Selma Freedom Fighters and Jubilee to Commemorate Voting Rights Act bravery

I've spent an amazing weekend in Selma, Alabama at the Jubilee. 48 years ago,kids and young adults joined the adults in Selma to fight for the right to vote. Lead by Martin Luther King, they pledged to be non-violent. They marched, were jailed, and some were beaten. They stuck to the principles of non-violence. Four years ago for my book I interviewed several of these now-grown Freedom Fighters. I came back this weekend to speak at the National Park Service Interpretive Center and to join in the commemorative march across the Pettus Bridge.

My favorite photo of the weekend: with four who marched as kids: Charles Mauldin, Lynda Lowry, Chief Henry Allen, and Joanne Bland. Honored to be with them!

At the National Park Service Interpretive Center.

The next morning I arrived early at the center, just before a huge swarm of law enforcement officers needed to make sure the area was safe for the Vice President. We were locked into our building, as we were right across the street from the bridge. It was fascinating to watch them. My favorite was the dogs and their trainers. They are the cream of the crop. Most dogs can smell three kinds of explosives: these dogs are trained (and constantly retrained) to sniff out fifteen. They checked and rechecked the area, doing a last sniffing job across every speck of the bridge.

Once the area was cleaned, we were allowed out to stand quietly in front of the building. But before the Vice President and Representative John Lewis came roaring over the bridge towards us in a cavalcade of vehicles with flashing blue and red lights to give their talks, we had to go back inside.
The secret service man (yep, he was wearing a trench coat) let us go upstairs to watch. He had to radio for permission first, and I suppose also to let the snipers on the roof across from us know that the faces suddenly appearing in the deserted upstairs were okay.

Wonderful but too short speeches by Attorney General Eric Holder, Ryan Haygood, John Lewis and Joe Biden. They started up the bridge, and the rest of us were soon allowed to go surging after them.

A moment of prayer on the bridge.

Best shot I couldn't take: we were asked at the prayer to remember those who had fought for justice, now passed away. An impeccably dressed, older man took off his hat and held it to his chest, tears sliding down his cheeks. He was all shades of brown: deep brown hat, mahogany face, tweedy brown suit, and behind him the sun was bursting through the clouds. Such a beautiful moment, but it was his, not mine.

Thanks to Theresa Lorraine Hall, ranger at the National Park Service.

My heartfelt thanks to all who marched to make this country live up to our ideals.

Extraordinary School

 I just had the most amazing school visit at Hamlin School in San Francisco. It's an all girls' school, begun by Sara Dix Hamlin in 1896. The school is in an old mansion full of amazing rooms. That built-in cabinet in the upper left corner of my collage is part of the school secretary's room! Full-on fake bamboo ceiling, too. And the horse? A huge student mural, hanging right in the main hall.

 The Head, Wanda Holland Greene, is incredible. When she was six years old, her father and mother decided she should be one of several children to integrate a school in the New York. Everyday she climbed on a bus and went to an all-white, Jewish neighborhood from her home in Brooklyn. She's energetic, direct, and determined to pass on to the girls the values of being an engaged citizen.

Ms. Greene wanted me to especially talk about Marching for Freedom. Here's what the girls were studying when I came: sixth graders were discussing freedom and personal rights, and the challenges of migrant farm worker families. Seventh grade: social class and identity, and will soon discuss Jim Crow era. Eighth graders: about to do a long unit on race and identity, and look at Nazi Germany and the Holocaust.

These students will have such a rich understanding of history and social justice.

Your Vote is Precious

I was about twelve when I asked my mother about this mysterious voting thing she did a couple times a year... getting dressed in one of her nice dresses, then walking with my father up to our local grammar school to vote. She told me all about voting, concluding with, "it's both your privilege and your obligation to vote."

Her words came back to me as I worked my book Marching for Freedom, about the Selma to Montgomery march for the vote. I discovered the incredible courage and conviction of the people of Selma who stood up for their right -- and every American's right -- to vote. Below: John Lewis after crossing the Selma bridge.

Both he and Amelia Boynton were at the Democratic Convention. Here's a video of John Lewis's inspiring, impassioned speech.

Amelia Boynton, 101 years old, was in the audience. She was an amazing, unstoppable force for the vote in Selma.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/09/06/amelia-boynton-robinson-dnc_n_1863273.html
 
And an earlier blog post of mine on crossing the bridge with Amelia Boynton and many others on the night of Obama's election. A true hero of mine.

Animotos and learning, International Reading Association

I had a fantastic week with two great groups: teachers in Burlingame, and teenagers in Petaluma. Polished off the morning with a Skype visit with librarian Marjie Podzielinski's students at Coulson Tough school in Texas. The students are making Animoto's about the Sixties for our IRA session this spring. They're reading Marching for Freedom and Dogtag Summer, researching websites, checking their sources, and putting together photos, videos and music.

I'm so excited about this. I love combining history with 2.0 web skills. It's a fantastic form of narrative nonfiction. I'm eager to see what they come up with.

