A Thin Bright Line

Lucybelle grew up on a farm in Arkansas. She left when she went to college in New York in the mid-1950s, where she lived in the Village. When her partner surprises her with the information that she is getting married to a man (a man who knows about them) Lucybelle agrees to a job in Chicago.

Working at the Geological Society of America as an assistant editor, she is recruited to work at the Snow, Ice and Permafrost Research Establishment (SPIRE) as the head editor. Their goal is to drill into the ice in Greenland to find out about the global climate – a radical idea at the time.

Her new boss knows about Lucybelle’s leanings (i,e. lesbianism) and uses it both to give her some freedom and to threaten her with exposure if she does not stay in line – somehow still an improvement over what she is leaving.

Bledsoe has written this book about her own aunt. It is a true story of a woman she grew up wondering about and was surprised to find a lot of information on as one of the first women working in this field of science. This is a look at a lesbian in the 1950s living during the Civil Right Movement. Read this book!

Bledsoe, Lucy Jane. (2016). A Thin Bright Line. Madison: The University of Wisconsin.

Lies We Tell Ourselves

Lies We Tell Ourselves by Robin Talley is the story of integration in a Virginia high school in 1959. The story is told in two perspectives - Sarah, one of the ten black students going to the white school, and Linda, a white student whose father is the voice of the town paper and the segregationists.

In February of 1959, the town of Davisburg could no longer postpone allowing black students into the white high school. The mayor had closed the school to prevent integration, but by court order school had to be reopened. Ten of the top honor students from Johns High School transferred to Jefferson High School.

Sarah, a senior, along with nine others had to push their way through the protesting white students to enter the school. From there they were to spend each day being pummeled by spit balls, call names, tripped and when they sat down in class having the white students move away from them. Sarah is put into remedial classes due to the prejudice of the school staff.

Linda has never thought about how the blacks are treated. It has just always been that way in Virginia. When she meets Sarah and sees how she and the other students are treated, she begins to consider whether it is right.

Talley has written a moving story of part of our county's history. Though the school and characters are fictional, they represent real accounts of what lengths racists went to try to prevent integration. There were areas that didn't give in until twenty years after Brown v. Board of Education. This novel is an important reminder of the people who fought to give us the civil rights we have today. It is amazing - read it today.

Talley, Robin. (2014). Lies We Tell Ourselves. New York: Harlequin Teen.

Flygirl

Flygirl by Sherri L. Smith is about one of the pilots of the WASP - Women's Airforce Service Pilots - of WWII.

Ida Mae Jones loves to fly. Her daddy taught her in a JN-4 "Jenny" that he used to crop dust fields outside of New Orleans. When the US gets involved in WWII and her brother Thomas quits medical school to join the Army, Ida Mae wishes there was something she could do to help.

Then her little brother sees an ad in the newspaper for WASP. She is thrilled until she remembers that the Army only wants white women pilots. But she loves to fly and will do most anything for the chance.

Ida Mae's light skin allows her to pass for white though it is very dangerous. When she is allowed to join the training program for the WASP she has to go to Texas - an even more harsh place for African Americans than where she grew up. If she is caught she will likely be sentenced to death.

But she loves to fly and the WASP program will give her the opportunity to fly so many types of planes...

Smith, Sherri L. (2008). Flygirl. New York: G.P.Putnam and Sons.

Little Brother

Little Brother by Cory Doctorow is a technological thriller about civil rights in the face of terrorism - a subject we all need to ponder these days...

Marcus is a seventeen year old who is familiar with the systems used to keep people in line. He knows that the high school provided laptop is recording his every key-stroke, the school's gait recognition keeps track of who is walking where, and the Internet is monitored by the US government - by the Department of Homeland Security.

He also know how to get past most of the systems. He has downloaded an Internet program that runs in the background and is invisible to the school computer. He puts rocks in his shoes when he wants to avoid being recognized by the gait cameras. And he encrypts anything important that he sends out.

But when he and three friends skip school to follow the next clue in an ongoing Internet game, he is in the wrong place at the wrong time. Terrorists have blown up a bridge - too close to where he and his friends are for DHS. They are captured and taken away for questioning.

After being released from the DHS, Marcus vows to fight back. The government cannot harass thousands of innocent citizens to look for a terrorist in a haystack. As civil liberties are taken away, Marcus creates an underground movement that will prove the inefficiency of the governmental policies. As the Constitution says - if the government is no longer working, the people have a right to overthrow it and start again...

Filled with information on how computers work and how they have changed the world, as well as a history of the civil rights movements in the US, this book is exciting and educational.

Doctorow, Cory. (2008). Little Brother. New York: TOR.

The Voice that Challenged a Nation: Marian Anderson and the Struggle for Equal Rights

The Voice that Challenged a Nation: Marian Anderson and the Struggle for Equal Rights by Russell Freedman is an excellent biography.

Marian Anderson was an impressive person, not just for her amazing voice, but because of her personality. She helped to remove the racial barrier that was present in the arts world of her time. She was known the world over as having a voice that was one in a million.

At the height of her career she had a repertoire that included over 200 songs and arias in more than 9 languages.

Freedman, Russell. (2004). The Voice that Challenged a Nation: Marian Anderson and the Struggle for Equal Rights. New York: Clarion Books.