Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry
This story is a period piece taking place during 1933 at a time when many people do not have the kinds of rights we appreciate now in days. Written by Mildred D. Taylor (1976) as the 2nd book in the epic saga following the Logan family who we come to know as a small-town African American family living on their family farm just trying to get by.
I first learned of this book when I myself was just in 5th grade at Lincoln Elementry in Cudahy, Wisconsin. It wasn’t a book I went out of my way to read, nor was I big into reading, but it was a book that captivated me never the less. This is the kind of book that at least when I was a kid made me fired up and very much in support of Cassie Logan and her struggles, but also as a kid there was two things both Cassie and I didn’t get and why it matters, and that’s that 1) this is the 1930’s she’s growing up in and 2) this is the great depression in small town Mississippi. For a good portion of the story Cassie was ignorant to the idea that race matters, especially where they were from, more so that she had been raised to act a certain way and because of this Cassie expected that same level of respect from everyone around her, yet because she had never up to a point in this book had to go through and understand the racial divide, her mouth would get her and her family into trouble as soon as she opened it.
Her life would largely start to take this turn and unravel in Chapter 5 when they travel to the town of Strawberry, Mississippi to get some groceries from Mr. Barnett’s store since they were boycotting the local store due to the outstanding violence displayed by the family who owns it when they lit a man on fire for being black. Though, I digress, it was here that Cassie would first learn what it meant to be a little black girl in a white man’s world as they waited and waited and waited some more for Mr. Barnett to fill their order but with every appearance of a white person in the story they would get pushed further and further the line of priority. After an hour of waiting Cassie had had enough and demanded that they be served on the basis of fairness since it justly should have been “first come, first serve”, but this just only pissed Mr. Barnett off. If it wasn’t for her brother Stacey, it is very likely Barnett would have beat Cassie than and there, but luckily (If you can call it luck) she wasn’t, but Barnett had stated that “She needs to be taught what she is”, a statement Cassie did not take well. Moments later she would run into the devil herself in the shape of “Miz” Lillian Jean (The older sister of a friend of the Logan kids), who was might offended that she had been “Run into” by someone like Cassie.
This bit of dialog, I credit Cassie with because I feel as most people in her shoes at that age would have smacked the taste out of her mouth but that’s just my opinion.
“You bumped into me. Now you apologize.” I did not feel like messing with Lillian Jean. I had other things on my mind. “Okay,” I said, starting past, “I’m sorry.” Lillian Jean sidestepped in front of me. “That ain’t enough. Get down in the road.” I looked up at her. “You crazy?” “You can’t watch where you going, get in the road. Maybe that way you won’t be bumping into decent white folks with your little nasty self.”
Taylor, Mildred D.. Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry (Puffin Modern Classics) (Logans Book 4) (pp. 113–114).
Though I can’t 100% blame Lillian Jean as she is just a product of her time and the parents who raised her. Now, entering stage right, Charlie Simms. The man behind the books little diva and the crusher of children’s spirits.
You see, Lillian had reached for Cassie’s arm and attempted to push her off the sidewalk. So, Cassie did what I feel most people would do and braced herself. She swept her arm backwards, just out of Lillian’s reach. But someone caught it from behind, and that someone was her Father. Painfully twisting Cassie’s arm, he shoved her off the sidewalk and into the road, where she landed butt first on the ground.
It was at this point that Charlie Simms glared down at her, uttering the words “When my gal Lillian Jean says for you to get yo’self off the sidewalk, you get, you hear?”. Demanding an apology, Cassie tried to explain that she already did, with one of his sons (and the Logan’s friend) Jermey declaring that this was the truth, but this only pissed Charlie off more, his son defending a black girl. You could hear the growing crowd saying things such as “Isn’t that the same little nigger from Jim Lee’s?” (Which is Mr. Barnett’s store). Charlie jumps into the street, face red, angry rushing through his body, and Cassie fearing for her life, so she runs, only to be caught by her grandmother who is very few words told her to shut her mouth, apologized for her, and did not want to hear a single thing she had to say, only thing that mattered to her is that this white man would not kill her.
Thankfully that night she was able to make it home safe, but her mother would have to have the talk with her, finally the talk, the talk that no one wanted to have without throughout the whole start of the book. “You’re black, and it matters, because that means your feelings are always going to be 2nd.” This honestly breaks Cassie, she doesn’t understand why the color of her skin makes her any less than Lillan, her mother assures her that she isn’t less, more so that this is a white man’s world and they are just living in it.
I feel as this book is important to read to younger kids as a way to express events of the past, especially post slavery and the difference in mentally there was amongst the general public. As well as gives you an understanding as to what African American’s at the time were thinking about and how they kept strong and silent just to survive. Freedom isn’t free, would be one of the best phrases I think I could use to sum up what it meant to be freed post civil war.
