The First Step: How One Girl Put Segregation on Trial, by Susan E. Goodman, illustrated by E. B. Lewis -- Day 95

In The First Step: How One Girl Put Segregation on Trial, by Susan E. Goodman, illustrated by E. B. Lewis, readers learn about a very long journey that began with one step. More than one hundred years before the 1954 Brown vs. Board of Education decision by the U.S. Supreme Court making school segregation unconstitutional, a family in Boston made their own case for “separate is never equal” in education. In April 1847, four-year-old Sarah Roberts began attending the Otis School near her home. Suddenly one day she was escorted from school by a policeman entrusted with enforcing Boston’s rule that African American children must attend their own school. Such schools were inadequately supplied and very far from home. Sarah’s parents stepped forward to fight this injustice, joining with lawyers Robert Morris and Charles Sumner in a case before the Massachusetts Supreme Court. They lost the case but in the process mobilized the sentiments of many people, both black and white; in 1855, Boston officially integrated its schools. In 1950, young Linda Brown’s family in Topeka, Kansas, joined with two hundred other families in several states to take their case to the U.S. Supreme Court. In May 1954, the court, basically in agreement with Charles Sumner’s argument a century earlier, declared that separate schools can never be equal, outlawing school segregation across the nation. Author Goodman includes an integration timeline, more information about the story’s participants, and her own notes about the importance of seeking historical accuracy in good nonfiction. The courage shown by Sarah Roberts and those who supported her, plus those in later years who persisted in seeking equality, will be evident to young readers. Ages 7-10.

Separate Is Never Equal: Sylvia Mendez & Her Family’s Fight for Desegregation, by Duncan Tonatiuh, tells the story of another brave step in the fight for educational opportunity, one that took place on the other side of the country. Mendez, an American citizen of Mexican and Puerto Rican heritage, was denied access to a school populated by white children. The Hispanic community was joined by civil rights groups supporting a lawsuit that resulted in the 1947 California ruling against segregation in public schools. Ages 9 up.

Brave Girl: Clara and the Shirtwaist Makers' Strike of 1909, by Michelle Markel, illustrated by Melissa Sweet -- Day 18

Clara Lemlich and her parents were among the thousands upon thousands of Jews fleeing persecution and sanctions in Eastern Europe in the early 1900s. Within two weeks of arriving in New York City, Clara was a garment worker, earning a few dollars a month to help pay for food and rent. Fighting off the crushing effects of working conditions in the factory, Clara attended night school and before long held high the banner of a different kind of fight – a fight for a general strike among the women workers. In this picture book biography Brave Girl: Clara and the Shirtwaist Makers’ Strike of 1909, author Michelle Markel captures the spirit of justice and strength that powered Clara; Melissa Sweet’s vibrant illustrations draw readers right into the context and details of the story. In an afterword, Markel writes more about the garment industry, its workers, and the increasing strength of the labor movement “due in great part to labor leaders like Clara Lemlich and the thousands of brave girls who picketed in the winter of 1909.” Ages 5-10.


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