We Are Your Children Too
Black Students, White Supremacists, and the Battle for America's Schools in Prince Edward County, Virginia
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- $15.99
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- $15.99
Publisher Description
This “detailed, fascinating” (Booklist, starred review) nonfiction middle grade book explores a deeply troubling chapter in American history that is still playing out today: the strange case of Prince Edward County, Virginia, the only place in the United States to ever formally deny its citizens a public education, and the students who pushed back.
In 1954, after the passing of Brown v. the Board of Education, the all-White school board of one county in south central Virginia made the decision to close its public schools rather than integrate. Those schools stayed closed for five years.
While the affluent White population of Prince Edward County built a private school—for White children only—Black children and their families had to find other ways to learn. Some Black children were home schooled by unemployed Black teachers. Some traveled thousands of miles away to live with relatives, friends, or even strangers. Some didn’t go to school at all.
But many stood up and became young activists, fighting for one of the rights America claims belongs to all: the right to learn.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In this significant nonfiction volume, Pearson (Conspiracy: Nixon, Watergate, and Democracy's Defenders) crafts an in-depth look at Black teens fighting for their right for free education in 1950 Prince Edward County, Va. Due to segregation and the realities of separate but not equal, Black children were forced to attend schools that lacked fundamental resources, including textbooks, teachers, and proper facilities, where students were often expected to share a single outhouse in place of indoor bathrooms. Frustrated by these conditions, 16-year-old Barbara Johns (1935–1991), aided by her classmates and the local NAACP chapter, took the case to the Supreme Court in Brown v. Board of Education; segregation was subsequently declared unconstitutional. Despite this historic declaration, however, Prince Edward County refused to integrate and instead closed its public schools and built a private academy that only admitted white students. This forced Black children to find alternative means for education, such as homeschooling or moving out of the state entirely, and exacerbated social and class divides within Black communities. The timeliness of this essential work highlights an important point in U.S. history, exploring class privilege and structural racism. B&w photographs feature throughout; a timeline concludes. Ages 10–14.
