of the topic of this book?
 Why is it inaccurate to say that legal segregation only took place in the
South?
 Besides laws that required segregation, what other kinds of
discrimination did African Americans face in the North, and in the
South?
 What are some of the differences between racial segregation and racial
discrimination?
 Why were conditions different in different states?
 On page 4, how does the author make the transition from the topic of
“examples of segregation” to the topic of “how segregation got its
start”?
 What was life like for black slaves before the Civil War?
 What was the main conflict of the Civil War, and what was its
outcome?
 How did some southern states try to use the law to oppress African
Americans right after the Civil War? What behaviors or actions were
these laws designed to inhibit or discourage? How did the federal
government respond?
 How and when did the federal government start to once again lose
some control over how the Southern states were treating African
Americans?
 What was life like for African Americans between 1870 and the
1890s? What kind of political power or influence did they have?
 Why did some white Southerners want to keep African Americans
from voting?
 What legal methods did southern states use to suppress African
American voting without technically doing it on the basis of race?
Were African Americans the only ones affected by these tactics?
 Why did the federal government not stop states from using poll taxes
or literacy tests for voters?
 What effect did this loss of voting power have on African Americans?
Interesting Topics:
 Cause & Effect (how the struggle for states’ rights vs. federal control
led to the Civil War; how abolishing slavery led to other attempts at
subjugating African Americans; how a law like a poll tax or a literacy
test leads to robbing citizens of their right to vote)
 Compare & Contrast (North vs. South, state law vs. federal law, legal
segregation vs. non-codified discrimination of various kinds)
Further Research:
 Freedmen’s Bureau
 Black Codes
 Thirteenth Amendment
 Fourteenth Amendment
 Fifteenth Amendment
 Poll taxes & literacy tests
 Modern Voter ID laws – a kind of “poll tax”?
The South
(pp. 15-49,
one long
chapter with
no
subheadings;
heading
names shown
are my own
creation and
based on my
judgment
about where
topics
changed)





Plessy v Ferguson (15-18) – “Separate but Equal”: 1892 Supreme
Court ruling declares that laws requiring segregation on trains are
not unconstitutional as long as facilities are “equal.”
o What was the sequence of events that led Homer Plessy to
be arrested in 1892?
o What was the argument Plessy’s lawyer used at his trial?
What laws did he think were in conflict?
o How does this case show the relationship between the
legislative branch of government and the judicial branch?
o After losing the case at the local level and the state level,
what did the Supreme Court decide in 1896? What was
their main argument?
o One justice disagreed with the decision. What was his
concern?
o Compare/contrast the ideal of “separate but equal” with
the reality of it.
Segregation Laws Spring Up (18-20) - This opened the door for
states to pass other segregation laws: trains, streetcars, schools,
restaurants, hotels, theaters, libraries, hospitals and other facilities
were required to be segregated in many areas of the South by 1915.
In practice, segregated facilities were rarely anything close to
“equal.” Other rules like curfews for blacks were also put into place.
o What effects did the 1896 Plessy v Ferguson Supreme
Court decision have on Southern states?
o Besides passing laws requiring segregation on trains and
streetcars, what other kinds of laws started passing?
“Jim Crow” (21) – the written and unwritten rules about
segregation were named after a blackface caricature from minstrel
shows. At first it referred in a disparaging way to African Americans
in general, and later it referred to segregation both written and
unwritten.
o Use quotes from page 21 to provide several definitions of
“Jim Crow” and then pick the one that most likely refers
to the overall topic of this book.
Lynching & Other Violence (21-25) - Violations of unwritten rules
could often result in violence or death, often by lynching, and were
thus enforced by terror and fear. Blacks like Ida B. Wells and whites
like Jessie Daniel Ames spoke out against lynching.
o Jim Crow laws did not make it legal for whites to lynch
blacks. How did so many get away with it?
o How did this constant threat of violence keep Jim Crow
society in place?
o How did people like Ida B. Wells fight back against the
practice of lynching?
Unwritten Rules (25-27) – there were social “norms” about many



