Real Stories from My Time: March on Washington

Published 2019. Author: Bonnie Bader (with excerpts from Denise Lewis Patrick's Melody stories). Illustrator: Kelley McMorris.

Summary

Melody's older sister Yvonne is back from college, and Melody is enraptured with her ideas--like equality for all races. Her parents and grandparents agree that the inequality is unacceptable, but are divided on the best way to address the problems and effect change. Melody wants to support the cause too, closing her account at a bank that won't hire black people. When her father calls for a boycott of a local clothing store that treats black patrons like criminals, Melody wants to join the picket line he plans to have outside the store. Melody's cousin Val, originally from Birmingham, AL, is worried about safety--should children really be involved? Melody thinks they should. It's their world, too.

Melody gets to be part of MLK Jr's Walk to Freedom, and Yvonne is going to take part in the March on Washington. About 250,000 people (70% black, 30% other races including white) join her on August 28, 1963, to show that they deserve equal and that they won't back down. In 1964,  the Civil Rights Act became. The Voting Rights Act followed in 1965, and the Fair Housing Act in 1968, just days after MLK Jr was assassinated. Melody's account closes with her, Val, and Yvonne visiting Birmingham, and noticing that the "whites only" signs are gone from store windows.


Misc

Dedicated to "Lauren and Allie--may you always stand up, and march, for what is right."

The book has a note at the beginning about the use of "Negro" and "colored people" and how they were accurate for the time, but are now outdated and offensive. To drive the point home, the first journal entry from Melody recounts a debate among her family members about what they should call themselves. Her grandfather says colored people, her mother Negro, and her older sister describes herself as black. She also agrees with Melody that "American" is perfectly suitable.

To give historical context to the 1963 March on Washington, the book gives a brief overview of US slavery, starting in 1619, and goes past the Emancipation Proclamation to Jim Crows laws and other injustices, like literacy tests for voting. It also mentions actions that laid the groundwork for the March, like the union formed by the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters and the march that A. Philip Randolph planned which resulted in FDR's order to prohibit discrimination in the defense industry.

Nice, the book mentions Claudette Colvin and Mary Louise Smith, who both refused to give up their seats to white people before the more famous (and more press-friendly) Rosa Parks. All three were important, and they all deserve recognition.

News of protests and other issues were able spread fast over the whole country, and thanks to advances in photography, the Civil Rights Movement had access to proof of wrongs they sought to right.

The book's epilogue notes that equality and equity have yet to be fully realized: "Today, people continue to fight for civil rights. Black, white, Latinx, Native American. People from different religions. Men and women. Gay people and straight people. Young and old. Leaders and everyday citizens. Americans have not stopped demonstrating, protesting, boycotting, sitting in, and standing up for equality."