The First Step: How One Girl Put Segregation on Trial (Carter G Woodson Honor Book (Awards))

by Susan E. Goodman

Other authorsE. B. Lewis (Illustrator)

Hardcover, 2016

Status

Available

Call number

344.744

Genres

Nonfiction

Publication

Bloomsbury USA Childrens (2016), 40 pages

Description

Shares the story of Sarah Roberts and her 1847 case petitioning that she be allowed to attend a white school, explaining how her heroic efforts established key precedents and paved the way for civil rights advancements.

User reviews

LibraryThing member pataustin

In a stunning tour de force that captures the heartbreak of the long road to justice, Goodman begins in 1847 on the streets of Boston as four-year old Sarah Roberts heads to school. With E. B. Lewis’s brilliant watercolor drawings, readers see Sarah in the classroom, one lone black face amongst

her white peers. One day, a policeman entered the class and kicked her out. Although her parents took the risk to send their daughter to Otis School, the best in the city, they knew that it was against Massachusetts’s law for black and white children to attend together. Angry, they took their case to court. Despite the eloquent pleas of two lawyers, one white, one black, the Roberts lost, but the steps toward change had begun. People rallied behind the cause and in 1855, Boston’s schools were the first to be officially integrated. The book does not end there, however, but caps Roberts’ case with the Brown vs. Board case argued almost 100 years later, finally declaring that “separate schools can never be equal.” A timeline of integration, follow up to the heroes of the stories (the Roberts’ family members and the lawyers), sources, and a detailed author’s note about “gathering facts from places we trust” and acknowledging authorial choices about language add a significant dimension to this amazing story.

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LibraryThing member rainablu

This is about the first case to challenge segregation. This was 1847 about 100 years before brown v. board of education. This goes through the story of Sarah Roberts and what happened during the court case.

LibraryThing member caliesunshine

This book starts in 1847 when an African American girl went to an all white school. She was 4 years old. Her parents knew that Black children were not allowed at the school but they didn't care. One day police came to the school and removed her stating that she must go to the all black school. This

was not good enough. Her parents fought. They got a lawyer, not just one lawyer ,but two, one white and one black. This was monumental. Unfortunately her case was lost. the fight didn't stop there, and 150 years later segregation was deemed illegal.On May 17, 1954, the US Supreme Court announced its decision. All nine judges agreed with Charles Sumner. Separating children “because of their race generates a feeling of inferiority . . . that may affect their hearts and minds in a way unlikely to ever be undone.” Separate schools can never be equal, declared the judges. They must be outlawed in every state of the land. “It is so ordered.”

Goodman, Susan E.. The First Step: How One Girl Put Segregation on Trial (Carter G Woodson Honor Book (Awards)) (Kindle Locations 87-90). Bloomsbury Publishing. Kindle Edition.

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