The First Step
How One Girl Put Segregation on Trial
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- $11.99
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- $11.99
Publisher Description
The inspiring story of four-year-old Sarah Roberts, the first African American girl to try to integrate a white school, and how her experience in 1847 set greater change in motion.
Junior Library Guild Selection
2017 Orbis Pictus Honor Book
Chicago Public LibraryKids Best of the Best Book 2016
A Nerdy Book Club Best Nonfiction Book of 2016
An NCSS Notable Social Studies Trade Book of 2017
In 1847, a young African American girl named Sarah Roberts was attending a school in Boston. Then one day she was told she could never come back. She didn't belong. The Otis School was for white children only.
Sarah deserved an equal education, and the Roberts family fought for change. They made history. Roberts v. City of Boston was the first case challenging our legal system to outlaw segregated schools. It was the first time an African American lawyer argued in a supreme court.
These first steps set in motion changes that ultimately led to equality under the law in the United States. Sarah's cause was won when people--black and white--stood together and said, No more. Now, right now, it is time for change!
With gorgeous art from award-winning illustrator E. B. Lewis, The First Step is an inspiring look at the first lawsuit to demand desegregation--long before the American Civil Rights movement, even before the Civil War.
Backmatter includes: integration timeline, bios on key people in the book, list of resources, and author's note.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Goodman (It's a Dog's Life) explores an 1848 case filed against the city of Boston by the father of Sarah Roberts, an African-American girl who was expelled from her elementary school because it was "only for white children." Ably paring down the story, Goodman explains that, though the court ruled against Roberts, the case sparked a public campaign that led to the 1855 desegregation of Boston schools. Returning to the metaphor of the book's title, Goodman reflects that this case launched a march toward justice, "a long, twisting journey. Three steps forward, one step back. One step forward, three back," that led to the U.S. Supreme Court's landmark Brown v. Board of Education decision a century later. Endnotes include a time line, additional details about the major figures in the story, and information about the author's approach ("One of Sarah's living relatives... told me how Sarah was educated while awaiting her court date"). Lewis's (Seeds of Freedom) light-dappled acrylic and watercolor paintings balance clear portraits with faded background images, illuminating the story's emotional and historical heft. Ages 6 9.