behaviors that were not actual laws – which entrances to use, which
drinking fountains to use. Some signs about segregation were posted
according to strict laws; others were just posted by whoever wanted
to do so. Blacks were expected to address whites with titles like Mr.
or Mrs. while blacks were almost never addressed that way and were
given nicknames like “boy” or “auntie”.
o Besides official laws passed by local or state governments,
what sorts of behaviors were expected of blacks by
custom in the south during the era of Jim Crow?
o What effects did segregation laws and discriminatory
treatment have on the relationship between black and
white Americans in the south?
o Use quotes to support the author’s assertion that “Jim
Crow turned politeness and manners upside down.”
Fighting Back (28-29) – resisting the indignities and injustice of
segregation took many forms: refusing to respond to anything other
than the correct name, avoiding segregated facilities and events, and
doing one’s best to get an education were some ways.
o To reject Jim Crow was to invite death in the South at the
time. Yet many African Americans were able to fight back
or resist in small ways. Describe some ways in which
African Americans refused to play along.
Segregation in School (29-34) – Segregated schools were in no way
“equal” in terms of quality or spending. Black children often got less
schooling because they had to work to help support their families.
Teachers made the best of a bad situation and students learned about
their heritage and about the rights that were briefly better in the late
1800s before Plessy. Some African Americans were able to go to
colleges such as Tuskegee University.
o Create a quick graph comparing the so-called “separate
but equal” schools black and white children attended.
What conclusions can you draw from the graph?
o Besides money, in what other ways were educational
opportunities different for black and white children?
o How might the limited resources for schooling affect
someone when they became an adult?
o What were some unique features of the schooling African
American children received?
o What were some college-level educational opportunities
for African Americans?
o On p. 34, which sentence is the transition between the
topic of “segregation in schooling” and “segregation in
employment”?
Segregation on the Job (34-38) - There were jobs, chiefly skilled
trades and professions, which were considered suitable for whites
but unsuitable for blacks. Tiring manual labor on farms, in factories,



in lumber mills and in mines were often the only choices. Wage
discrimination was common. Sharecropping (growing crops on a
white-owned farm and paying for the privilege with a portion of the
crop produced) was common among black farmers, and because
these farmers had to borrow money from their employers and were
sometimes cheated by the white landowner, they were in constant
debt.
o What kinds of jobs could southern Blacks routinely get,
and what kinds of jobs were they routinely denied?
o What do the experiences of Leon Alexander and John W.
Brown tell us about the issue of racial discrimination in
the workplace? In what way did Brown “combat Jim
Crow”?
o Describe how sharecropping worked and evaluate its
fairness.
Segregation in Housing (38) - African Americans generally lived in
poor, older and poorly maintained parts of town, sometimes without
the same basic sewer services as white parts of town. Sanitation
differences meant more disease in black parts of a town, and blacks
had less access to health care.
o Compare conditions in segregated southern towns as
experienced by black and white citizens.
Joining Together: Societies & Churches (38-42) – African
Americans formed various kinds of societies for the purposes of
socializing, providing help for others, and for mustering what
political power they did have. The National Association of Colored
Women was an example – mostly middle-class members helped
improve the lives of the poor and advocated for civil rights and
against lynching. Black churches filled similar roles.
o What kinds of groups did blacks form in order to address
needs that white society would not address?
o How did black churches serve their communities beyond
religious services?
Not Just the Poor (42-47) – Blacks faced discrimination and
segregation regardless of wealth or success and this served as a
lesson or reminder about how inferior African Americans were. No
amount of wealth could get you into certain restaurants or hotels.
Even as late as 1949 a publication like The Negro Motorist Green
Book was being produced – it contained lists of hotels and
restaurants where blacks would be served. Mob violence was
sometimes a tool to oppress the black middle class. W.E.B. Du Bois
and others established the NAACP in 1909 to marshal political
power and sue against segregation laws; most of the members lived
in the north but there were several branches in the south. There were
also integrated southern groups that opposed racism.
o Describe some ways even wealthier African Americans

were affected by segregation laws or discrimination.
o Examine the illustrations and captions on page 44. What
was the purpose of a publication like “The Negro Motorist
Green Book”?
o What message did attacks by white mobs against
prosperous blacks send? What was W.E.B. Du Bois’s
theory about this?
o What was the NAACP and where was it active? What was
its purpose?
All-Black Towns (48) – There were a few all-black towns in the
south.
o What was unusual about southern towns like Eatonville,
Florida?
The North
(pp. 51-75,
one long
chapter with
no
subheadings;
heading
names shown
are my own
creation and
based on my
judgment
about where
topics
changed)




