A Thousand Never Evers (24 page)

AFTERWORD

The anthropologist Margaret Mead once said, “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.”

The people who fought in the civil rights movement proved Margaret Mead was right. They protested, marched, boycotted, and demonstrated for many years. With the help of the media and federal courts, the civil rights workers exposed to the whole world the injustices that occured in the segregated South. Citizens and lawmakers nationwide were disgusted by horrible images of police dogs biting young boys and fire hoses toppling little girls. And they were inspired by the nonviolent resistance of the civil rights activists. So they responded.

On July 2, 1964, President Lyndon Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act. This act struck down the Jim Crow laws and promised freedom from discrimination for African Americans—and for all Americans. The following year brought another victory in the struggle for equality. The Voting Rights Act of 1965 ordered the elimination of literacy tests and other obstacles to voter registration for minorities.

The Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Voting Rights Act of 1965, and other important legislation opened new opportunities for African Americans and all minorities in our nation. People who were treated unfairly and had the courage to bring their cases to court also contributed greatly to the civil rights movement. Today, we can see the results. Now Americans of all colors attend the same schools, play at the same parks, sit together in restaurants, and marry legally. There are more nonwhite leaders representing citizens at almost every level of government, and the most blatant barriers to voting are gone. Compared to 1963, when Addie Ann’s story takes place, there are far more people willing to speak out against racial prejudice.

Unfortunately, discrimination against African Americans and other minority groups still exists. In fact, all these years after the civil rights laws passed, African Americans and Latinos are still the least likely of all racial groups to get basic health care. And today, all these years after the Jim Crow laws were reversed, research has found that if a white youth and an African American youth commit the same offense, the African American youth is much more likely to wind up in the criminal justice system. North and South, many public schools that were desegregated by law are still segregated. One reason for this is that wealthier white parents often buy homes in different neighborhoods from those where poorer minority parents live. In this day and age, here in the richest nation on earth, millions of children live in poverty, and a disproportionate number of them are African American and Latino.

So really, the struggle for equality isn’t over. Today, the cost of silence is high. You may be too young to vote for our nation’s leaders. But you’re never ever too young to speak up for justice and lead by your own example.

CHRONOLOGY OF EVENTS

Many important events contributed to the modern civil rights movement. The following chronology describes those milestones mentioned in
A Thousand Never Evers.

1941–1945

U.S. soldiers risk their lives to fight against the Nazis in World War II. African American Medgar Evers is among them. When Mr. Evers and other black soldiers return home, they are treated like second-class citizens. This infuriates many people and contributes to the rise of the modern civil rights movement.

May 17, 1954

In a case called
Brown v. Board of Education,
the U.S. Supreme Court rules that segregation in public schools is unconstitutional and, therefore, against the law. However, many states and school districts resist the ruling for more than a decade. And even today, though not the direct result of law but of other factors, many U.S. public schools remain largely segregated.

August 28, 1955

From 1882 through 1962, at least 4,736 citizens are lynched by angry mobs. The majority of murder victims are African American men who live in the South and somehow have offended white people. In 1955, after fourteen-year-old African American Emmett Till is kidnapped and brutally murdered in retaliation for allegedly whistling at a white woman, Mrs. Till insists that her son’s tortured body is shown to the world. This ignites the civil rights movement.

May 2 and 3, 1963

In an event known as the Children’s Miracle, young people skip school to protest segregation in Birmingham, Alabama. Some are only six years old, but many are teenagers. City firemen spray young demonstrators with fire hoses, and city police set vicious dogs on them. At least eight hundred students participate the first day, and at least fifteen hundred the next. Despite their youth, hundreds are arrested and thrown in jail. The images and stories captured by the news media appall citizens nationwide.

May 28, 1963

Black and white college students and their Native American professor stage a sit-in at the “white only” lunch counter at a store called Woolworth’s in Jackson, Mississippi. For three hours, they withstand an attack by a mob of two hundred white people, including many high school students, who beat the protestors bloody and pour salt and ketchup into their wounds. White police officers watch but do nothing to stop the violence.

June 11, 1963

President John F. Kennedy shows a new level of commitment to the fight for civil rights when he addresses the nation on television and radio to propose a bill that would make segregation illegal in restaurants, hotels, buses, and other public places across the country. The bill also would help desegregate schools and secure voting rights. However, in order for the bill to pass into law, members of the U.S. House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate must vote to support it.

June 12, 1963

Medgar Evers is shot and killed in his driveway in Jackson, Mississippi. The fingerprints of white supremacist Byron De La Beckwith are found on the rifle. Mr. De La Beckwith is tried for murder twice and set free by all-white juries. It is not until 1994 that he is convicted of the crime.

August 28, 1963

About 250,000 people gather for the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. They insist on the passage of the civil rights bill introduced by President Kennedy. At the march, Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. delivers his famous “I Have a Dream” speech.

September 15, 1963

The Sixteenth Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama, is bombed. Four young girls are killed while attending Sunday school. The five suspected killers are members of the Ku Klux Klan.

October–November, 1963

Many whites in Mississippi deny that black citizens want to vote. But the Freedom Vote Campaign proves that this is false. Activists hold a mock election in which 83,000 black citizens register and vote. They show that African Americans aren’t voting because they are intimidated into staying away from the polls or are prevented from registering to vote because of taxes or tests.

