Former Contributor to the Huffington Post
Vicki Cobb's Blog
  • Vicki Cobb's Blog
  • About
  • Contact

A Local Event the Rippled Through Black History and  Generations

22/2/2021

 
Picture
Equal justice for Black Americans is a long tale of two steps forward; one step back.  After a short-lived Reconstruction (1865-1877), white Americans began clawing back rights that Black citizens were entitled to.  One small story began in 1890 New Orleans, Louisiana, when Homer Plessy, a 29-year-old Black family man agreed to challenge the "Separate Car Act," which stated that Blacks had to ride in "separate-but-equal" railroad cars.  His arrest for sitting in the "wrong" car was planned by a committee of Black citizens.  The case was a losing one.  When it was denied by the Supreme Court in 1896, "Plessy v. Ferguson" opened the door for 60+ years of oppressive Jim Crow laws.

iNK author, Amy Nathan, has a knack for finding stories of racial injustice that are local, relatable to kids, and make history come alive for them.  In 1967, Keith Plessy was a fifth grader in New Orleans when the case bearing his surname came up in history class. Maybe he was related to Homer Plessy? "The answer to questions I was trying to get as a kid were not in that history book in school."  All these years later, Amy Nathan has written the book that would have captivated Keith Plessy.  It  not only tells the story of an unjust law but also connects it to a time and place.    It turns out that another child, Phoebe Ferguson, exactly the same age as Keith Plessy was a descendant of the judge who was the white party in  Plessy V. Ferguson.  When they eventually discovered each other together in their forties, they decided to attempt to right the wrongs that stemmed from Plessy v. Ferguson decision.  

Together: An Inspiring Response to the "Separate-But-Equal" Supreme Court Decision that Divided America is a page-turning, very accessible account of the past and its impact. Keith Plessy and Phoebe Ferguson created a foundation to educate people who visit New Orleans with beautiful, well-written historic markers-- history-on-the-go for residents and tourists.  One of Amy's earlier books, Round and Round Together: Taking a Merry-Go-Round Ride into the Civil Rights Movement, tells a Maryland story of the integration of an amusement park, and is now part of the curriculum of the schools where the event took place.  Together is another book to wake up children in New Orleans and beyond.  

When history is local and impactful, a well-told story like Together opens the portals of history to children who are numbed to its power by the flaccid text-book approach that destroys any spark to learn more.  







Comments are closed.

     Vicki Cobb

    *Award-winning author of more than 90 nonfiction books for children, mostly in science.
    *Former Contributor to the Huffington Post
    *Founder/President of iNK Think Tank, Inc.
    *Passionate advocate for the joy of learning for every child and teacher.


    Disclaimer: All opinions, typos, and grammatical errors are my own,  especially small word omissions which I often don't notice in my fervor.  

    RSS Feed

    ​​​​Archives

    March 2022
    November 2021
    August 2021
    February 2021
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018

    ​Categories

    All
    Abuse
    Achievement Gap
    Adkins Jan
    Albee Sarah
    Anti Bullying
    Anti-bullying
    Art
    Author Driven Nonfiction
    Author-driven Nonfiction
    Authors On Call
    Biology
    Birds
    Black History
    BLC2018
    Book Review
    Child Abuse
    Children As Political Pawns
    Children's Nonfiction
    Citizenship
    Civics
    Civil Rights
    Class ACTS
    Climate Change
    Clinton Chelsea
    Collard III Sneed B.
    Common Core State Standards
    Conversation
    Coronavirus
    Costaldo Nancy F.
    Covid-19
    Critical Thinking
    Data-driven
    Definition
    Democracy
    Dewey John
    Dogs
    Dunphy Madeleine
    Ecology
    Education
    Educational Standards
    Electron Microscope
    Empowerment For Children
    Endangered Species
    Excellence
    Extinction
    Fact-checking
    Fleming Candace
    "flow"
    Galileo
    Girls' Education
    Global Warming
    Greenberg Jan
    Grit
    Gun Violence
    History
    History Of "school Reform"
    Home Libraries
    Hurricanes
    INK Database
    INK Database Of Books
    Insects
    Interactive Video Conferencing
    Isaac Sally
    Jeopardy Winner
    Learning
    Lesser Carolyn
    Leveled Reading
    Levinson Cynthia
    Lexiles
    Listening
    Literacy
    Literature
    Liu Eric
    March For Our Lives
    McClafferty Carla
    Mentor Texts
    Montgomery Heather L.
    Montgomery Sy
    Motivated Reasoning
    Motivation
    Munro Roxie
    Nathan Amy
    Nonfiction
    Nonfiction Minute
    Nonprofit And Education
    Opening Schools
    Patent Dorothy Hinshaw
    Pedagogy
    Picture Books
    Podcasts
    Primary Source
    Pringle Laurence
    Pundits Of The Pandemic
    Rap Music
    Reading
    Rules
    Rusch Elizabeth
    School Choice
    SchoolTube
    School Visits
    Science Experiments You Can Eat
    Science Teaching
    Semple Heidi E.Y.
    Social Skills
    Socrates
    Speaking
    Spring Fling
    Standardized Testing
    STEM
    Studies On Education
    Swanson Jennifer
    Teaching
    Technology And Children
    Thomas Peggy
    Trump
    Truth
    Voting
    Warren Andrea
    Washington George
    Weatherford Carole Boston
    Webinars
    Work With Us
    World War II
    Writing

    RSS Feed

Links

The Nonfiction Minute
​

​iNK Think Tank website

​Vicki Cobb's Kids' Fun Page

We Dare You Videos


Company

iNK Think Tank, Inc. is a nonprofit with the mission of using nonfiction children's literature in classrooms

Contact

vicki@inkthinktank.org
​

© 2019


© COPYRIGHT 2019. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.