The People Could Fly: Remembering Those Gone As We Continue To Move Forward

If you can’t fly then run, if you can’t run then walk, if you can’t walk then crawl, but whatever you do you have to keep moving forward.

-Martin Luther King, Jr.

The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He will not grow tired or weary, and His understanding no one can fathom. He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak. Even youths grow tired and weary, and young men stumble and fall; but those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. The will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.

-Isaiah 4:21-31

In honor of Martin Luther King Day, I offer two beautiful books written by Virginia Hamilton and illustrated by Leo and Diane Dillon:

The People Could Fly. 

William Kilpatrick (from Books That Build Character) writes, "Myths and folktales reflect man's attempt to understand both his greatness and his ability to inflict and to endure suffering". The 24 folktales in this book were mostly shaped by the "given" of slavery in America and are offered in a wide range of imaginative telling...the title story is a hauntingly beautiful tale of slaves on a plantation who recall the ancient African incantations that allow them to fly. There are also riddle stories and the comic tales of Brer Rabbit - which represent the slaves' need to find ways to maintain dignity while evading their masters' cruelty.

Many Thousand Gone. 

From Publisher's Weekly: "The inspired pairing of this Newbery winner and these two-time Caldecott recipients has yielded a heartfelt and ultimately heartening chronicle of African Americans from the earliest days of slavery to the 1865 ratification of the 13th Amendment to the Constitution, which abolished slavery in this country. Made up of succinct yet compelling profiles of celebrated and lesser-known individuals, Hamilton's narrative deftly peels back time's layers and lends an unusual immediacy to this critical chapter in American history."

The stories are heroic and the illustrations are beautiful. Many Thousand Gone is a must-read in helping our children understand the horrors and honor the bravery shown by so many during the time of slavery in our country. It traces the history of slavery in America in the voices and stories of those who lived it. 

Both good reads for this day, as we remember a courageous man who wanted to change the world through his life example of non-violence, belief in equality for all, and civil rights activism.

You may also be interested in my past post about Ruby Bridges, here.

RUBY BRIDGES GOES TO SCHOOL

Ruby Bridges Goes To School: My True Story, by Ruby Bridges (Level 2 Scholastic Reader, with simple text for young readers.)

In 1960, six-year-old Ruby Bridges walked through an angry crowd and into a school where she changed history. This is the true story of an extraordinary little girl who helped shape our country when she became the first African-American to attend an all-white school in New Orleans. You can read a transcript of a PBS conversation from 1997 with Ruby Bridges here.

To read my review of Ruby's story Through My Eyes in her own words for 8-12 year olds, and The Story of Ruby Bridges, a beautiful picture book by Robert Coles (5-8 year olds), click here.

Over this three-day weekend honoring Martin Luther King, I've been re-reading Kathyrn Stockett's The Help, another amazing (though fictionalized) story of how brave African Americans faced some of the true ugliness of racism  in the form of segregation during the 1960's.

Stockett is an amazing storyteller.  Going beyond history, her fast-paced book carries us in and out of hilarious as well as heart wrenching scenarios...

In pitch-perfect voices, Kathryn Stockett creates three extraordinary women whose determination to start a movement of their own forever changes a town, and the way women—mothers, daughters, caregivers, friends—view one another. A deeply moving novel filled with poignancy, humor, and hope, The Help is a timeless and universal story about the lines we abide by, and the ones we don't.
[publisher's description]

The story is told from the perspective of three narrators: two black maids,  Aibileen Clark and Minnie Jackson, and a white college-graduate misfit who interviews them, Eugenia "Skeeter" Phelan.  They set out to secretly write down stories of what is experienced by "the help" of white families in Jim Crow era Jackson, Mississippi.

"Everyone knows how we white people feel, the glorified Mammy figure who dedicates her whole life to a white family. Margaret Mitchell covered that. But no one ever asked Mammy how she felt about it."

If you've seen the movie, but not read the book, I highly recommend you go out and get it! (You won't be able to put it down.)

HAVE YOU MET RUBY BRIDGES?

Norman Rockwell's portrayal of Ruby Bridges:
"The Problem We All Live With"

It was 1960 and she was the first black child to attend an all-white elementary school in New Orleans, after the federal courts ruled that public schools there had to desegregate.  You can read her story told in her own words here (as published in Guideposts, March 2000).  I shed tears as I was reminded how much a mother's faith and a teacher's kindness can influence and shape a young soul - and how the forgiveness shown by one innocent child, as she stared into the face of hatred, set a lasting example for a divided nation.  I think the two children's books highlighted below will have a profound effect on your children...hearing her story, they will never forget the courage and compassion shown by a little girl named Ruby Bridges.


The Story of Ruby Bridges (ages 5-8) by Robert Coles, with beautiful illustrations by George Ford, shows us all how brave and how forgiving a six-year-old child can be. Every school day, Ruby was escorted by U.S. marshals (the city and state police would not help her) past angry crowds and up the steps to her new school. And as she walked, she prayed - that God would forgive them.  A touching and powerful telling by a celebrated author (Dr. Robert Coles also happens to be a child psychiatrist that helped Ruby through the whole ordeal).

Through My Eyes by Ruby Bridges (ages 8-12). From Publisher's Weekly: With Robert Coles's 1995 picture book, The Story of Ruby Bridges... readers may feel they already know all about Bridges... But the account she gives here is freshly riveting. With heartbreaking understatement, she gives voice to her six-year-old self...Her prose stays unnervingly true to the perspective of a child: "The policeman at the door and the crowd behind us made me think this was an important place. It must be college, I thought to myself." Inside, conditions were just as strange, if not as threatening. Ruby was kept in her own classroom, receiving one-on-one instruction from teacher Barbara Henry, a recent transplant from Boston. Sidebars containing statements from Henry and Bridges's mother, or excerpts from newspaper accounts and John Steinbeck's Travels with Charley, provide information and perspectives unavailable to Bridges as a child. As the year went on, Henry accidentally discovered the presence of other first graders, and she had to force the principal to send them into her classroom for part of the day (the principal refused to make the other white teachers educate a black child). Ironically, it was only when one of these children refused to play with Ruby ("My mama said not to because you're a nigger") that Ruby realized that "everything had happened because I was black.... It was all about the color of my skin." Sepia-toned period photographs join the sidebars in rounding out Bridges's account. But Bridges's words, recalling a child's innocence and trust, are more vivid than even the best of the photos. Like poetry or prayer, they melt the heart.