Invisible Walls (51) – Segregation rules in the North weren’t as
clear as in the south, and discrimination happened everywhere,
whether it was part of written law or not.
o What is the subject of this chapter, based on the first
paragraph?
o How is Springfield, Ohio used as an example of what
Northern life was like for African Americans in the Jim
Crow era?
Why Leave the South? (51-55) – many left and headed north for
better jobs, education, and general treatment (security of property
and fair treatment in courts). A very commonly stated reason for
leaving was the fear of physical violence. Two “great migrations”
took place, mostly around WWI and WWII.
o What were some reasons blacks moved from the South to
the North?
o Describe the Great Migration and how the World Wars
were related?
o Make a quick graph of the numerical data in the paragraph
spanning pages 53-54. What patterns can you see?
A Better Life? (55-56) - Northern states did not have most of the
written laws requiring segregation. They didn’t have laws that kept
blacks from voting. Salaries for blacks tended to be a little higher
than in the south. Some schools were integrated, as were some
businesses. There was still discrimination and unwritten segregation
depending on the community. Some states had laws forbidding
interracial marriage.
o In what ways was life in the North at least potentially
better for African Americans than in the South? In what
ways was it essentially the same? Was it worse in the
North in some ways?
Schools in the North (56-60) – as in the south, there were some
states that had official segregation rules; others allowed the
individual school districts decide. Unofficial segregation often
happened because housing tended to be unofficially segregated. The
NAACP fought against segregation in schools. As segregation was
outlawed in various places, white parents sometimes responded by
pulling their children out of public schools. For black students who
did attend integrated schools, discrimination from white students and
teachers was common.
o Describe some different scenarios that would result in
segregated schools in the North.
o What role did the NAACP play in the issue of school
segregation?
o Within a school that was integrated, what sorts of
discrimination did black students face? How did they



resist or fight for their rights?
Employment in the North (60-64) – Migrations changed many
blacks from rural farmers into city dwellers. Many jobs were
unskilled labor. Unions sometimes resisted the inclusion of blacks
into certain skilled trades. Wage discrimination was common –
sometimes because they were relegated to the least skilled positions,
sometimes simply getting less pay for the same work. Organizations
like the National Urban League supported black labor and protested
against unfair wages and segregated work places. WWI and WWII
opened some industrial jobs, but the end of the war meant returning
white soldiers came back and pushed them out.
o Write the sentence on page 60 that is the transition
between the topics of “Education” and “Employment”?
o What kinds of jobs did migrating blacks leave in the
South, and what kinds of jobs were available to them in
the North?
o Compare employment situations between blacks and
whites in the north, on the basis of types of jobs and on
wages.
o What kinds of organizations were created to deal with the
issues of unfair, racially-based employment practices?
How did they fight back?
o How did World War I affect black employment (and
unemployment) in the North?
o What were labor unions and what was their relationship
with black labor?
Black Churches (65) – Churches served as networking for
employment opportunities and sometimes offered loans to start
businesses.
o Compare the role churches played in the African
American community in the north vs. the south.
Housing Discrimination (66-71) – Blacks moving into “white
neighborhoods” were sometimes harassed by residents to get them to
leave. “Restrictive covenants” sometimes dictated who could and
couldn’t buy property in certain neighborhoods. Real estate agents
might steer blacks away from certain houses. Income level often
played a great role in indirectly segregating towns and cities. The
NAACP helped blacks who protested against segregated housing
and brought cases to court. Shelly v. Kramer in 1948 outlawed racebased restrictive covenants. Violent reactions like bombings and
fires against blacks moving into white neighborhoods were not
unusual.
o Describe methods residents of some neighborhoods in the
north would use to try to keep African Americans from
living there.
o What was a “restrictive covenant”?



The Nation
(pp. 77-107,
one long
chapter with
no
subheadings;
heading
names shown
are my own

