To help celebrate "Black History Month", I've just read two very appropriate books that will enlighten children to the struggles that African Americans have had in this country. "Color Me Dark- The Diary of Nellie Lee Love, The Great Migration North", by Patricia C. McKissack, takes place in 1919. Nellie Lee and her family live in Tennessee and are constantly being harassed by many of the white citizens of the county. Nellie Lee and her sister can't even walk to their colored school without the gang of white boys teasing and taunting them. Her father owns a funeral home and has a successful business, but he is beginning to feel the pressures and insecurities of living where the Ku Klux Klan haunts every colored person for miles around. Recently, there has been talk about lynching innocent blacks in near-by towns.
When her uncle comes home, after honorably serving in World War I, he shows up to their home barely alive. The sheriff tells them that it appeared he'd gotten drunk and fell asleep on the train tracks where a train had hit him. Nellie Lee's parents and grandparents couldn't believe these words! Uncle Pace doesn't even drink! They clean his wounds and wait for the only colored doctor for two counties to come to their home. Grandma Nessie and Nellie's mother take turns sitting with him for that night and all of the next day. When Grandma Nessie asks Nellie Lee and her sister to sit with him while she makes a cup of tea, they can't believe the terrible condition that he is in. It was the first time they'd been allowed to come into his room. Her sister cries out to him asking him not to leave them. For the first time, he wakes up and appears to be trying to say something. Nellie Lee runs to tell her parents, but by the time they return, he has died. Nellie Lee's sister is in shock and suddenly is unable to speak. And this turn of events goes on for months until the reader finally learns the truth about that night when Uncle Pace died.
Nellie Lee's family makes a huge decision to leave the home that they love, to leave the funeral business and to venture north where discrimination is less and opportunities are better. They also feel that their family could live in Chicago safer than in Tennessee where tensions are getting so great that Nellie Lee's father fears for his family.
Ms. McKissack has woven the feelings and experiences of Nellie Lee and her close family for the reader to feel part of the family. This is just a normal family where sisters tease and argue with each other but laugh and enjoy each other as well. Her family makes a trade-off when they move to hopefully live in a better place. They leave their yard, their big old tree where many wild animals live and their house to live in a small, two-room apartment. But, for the first time, they have indoor plumbing and there are cars on paved streets and many stores to shop.
The reader will soon learn that there are also tensions and discrimination in Chicago and that being African American in the early 20th Century is difficult. But, the reader will also see that Nellie Lee and her family was just like any other family of any color or race, that they were trying to make a better place for their young ones. The book is written in a journal format and great reading for 8 to 12 year olds. I especially liked reading the 9 pages of historical background at the back of the book that Ms. McKissack based this story on. I think I learned more about this time period of our country than I've ever learned about before. There are also pictures that represent this era as well. This book is this year's Mark Twain award nominee.
"When Marian Sang", by Pam Munoz Ryan and illustrated by Brian Selznick, is a beautiful and inspirational picture book based on the life of the glorious singer, Marian Anderson. I remember learning about Ms. Anderson when I was in the 5th grade and hearing her voice on the class record-player. I'll never forget how excited my teacher was to have us hear her wonderful voice. She must have talked about the majesty and angelic sound that we would hear for too long because I remember feeling anxious for her to stop talking about Ms. Anderson and just let us hear her sing. I remember the feeling I had when the needle touched down onto the record and hearing her sing, "My country 'tis of thee, Sweet Land of liberty...." I was mesmerized. I can hear that voice even today.
This picture book is about how Marian grew to be one of the most sensational singers in the world and how, because she was African American, she was discriminated against again and again in our country. She was treated like a queen across the ocean, but when she came back to her native country, there were concert halls that wouldn't let her perform. Her greatest moment came when she was asked to sing on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in l939. She had just been turned down, because of her color of skin, to sing at Constitution Hall. Mr. Selznick, wrote at the back of the book, why he chose to illustrate this great moment from the audience's view. You'll learn more about both the author and illustrator's insight to this incredible woman on the last pages. I think the title should be "When Marian Inspired", because that is what it will do! I only wish that there could have been a CD of "America the Beautiful" enclosed in the book, because until you hear her sing, you don't realize her tremendous gift! This book is great for ages 6 through adult