Vermont College winter residency

We're coming close to finishing up our ten days together at Vermont College. It's been an incredible experience. Great faculty, fantastic students, learning, learning, learning. A few things I've learned that weren't on the schedule:

Snow is very fun. Beautiful. Cold.
You must always zip up your jacket before going out the door.
Cold doesn't actually hurt until it is about ten degrees outside. Then its pretty critical to keep moving. Even with your jacket zipped up.

I don't think there is any part of craft that we left undiscussed while we were here. And part of the appeal of being on the faculty is that I've learned so much myself. My ever-supportive husband has been behind me all the way in taking on this job, but.... he did just send an email saying our dog is missing me. He's sure. The dog has called a truce with the cat, and they are sleeping curled up together on the bed. Kinda lonely.

We had a great lunch time drop-in visit by Elizabeth Bluemle, who runs the Flying Pig Bookstore, and writes the Shelftalker blog (along with Josie Leavitt). Elizabeth has a lovely post today on "The Dream, Then and Now." Meanwhile, out in the real world at Monica Edinger's blog, Educating Alice, she posted a really cool way she and her students used Marching for Freedom in an assembly. I wish I had seen this performance!

National Council for the Social Studies

I had a fantastic time at NCSS in Denver. Was it cold? Yes, it was very, very cold. Check out how this marsupial daddy kept his baby warm.


It was my first time to be with a big group of social studies teachers. What totally dedicated people! Hard, hard working. I did a presentation on using Marching for Freedom in the classroom, focusing on how to use Google Lit Trips. My presentation went well, though I had some tech difficulties. The teachers were incredibly patient about it. I realized they've all been there before, struggling with computer problems. I'm sure they were kinder to me than a room full of teenagers!


Penguin sponsored me for a signing with free books, and I had a wonderful group of teachers who wanted Marching for Freedom to use in their classrooms. Thank you Uncle Penguin!

I went to as many lectures as I could possible fit in. There were great talks about using technology in the classroom and how to use trade books in the classroom. I also had dinner with the unquenchable Marc Aronson, and another with writer Ann Bausum, our first time meeting each other, though we both do nonfiction.

Also just received news that Marching was chosen for Texas Library Association's TAYSHAS list. An amazing list of books. I'm honored to be included.

And of course, I had to take a picture of this great big whimsical guest:

I was imagining that he wanted in, not to munch up social studies teachers, but wanting to be at a book signing for his latest book Big Blue Bear in the City.

Arc of the moral universe

Finally, finally, finally.

Forty-five years ago, Jimmie Lee Jackson was shot and killed by State Trooper James Fowler during a night protest in Marion, Alabama, near Selma. His death led to the march from Selma to Montgomery, which resulted in President Johnson signing the Voting Rights Act.

Fowler has just plead guilty and been given a six month sentence. Short? Very, very short. But Fowler had previously maintained that Jackson was not murdered, but that he, Fowler, shot him in self-defense.

As Dr. King said in his famous speech in Montgomery about waiting for justice, "How long? Not long, because 'No lie can live forever.'.... How long? Not long, because the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends towards justice."

Here's the New York Times piece.

Check out the archived New Yorker online article, Letter from Selma, by reporter Renata Adler who was on the 1965 march from Selma to Montgomery. It will give you a vivid feeling of being on the march. Several times during the five day march, Adler spoke with a young marcher, Charles Mauldin, whom I was lucky enough to interview two years ago for Marching for Freedom.

I'd love to hear thoughts on how to ask the right questions to get students to talk about what this means. I can think of a couple of obvious ones: Why do you think Fowler plead guilty? Do you think a jury would be more likely to convict him of murder today than in 1965? What has changed since 1965 that Fowler would now be more likely to be held accountable for his actions?

Any other ideas?

Boston Globe--Horn Book Awards and Simmons College

I'm just back from the Boston Globe-Horn Book Awards. An amazingly festive, celebratory evening. Here are Martha Parravano and Roger Sutton from HB doing last minute prep, in the "green room" aka classroom at Simmons College where the event was held.



My wonderful Viking people took the train up to Boston. That's Catherine Frank, my editor, on the left, RasShahn Johnson-Baker, Manager of Library Marketing, and Regina Hayes, publisher.



Still in the green room. That's Wendy Lamb, editor of Rebecca Stead's incredible novel, When You Reach Me, my awesome agent Ken Wright, and Catherine. We are all pretty excited.



Speech over, happy, happy, happy. That's the beautiful inscribed silver bowl they gave me. Very Boston. I don't think I have proper Bostonian silver bowl showing etiquette down yet. Probably supposed to be more demure.



With the three Martha's. Then off to a celebratory dinner with the Penguin people et all. My thanks to everyone for an unforgetable evening.

Here are several terrific posts on the evening:

School Library Journal and Read Roger at Horn Book.

The next day was the Simmons College Colloquium where I did a presentation of the Google Lit Trip I've done with Jerome Burg on Marching for Freedom. I didn't manage to take any pictures!



Very end of the day at Simmons. This doesn't look like I am happy, happy, happy again, but I am. That's Peter Sis signing a copy of The Dreamer for me, while I sign a copy of Marching for Freedom for him. An amazing moment.



And a delicious dinner with other Boston Globe-Horn Book winners and friends. Thank you Roger Sutton!

