Jim Crow
Series of laws, enforced mostly in
the Southern United States,
establishing “Separate but Equal”
treatment between people of color
and whites.
From 1896 to 1964, violence was considered an acceptable way to enforce
these laws.
Alligator Bayou
by Donna Jo Napoli
FIC
NAP
AR Level 3.1 Points 7.0
• To 14-year-old Calogero,
newly arrived from Sicily,
Tallulah, Louisiana is a
lush world full of tension
between the Negro and
white communities.
Calogero’s family is
caught in the middle: the
whites don’t see them as
equal, but befriending
Negroes is dangerous.
•A.L.A. Best Book
•Parent’s Choice Gold Winner
Mississippi Bridge
by Mildred D. Taylor
• During a heavy rainstorm
in 1930s rural Mississippi,
a ten-year-old white boy
sees a bus driver order all
the black passengers off
a crowded bus to make
room for late-arriving
white passengers and
then set off across the
raging Rosa Lee River.
AR Level 4.2 Points 1.0
•Newbury Award winning author
•National Council Social Studies
Notable Book
Mississippi Trial, 1955
by Chris Crowe
FIC
CRO
AR Level: 5.5 Points: 9.0
• In Mississippi in 1955,
sixteen-year-old
Hiram finds himself at
odds with his
grandfather over
issues surrounding
the kidnapping and
lynching of fourteenyear-old Emmitt Till.
•A.L.A Best Book
•Golden Sower Award
The Stones of Mourning Creek
by Diane Les Becquets
FIC
BEC
AR Level 4.5 Points 10.0
• When fourteen-yearold Francie befriends
Ruthie, a black girl,
amidst the rampant
prejudice of their
small town in 1960s
Alabama, she suffers
greatly from the
harassment of her
white peers.
•A.L.A. Best Book
•V.O.Y.A. Notable Book
The Watsons go to Birmingham-1963
by Christopher Paul Curtis
FIC
CUR
AR Level 5.0 Points 8.0
• They're called Weird
Watsons, and sometimes
Kenny, Joetta, Byron,
deserve the name, like
when Byron gets his lips
frozen to a car mirror
while he's practicing
kissing. But when they
visit Grandma Sands in
Birmingham, they head
into a nightmare.
•A.L.A. Best Book
•Coretta Scott King Honor Book
Just like Martin
by Ossie Davis
FIC
DAV
• Following the deaths
of two classmates in a
bomb explosion at his
Alabama church,
fourteen-year-old
Stone organizes a
children's march for
civil rights in the
autumn of 1963.
•Virginia Best Book for Young Readers
AR Level 5.2 Points 8.0
These books, and more, can be
found @ your school library.
Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only
light can do that. Hate cannot drive out
hate; only love can do that.
~Martin Luther King, Jr.