I prepared this review weeks ago, planning to post it in July before the start of the school year, as an option for teachers to consider for their middle school classrooms and literature discussions (if we go back to classes).
But I feel it's appropriate and maybe even helpful to offer it now, given the nationwide protests after George Floyd's death in Minneapolis. I know many teachers will be looking for resources to teach Civil Rights in the fall, and I'd highly recommend any of the books I've reviewed and scrutinized teaching materials in the past in Back-to-School Planning 1: Teaching Social Studies with Books.
This book is incredibly powerful historical fiction, based on historical events -- the Wilmington, North Carolina race riot of 1898 -- and has the added benefit of having been around (published in 2012) long enough to have a LOT of truly great FREE teaching resources.
Moses Thomas is growing up in Wilmington in a way most kids will relate. He wants a bicycle, but his family can't afford one, even though his father holds a steady, reliable job with the local African-American newspaper. He navigates the middle school years of changing best friend alliances, when his best friend Lewis turns to another, wealthier boy, Johnny, who also has a bike, to pal around with.
But he also faces challenges only African Americans faced in that time period -- being cited by a police officer for skinny dipping (but hiding the white boy who was with him, because that would be a much bigger offense), and having to work picking in the fields to pay the fine -- and getting fired for knowing how to read and standing up to a crew boss by pointing out a pay discrepancy. Getting a ticket to ride the train for his 12th birthday, only to discover it's for seats way in the back, where the upholstery is torn and it stinks and the floors are dirty.
But then one day, when he's teaching his grandmother to read by using the old, discarded newspapers his father brings home, he reads an editorial, written by the newspaper's owner, Alex Manly, in response to a white woman's earlier, offensive, racist speech.
And that's the beginning of the end of everything Moses has grown up knowing and come to rely upon. His world falls apart with his father at the center of the Wilmington Race Riots, in ways only his grandmother can see coming, because, as a former slave, she's seen it all happen before, perhaps not specifically the Wilmington Race Riot, but its heart-breaking, soul-rending results are no stranger to her life's experiences.
TEACHERS NOTE: The author, Barbara Wright, has many great teaching suggestions on her website for this book. Included are links to two excellent PBS videos, "Wilmington: A Peaceful City Turned violent," at 4 minutes with background reading and discussion questions, and Prelude to a Riot, at 8 minutes, also with supporting materials, including background reading, discussion questions and the transcript. There is also a link to an NPR story about the race riot, "How the Only Coup D'Etat in US History Unfolded."
There are also links to the Carolina K-12 lesson plan, "Exploring Life in 1898 Wilmington & the Wilmington Race Riot with CROW, a novel for young adults." I've written about Carolina K-12 database of lessons many times before. The lessons are nothing short of amazing, and this one is no exception. It's correlated to 8th grade Social Studies standards, now dated, so you will need to update those with your own district's standards. It includes step-by-step instructions for introducing the book and the race riots, utilizing several videos (click on the links). It includes an 10-page chapter-by-chapter set of comprehension questions for the book. There are several extension projects and all related materials for teaching those projects, such as discussion questions after reading the "White Declaration of Independence," as well as formulating / writing a detailed response to each "point" of the "Declaration." Other projects include creating an obituary or eulogy for Moses' father, and envisioning Crow as a movie.
The Carolina K-12 database also includes a pdf of a Power Point presentation for Crow, with instructions to write for the editable version of the ppt. It includes information on Jim Crow, Jim Crow Etiquette, quotes from Alfred Waddell, pictures of the Carolina Twins, newspaper owner Alex Manly and Mrs. Fenton, the woman who's speech sparks Manly's editorial, pictures of the aftermath of the race riot, and of the local light infantry marching black leaders to the train station.
There is also an excellent link to the PBS lesson plan, Read All About It!: The African American Press in the Jim Crow Years, which has the added feature that you can import it as a Word doc and then edit it, as you need for your classroom and school administration purposes. The lesson includes introductory activities to use before watching The Rise and Fall of Jim Crow. Namely, students read and examine various newspapers, before designing one of their own.
The publisher offers an Educator's Guide, with a pre-reading activity, an brief introduction to the history, themes, five links to internet resources (the PBS series mentioned above), as well as 15 vocabulary words and the pages where they appear.