o How does discrimination in employment lead to
segregated housing? How does segregated housing lead to
segregated schools?
o What did the Supreme Court have to say about restrictive
covenants in 1948?
o What is the point of the story of Roscoe Johnson and his
wife and why is it in the paragraph about the ending of
restrictive covenants?
Black Pride Movements (71-72) – Some blacks felt America would
never treat them fairly and wanted to start a separate all-black
nation. Organizations like UNIA started by Marcus Garvey
advocated for black pride and black power.
o Write down the pair of sentences on p. 71 that serve as the
transition between the topics “discrimination in housing”
and “Black Pride movements.”
o Why did some African Americans think segregation was a
good idea?
o Who was Marcus Garvey and what were his ideas about
how African Americans should feel about themselves?
The Harlem Renaissance (72-73) – 1920s -- black artists, writers
and musicians came together and prospered; this was another source
of black pride.
o A “renaissance” is a “rebirth.” In what ways was the
Harlem Renaissance a rebirth?
o What kinds of accomplishments is the Harlem
Renaissance known for?
Race in Politics & The Media (74-75) – Organizations like
NAACP and National Urban League used magazines to reach
African American communities; they sponsored studies about job
and housing discrimination and held demonstrations and protests.
o How did the NAACP help black communities stay
informed about the political and social issues that were
important to them?
o How does the concluding paragraph on page 75 serve as a
transition from one topic to another? What was the topic
of these last two chapters as a whole, and what does this
paragraph suggest will be the subject of the next chapter?
Segregation in Government (77-79) – Summarizes various US
documents that dealt with the issue of rights: the Declaration of
Independence, the Constitution, and the 13th-15th Amendments; and
summarizes how the US went from a slavery nation to abolishing
slavery to guaranteeing rights to failing to guarantee those same
rights. In civil service/government job positions like the Postal
Service and the Treasury, African Americans at first were not
segregated or discriminated against. Segregation in government
workplaces ramped up starting around 1913 under President Wilson.
creation and
based on my
judgment
about where
topics
changed)



The NAACP sponsored meetings, protests and petition drives
against these changes but they continued.
o Compare the main purposes of the Thirteenth, Fourteenth,
and Fifteenth Amendments to the Constitution with what
you now know of the reality of life for African Americans
during the Jim Crow years. (You may need to do some
outside research for more details, but review pp. 6-7 of
this book for the basics.)
o Describe patterns of employment for African Americans
in federal government jobs between the end of the Civil
War through Woodrow Wilson’s presidency. How did the
NAACP and other organizations react to Wilson’s
policies? How did federal employers screen out African
American applicants to keep them from getting positions?
World War I (79-82) – Black soldiers were drafted like white
soldiers, but kept in segregated units. Black units did not see as
much combat and did not generally get the same kinds of
assignments as white units. Black soldiers returning home after the
war were quickly put back in “their place” and lynchings in the
south and race riots in the north and south increased after the war.
Blacks who had filled jobs during the war while white soldiers were
away were often fired and replaced by whites after the war.
o How did segregation and discrimination follow African
Americans into the armed forces during World War I?
o How did military service often affect African Americans?
How were African American soldiers treated upon their
return to civilian life, especially in the South?
o What kinds of racial conflicts were happening in the North
at this time?
The Great Depression (82-84) – The “great migration” slowed
during the Depression years. Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal
included government jobs, and Wilson’s civil service segregation
policies were repealed. But many blacks had farming or labor jobs
and the New Deal did not help much with those. Eleanor Roosevelt
opposed racial discrimination and supported anti-lynching laws and
later became part of the NAACP herself.
o What was the New Deal and how was it supposed to help
people during the Great Depression? What were some
ways in which black citizens got less help through the
New Deal?
o What sorts of actions did Eleanor Roosevelt undertake to
fight discrimination?
World War II (84-90) – The NAACP supported a huge March on
Washington rally in 1941 to encourage the defense industry to hire
blacks and end job discrimination. Roosevelt responded with an
executive order that prohibited job discrimination in the defense


