Mildred Taylor’s novel about growing up in 1930s Mississippi centers on Cassie Logan, an African-American girl who is nine years old during most of the novel’s action. Not only is Cassie conscious of her place in a lineage of enslaved people who gained their freedom, but she also looks ahead toward her own future achievements; she is a bright, scholarly, ambitious girl, and her mother is a teacher. The Logan family farm, much of which is planted with cotton, was purchased by her grandfather after gaining his freedom. It is surrounded by the farms still owned by the white family, the Grangers, who had formerly owned the Logan’s land; now they want it back. Anti-black terrorism is on the rise, conducted by the infamous “night riders,” who burn crops and houses in their efforts to drive out the black farmers. Klansmen shoot and injure Cassie’s father, whose friend Morrissey is an outspoken civil rights and labor rights advocate.
Cassie’s older brother Stacey strives to function as the family’ head, although he is just 12 years old, after their father is injured. This includes taking a stand against his friend T. J.’s exploitation after their relationship threatens to draw Stacey into legal troubles. T. J., one of Cassie’s mother’s students, plots revenge over a bad grade by spreading a rumor that Mrs. Logan started a store boycott. The insecure boy is easily swayed by the white boys’ pretenses at friendship, but after a robbery attempt goes bad and a storeowner is killed, his supposed friends make him the fall guy and also beat him. The strong racial discrimination in the rural South is accentuated by T. J. being framed. Mr. Logan does his best to force attention away from the boy by setting fire to the fields, but his fate is in the hands of justice—meaning life imprisonment—and a lynch mob, meaning sure death.
Tuesday, December 26, 2017
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