Katherine Tillotson and excitment around my house

My dear illustrator friend Katherine Tillotson just finished a flurry of work and complained her studio was a mess. I begged for a photo to share. I love artists' studios, writer's cubby holes, love knowing the story behind some lyrics I love.

So here's K's beautiful studio:


And a surprise package arrived at my door full of:


Advance Reader Copies for my upcoming novel, Dogtag Summer. It's an indescribable feeling. I slid my hands over them, and flipped through the pages, sniffing them. (What is it about sniffing books? Something about the fresh ink and paper. Makes it all seem so tangible somehow ). I even made my own beautiful display on the dining room table. The feeling of wonder -- A book! A real book! -- never diminishes.

And! right now, in a sound studio, Alan Bomar Jones has a set of headphones on and is sitting in front of a microphone recording Marching for Freedom for Brilliance Audio.

Life is good. Very, very, very good.

Marching wins Battle of the Books!

Amazing -- in the final, Big Kahuna round, Marching won the Battle of the Books.

I am thrilled. And I want to give a great big shout-out to all the young adults who marched and sang and were jailed in the spring of 1965, and decades later told me in vivid detail about their experiences.

Joanne Blackmon Bland, Charles Bonner, Lynda Blackmon Lowery, Charles Mauldin and Bobby Simmons, I mean you.

And my thanks also to all the photographers who hung around for long church meetings, and stood in the tear gas and photographed, and bunked out at night on people's floors.

Matt Herron and Bruce Davidson, I mean you. And in memory of James Karales, Spider Martin, Charles Moore, and John F. Phillips.

Because what we got from all these brave people was public support for the Voting Rights Bill signed into law by President Johnson on August 6, 1965. One person, one vote. This is exactly what makes a strong democracy.

And exactly what makes me proud to be an American.

Bookshop Santa Cruz and the Gateway School Freedom Singers

Usually as I get ready to speak, I look out and see people expectantly waiting, like this:

But this time, Bookshop Santa Cruz and I did something a little different.

Because I love the Freedom Songs that fueled the civil rights march, I asked if we could have a group of kids come and sing at my presentation. In addition to Bookshop Santa Cruz making Marching for Freedom their community book of the month, they arranged for the enthusiastic participation of the second and fifth graders from Gateway School. The kids were amazing!

Not only did they sing three Freedom Songs, but they sang This Land is Your Land. As a special surprise for me, they even included a song they had written. (I suspect it was their incredible music teacher who actually wrote it, seen in the video below playing ukulele as she directs them.)

So music from the streets of Selma, accompanied by hand clapping and feet marching, made its way to Bookshop Santa Cruz, accompanied by the ukulele, originally from Hawaii. Not to be too over-the-top patriotic, but I love so many things about our interesting, constantly-evolving beautiful country. And bright, earnest kids are the best of all. Here they are, singing.

Dancin' in the Streets and Photo Tribute to Legendary Civil Rights Workers

Yes, I am. Dancing. Not in the street, exactly, but around the house. While I'm cooking. While I'm taking far too long in the shower.  While I'm out in the garden, getting the rich, wet, rained-upon dirt turned over and ready for spring planting. All while I should be writing.

Marching for Freedom is a finalist for the Los Angeles Book Prize (scroll down to Young Adult Literature). I am in such great company. And most astonishing of all -- three of the five books are non-fiction. A majority. This is so amazing. My deep thanks to the judges, and my congratulations to my gang of five finalists.

Meanwhile, heating up over at School Library Journal, the second Battle of the Books has been announced. Elizabeth Bird has kicked off the contest with this hysterically funny (and informative!) video. Marching is up for contention!



And you know how crazy I am about the photos of Plaxton. Unbelievably beautiful, revealing portraits. Check out these images in the New Yorker of  the civil rights leaders of the sixties.  Thanks to librarian Nanette Bulebosh for the link.

Lynda Blackmon Lowery, full of grace

Putting together Marching for Freedom, I interviewed five or six of the people who were teenagers during the protest. Their courage was awe-inspiring to me. Since then, I've become friends with Lynda Lowery, the youngest person to march all the way from Selma to Montgomery in 1965. After living in NYC for years, she moved back to Selma. She's one of the most open-hearted, generous people I've ever known. She also has incredible energy and is always giving to the community. I don't know that she would even call it "giving back," she just is always available, with helpful hands and heart. Here she is at Mount Oliver Missionary Baptist Church last week.

I love these kids with their bright faces and festive tie-dye shirts. The one girl in front with her purple leggings and her warm boots! This photo makes me optimistic and hopeful.  I'm also struck once again how important it is to keep on working to make the world a better place for our kids.

A couple weeks ago while I was in NYC I taped an interview with Joe Donahue at WAMC radio. Joe will interview Lynda on Monday and we'll air soon -- I'll keep you posted. Lynda telling her story in her own words is not to be missed!

New York Times Book Review

Some days lightning strikes, in a really good way.

Children Who Changed the World

I especially love the last line: "...Partridge's stirring history poses another, more immediate, question for a thoughtful reader: Where are today’s Selmas and what might a young person do about them?"

Exactly!