industry and federal government jobs. When WWII started, as in
WWI black units were kept segregated and black officers were a
rarity. Again black units mostly played support roles like
construction, maintenance and supply. Some progress in seeing
more combat was made – for example the Tuskegee Airmen. Some
black women served as nurses, under a quota system until 1945
when quotas were removed, but were only allowed to treat black
soldiers. Segregation in the military ended in 1948, after WWII
ended.
o How did the start of World War II lead to the “March on
Washington Movement”? What was the outcome of that
movement?
o Describe ways the US armed forces used discrimination
and segregation against African Americans who wanted to
serve their country during World War II.
o Who were the Tuskegee Airmen and what made them
unusual and an important part of the African American
struggle for equal treatment?
Signs of Breakdown (90-96) – During and after WWII it became
more and more difficult for white America to argue that blacks had
to be put “in their place” when they did so much and moved ahead
so far. Rallies and sit-ins were used to keep the issue of segregation
and discrimination in the public eye. The Congress of Racial
Equality (CORE) was founded in 1942 by and included both black
and white members; they believed in using non-violent strategies
and used sit-ins to try to integrate restaurants. Race riots continued
in cities in the north and south. Some whites argued that black
attempts to end segregation were harming the war effort. The notion
of segregation as “patriotic” started to crack; one example was the
integration of professional baseball, which had been segregated for
years. 1946 Morgan v. Virginia Supreme Court case found that
inter-state bus travel could not be segregated; CORE sent test riders
on a “Journey of Reconciliation” to make sure this ruling was being
upheld at the local and state level.
o What was CORE and what did it do?
o Describe a “sit-in” – why was it done, how did it work?
o How did white segregationists respond to tactics like
marches and sit-ins? What tactics and arguments did they
use?
o Describe how baseball was one example of “cracks” that
were forming in the system of segregation after World
War II.
o What was the “Journey of Reconciliation” and what law
was it meant to test?
School Segregation Ends, Modern Civil Rights Movement
Begins (96-107) – The NAACP’s Legal Defense and Educational
Fund under leadership by Thurgood Marshall continued to fight
segregation in education. They used the “separate but equal”
argument from Plessy v. Ferguson to argue that when the state could
not provide an equal facility, the only other option was to allow
blacks into the white school. In 1950, Supreme Court case
McLaurin v. Oklahoma found that a black student that had been
admitted to a white university could not be treated differently (such
as being seated in isolation) than white students. In the early 1950s,
five states that required or permitted segregation in public grade
schools were sued by parents and the NAACP. When the appeals
reached the Supreme Court they were brought together as Brown v.
Topeka KS Board of Education. Each of the five cases dealt with
school segregation. One dealt with the fact that the so-called
“equal” black school was in fact inferior in terms of buildings, pay
for teachers, and transportation. Another dealt with the issue of
proximity – black students had to travel a long way to get to a black
school when a white school was nearby. The other cases had similar
details. In 1954 the court unanimously declared school segregation
unconstitutional. States, school districts, and many white parents
fought back against this and resisted school integration. When it did
finally happen, it happened slowly and painfully. The impact of the
decision was to destroy the notion that separate could ever be equal
and to establish that the 14th Amendment truly did require equal
protection for all under the law. Decades of struggle, protest and
resistance to the laws of Jim Crow had paved the way for the
modern civil rights movement of the 50s and 60s yet to come.
o What arguments did Thurgood Marshall and the NAACP
use to try to end segregation in schools?
o How was McLaurin v. Oklahoma a “step in the right
direction”?
o Describe the five lawsuits in different states that
eventually were bundled together as Brown v. Board of
Education. What sorts of conditions or situations did the
plaintiffs feel were unfair or unconstitutional?
o What words or phrases does the author use to create
transitions in the text from one case to another (pages 100104)
o How did the Supreme Court rule on Brown v. Board of
Education in 1954? What arguments did they use to
support their decision?
o How did the press and the nation react to the decision?
o How did abolishing school segregation lead to the end of
other kinds of legalized and enforced segregation?
o Look at the timeline on pages 108-109. Make a note of
the events you remember or recognize from reading this
book.
Purpose: the purpose of students reading this book is to get them ready to more fully
understand and appreciate the two other books in this project: Getting Away with Murder
(which takes place right after the Supreme Court school desegregation ruling in 1954, and
which relies on a full understanding of the north/south and written/unwritten contrasts of
the time, as well as the understanding that racism was deeply embedded in government
institutions like courts; but also that there was already a movement toward civil rights
that had been growing for some time and that Till’s murder was a catalyst that pushed the
movement forward), and Freedom Walkers (which takes place the next year and again
relies on knowledge of legalized, enforced segregation in the south). The strategies and
procedures learned during this book will help them tackle the next books more
independently.
Structure: there is a lot of cause & effect, problem/solution, and compare and contrast
structure in this book. Many opportunities to analyze conditions for black vs. white,
conditions in the North vs. South, existence of written vs. unwritten rules, use of violent
vs. non-violent strategies, etc. Many opportunities to examine “how did African
Americans address problem X, and how successful were these attempts?”
Quotes: Many uses of quoted material in this book – from people who were there and
were affected by the situation. These quotes are what elevates this book above a less
“literary” non-fiction book – they are where the emotion comes from, where the personal
connections are most likely to take place.
Author’s Craft: Because this book is essentially three really long chapters and there are
no section headings, the author makes extensive use of transitions. Finding the
transitions and indeed figuring out where one topic ends and another begins makes this
book a challenging read, but also provides an opportunity to examine different methods
of making transitions.