The Girl from the Tar Paper School: Barbara Rose Johns and the Advent of the Civil Rights Movement - Hardcover

Kanefield, Teri

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1419707965 ISBN 13: 9781419707964

Publisher: Harry N. Abrams, 2014

Synopsis

  Before the Little Rock Nine, before Rosa Parks, before Martin Luther King Jr. and his March on Washington, there was Barbara Rose Johns, a teenager who used nonviolent civil disobedience to draw attention to her cause. In 1951, witnessing the unfair conditions in her racially segregated high school, Barbara Johns led a walkout--the first public protest of its kind demanding racial equality in the U.S.--jumpstarting the American civil rights movement. Ridiculed by the white superintendent and school board, local newspapers, and others, and even after a cross was burned on the school grounds, Barbara and her classmates held firm and did not give up. Her school's case went all the way to the Supreme Court and helped end segregation as part of Brown v. Board of Education.

Barbara Johns grew up to become a librarian in the Philadelphia school system. The Girl from the Tar Paper School mixes biography with social history and is illustrated with family photos, images of the school and town, and archival documents from classmates and local and national news media. The book includes a civil rights timeline, bibliography, and index.
Honors for The Girl from the Tar Paper School--Jane Addams Peace Association, Children's Book Award for Older Readers, 2015--California Reading Association Eureka Silver Honor Book Award--Included on the 2015 list of Notable Social Studies Trade Books for young readers compiled by the National Council for Social Studies--Orbis Pictus Award for Outstanding Nonfiction for Children (National Association of Teachers of English), Recommended Book--Included in the New York Public Library's list of 100 children's books to read in 2014.--A Junior Library Guild selection
Praise for The Girl from the Tar Paper School
"An important glimpse into the early civil rights movement."
--Kirkus Reviews

"Based largely on interviews, memoirs, and other primary source material, and liberally illustrated with photographs, this well-researched slice of civil rights history will reward readers who relish true stories of unsung heroes."
--The Bulletin of The Center for Children's Books

About this title

About the Author

Teri writes novels, short stories, essays, stories for children, and nonfiction for both children and adults.

Her stories and essays have appeared in publications as diverse as Education Week, Scope Magazine, The Iowa Review, The American Literary Review, and Cricket Magazine.

Teri lives in California by the beach.  Teri's other books have received the following honors and distinctions:
Rivka's Way--Sidney Taylor Book Awards, Notable book of 2001
--Lilith Magazine's 5th Annual Selection of Books for Young Readers
--Included in Great Books for Girls, by Kathleen Odean
--Included in Best Jewish Books for Children and Teens, by Linda R. Silver
Praise for Rivka's Way:"A rewarding read for the romantically inclined." School Library Journal
"A simple but daring adventure." Voice of Youth Advocates"A suspenseful tale of friendship and love." Hadassah Magazine
Guilty? Crime, Punishment, and the Changing Face of Justice
--Junior Library Guild selection

From School Library Journal

Gr 6 Up—This is the story of a Farmville, Virginia high schooler, who, in 1953, led a student strike for a better-built school on par with the building for white students. Although she was known as a quiet, reserved student, Johns was so incensed about the terrible conditions in which she and her classmates were required to learn that she engineered the exit of the principal from her school, mocked up a call to assembly, and then led students out on strike. She contacted the NAACP, which counseled that students return to class. When they refused, the organization told Johns that it would support only movements for integration. Students then worked to get an agreement to request integration from their parents and the broader black community. Once the community aligned behind integration as the eventual goal and a lawsuit was filed, students returned to class. The suit filed on behalf of the Farmville students ended up in the Supreme Court, one of the four cases that comprised the historic Brown v. Board of Education ruling. Beautifully and clearly written, this story of a teen who refused to be deterred in her pursuit of educational equality is matched by period photos-many of them located only after significant effort, as the Johns's home was burned-and primary source quotations. A "Civil Rights Timeline," solid end notes and source notes, and a sound index round out this excellent look at the roots and the breadth of the Civil Rights Movement.—Ann Welton, Grant Elementary School, Tacoma, WA

About this edition

• Publisher: Harry N. Abrams
• Publication date: 2014
• ISBN 10: 1419707965
• ISBN 13: 9781419707964
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 56