The Case For Loving: Supreme Court Decisions Matter

While serving as a first round panelist for Cybils nonfiction earlier this winter, I read and posted some notes about THE FIRST STEP: How One Girl Put Segregation on Trial, written by Susan E. Goodman and illustrated by E. B. Lewis. (Read it HERE.)

As Goodman so adeptly points out, within the text and in the back matter, the court loss described was, in fact, a gain. By laying the foundation for future cases and eventual successes, civil rights cases culminated in the landmark BROWN vs. BOARD OF EDUCATION ruling in 1954-55.
Labeling that last ruling as landmark is not meant to suggest it succeeded in ending segregation and discrimination in education. Nor was that the last case the Supreme Court would face regarding Constitutional protections for civil rights. Far from it. But it, too, was another step, a giant one, in the continuing process of opening hearts and minds to the reality that the only race that matters is the human race. 

Arthur A. Levine Books, 2015

The same is true for the Supreme Court ruling described in The Case for Loving:

The Fight for Interracial Marriage, written by Selina Alko and illustrated by Sean Qualls and Selina Alko. Although this simple picture book portrays an adult issue (confirming the constitutional right to interracial marriage), the narration and illustration combine to make it a kid-friendly, empathetic experience for even the very young. 

(A 2016 film depicts an adult version of the true story of Richard Loving and Mildred Jeter . See a Movie trailer on YouTube, HERE.)

At its core, this compelling and dramatic story is  about family. Alko focuses on the human desire (and right) of all people to pursue happiness through marriage and raising a family, freely and safely, anywhere in our country. From the cover, through the end pages, and winding across every spread, iconic images of happiness and love (hearts, flowers, birds and music) combine with active children engaging in familiar family situations to depict real people living real lives. The illustrations adopt a folkart approach with colorful collage, paint, and stamp art, presenting a child-like take on a mature story. Kids "get" this, they rebel against the injustice, cheer for the strength and validity of of the court challenge, and revel in the eventual victory.

An equally valuable use for this book will be with older readers. It's an ideal way to introduce an immediate experience with the mid-twentieth-century "legal" manipulations and maneuvers that sustained Jim Crow laws for more than a century beyond the emancipation of enslaved people. The inimitable Diane Rehm conducts an outstanding program on the topic of Jim Crow laws, providing voice to several points of view in an interview, here. Another resource to share is the NPR program that examined the official Congressional apology for slavery and Jim Crow laws from the summer of 2008, here. In each case, both the transcript and the recordings are available to allow for careful discussion and review. 

A rude awakening to the reality of those years can be explored by researching the NEGRO MOTORIST GREEN BOOK, an annually updated resource for anyone of color traveling south during the many decades of segregation and unchecked activity by the Klu Klux Klan. This article in Smithsonian Magazine details the origins and need for THE GREEN BOOK.

Carllrhoda Books, 2010

Those sophisticated investigations, though, can be translated to the heart by another picture book, RUTH AND THE GREEN BOOK, written  by Calvin A. Ramsey and Illustrated by Floyd Cooper. In this case, as in Alko's and Goodman's books, the immediacy of individual lives and  the relatable illustrations evoke personal and visceral responses from readers of any age. In each book the back pages provide further insights and explorations from the authors and offers resources for further exploration and research on the topics and characters portrayed. Now, more than ever, providing young people with the facts of our own history and the ease with which individual liberties were distorted and restricted is essential. Actually, it's not a bad time fro adults to review these stories and resources.

(For more on the Supreme Court, check this recent post about Deby Levy's I DISSENT: Ruth bader Ginsberg Makes Her Mark.)

Sonia Sotomayor- You Be the Judge

(Geezer alert here- sounding even older than I am at the start of this post!)

I remember a time when kids were asked, "What do you want to be when you grow up?" and the answers ranged from cowboy to cook, from astronaut to paleontologist. The ubiquitous media dominance of sports stars, musical performers,  and reality personalities, (no matter how dysfunctional), make other answers more likely these days. Sadly, more and more little ones skip the career designation and just say, "Rich!" or "Famous!" or "On TV!"

Even more pathetic is the current insistence that students as young as preschoolers be made "college and career ready", as determined by some arbitrarily designed and inappropriately administered standardized test. It's not that I'm opposed to career awareness. Quite the contrary, picture books offer outstanding options for exploring careers in general, or  specifically through biographies of successful individuals. 

Charlesbridge, 2012

I've been touting one title that does an outstanding job of that, CLOTHESLINE CLUES TO JOBS PEOPLE DO, written by Kathryn Heling and Deborah Hembrook, illustrated by Andy Robert Davies.

The Heling & Hembrook team offers riddles in their characteristically tightly-rhymed and tumbling text while Davies portrays a visual subplot that kids love. (I do, too!)

As for encouraging kids to dream big, to start early with ambitious plans, I'm all-aboard on that train, too. I was one of those kids, as noted in one of my earliest posts. Children are best served when encouraged to imagine and aspire without limits based on arbitrary scores on trivia-oriented bubble sheets or mouse clicks.

With testing and scores overshadowing a five year old's school day, how often do you think you'll hear that child say she wants to grow up to be a judge?

http://www.supremecourt.gov/about/photos.aspx

Each year the term of our United States Supreme Court begins on the first Monday of October. Even though the current term continues until that day, (this year, 2013, that falls on October 7), no active arguments or decisions occur after late June. Anticipating this important day in our government seems the best possible time for me to share a remarkable picture book, the bilingual biography SONIA SOTOMAYOR: A Judge Grows in the Bronx. Written by Jonah Winter and illustrated by Edel Rodriguez, this 2009 release was timely then, but is timeless now. 

Atheneum Books for Young Readers, 2009

My appreciation for this book began when I heard the title, a powerful and appropriate riff on  A Tree Grows in Brooklyn. In that novel a fictional young girl is raised primarily by her tirelessly laboring mother. Her dreams defy the reality of her neighborhood, society's expectations,  and her poverty. 
The same is true generations later for one real life young girl in the Bronx, as presented with accessible and effective bilingual passages in the well-researched and factual biography of US Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor.

I grew up at a time when career choices were limited by your birthright and circumstances (for minorities, for those with disabilities, or for those of us who happened to be female). I love that Sonia's grand plan not only allowed for the possibility of a female becoming a judge, but that she actually had a role model in Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor. The fact that this book is bilingual is not just a bonus, it plays an essential role in acknowledging the additional limitations her ethnicity imposed on her as a child. I can read a bit of Spanish but do not have enough grasp of the language to judge the quality or lyricism of that part of the text. If it measures up to the accessibility and fluidity of the English text, it's a dual gift to teachers as mentor text. (Anyone fluent in Spanish who can offer an opinion on this is invited to do so.)

Many recent blog posts have addressed the fact that US children's literature greatly under-represents our diverse culture. BBC News Magazine has a short feature that points this out quite well. This picture book shines a light on an inspiring ethnic-American leader, but also offers an appealing story and images of an American child. All non-fiction should aspire to such heights.