History

Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cryby Mildred Taylor

Background and History

Racism

Racism is judging people based on the color of their skin. Racist people think people of their color are better than people of another color.

Jim Crow Laws

• This novel takes place in 1933. Back then, black and white people were segregated by the Jim Crow laws.

• These laws enforced segregation. Segregation kept black and white people apart. They could not go to the same schools, travel in the same train cars, used the same parks, cemeteries, and theaters.

• Laws were meant to create “separate but equal” places for blacks and whites. It did not work out this way, however. The places were “separate” but not “equal”.

Negro going in colored entrance of movie house on Saturday afternoon, Belzoni, Mississippi Delta, Mississippi (Library of Congress)

http://www.flickr.com/photos/library_of_congress/3549667550/

Rosa ParksOn December 1, 1955 in Montgomery, Alabama, Parks, age 42,

refused to obey bus driver James Blake's order that she give up her

seat to make room for a white passenger.

http://www.suanie.net/2005/10/27/rosa-parks-and-thoughts-on-racism/

Schools

Schools for black students got much less money than schools for white students.

As a result, the schools for black students did not have enough textbooks, chalk, and other supplies.

Many schools for black students did not have playing fields, school buses, or indoor bathrooms - but schools for white students often did.

Supreme Court

In 1954, the Supreme Court got rid of the Jim Crow laws.

But, many people in the South were not willing to let black and white kids got to the same schools.

In 1957, President Dwight D. Eisenhower had to send soldiers to Little Rock, Arkansas, to protect black students going to a white school.

Little Rock Ninehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kmmT_jdB4iw

http://www.flickr.com/photos/bjwnavigator/3323250737/ http://www.flickr.com/photos/38952296@N00/1432714363/

Civil Rights Act

In 1964, the Supreme Court passed the Civil Rights Act. This act made it against the law to discriminate against people because of their color.

When you discriminate against someone, you do not treat them fairly.

Civil Rights Movement

During the period 1955–1968, acts of nonviolent protest and civil disobedience produced crisis situations between activists and government authorities.

Federal, state, and local governments, businesses, and communities often had to respond immediately to crisis situations which highlighted the inequities faced by African Americans.

Forms of protest and/or civil disobedience included boycotts such as the successful Montgomery Bus Boycott (1955–1956) in Alabama; "sit-ins" such as the influential Greensboro sit-in (1960) in North Carolina; marches, such as the Selma to Montgomery marches (1965) in Alabama; and a wide range of other nonviolent activities.

Civil Rights Movement cont’d

Selma voting rights march in March 1965. One demonstration was attacked by both Dallas County Deputy Sheriffs and the Alabama State Police at the foot of the Edmund Pettus Bridge on March 7,

1965.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/53911892@N00/388150901/

Voting Rights Act

In 1965, Congress passed the Voting Rights Act.

This law made it easier for black people to vote. However, prejudice did not fade away at once.

People continued to prejudge others on the basis of their race.

About the Author

Mildred Taylor went to school in Ohio where there were no Jim Crow laws. So people of different races could learn, work, play, and travel side by side.

However, Taylor was a child in the 1950s, she took many trips to visit relatives in Mississippi. On these trips, she saw discrimination.

Mildred Taylor

http://www.flickr.com/photos/38936595@N06/3578011323/ http://www.flickr.com/photos/35791454@N03/3313081994/

Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry

In writing Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry, Taylor used her own experiences with racism in the South to show what life may have been like for African Americans in the 1930s.

She also tied in the stories her father had told about family members living under the Jim Crow laws during that time.

Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry cont’d

Taylor hoped that one day her novel “will be instrumental in teaching children of all colors the tremendous influence Cassie’s generation had in bringing about the civil rights movement of the fifties and sixties.”

She thanks her father for this help. She says, “Without his teachings, without his words, my words would not have been.”

Resources

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rosa_Parks

http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/rollofthunder/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/African-American_Civil_Rights_Movement