EVICTED! The Struggle for the Right to Vote: A Middle Grade Picture Book Review, A Giveaway, PLUS MORE!

Every once in a while you read a book and feel the passion that the author brings to the topic. That is the way EVICTED! (Calkins Creek, 2022) struck me. This upper-level narrative nonfiction will be a welcome addition to classrooms when studying African American history and civil rights.  I have featured both the author, Alice Faye Duncan, and the illustrator, Charly Palmer, in previous posts. Click here for a review of Alice Faye's book, A Song for Gwendolyn Brooks, and click here for Charly's illustrations in The Teachers March!

REVIEW

EVICTED! opens with a not-to-be-missed page of Acknowledgments. Ms. Duncan writes, "In 2006, Ernest Withers gifted me a photography book about the Tent City Movement. His images demanded that I write about this history for young people."

Here is one of the pictures from that album:

Now you know exactly why Ms. Duncan interviewed farmers and activists in order to bring this story to life. 

EVICTED! is bookended by the life of James Junior Jamerson.  The narrative begins with Prologue to Freedom. "This is the story of a battle, a boy, and his broken-hearted blues." Following this introduction, the reader meets the people who were important in the story of Tent City. Charly Palmer's illustrations begin the story. 

Each page is a different vignette telling what led up to the creation of Tent City and what happened afterward. Here are some highlights from those events.

• In 1959 there were no black jurors to serve in the trial of a Black man wrongfully accused of murder. Farmer John McFerren realized that justice was in the ballot box--and Blacks needed to register to vote. 
• After Harpman Jameson came home from serving in WWII and wasn't allowed to vote he said, "'A man and woman don't have no country if they don't have no vote.""
• In 1959 "Entire families were forced out their homes when Black parents registered to vote in Fayette County."
• In 1960 Mary and Earlie B. Williams were the first family to move into a tent on Papa Towles' land. As more Blacks registered to vote, more were evicted from their homes. "Tent City" was named by TV broadcasters and national newspapers.

"Their hiding place was a cross of unmerited suffering."

https://www.memphis.edu/tentcity/moving-shacks-tents.php

• In 1962 after John Doar of the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division filed a lawsuit to block white landowners from evicting Black sharecroppers, the landowners finally agreed to stop evictions. 
• In 1964 Black voters cast their ballots while white locals stuffed the ballot boxes with illegal votes. In spite of that, the work for equality pushed forward. 
• In 1965 President Lyndon Johnson signed the Voting Rights Act. "Black Americans voted in record numbers and won political seats."

James Junior is a grandfather now. "He says the past is the present, and it is urgent they [his grandchildren] understand, 'Every life is a battlefield and freedom is a golden prize.'"

The Epilogue concludes with, 

Despite his young age, James Junior served the freedom struggle with conquering faith and courage. He accepted the charge to rise and change history for good.  

Today--it is your turn.

                    Now is your time. 

Back matter includes photographs, a detailed timeline, resource guide, and bibliography. 

Viola McFerren talks about sharecropping and living in Tent City. 

ON A PERSONAL NOTE

I am drawn to this book for many reasons. When I set out to write Half-Truths I wanted to write a book that explored what led up to the civil rights period in my "own backyard"--Charlotte, NC. (Early on Harold Underdown pointed out that this was only the historical setting of my novel--not the book itself. That is another story.) In a graphic manner, EVICTED! uncovers an important part of what led up to the civil rights movement in Alice Faye's own "backyard." As a writer, I'm drawn to narrative nonfiction and enjoy learning how other authors master this genre. 

MINI-AUTHOR INTERVIEW

CAROL: Since you grew up in Memphis not far from Fayette County, were you aware of Tent City as a child or teenager?    

 

ALICE FAYE: Nope.  Not at all. Ironically, I visited Fayette County often as a child because my Great Uncle Buck and Great Aunt Boots lived in the community. They were former sharecroppers and both were dead by 1979 when I was in middle school. So, Tent City was not a discussion that I ever had with them. I was not astute enough at that time to broach such a conversation. I regret that today. Wisdom comes slowly. 

 

CAROL: How did you decide on the written format of narrative plus free verse poetry? 

 

ALICE FAYE: For children, I think that tragic and painful histories are shared best in the form of poetry and music. Poetry like blues music is optimism in the face of adversity. 

 

CAROL: Was that combination your vision from the beginning? 

 

ALICE FAYE: The combination of poetry with prose was my vision. It is a form that I originated for myself in 2018 when I wrote MEMPHIS, MARTIN AND THE MOUNTAINTOP.  I will use this form again in my new book, CORETTA'S JOURNEY--THE LIFE AND TIMES OF CORETTA SCOTT KING (Calkins Creek/ September 2023). 

GIVEAWAY

Alice Faye is the author expert in the fall issue of Talking Story on Voting Rights. She also provided a classroom activity. Leave one comment here and you'll be entered once to win EVICTED! Leave a second comment through the newsletter and you'll be entered a second time. To subscribe to the newsletter, click here. Educators and librarians automatically have their name entered twice. PLEASE LEAVE YOUR NAME AND EMAIL ADDRESS IF YOU ARE NEW TO MY BLOG. If you prefer, you can email me. Giveaway ends October 8. U.S. addresses only. 

Congratulations to Terri Michels who won the four-book set of Jalen's Big City Life.

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Click on over to Greg Pattridge's awesome Always in the Middle blog post on Monday for a new list of great MG books.