The National Civil Rights Museum Celebrates Everyday People

A tour of the National Civil Rights Museum, in Memphis, Tennessee, in narrative and full-color photographs, pays homage to the ordinary people who contributed to the advancement of freedom.

Grade 3-6?An affecting introduction to the National Civil Rights Museum in Memphis, TN, housed in the historic Lorraine Motel. Its lifelike exhibits re-create scenes and people of the civil rights movement: the Montgomery Bus Boycott, the integration of Central High School in Little Rock, the Greensboro lunch-counter sit-in, the Freedom Rides, episodes in Birmingham and Selma, and the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr. For example, children may climb on a bus and sit with a statue of Rosa Parks, listening to the driver's demands that she move to the back of the bus. The outstanding feature of the book is Duncan's simple, but beautiful prose that makes an ugly subject somehow more understandable to youngsters, gives them a realistic view of progress made, and encourages them to work for an even better tomorrow. Exceptionally well-chosen black-and-white news photographs are paired with bright, full-color photos of children interacting with related exhibits. Although a few of the modern ones seem overly posed, they are attractive and do a good job of explaining the interactivity of the museum. Duncan's paean of praise to "everyday people" makes it clear that it only takes courage, determination, and unity to make the world a better place.?Cindy Darling Codell, Clark Middle School, Winchester, KY
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Located in downtown Memphis at the Lorraine Motel-the site of Martin Luther King Jr.'s murder-the National Civil Rights Museum serves as the backdrop for Duncan's (Willie Jerome) concise, accessible history of the civil rights movement (see Children's Books, Jan. 23). The author escorts readers on a tour of the museum's hands-on exhibits, which recreate the settings of such milestones as the 1955 Montgomery, Ala., bus boycott and the 1963 March on Washington, which drew more than 250,000 "everyday people" and protestors. Period photos record these events; however, Smith's more recent pictures are likelier to grab readers' attention and make the events of the civil rights movement come alive. He shows, for example, a young visitor to the museum standing beside a statue of Rosa Parks seated on a bus, and a facsimile of a '50s lunch counter, where a group of kids perches opposite realistic-looking statues of demonstrators conducting a sit-in. Duncan's and Smith's informative, affecting collaboration is the next best thing to an actual trip to the museum. Ages 7-11.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Gr. 3-6. This large-format book combines clear writing with many photographs to portray significant events of the civil rights movement, primarily from the vantage point of exhibits at the National Civil Rights Museum. Built around the restored Lorraine Motel where Martin Luther King Jr. was shot, the museum features interactive exhibits, documented in the full-color photos. Contemporary children not only may join statues of students at a lunch counter replicating the Greensboro sit-in, but also board a bus with a seated statue of Rosa Parks in the Montgomery Bus Boycott exhibit. Black-and-white photos provide clear documentation of actual people and events, but readers may empathize more with the shots taken in the exhibits, since they show children of all races in situations where the injustice is clear. The visual juxtaposition of past and present provides a moving context for the writing. A chronology and bibliographies are appended. Carolyn Phelan