Jo Ann Allen BoyceBesprekingen

children's teen Black history nonfiction, written in verse.
a quick read and a story that is very relatable (with parallels to today's problems), plus informative backmatter. If you can get a kid to start reading it, they'll probably make it through to the end, so I would recommend this.

Racial educational equity refers to fairness, inclusion, and equal opportunity in schools. In the United States, many schools were segregated by race until this practice was declared unconstitutional in the 1954. As schools throughout the American South began the process of desegregation, many students found themselves in the middle of local conflicts.
Read the recently published nonfiction children’s book on this topic, then learn more at the websites:
THIS PROMISE OF CHANGE by Jo Ann Allen Boyce and Debbie Levy tells the story of a girl’s fight for school equality. The book begins by providing a context for readers about the time leading up to the summer of 1956. Author Jo Ann Allen was one of a dozen students enrolled at Clinton High School in Tennessee in August of 1956. As the school year began, outsiders joined by locals rioted causing conflict in this small town through the Fall. This middle grade novel weaves together free-verse with primary source documents to immerse readers in this true story of risk and courage. The book concludes with information about the key people and a scrapbook of photos and other resources.
CLINTON DESEGREGATION CRISIS is a web page telling the story of desegregation in the town of Clinton, Tennessee. This short article provides useful background information for youth reading the story of the Clinton Dozen.
BEFORE LITTLE ROCK is a photo gallery from Life Magazine telling the story of mob violence through a set of photographs.
Clinton Desegregation Crisis
https://bit.ly/2ZW4sGG
Before Little Rock
https://bit.ly/3ewEr4E
ARC courtesy of Bloomsbury Children.

Jo Ann Allen Boyce tell the story of how she was one of the first 12 African American students to attend the all-white school of Clinton High School in Clinton, TN in 1956 through poems. This book makes this period of history and eye opener and informative of how she felt through his process. This story is great for student to learn about this history of integration and how it all started in schools. This also shows students how much schools have evolved since that time.

Through poems, Jo Ann Allen Boyce tells the story of being one of the first 12 black students to attend all-white Clinton High School in Clinton, TN, in 1956.Altogether, the work is a blistering indictment of the actions of Clinton’s white community. Book makes this period of history eye-opening and accessible. Poetry forms are described in the authors notes.

https://www.hbook.com/?detailStory=reviews-of-the-2019-boston-globe-horn-book-no.....

Two years after the Brown v. Board decision came down, Clinton, Tennessee was forced to integrate their high school, accepting twelve black students. At first, all went peacefully, but following the arrival of John Kasper to town, whites in town began to act violently toward blacks - from spitballs to mobs to beating up a white pastor who offered to walk the black students into the school. The National Guard was sent in to maintain order. Ultimately, some of the "Clinton 12" graduated from Clinton High School, while others dropped out, finished elsewhere, or moved away. Jo Ann Allen's family moved to California, where she finished school and became a nurse, and remained lifelong friends with another member of the Clinton 12, Gail Ann Epps.

This unique first-person narrative told in verse (some free, some rhyming) offers a close personal account of living through a historic time. Jo Ann examines her town through a critical lens: all is peaceful as long as blacks stay "in their place." This means, too, that even when black students are integrated into the white school, they aren't allowed to "socialize" with white students, meaning they can't join teams or clubs or attend dances. But even when integration begins, violence does not erupt right away, though neither are most of the whites terribly welcoming (there are a few exceptions); it takes an outside agitator to prompt the violence. Jo Ann wonders how her white neighbors, who have so often borrowed a cup of sugar, can still be so against integration.

Back matter includes an epilogue, more about Jo Ann and Clinton and the other members of the Clinton 12, a note on the writing of the book, quotes, a scrapbook of photographs, a timeline of school desegregation and civil rights landmarks, acknowledgments, quotation sources, a selected bibliography, further reading, and photo credits.

Quotes

When I taste the bitter,
when I feel the pain
from the daily slights
like a spreading stain...
From "No Coloreds" here
to "Whites Only" there,
from the genteel chains
that we're forced to wear--" (17)

And then, at church, a prayer for peace,
but it sounds like we're going to war. (67)

I mopped my way into fairy tales,
which, when you think about it,
sounds like a fairy tale. (83)

But you can't unhear
what you hear....
But now, I don't want to walk out.
I want to walk in.
I can't unhear what I hear.
I won't walk away from it, either. (90-91)

600 soldiers
for a town
of not even 4,000
divided over
12 students:
I hope this is
a solvable equation. (116)

"It is difficult through law and through force
to change a man's heart"
...Yes, it is difficult
to change a promise of change
into real change (129)

RGG: Not a unique story of a young woman's courage standing up for school integration, but the format in verse is and may therefore be more appealing to some readers. Reading Interest: 12-YA.

RGG: Not a unique story of a young woman's courage standing up for school integration, but the format in verse is and may therefore be more appealing to some readers. Reading Interest: 12-YA.

RGG: Not a unique story of a young woman's courage standing up for school integration, but the format in verse is and may therefore be more appealing to some readers. Reading Interest: 12-YA.

"An autobiographical account in verse of a teen pioneering school desegregation in the South.

Jo Ann Allen lives up on a hill with the other black residents of Clinton, Tennessee. They travel to Knoxville to attend the black schools, but in 1956, two years after the Brown v. Board of Education decision, a judge in Knoxville tells Clinton officials that they must integrate immediately. Jo Ann is one of 12 black students who enroll in the all-white Clinton High School. With co-author Levy, she tells her story of that year in poems grouped by her relationship to her town (“Mine, Theirs and Ours”; “Fear,” etc.). Most of the white people who support the black students do so only out of civic duty to obey the law. Still, there are moments of hope, as when her white classmates elect her vice president of their homeroom; it seems she might make friends. But then hatred and violence overtake the town of Clinton, necessitating federal law enforcement to keep the peace. Readers will empathize with Jo Ann’s honest incredulity: “Mouths spewing insults. / (Do these mouths sing hymns on Sunday? / Do they say ‘I love you’?)” One timely poem remembers a local election in which “every single / white supremacist/ segregationist / candidate / lost.” Such gems relevant to today’s politics, along with the narrator’s strong inner voice, make this offering stand out.

Powerful storytelling of a not-so-distant past. (epilogue, authors’ notes, photos, timeline, sources, bibliography, further reading)" A Kirkus starred review, www.kirkusreviews.com