November 22, 1963

President John F. Kennedy is assassinated while riding beside his wife in a motorcade in Dallas. Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson is sworn in as president.

July 2, 1964

President Lyndon B. Johnson signs the civil rights bill that Kennedy had introduced into law. Called the Civil Rights Act of 1964, it outlaws discrimination of all types based on race, religion, or the country in which a person was born. The act declares that segregation in hotels, restaurants, parks, and other public places is illegal. However, in segregated states like Mississippi, many white people resist the new law. Some use violence to prevent black citizens from integrating their facilities.

August 6, 1965

President Lyndon B. Johnson signs the Voting Rights Act of 1965. It outlaws literacy tests and other methods used to prevent African Americans from voting. After its passage, civil rights activists keep fighting to make sure the new voting law is enforced.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Some people say writing a novel is a solitary pursuit, but this book has led me to smart, interesting, and generous people from all over the United States. Heartfelt thanks to:

My multitalented agent, Andrea Cascardi, who helped bring Addie Ann to life. She not only critiqued the manuscript many times but also introduced me to my truly brilliant editor, Michelle Poploff. Michelle, along with Amalia Ellison and Pam Bobowicz, asked hundreds of questions and made the suggestions that helped me realize the story’s full potential. Also to Trish Parcell Watts for designing a cover that could spring only from the creative well of someone who lived part of her childhood in Mississippi.

The residents of the Mississippi Delta, who lived through the civil rights era, read chapters, and told me the way things really were back in the day: Lela Bearden, Patricia Browne, David Jones, Elizabeth Kegler, Gyrone Kenniel, Jonett Valentine, Madie Wheeler, Geneva Wilson, and most especially Lillie Clifton and Mattie White. Also, Mayor Johnny Thomas and Superintendent Reggie Barnes, whom I met many years ago. Their passion and enthusiasm inspired this novel.

Fifth-generation Mississippi farmer Bethany Pepper of Blue Bird Acre CSA Farm, who read the entire manuscript, answered hundreds of farming questions, and insisted on replacing broccoli with mustard greens. Billy Barron of Barron Farms, who told me how to heap up the rows, sent me speckled butter beans, and insisted on replacing basil with sage. And Mississippi farmers Allen Eubanks and Dewey Wise, for sharing their wisdom about everything from cotton to corn.

For their specific advice on this book and for the heroic work they do every day, many thanks to: Jan Darsa at Facing History and Ourselves; Clarence Hunter at the Tougaloo Civil Rights Collection; Minnie White Watson at the Medgar Evers House & Museum; and Penny Weaver at the Southern Poverty Law Center.

Also to Fred Belinsky of the Village Hat Shop in San Diego, who informed me that despite the controversy, it was okay to wear a hat to tea in 1963; Sister Cat, who taught me how to cast a spell; Karen Dufresne of the Lone Star Dutch Oven Society, who told me I’d never eaten a biscuit till I’d eaten one cooked in a Dutch oven; and Laila Haidarali, who wrote a fascinating paper on the history of African American modeling called “Polishing Brown Diamonds.”

I started writing this book when I was a sixth-grade teacher in Brookline, Massachusetts. Many thanks to my students who taught me a barrel and a heap about writing for young readers and critiqued the earliest drafts: Alison Aird, Ivy Anderson, Dante Castro, Sakeenah Chapman, Genevieve Chow, Shana Crandell, Celine Della Ventura, Aaron Fienberg, Sophie Kaner, Caroline Lew, Gregory Lew, Adrianna Reca, Samantha Schwartz, Rita Surkis, Anna Swartz, and Phuong Tran. And to the Brookline Education Foundation, which gave me a grant when I was teaching so I could write through the summer.

A huge thank-you to all the writers, teachers, librarians, friends, and family members who nurtured this story in one way or another, including: Stephen Altier, Jeff Amshalem, Geri Belle, Jamie Berg, David Burg, Sylvia Burg, Amy Cohn, Aaron Darsa, Melody Dawson, Mark Dubnoff, Norman Finkelstein, Louise Hawes, Phyllis Karas, Daniele Levine, Mary Beth Lundgren, Carolyn Miller, Joanie Nusbaum, Rebecca Resheff, Rich Rosenthal, Yonina Rosenthal, Lynn Sygiel, David Tal, Gabriella Tal, and Sandra Wright. And to all the skilled reference librarians who staff the Ask a Librarian desk at the Austin Public Library.

Of course, there were many books that provided critical information. Dog my cats if I didn’t carry around these two gems for years:
Whistlin’ Dixie: A Dictionary of Southern Expressions,
by Robert Hendrickson, and
Month-by-Month Gardening in Mississippi,
by Bob Polomski. Also
Coming of Age in Mississippi,
an autobiography by Anne Moody;
A Dream of Freedom,
by Diane McWhorter; and
Remembering Jim Crow,
a collection of oral histories edited by William H. Chafe, Raymond Gavins, and Robert Korstad.

With great love and appreciation for my mom, Sondra Burg, whose endless encouragement and advice made this project possible. My sister, Rachel Belin, who read the manuscript with a history teacher’s eye. My beloved Gramcracker for telling me to call Addie Ann’s hometown something interesting “like Kuckachoo.” My childhood cat, Sunshine. My son, Rafi, who brings so much joy. And most of all to my husband, Oren, for his sweet love and great ideas about life in Thunder Creek County.