Introduce students to the activism of Clara Luper, an African American schoolteacher who organized lunch-counter sit-ins for her students to protest segregation in 1958.
This picture book is both a history lesson and a guide for when and how to challenge injustice (now and with nonviolent direct action). The author does not shy away from describing the humiliating abuse the children suffered during the sit-in. The artist shows images of Black children covered in food while white patrons yell, throw, and shake their fists.
The art is simple but stunning in the way the artist avoids a heavy historical aesthetic. Apart from some dated fashion, the era-defying imagery brings the possibilities of apartheid society and courageous activism closer to the reader’s own experience.
After the narrative, author Olugbemisola Rhuday-Perkovich offers readers a detailed biography of Clara Luper’s life, Luper’s four Steps of Nonviolent Resistance, and a glossary of terms.
ISBN: 9781633224988 | Quarto Publishing Group
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