We Were the Fire
Birmingham 1963
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- $10.99
Publisher Description
The powerful story of an eleven-year-old Black boy determined to stand up for his rights, who's pulled into the action of the 1963 civil rights demonstrations in Birmingham, Alabama.
Rufus Jackson Jones is from Birmingham, the place Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. called the most segregated place in the country. A place that in 1963 is full of civil rights activists including Dr. King. The adults are trying to get more attention to their cause--to show that separate is not equal. Rufus’s dad works at the local steel factory, and his mom is a cook at the mill. If they participate in marches, their bosses will fire them. So that’s where the kids decide they will come in. Nobody can fire them. So on a bright May morning in 1963, Rufus and his buddies join thousands of other students to peacefully protest in a local park. There they are met with policemen and firemen who turn their powerful hoses on them, and that’s where Rufus realizes that they are the fire. And they will not be put out. Shelia Moses gives readers a deeply personal account of one boy’s heroism during what came to be known as the Children’s Crusade in this important novel that highlights a key turning point in the civil rights movement.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Moses (The Legend of Buddy Bush) pays homage to Black children living during the civil rights era whose contributions to the movement were often left undocumented, in this riveting historical fiction volume set in 1963 Birmingham, Ala. Ten-year-old Rufus Jackson Jones Jr. lives with his mother and sister in Bull Hill, a Black neighborhood where the "houses are all raggedy and owned by a white man." After steelworker Mr. Paul marries Rufus's mother, the family moves to Ivy Town, which is "home to mostly poor white folks," where the siblings revel in having an indoor bathroom instead of an outhouse. Though Rufus's mother claims "ain't no colored folks" living in Ivy Town, Mr. Paul remains optimistic about their reception. The family's arrival incites rage among their neighbors, however, so when Rufus's pastor, Reverend Shuttleworth, and Martin Luther King Jr. collaborate to organize segregation protests, Rufus—against his mother's wishes—feels compelled to join them. Birmingham and its citizens, culture, and struggles are empathetically wrought in this eye-opening novel. With intention, Moses thoughtfully highlights the real-world horrors that Rufus courageously faces—including police, fire hoses, and dogs—and provides levity through his introspective and energetic first-person narration. Ages 10–up.
