Morrison, T. (2004). Remember:
the journey to school integration. Boston:
Houghton Mifflin Co.
Nonfiction
With a focus on integration, “Beloved” and “The Bluest Eye”
author Toni Morrison explores our shared history of integration through the
Civil Right Movement. While Brown v.
Board of Education is used as a touchpoint, Morrison allows her scope to
range somewhat wider, exploring other areas of social integration that opened
after the landmark court ruling. Morrison uses familiar, famous photographs to
guide us through our history. She captions each iconic image with a pithy but
nevertheless poignant statement, inviting us to imagine ourselves what those in
the images are thinking or wanting to say. Seeing so many faces really gives
the movement a sense of realism and immediacy, which is important as these
events fade into capital H History. At the end of the book, each image is given
a context and small blurb, so that those interested can explore the history
behind individual images. I’ve always been curious about this image of a girl
from the Little Rock Nine:
I know it’s probably a lame reason to be interested in her,
but she’s always struck me as stylish with her crisp white shirtdress, shorn
hair and dark sunglasses. The way she walks by the screaming crowd, collected,
cool, clutching her schoolbooks with one arm. After reading her name, Elizabeth
Eckford, I turned to Google to learn more about her. I found this really
fascinating slate article about her relationship with THE screaming protestor,
Hazel Massery. After some time, Hazel changed her ideas and advocated for civil rights - convincing her mother over time, even, who would go on to vote for Barack Obama in the historic 2008 presidential election.
Use in the classroom: Obviously, this book would make a
great supplement to a unit on the civil rights era, school integration, or
both. Students could create their own captions, or create mini-research reports
on individual archival images. Older students reading “The Bluest Eye” could
compare the page about the girls’ doll to elements of that story.