The Author, Mildred Taylor, of Roll of Thunder Hear My Cry describes different types of Discrimination and multiple examples of Racism in her novel. The editors of Salem Press wrote an article on the author specifically in the Cylcopedia of Young Adult Authors and were able to conclude that the novel is known for its “gripping depiction of 8 year old Cassie Logan’s growing awareness of racial oppression in the Deep South during the 1930s”. Mildred uses all characters of the novel to give great description of prejudice in Mississippi including the Logan children. Karen Patricia Smith from the Literature Resource Center wrote about Taylor’s strengths in writing this novel and said that “One of the unique aspects of Taylor's work is her focus upon a strong, upwardly mobile family unit which consistently, and also realistically, manages to meet 'head-on' the social challenges of racism and disfranchisement without projection of a self-conscious perspective”. The Logans an African American family struggle to maintain their family land and pride while fighting racism in their own community. The children of the family either experience or hear stories related to: public school segregation, poverty during The Great Depression, and violent acts by Caucasian men towards African American men and women. Roll of Thunder Hear My Cry is a novel which displays African American children being raised in the face of racial adversities before the Civil Rights Movement.
The Logan children are the main characters of the novel. They attend a public school in Mississippi. Their school is not necessarily segregated within itself. Children attend different schools based on their race instead of the same school with specific restrooms, water fountains, seats, and more based on the students’ race. The African American children attend. The Great Faith Elementary and Secondary School, but, Caucasian children of the novel attend Jefferson Davis County School. Mildred Taylor described The Great Faith Elementary and Secondary School as “one of the largest black schools in the county, consisting of four weather-beaten wooden houses on stilts of brick”. While, Jefferson Davis County school was described as “a long white wooden building looming in the distance with a large sports field behind it”(Taylor 10). This considerably illustrates the idea of being separate and unequal.
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The children are constantly reminded of the inequity in their school’s system. The Logan siblings and their other African American friends all walk to school every morning. While on their way a Caucasian male driving a big yellow bus full of white children, who belong to Jefferson Davis County School, speeds by the walking children splashing them with dusts and or mud for the Caucasian children’s amusement. On the first day of school during this new school year the youngest sibling, Little Man has just started his school journey. He is very particular about staying clean and not getting his clothes or shoes dirty on the walk to school. He plans to keep them clean the entire day. The big yellow bus prevents this from happening and this infuriates him. Stacey, the eldest sibling, tried to warn Little Man to move out of the way but, not directly informing him of the consequences. Afterwards Little Man asks “How’s come they did that, Stacey, huh?” “How’s come they didn’t even stop for us?”.(Taylor 9) .Little Man did not yet understand that The Great Faith Elementary and Secondary School did not have a bus, nor did he understand that he and his siblings were being used for entertainment.
Another situation which involves Little Man’s very first day of school is about the “new” books illustrated to his class. On the first day of school Miss Crocker (Little Man and his older sister Cassie’s Teacher) announces that the school has received new books for the school year and now has enough for every student to be awarded their own. Although, his Mother is a teacher Little Man has never had a book entirely to himself. He was very excited until he saw the condition of the book. Taylor described the books by stating that “the covers of the books, a motley red, were badly worn and the gray edges of the pages had been marred by pencils, crayons, and ink”. As you know Little Man was obsessed with being meticulously neat so this upset him quite a bit. Although, the conditions of the books upset him nothing disturbed him more than what was written inside. The front page of the books included a chart indicating whether the book’s conditions were new, excellent, very good, and more. As Little Man’s eyes followed the chart he read the current year and beside it someone wrote that the condition was very poor and that the book had been given to a “nigra”. The books were from Jefferson Davis County School and far from new. All things that Great Faith Elementary and Secondary school needs, Jefferson Davis County School already has. The two schools were very much separate but, were never going to be equal.
This book is set during the Great Depression in the 1930s therefore, poverty was extremely common. It comes with no surprise that the Logan family were very poor. According to the Mildred Taylor the Logan children wore “threadbare clothing washed to dishwater color, but always, the taxes and the mortgage would be paid up”. As long as the family’s land was paid for the material things were the last thing the family worried about, at least the adults. The only girl sibling of the Logan children was Cassie, and she desperately wished that her mother had new work shoes. The pair that her mother wore to work every day were broken down and made of cardboard lining. Cassie asked her mother about the shoes, she asked when she would be able to get new ones or at least fix the one that she already owned. Her mother replied 'That'll be a few years yet”, readjusting the cardboard lining she had placed in her shoes to protect her feet from the dirt and gravel which could easily seep through the large holes in the soles. She set the shoes on the floor and stepped into them”.(Taylor 112). This made Cassie uncomfortable, but, she could do nothing. It was the harsh reality that her family faced.
The Logan children heard multiple stories about Caucasian males abusing African Americans. The Logan siblings witnessed such an act for the first time because of T.J. T.J. is a friend of the Logan Children in the novel and gets himself into a large deal of trouble towards the end of the book. He gets caught in a situation with his former friends known as the Simms brothers. The Simms brothers are two Caucasian males who are in the same social class of the African Americans in their community. The Simms brothers made sure that T.J. was found guilty instead of themselves. Dr. Karen Ruff says:
“ It is fairly obvious that the Simms brothers have anticipated repercussions as a result of their actions and have already put the blame on T.J. They seem to have planned to have T.J. take the fall as they were wearing stocking masks and T.J. was not. T.J. does not ask why they don’t have a mask for him, but the dark stockings make it easy to claim that all of the thieves were black. While the story is fiction, a reader has the galling realization that many crimes were probably perpetrated by whites and blamed on helpless blacks who had no way of proving themselves innocent in a society that wanted to believe they were guilty.”
The Wallace brothers, older Caucasian characters of the novel, took it upon themselves to find T.J. and make him pay for what he had supposedly done. They were known for multiple violent acts toward African Americans in the novel. The Wallace brothers drove to T.J.’s house and abused his entire family, beating them and throwing them out of windows while the Logan children watch. The African Americans were also dragged and spat upon. Sadly, this is the Logan sibling’s first time witnessing an incident like this but, not their first time hearing of such.
Children of the novel Roll of Thunder Hear My Cry were brought up in a time before the Civil Rights Movement. The Logans heard about and experienced situations involving public school segregation, poverty, and violent acts by Caucasian men towards African Americans. In Susan Cooper’s article criticizing the novel, Mildred Taylor wrote that her novel was about “human pride and survival in a cruelly racists society.” Racism and Discrimination were very routine for certain people of that time. Racism and Discrimination towards African Americans are both portrayed in multiple different ways throughout the novel. Mildred Taylor wrote this novel to help readers understand different types of racism and discrimination from a child’s perspective.
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